The Red Box

In addition to his Honorable Discharge and his Citizenship papers dated November 8, 1864, our only artifact from the life of James Kinsella is a red box with a removable tray and “J. Kinsella” stenciled in gold leaf. Family stories said that he “carried it in the Civil War,” but that didn’t seem possible.

We wondered about it until Bruce found the following passage from The Civil War Letters Of George Washington Beidelman, New York Vantage Press, Inc., 1978, in reference to a shipment of assorted food and items from home:

“. . . So you can send along the box. Tell John to make a pine box with a partition in the middle, to come within about 4 inches of the top; and then put a moveable apartment in, the top the same as a trunk–top to be flat–hinge lid, and a padlock on it. . .”

Pvt. Beidelman would get shipments from home in this box, then ship it back for another trip. He went on for a page in one letter of what he wanted in it, and mentioned it as it was shipped several other times. He writes of sharing the contents of the box with his mess mates, and they returned the favor when they get their box.

Mystery solved? One man’s theory.

As always I am,
Your Obediant Servant,
Bruce Ingram 71st PVI
The 1st California Regiment

P.S. Don Ernsberger, historian for the 69th Pennsylvania, confirmed that the red box was a shipping container. George Beidelman was also a member of Company C of the 71st California Volunteers. His name appears with James Kinsella’s on the Pennsylvania Monument at Gettysburg.

Note: Margaret and Susan subsequently took The Red Box to be appraised at MPT’s Chesapeake Collectibles show taping at Turf Valley, where the expert said, because of the nails used and the box’s construction, the box was post-Civil War and was probably handmade by Kinsella. Perhaps for use during his years as a Baltimore City Police officer? The mystery continues…