SOUTH CAROLINA: Popular Civil War Exhibit Returns to Museum
WALTERBORO, S.C. — David Cope’s collection of Civil War memorabilia has come full circle.
“Being as my collection really took off in Walterboro, I thought it was the best place to have it housed,” Cope explained at the start of a reception held last week at the Colleton Museum and Farmers Market to celebrate his contribution to the museum.
Museum Director Gary Brightwell said Cope, an Orangeburg resident, was attending a reception when she and Cope struck up a conversation about his collection of Civil War artifacts.
After that conversation, Cope began considering loaning a portion of his collection to the museum.
“They were very receptive.They came by my house one day. The stuff was all sitting in boxes,” Cope said. “We began unloading the boxes, laying it out on the floor.”
As box after box was unpacked, Brightwell said, “Jill (Assistant Director Jill Chadwick) and I were amazed.”
That first visit to Cope’s home led to a second when Chadwick and Matt Mardell, the museum’s program coordinator, chose the pieces of Cope’s collection that he would loan to the museum for the next five years. The items in hand, Chadwick and Mardell set to work building the display of Cope’s items that fill four large display cases, several other display cases and hang from the walls in one corner of the museum.
Cope is pleased with the arrangement with the museum.
Former Walterboro resident David Cope was the guest of honor at a Colleton Museum and Farmers Market reception celebrating his long-term loan of a wide variety of items from his collection of Civil War artifacts.
“I bought them for people to enjoy them, I never buy for resale,” he said. “Their value to me is in the education, not the monetary.”
One of the display cases at the museum shows off Cope’s collection of medical equipment used to treat the wounded soldiers.
That collection, he explained, started with a syringe purchased in Walterboro. The piece was previously owned by local pharmacist John Steele, an avid Civil War collector.
Cope, who works in hospital administration and spent 10 years working at Colleton Medical Center before leaving for Orangeburg in 2006, hadn’t given much thought to collecting Civil War era medical instruments until the initial purchase.
“I was not aware much of the medical side of the Civil War,” Cope said. “Then I went to the state museum and saw my first amputation kit. From that day forward, I continually looked to find one for my collection. I wanted a unique one.”
It took three years of searching before Cope found what he wanted at a gun and knife show in Greenville. He had spotted a dealer offering some Civil War items and struck up a conversation. The man reached under the table and brought out a black cloth valise. Inside the valise was an amputation kit. Most kits were transported in a wagon; this one was designed to be carried on horseback to perform amputations on the battlefield.
Cope began collecting Civil War items while a student at The Citadel. He would often go to the markets in Charleston and buy one or two bullets or a uniform button.
When his son Austin was 5 years old, Cope found the box containing the items collected in Charleston.
“He came to me really excited, wanting to know what they were.” Cope told his son about the bullets and buttons and that weekend took Austin to Charleston to explain the history and purchase several bullets to start Austin’s collection.
“Growing up, my dad and I collected baseball cards, coins, stamps,” Cope said. “I wanted to find something that we could collect together. When we moved to Walterboro, I began finding more Civil War stuff in the antique shops, I’d take it home to him and he loved to research it.
“At that point, I realized it was something we could collect together and that it was educational for him,” Cope said.
A little while later Cope’s younger son Dillon joined in and wanted to find more.
-Colleton Press & Standard
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VIRGINIA: Sword Saw Service in Civil War
WIRTZ, Va. — Lee Strock was rummaging around a closet in his grandfather’s vintage farmhouse in rural New Jersey one day long ago when he came upon a weapon of war, as well as cherished family heirloom: His paternal great grandfather’s Civil War sword.
“There was part of a uniform, and a belt, and the sword was intact and in good shape,” said Strock, a retired carpenter who resides in Hardy on the Roanoke River arm of Smith Mountain Lake.
Lee and Sue Strock of Smith Mountain Lake are pictured with Lee’s great grandfather’s Civil War sword.
The sword, sheathed in a metal scabbard, once belonged to Joseph Gilbert Strock (1836-1916), who distinguished himself in the Civil War.
Born in Philadelphia and a resident of Cedar Brook, New Jersey, Strock enlisted in the Union Army on Sept. 7, 1861 in Camden, NJ, in Company A, 10th Regiment of the New Jersey Volunteers for three yeas as a first sergeant and was mustered into service as a 1st sergeant at Beverly, NJ.
Strock was promoted to sergeant major in 1863, to second lieutenant in 1864 in Virginia and re-enlisted for three years.
Strock, a farmer before and after the war, attained the rank of captain in 1865 at Parke Station, Virginia.
In a conflict that tore the nation asunder, Strock fell to a bullet wound in the thigh at the Battle of Cedar Creek, Virginia, and was admitted to a military hospital in Annapolis, MD, treated and survived to return home, to tend the family farm and establish a thriving apple orchard.
Joseph Strock’s father, also named Joseph and who first saw the light of day in Philadelphia in 1790, lived until 1871 and served as a private in the War of 1812 in the 7th Division commanded by Col. James Fenton of the 1st Regiment of the State Guard.
His pay was $8 per month, and he stayed in the service until 1815.
The apple, as they say, does not fall far from the tree. Lee Strock, who relishes the restoration of hot rods and antique cars, served in the U.S. Army from 1958 to 1961.
After basic training at Fort Dix, NJ, he headed to Fort Ord in California for the Army Combat Engineers, 547th Combat Engineers Battalion Company A.
After six months training, he was sent to Darmstadt, Germany, for 14 months, later receiving an honorable discharge at the rank of SP 4 (T) E-4.
-Smith Mountain Eagle
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