American Civil War Artefacts (1861-1865)

Whitfield Daniel Bunting collected these artefacts during his time in the United States. His brother, William was a lifetime resident of Saint John and prominent member of the Mechanics’ Institute. Most of what we know of Whitfield has been revealed in the diary entries of his brother William. Letters received by William and noted in his diary, show that Whitfield traveled extensively in the Eastern United States during the period of the Civil War, but no mention is made of any involvement in the War. In his obituary in a Detroit newspaper (unidentified), it was claimed that he had witnessed many of the most important battles and was once arrested as a spy. Later, from his home in Cleveland, he sent William a “case of curiosities and war relics,” the arrival of which was recorded in the diary on 21 January 1869. William goes on to list the contents of the case. The Civil War artefacts, mostly weapons, were from the battlefields of Antietam, Appomattox, Gettysburg, and Petersburg, Virginia, and from General Bragg’s Plantation near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and General Richard Taylor’s Camp, said to be in Atlanta. In the diary, William notes that he presented the collection on behalf of his brother to the Mechanics’ Institute. Since William was a fairly expansive diarist, it is odd that he never records the reasons for Whitfield’s travels, his possible role in the Civil War nor how he collected the objects.