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WHAT'S NEW
Our museum is proud to present an especially unique item for display. Shown below is a set of "original" early period Medals of Honor. These Medals were presented to Pvt. Thomas Cosgrove, the great grandfather of former Vermont National Guard Brigadier General Benjamin Day (ret). Our museum was officially presented this special item on 28 September, 2006 by General Day (ret).
Pvt. Cosgrove received the original (1864 version) Medal on 7 November, 1896 from President Grover Cleveland after several petitions by fellow members of the 40th Massachusetts Infantry Association. In 1906 he was issued a replacement Medal of Honor of the new style that had been adopted, called the Gillespie Medal of Honor, which was implemented in 1904. Hence the reason for the recipient having both Medals!
Pvt. Cosgrove enlisted for service in the Union Army on 19 August, 1862 with Company F, 40th Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. He received the Medal for single handedly capturing seven armed Confederate soldiers at Drewry's Bluff, Virginia on 15 May, 1864.
Accounts of the capture state that Pvt. Cosgrove came upon an old cellar hole in which there were 7 Confederate soldiers. Pvt. Cosgrove covered them with his .52 caliber Spencer 7 shooter (think about that) and after their surrender marched them back to Union lines as prisoners. His Company Commander notes in his record of the event that Pvt. Cosgrove employed a great deal of "not very choice language" to facilitate their surrender.
A quote about Pvt. Thomas Cosgrove from the Grand Army Record dated 1901 states:
"His entry into Richmond ahead of his Company and Regiment was but one of the many interesting events of his war record. On the breast of his uniform coat, where it can be seen at every meeting of his Post, is a Congressional Medal of Honor given him because of his capture, single handed and alone, of seven armed rebel soldiers and his marching them in as prisoners of war. Mr. Cosgrove makes light of this event, but he fully deserves his reward for it. At one of the Post meetings recently, when John E. Gilman was present, Mr. Cosgrove was induced to tell of this capture, and in response to Mr. Gilman's question of "How did you do it?" he replied in a jocular way and with a delightful brogue, "Begorra, oi sur-rounded thim".
Here is a link to the Citation for Pvt. Cosgrove.
Click images below for larger versions!
Below are a two recent items that we have also put on display. Click on the images for a larger version
For our Navy friends we now have our own version of "The Lone Sailor ". This uniform's donor was a "China Sailor". It has the silk dragon from Shanghai, China that was sewn into the neck flap.
The sea bag is an original WWII issue donated by Royal Houghton, who served at Pearl Harbor!
Below we have a rather unique item that was graciously donated to us by the Green Farm in Greenwich, NY. On closer inspection you will see that this is a stencil used during the Civil War to imprint a soldier's name on his uniform.
This item was discovered by the Greens in their barn under a pile of old tools. It appears that this had been in the barn for 150 years or so. Thankfully, they were thoughtful enough to investigate what it was and find a suitable home for it and did not arbitrarily dispose of it.
Additionally the soldier's name on this tag has history at this link! E. C. Richardson information can be found at the "Vermont Civil War" site. Once linked search on "Richardson " and you will find his name 1/3 of the way down the list. Apparently Cpl. Richardson managed to survive the Civil War since he was also listed in this link at a 7th. Infantry reunion in 1883. From the listing he seems to have moved to Troy, NY after the War.
