Description:

UNION MAJOR WHO DRESSED AS A CONFEDERATE GUARD TO SAVE A UNION NURSE
Cabinet card photo of Union Major B. F. Russell, 4 1/4" x 6 1/2" b/w, shows Russell in uniform from the knees, up with dress sword, signed on verso: "Compliments of Major B. R. Russell". Verso slightly soiled, else very good. Photo by Hardy, Boston. According to a Springfield (Oregon) Museum newsletter article (copy included) which quoted a Eugene, Or. newspaper of Nov. 30, 1889, Russell once served as a Union spy near Spotsylvania. At the battle of Spotsylvania, a Union officer handed Eugene, Oregon nurse Mrs. Marshall Wheeler a packet of papers and asked that she hold them for his return. When the Union lines were turned, Wheeler was captures and Confederate soldiers discovered the papers - actually a report from another spy within the Confederate lines. Tried and convicted, Wheeler was ordered to be hanged and was led to a call. The evening before her scheduled execution, guards brought her food. Soon afterwards, a voice at the door directed her to move a box in her cell which covered the entrance to an escape tunnel. The quarter mile tunnel led her to an exit where a man awaited her with two horses which brought her to freedom. Twenty-six years later, she recognized her jail cell "guard" in Oregon who told her how he had made her escape possible. Russell was then a doctor and the local postmaster. A fascinating tale.

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December 9, 2015 10:30 AM EST
Elkton, MD, US

Alexander Historical Auctions LLC

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