Monocacy learns more about fallen Rebel soldier and the Bible that took a bullet

(Courtesy of Perry Adams Antiques)

Park rangers at Monocacy National Battlefield have seen success and setbacks in their bid to learn more about the life and death of a Confederate soldier wounded when a bullet passed through his Bible and went through his chest.

Pvt. Thomas Cox, a member of the Red House Volunteers, Company A, 21^st Virginia Infantry, was wounded and captured on July 9, 1864, at the battlefield near Frederick, Md. The 33-year-old farmer from Carroll County died on Aug. 15, 1864, at a Baltimore hospital.

A park intern conducting research this past summer learned that Baltimore hospital records had been damaged or destroyed, possibly in a fire, curator Tracy Evans told the Picket.

What is known about Cox’ final weeks was that he asked a fellow prisoner at the squalid West Building’s Hospital to inscribe a message in his battered Bible.

“The ball that struck this book entered my left brest (sic) and came out of right – it saved instant death & will be the means of saving my soul. Thomas Cox,” reads the penciled writing on the margins of a few pages. On succeeding pages is written: “Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord.”

In 2015, the park purchased the New Testament from $12,500 for brokers in Petersburg, Va.

The park intern learned that Cox and his wife had two children before the war and one on the way when he enlisted in 1861. The soldier was able to return to his farm several times during the war and fathered two more children. He recuperated from two illnesses at home while on medical leave.

(Courtesy of Perry Adams Antiques)

The 21^st Virginia had seen considerable action, including at Gettysburg, before the fight at Monocacy.

“After the men forded the Monocacy River, they formed up in battle line and assaulted the Union line. 5 According to Sgt. John Worsham, the men in the 21st tore down a fence railing and with the years of hardened experience behind them, rushed forward in a charge against Union positions without orders from their officers. Somewhere in this rush and exchanging volleys of fire, Private Cox was struck by a bullet,” intern Chris Sniezek and ranger Kelly Henderson wrote.

Cox died five weeks later of infection and was buried in Baltimore, where he remains buried.

Evans said the research led to emails to potential descendants, but officials have not heard back. They did learn from research of a relative in the Confederate unit that Cox’ widow remarried and was believed to have additional children.

The bullet-struck Bible is remarkable in its own way. There’s a gaping hole in the center of the book. “We are thinking it must have gone in sideways,” said Evans, adding that is perhaps the reason Cox was not killed outright.

Officials want to display the Bible next year, but they know it likely can hold up only to certain lighting conditions, and perhaps for brief periods of exposure. They are looking for more information on Cox and other soldiers whose names and information were written on the Bible’s pages. There is no known photo of the soldier.

“The Bible itself has been given an initial condition assessment and will likely go for light preservation next year with recommendations on how it should be put on display and for how long,” said Evans. “We would also like to have a better analysis done of possible blood on the Bible.” She cautioned there is no evidence of blood, but officials are curious as to whether small traces remain on the pages.

(Perry Adams Antiques)

Conservation experts at the National Park Service’s Harpers Ferry Center also will give advice on mounting of the Bible and whether it should be displayed opened or closed.

In an article prepared for an upcoming issue of Civil War News, the park researchers also delved into the story of the Bible’s publication. This one was published in 1862 by Wood, Hanletter, Rice and Company of Atlanta.

“Prior to the Civil War, Bibles were mostly printed and distributed by the American Bible Society based in New York. When the war broke out, the American Bible Society decided to continue distributing Bibles to Confederate soldiers, but a Union blockade soon left the South in a severe shortage. Faced with this shortage, the Confederate States Bible Society was established to print and distribute new Confederate Bibles.”

The dying Cox got the writing assistance from Pvt. H.S. Shepherd, a Confederate who was captured at Gettysburg in July 1863 and assisted sick comrades while serving as a ward master at the Baltimore hospital.

“I was with Thos. Cox when he died,” Shepherd wrote in the Bible. “He was willing … & appear ready to leave this world for a better one to come."

Another inscription indicates Cox asked that his ring be sent to his widow, Frances.

'Saving my soul': Bullet-struck Bible's poignant story will be told at Monocacy battlefield

(Courtesy of Perry Adams Antiques)

On a hot summer day in 1864, Pvt. Thomas Cox, hospitalized in Baltimore, Maryland, with a grievous chest wound, asked a fellow prisoner to inscribe a message in his battered Bible.

“The ball that struck this book entered my left brest (sic) and came out of right – it saved instant death & will be the means of saving my soul. Thomas Cox,” reads the penciled writing on the margins of a few pages. On succeeding pages is written: “Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord.”

Cox, a member of the Red House Volunteers, Company A, 21^st Virginia Infantry, would not live to return home to his family.

Cox, 33, died on or about Aug. 15, 1864, and was buried in Baltimore, home to the gloomy and unventilated hospital where he languished after suffering the wound five weeks earlier at the Battle of Monocacy near Frederick, Md.

The rare, bullet-struck Bible that belonged to the Confederate soldier is now at Monocacy National Battlefield, where officials have big plans to eventually display it in a special exhibit. (The site last month displayed the artifact for a day.)

