Nine Button Civil War Artillery Enlisted Frock Coat Worn by Sgt. Henry H. Thomas, 8th NYHA 

Heavy navy blue wool nine-button single-breasted coat piped in artillery red. Detached from coat are the original pair of red worsted sergeant's chevrons. Back of buttons are marked "Extra Quality."  Inside of coat is quarter lined with dark olive lining.  Sleeves are lined in white and inside right sleeve is marked with large "2 J.R. Boylan, Newark, N. J. Contract Nov. 3d 1864."  Skirt is 16" to a rough edge.  Non serviceable cuffs.  Back of coat has center vent with two buttons at top of vent.   

This rare enlisted frock coat and the artillery shell jacket (Lot 15) were both worn by Sergeant Henry H. Thomas, Co. G, 8th New York Heavy Artillery and descended in the family of the consignor.  Both coats belonged to the consignor's Great Grandfather and came into his possession from "my Aunt Ida Belle Thomas Borell.  Her name sake was her Any Ida Belle, her father's sister.  She sent me the families military material before she died."

 Henry H. Thomas (1843-1908) was a nineteen-year-old artist (aspiring photographer) from Batavia, N.Y when he enlisted as a Private in Co. G, 8th New York Heavy Artillery on August 28, 1862. He served with the regiment for the duration, a lucky survivor of the deliberate attrition wrought by the grand strategy that drove Grant’s Overland Campaign. Thomas remained unscathed during the bloodletting at Spotsylvania and Cold Harbor, but his luck ran out when he was seriously wounded before Petersburg. Sent to hospital in Buffalo, N.Y., he recovered and returned to his regiment being appointed Corporal on November 15, 1864, then quickly promoted to Sergeant on January 1, 1865.

The winter of ’64-65 saw the 8th NYHA ensconced in the misery of siege operations against Petersburg, finally emerging from the trenches to march in pursuit of the fragmenting but defiant Army of Northern Virginia during several brisk weeks that defined the forlorn Appomattox Campaign. The “Heavies” witnessed Lee’s reluctant surrender achieved at an astronomical price of 361 officers and men killed and mortally wounded over eleven months of fighting. The survivors took part in the Grand Review of May 23, 1865 and finally mustered out on June 5.

After the war Henry spent time working as an engineer in the grimy oil fields of Pennsylvania and West Virginia perfecting his knowledge of explosives, nitroglycerine and dynamite. He later relocated to Bay City, Michigan where he formed the Ajax Dynamite Works and built the first of several production plants specializing in industrial pyrotechnics. Between 1883 and 1905 Henry Thomas’ Ajax dynamite factory blew up or exploded no less than four times and burnt down a fifth…with fatalities. He accumulated wealth enough to regularly rebuild exploding dynamite plants while acquiring a baronial home in Bay City where he raised two surviving daughters from two marriages.

Thomas was himself the victim of an early automobile accident. In 1908 his car was struck by a streetcar and “Henry was badly shook up but did not appear seriously hurt. He was confined at home and there suffered a stroke” and died on December 3, 1908. He rests in Elm Lawn Cemetery, Bay City, Michigan. 

Provenance: Decsended in the family of the Consignor

Coat has signs of mothing on both shoulders and collar. There is a period repair on the lower right skirt on front of the jacket.  Overall condition is good.