The Civil War Bible
On Dec. 12th, 1862, nearly 500 men of The 145th regiment, Company E of the Pennsylvania Volunteers marched into battle. When the battle was over two days later, 226 were killed or wounded.
"On December 11th, the entire army was placed at the Rappahannock awaiting the battle of Fredericksburg. The 145th Pennsylvania crossed on the upper pontoon bridge, where on the afternoon of December 12th, formed in line upon a street that ran parallel with the river.
David Dexter King was a private in Company E. During the shelling near the courthouse, an artillery shell exploded near him and a piece struck him in the chest, right above the heart. Somehow, in the chaos and turmoil before the exploding shrapnel, he got spun around, and the small bible he carried in his pocket flipped over, and there, inches above his heart the shell fragment struck the rear cover of the bible. Struck in the leg, by the same shell, while waiting for medical aid, he must have told everyone about the bible that saved his life. Unfortunately, the leg wound proved became septic and fatal, and David Dexter King died several days later on Dec. 17th.
We know his story because the bible was sent home, and his company Capt. wrote his story on the front fly page of the book. Here are his words:
"This book was struck by a piece of a shell, while heroically fighting in defence of his country's union. David Dexter King, private, Co. E, 145 Regt, Pa Vols, carried it in his shirt pocket over his heart and turned around by the force of the blow, was again hit in the leg, on the battlefield near Fredericksburg, Va. Sat. about noon. Dec. 13, 1862, from which he died, Dec. 17th, 1867."
My customer asked me if I could repair the book and put on a new binding.
“I won’t do it” I said. Then I realized he misunderstood my meaning. “I mean, I’ll fix the book somehow, but I’m not going to get rid of the shrapnel damage. That’s the greatest part about this book. It’s a wound of honor.” So we agreeded.
The balance I had to strike with this bible was to stabilize the binding so no further damaged occurred, yet retain the impact of the shell fragment and the impact of the story. I decided to do just the most basic, conservative amount of work and re-attach the broken pieces of the rear cover, and to protect the section of exposed spine. Irecommended the bible be stored in a specially made clam shell box. This is one those books when you are working on it, that you know is not esepcailly valuable in dollars terms, but which you hold with a certain reverence, for what it meant to David Dexter King, since the Company captain felt compelled to write the story, for his family who received it after his death. It was for his family that the preservation was performed.
History, History and Pizza
We have a rule in the shop, no food or beverages at the work benches. We’re pretty good with it, but like a lot of rules, it gets bent a little here and there, mostly because we forget how damaging a spill can be until one almost happens.
I was away on vacation when a job came into the shop, and was checked in by Madeline and Ruth. The customer was an elderly gentleman who collected books about American History. He left three books to be repaired. The first was a set of two tight back leather bound volumes on the Revolutionary War. One was was completely missing a spine and he preferred if we could duplicate the first spine onto the second volume, and if that couldn’t be done, could we make two new matching spines in the period style.
The other book was an autograhph book with a simple worn black leather binding that had come loose from the text block. Both Madeline and Ruth were excited because the autograph book had Abraham Lincoln’s signature on the front page. They had reverently place the book in one of our job boxes and waited for me to come in to do the estimate. As amazing as it was to hold a book that Lincoln had obviously held, it was the pages beyond the Lincoln signature that blew me away. On Page 2 was the signature of Hannibal Hamlin, on Page 3 William Seward and then every member of Lincoln’s cabinet in 1862, at the start of the Civil War
Beyond the cabinet page signatures came the pages with three or four per page of every member of Congress. Beyond those, there were pages with the signed calling cards of Gen. George Custer, (from right after the Civil War), Ulysses S. Grant and George Tecumseh Sherman.
I called up the owner and he approved the repair estimates. I mentioned the Autograph book must be pretty valuable due to the signatures and the historical importance. He said, “Oh, I guess so, but it’s not worth anything near those other two books I left. I’ve been looking for Volume II of that set most of my life, and now I have it.” I looked at the books, sitting on the work bench a few inches away from the pizza we just had delivered for lunch. Madeline was just getting out the paper plates and napkins.
“What makes those two books so special?” I asked. He said those two volumes were written by an English General after the war at the request of the King and Parliament, and they were one of the few critiques of the War written strictly from the British point of view. He said there were only three known sets of these books, one in Buckingham Palace, one set at the British Museum, and one set in the Library of Congress. Now, he had the fourth. He was rightfully proud. I was having a stroke. Madeline had just picked up a cheese slice and pizza and was having trouble managing onto the thin paper plate and for a moment it looked like some of the rarest books in the world were going to get a mozzarella topping. After that the no food near work benches was strictly enforced.