(Perry Adams Antiques)

“We overwhelmingly have Union artifacts. We would like to have a more balanced nature to our artifacts,” said Tracy Evans, acting chief of education and visitor services at the National Park Service site. “It is a very personal artifact and belonged to a man who sacrificed his life fighting for his company here. We want to do it justice.”

Before then, Evans plans to conduct extensive genealogical research about Cox (or Cock or Cocke, according to various regimental and other spellings), the hospital and the 21^st Virginia.

The NPS last summer purchased the Bible for $12,500 from brokers in Petersburg, Virginia.

Monocacy got a tip from Emmanuel Dabney, a curator with Petersburg National Battlefield, who saw the “unique” item advertised online by Perry Adams Antiques.

“There are many Bibles that belonged to soldiers but there was only one of this particular soldier,” Dabney told the Picket. “This one has been struck by a bullet on a field that the nation has preserved at Monocacy National Battlefield. This man believed that he would be preserved on Earth and took the time to write that in his Bible, only to not survive in the end. To me it exemplified the concern with the ‘Good Death’ by so many soldiers in Union and Confederate armies who were Christian as they went to war.”

Binding shows damage from bullet

(Courtesy of Perry Adams Antiques)

Officials currently know very little about Cox. The cover of the Confederate Bible, which was printed in Atlanta in 1862, indicates he was from Morris Church, in southwest Virginia’s Carroll County. He is believed to have enlisted in June or July 1861.

The 21^st Virginia counted Jackson, Lee and Early among its commanders, and saw action in many engagements, including Cold Harbor, Chancellorsville, Cedar Mountain and Seven Days’.

Cox was wounded and captured on July 9, 1864, at Monocacy Junction, where his unit served under Brig. Gen. William Terry.

Lt. Gen. Jubal A. Early’s Confederates were menacing Washington, D.C., and were met at Monocacy by a makeshift Union force led by Maj. Gen. Lewis Wallace. Early prevailed over stiff resistance, but Grant rushed Federal troops to the capital’s defense.

According to an NPS battle summary: “Wallace’s defeat at Monocacy bought time for these veteran troops to arrive to bolster the defenses of Washington. Early’s advance reached the outskirts of Washington on the afternoon of July 11, and the remaining divisions of the VI Corps began disembarking that evening. Monocacy was called the ‘Battle that Saved Washington.’”

Evans said she has not opened the fragile New Testament since the purchase. The item will need care from a conservator before it is permanently displayed.

Perry Adams photos show a gaping hole in the center of the book.

“We are thinking it must have gone in sideways,” said Evans, adding that is perhaps the reason Cox was not killed outright.

(Photos courtesy of  Joe Canner)

The soldier presumably died from his Monocacy wound. Another prisoner who was treated at West Building’s Hospital, located near a Baltimore dock, described it as unhygienic, with poor food and water.

Cox got the writing assistance from Pvt. H.S. Shepherd, a Confederate who was captured at Gettysburg in July 1863 and assisted sick comrades while serving as a ward master at the Baltimore hospital.

“I was with Thos. Cox when he died,” Shepherd wrote in the Bible. “He was willing … & appear ready to leave this world for a better one to come."

Another inscription indicates Cox asked that his ring be sent to his wife in Virginia. The soldier was buried at Loudon Park Cemetery in Baltimore. A Sons of Confederate Veterans chapter in recent years raised money for new gravestones, replacing a Cox marker that had become unreadable.

Interestingly, Shepherd by early 1865 had taken an oath of allegiance to the United States, saying he had become “heartily disgusted with the Confederacy.” President Abraham Lincoln approved the request.

Ben Greenbaum, co-owner of Perry Adams Antiques, said his firm brokered the Bible for a reputable collector.

“We had it for about a year or two and took it to a number of shows,” he said.

Greenbaum said there are multiple elements that made the Bible and its poignant messages attractive to buyers.

“Not only could you make conclusions from the shape of the hole in the Bible, this was a Confederate imprint, which is rare … in addition, there were all the annotations and the period writing.”

The appraiser said bullet-struck items always have an appeal. But he noted that buyers should be cautious. “When you get into certain hard items, buckles or buttons, they can be forged or faked.”

Greenbaum said, “I absolutely had no concern whatsoever” about the Cox Bible’s authenticity.

(Courtesy of Perry Adams Antiques)

Evans, with Monocacy National Battlefield, said the park did its due diligence. She asked a few experts to take a look at the artifact.

“Normally, it is hard to get quality artifacts at a premium like that,” she said. “Everything came together that we had the funding to be able to purchase it. It is the first Confederate-identified artifact we have.”

The Bible is believed to have been in the family for many years before it was sold to an individual in 1995.

Evans said the Monocacy museum needs a revamp and she hopes the Cox Bible will be the centerpiece of an exhibit, perhaps to open in mid-2017.

Petersburg’s Dabney, who engineered the acquisition by Monocacy, said it is “extremely rare” for Confederate objects to turn up, given so many have been donated to museums, historical societies or university research libraries.

“This Bible can connect with people who can view it in an exhibition and then go see where Cocke was wounded and captured,” he said.