The Quilt

Love, Inspiration And Support For Wounded Civil War Soldiers

by Tom Seymour



The Civil War effected a larger percentage of the American population than any other war. Tens of thousands died in single battles. Scores of thousands more were wounded in these battles.Crude battlefield surgery and the lack of antibiotics meant thousands went home with crippling wounds. The wounds to families and and the literally wounded in towns across the country lingered for generations. Photo by Tim Seymour

 

In the basement of the Belfast Historical Society and Museum, spread out on a large table and covered with paper to protect it from damaging light, lies a quilt.

The quilt takes up most of one room, center stage, as it were. Why this special attention for any quilt? After all, the museum hosts a number of historical quilts, but none as revered as this one. This quilt has a story to tell, a tale of a time when the sons of Belfast, Maine, went to war, the war between the states, our American Civil War.

The genesis of the quilt differs little from so many others of its day. As the war raged on, people back home did what they could to support and sustain their fighting men. This included making patriotic quilts to cheer the wounded. Among the various groups that sprang up all over the nation, was the Ladies Volunteer Aid Society of the First Church of Belfast, Maine.

This group decided that a bed quilt, designed as an American flag, emblazoned with messages tenderly handwritten by the ladies of the society, would do much to encourage and lift the spirits of those wounded soldiers residing in Armory Square Hospital in Washington, D.C.
Sometime in mid-July of 1864, the finished quilt was sent to Washington by express. And on August 12 it arrived at its destination. And there, it was paraded from bed-to-bed in Ward 26, where wounded Maine soldiers gazed upon its delicate hand-stitching, its patriotic red-white-and blue colors and the numerous pen-and-ink inscriptions. Among these were:

“Good Maine ham well cured and smoked in many battles
Gen Burnham”

“A good Union sportsman
Gen Hunter”

“Our native berry
Gen H.G. Berry”

“If the rebs won’t pay
We will charge em”

And on the Corner Flag a signed poem:

“Here’s success to the boys,
whoever they are
That have shouldered
their muskets and gone to war
Victorious They’ll be,
defeated they can’t
While they are led into battle by U.S. Grant”
By Augusta Quimby.

The same Augusta Quimby wrote, “Recollection of The Civil War,” some of which in 1917, at age 88, she read to a meeting of the Women’s Alliance of Belfast. A portion of Quimby’s reading goes as follows, with original spelling and punctuation retained:

“As a diversion from real work it was proposed to make a Flag Bed Quilt for a hospital. Preparations were made at once, a committee was chosen to purchase the materials, and at a meeting at the Unitarian Parsonage the quilt was designed, cut and prepared for willing hands to finish. It was of a good size, made like a flag with a red and white border. The names of all the members were written in the white stripes, appropriate mottoes were in every star and where some pun or play upon the Union Officers names could be made, it was quickly incorporated. The idea was like this: a hard resting place for the rebels – “General Pillow”. A bus to the rebel progress, “General Gates.”

There was a draft in the civil war. But there were many volunteers in the early years of who enthusiastically rushed to enlist. In the days when few traveled beyond the next village it was a great adventure. The mix of traditional battlefield tactics and new deadly armaments soon darkened many a country boy's spirit. Photo by Tim Seymour

 

Quilt Statistics

The quilt itself is handmade of cotton, with various persons doing the stitching. It measures 62 inches by 92 inches. The backing is of a striped print material. It is patched in three different places with period cloth. And although called a “quilt,” it is not quilted but rather, filled with cotton batting.

At war’s end in 1865, the Armory Square hospital closed and the quilt vanished. It is presumed that it was given to Dr. D. W. Bliss, the surgeon in charge. Dr. Bliss was unique among surgeons of his time. Typically, a bullet wound in an arm or leg meant amputation. In most cases, no attempt was made to save a limb rather than remove it. Not so with Dr. Bliss. His surgical brilliance resulted in countless wounded returning home intact, with working limbs. Dr. Bliss was a pioneer in this regard. Fortunate indeed was the wounded soldier who wound up on Dr. Bliss’s operating table.

The quilt resurfaced recently, and in an unforeseen manner. In early March, 2011, a woman in Montana called Belfast Historical Society President Megan Pinette, telling her that she had found, in her late mother’s house, a tightly-rolled flag quilt with the title, “Belfast, Maine, June 17, 1864” printed on one of its white stripes.

From 1865 on, the quilt remained in the care of succeeding generations of Blisses. Thus, the 1864 quilt wound up in Montana, far from Armory Square Hospital and even farther from its birthplace of Belfast, Maine. At one point, the quilt had been discarded and placed in a burn barrel, but that error was quickly recognized and the quilt rescued. Several scorch marks remain to attest to it’s near-destruction.

And so the 1864 Quilt found its way home, though by a circuitous route.

Standing next to this Civil War soldier’s quilt, squinting to read the faded inscriptions, takes the viewer back in time as nothing else can. Here is history, Maine history, tangible evidence, full of sentiment and pathos. The quilt has suffered throughout its 147-year history. Tears, worn areas, age spots and indeed, even a few drops of what appeared to this writer as dried blood, suit the old quilt. It wears its hurts proudly, like badges of honor.

According to Megan Pinette, the museum has plans to conserve the quilt. But until that happens, it resides in a place of honor on a table in a basement in its new home, the Belfast Historical Society and Museum.

For more information on the 1864 quilt, visit www.belfastmuseum.org or call (207) 338-9229 or write: Belfast Historical Society and Museum, 10 Market Street, Belfast, ME 04915.

All photographs, except for those by Tom Seymour, are by Light In The Forest Photography and forwarded to Fisherman’s Voice by Belfast Historical Society and Museum.

Finally, the February 2012 issue of Civil War Times will feature “Tried And True,” on its end page, a photo and short description of the Belfast Civil War quilt.