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FOUR UNION GENERALS ADDRESS THE ILLEGAL RETENTION

154. FOUR UNION GENERALS ADDRESS THE ILLEGAL RETENTION OF BAND MEMBERS SEIZED DURING BATTLE An intriguing war-date ink inscribed 2pp. 4to., document written by Union Col. J. Warren Keifer, "Strasburg, Va., Oct. 9, 1864" addressed to Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan's assistant adjutant general concerning the seizure of his brigade band reading, in part: "...I...request an order for the return...of the Brigade Band, 2nd Brig. 3rd Div. 6th A. C. now on duty as nurses in Hospitals at Winchester, Va., by the pretended authority of Surgeon Sharp in charge of Taylor House Hospital, Winchester. I also...request information as to whether a surgeon in charge of a hospital has authority to detail members of Bands as permanent nurses. On the morning of the 19th...Sept. previous to the battle of Opequon, the band...was ordered to report...for duty upon the field...since that time it has been absent. Upon sending the Band an order to return to the Brigade. I learn that Surgeon Sharp claims to have detailed the members as nurses, and proposed to arrest them if they obeyed my order...about 100 men from the 9th New York Heavy Artillery...have been detailed as nurses...and [are] prevented from joining their regiments by some authority not known to me...". Examined by six Union officers, this document is endorsed on the verso by Maj. Gen. HORATIO WRIGHT (1820-1899), Brig. Gen. JAMES B. RICKETTS (1817-1887); and two Brevet Brigadier Generals CHARLES P. KINGSBURY (1816-1879), and CHARLES A. WHITTIER (1840-1908). The most authoritative endorsement reads, in part: "...this band to rejoin its regiment, and admonish Surgeon Sharp that in the future he must not retain men at Hospitals without proper authority. The men of the 9th N.Y. will be returned if possible at once...". Some spotting, else very good.$600-800

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