Last updated 5/16/00
Click on any of the thumbnails below to view the full sized image.
Here I am, in a classic Civil War soldier pose, showing off my authentic 1864 Springfield musket.
Taken at our Rouge River event, I'm wearing a variation on a rebel outfit here. Since we were short on rebels, I "galvanized" to the South for this event.
Another photo taken at Rouge River, I'm helping my sister Becky keep the fire going so we can bake a pie in that cast iron dutch oven you see to the left. Hot coals are put on the top of the oven to heat the pie from the top as well as the sides and bottom.
I'm also into collecting paper money of the period, most of which was issued by individual banks rather than the federal government. It was during the Civil War that The US government began issuing paper money in addition to the coinage.
This note was issued by a sutler to "Scott's Nine Hundred United States Cavalry" and was good for 10 cents in trade. While some notes are now worth less than face value, this is a prime example of one which is worth many times it's original value.
This is a note I'm particularly fond of, since it was issued in my home state of Michigan.
This note is what is known as "Fractional Currency" and was issued by the US government to lessen the need to mint coins, since the various metals were needed for the war effort. For a brief period, these actually had real stamps affixed to them to indicate the value, but this was quickly modified to simply depict the image of the stamps the note represented.
Here's three notes I bought which were issued by the New England Commercial Bank in Rhode Island.
Have you ever heard the phrase, "As phony as a three dollar bill?" Well, for at least a short while, there was indeed such a thing as a $3 bill.
Here's a couple more nice notes, from down south in New Orleans. The $20 bill is from "Canal and Banking Co.", and the $100 bill is from "Canal Bank", both are unused and unsigned.
If you look, you will see that this note has rough edges. It is in fact two bills which were never even cut apart. Typically, notes were printed four at a time, signed and then cut apart for distribution. These notes never even got signed. Over the years, most notes were cut apart to be sold even though they hadn't been signed. It's rather uncommon to find notes still together such as this. A sheet of four is even more difficult to obtain.
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