86th Ohio Infantry Archive

This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 2/28/2005

Archive pertaining to Private William Tanner, Co. "G", 86th Ohio Infantry. Tanner, an English immigrant, joined a six-month regiment that was organized on July 14, 1863. The 86th Ohio participated in the capture of Cumberland Gap and spent nearly its entire term on garrison duty at that place. Most of the letters to Tanner are addressed to Cumberland Gap, Kentucky. Included here are the following items: Cased 1/9th plate tintype, ca. 1863-1864. A head-and-shoulders portrait of Tanner wearing a uniform jacket open at the collar. Piping and buttons are tinted gold. VF condition...Plus; Nearly 40 letters, approximately 120 pages, all octavo, 1860's. The bulk of this correspondence is to Tanner from his brother, Edwin in Old Hickory, Ohio. Family news and farming dominate the content. A sampling of Tanner's letters home from Kentucky read in very small part: "(8/23/63)...we left Camp Nelson thursday..old decourcy from the 16th Ohio is our brigadier general of our brigade and he put us through on the march the first day he made us march 22 miles...I had the diarea and was not very well and i did not keep up...the folks in kentucky are not very liberal so when we was a coming down here...we confiscated a hog and it went first rate...i gues we will go down to Cumberland gap there is the 86th 129th and a batery here...(12/1/63)...Still at the gap and likely to be here there has been lots of troops here but they are some of them goin away general Foster arrived here last night and left here to day for Nashville to relive general Burnside...". Many of the letters remain in their original stamped covers, a very few of which are patriotics; others are loose and likely could be matched with empty covers in the group. Overall VG condition...Plus; Partially printed document, FINAL CERTIFICATE OF NATURALIZATION,one page, quarto, October 8, 1866, Wooster, Ohio. Signed by Probate Judge Henry Lehman, this document attests to Tanner's American citizenship. With revenue stamp. Stains, folds, and small splits. Overall VG condition...Plus; Two early 20th century pension documents for Tanner and his widow respectively. Fine condition.

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