New Donation Includes Civil War Artifacts
The Pound Ridge Historical Society recently received a donation of historical documents, artifacts, and photographs related to Pound Ridge resident Dorin L. Seymour, his family, and many of his Scofield ancestors. This extensive collection will help illustrate various strands of the history of Pound Ridge and beyond as we make our way through cataloging its contents. We will be sharing our unique finds as we come across them in the coming months.
Today, we share a find related to the military career of Loomis Scofield, a veteran of the Civil War. Loomis was born in Pound Ridge in 1845 and served in both the Union Army (28th Connecticut Infantry Regiment) and the Union Navy. During his Civil War service, his regiment saw intense action at the Siege of Port Hudson, Louisiana, a Union victory that was part of the Vicksburg Campaign.
Loomis survived the war and brought home several artifacts, including Confederate bullets (pictured above). The bullet on the left is a “Minié” bullet, pronounced in the US as “minnie,” and was originally designed in France in 1849. The bullet on the right is fragmentary, and likely a type known as a “Cleaner “as these produced less fouling of barrels when fired. Both bullets are .58 caliber and were used with rifles like the Springfield Model 1861 which needed to be reloaded after every shot. The Minié bullet was used extensively in the Civil War, by both the Union and Confederacy. While these Minié bullets are conical in shape, they were referred to as Minié balls, a holdover of terminology from earlier conflicts such as the Revolutionary War when all shot was round. These conical bullets produced more devastating wounds than did the round shot of old. The accuracy and power of the Minié bullet has long been associated with the high level of casualties during the Civil War.
There is no indication of how these bullets made their way into Loomis’ personal effects; nevertheless, for us, they represent Pound Ridge’s presence as the Union took control of the Mississippi River from the Confederacy in 1863.
Written and researched by Emmett O’Keeffe, Archivist, Pound Ridge Historical Society