Some Civil War Stuff

   I'd been looking at Civil War artifacts and relics when I came across some chess related material. One antique dealer cautioned buyers about certain artifacts, chess sets among them, purported to be from the Civil War - not because they are fake, but because they often come from the effects of a former Civil War soldier and are misidentified as coming from the Civil War period when in actuality they probably came from a later time.

Here is one such set:

   This set is touted as being an actual Civil War set - and it might be since it seems to be of a syle popular at that time- but no documentation concerning it's origin was provided.

     This chess piece (a Rook), fashioned from a bullet, 
     was dug up on a Petersburg, Va. battlefield.

   This chess set is a quite authenic Civil War set.  It belonged to Joseph J. Murphy of Company F, 31st Maine Regiment. Joseph was 16 years old when he enlisted in February, 1864 and soon found himself in the terrible battlefield of Cold Harbor. Unfortunately for him, he wounded himself while working on his own musket and died in Annapolis Military Hospital on July 30, 1864.  The pieces of his set were also carved from minnie balls found at Petersburg.