The “Soldier’s” Watch

By Richard M. Milstead, Ph.D.

Introduction - Context of watches in the Civil War era

One long term cultural impact of the American Civil War was the increase in ownership of pocket watches among a broader segment of the American population. “Pocket” time keeping devices were not new but early 19th Century examples were hand crafted and expensive, very much limited to ownership by the wealthy. The nexus of industrial design in conjunction with precision component manufacturing in the decade before the war with social trends and fads of men serving in the military during the conflict resulted in both soldiers’ motivation and ability to acquire pocket watches. An American startup company, the American Watch Company, located in Waltham, Massachusetts took the lead in domestic production of moderately priced, high quality time pieces that filled the need by producing what became known ‘in the day’ as the “Soldier’s” watch.

This paper will provide a general overview of these devices as well as some of the context associated with their use during the war. For those interested in a more in-depth discussion, Dr. Clint B. Geller’s excellent book The Appreciation and Authentication of Civil War Timepieces, published by the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors (NAWCC)(1) is highly recommended. Much of the material referenced here is explored in greater detail in Dr. Geller’s manuscript.

Many individuals in the Living History community today, especially those focusing upon the Civil War era, have wished to acquire an ‘authentic’ pocket watch to enhance their impression. One of the reasons for this is obviously their relative ubiquity in period photographs of soldiers, both officers and enlisted men, which show watches, or, more usually, watch chains, neck cords, or watch ribbons that presumably have watches attached to them. Pockets for the soldier’s watch were found in the vast majority of Federal issue enlisted men’s trousers. Watch pockets are less prevalent in Confederate issue pants but are definitely seen in a large enough number of civilian examples to indicate their presence on trousers worn in Rebel ranks as well. In any event, while vests were not standard issue for either army, many private soldiers and officers acquired them and watch pockets in those garments served the purpose as seen in a great number of the period photographs. Figures 1 - 10 show pictures of “proud” watch owners during the war.

For the average soldier, but especially for officers and NCOs, many of the mundane activities of their service life were facilitated by having a watch to tell time. Changing the guard, roll calls and inspections, reveille, and taps, etc., the typical elements of camp routine were time oriented. In battles the importance of synchronizing maneuvers involved some reasonable reckoning of time. While most of these actions were activated by sound-oriented commands given through bugle calls or drumbeats, time awareness was implicit in keeping these activities on track or men on schedule.

Beyond practical uses, the ownership of a watch was a source of personal pride. Prior to enlistment many men had been farm hands or laborers who scarcely needed a watch in their daily activities. More important for many such individuals, the pay they received in the army may have been the first regular monetary compensation they ever received or, at least, the best wages. Given that the army fed and clothed them, $13.00 per month may have been a ‘princely sum’ to many privates and provided purchasing power not formally known in civilian life. Having a watch in his pocket was also a step upward in style for many farm boys who formerly considered a pocketknife or pocket testament their most important personal possession. For somewhat the same reasons. pocket watches, often engraved, were popular gifts from family members, or were received from others to commemorate accomplishments. Many respected officers were given special time pieces by their commands for exemplary leadership and officers awarded watches to individuals in their units for notable service or demonstrations of unusual bravery.

The majority of watches in America during the war were of foreign manufacture, mainly Swiss and English made time pieces.(2) In the mid-19th Century Swiss manufactured watches dominated the world market. In the 1850’s England produced approximately 200,000 watches annually while Switzerland produced over 2 million, both dwarfing the production of American pocket timepieces at that time. However, while British watches generally were known for their quality both in functionally and their lavish precious metal cases (silver or gold) they did produce lesser quality products for export. Swiss period watches were often, in the words of one horological (watch and clock) historian David Christianson, “junk.” During the Civil War cheap watches imported flooded the US Market as “the Swiss were able to produce ‘fake watches’ that looked like English or French watches but were of lower quality.”(3) Many Swiss watches came with base metal (brass) cases, sometimes plated, or were imported as watch movements which had cases added in this country. Figures 11 – 13 show a typical example dating from right after the war.

American Watches – Birth of the “Soldiers’ Watch”

The American watch making industry was smaller during the Civil War period than those of the Swiss or English as noted above. Other than a few independent watch making shops, the center for production before the war was in Massachusetts. During the war, two companies produced watches for the general public, the American Watch Company (AWCo.) located in Waltham, Mass., and E. Howard & Company in Boston. In terms of production numbers, AWCo. was the dominant producer especially after 1861, with E. Howard & Company making quantitatively fewer than their competitor in Waltham, but Howard watches appear to have been focused on the luxury, higher end market while AWCo. tailored its products to a wider range of customers.(4)

AWCO. officially formed in January 1859, the result of the merger of the Appleton Tracey & Company (ATCo.) and the Waltham Improvement Company. Prior to the merger ATCo. had been making watches at a factory in Waltham on land owned by the Improvement Company. Formed in May of 1857, ATCo. was itself the product of several other short-lived enterprises which stemmed from an 1850 startup formed by three Massachusetts watchmaker/businessmen Aaron Dennison, Edward Howard, and David Davis. Known as the Boston Watch Company but located in Roxbury, Mass, their objective was mass-producing good quality, machine-made watches for the general public.(5) In 1854 that effort moved to a new factory built on property they leased in Waltham but following further business reorganizations, it ultimately filed for bankruptcy in the Panic of 1857, emerging again the same year under new management as Appleton Tracey & Company with a viable set of production machinery and a proven product design ready for mass production.(6)

By the start of the Civil War in 1861 AWCo. was producing two primary watch models in two different quality levels.(7) That is, the Model 1857 (usually shortened to the Model 57) and the Model 1859 (Model 59) each were available in two ‘grades’ based primarily on the number of jewels in the movement, the P. S. Bartlett grade (11 jewels) and Appleton Tracey grade (15 jewels.) In May of 1861, the company began a “Marketing Experiment” by introducing a lower cost, “entry model,” the 7 jewel William Ellery grade watch, initially only for their Model 57 line. The timing of this introduction is interesting because a general national business recession in 1861 had severely affected company sales which dropped from a total of 12,484 watch movements made in 1860 to only 2,360 in 1861.(8) The Ellery grade watch appears to have been a huge success with the soldiers. Not only did AWCo. production rebound in the war’s second calendar year, but Wm. Ellery watches were subsequently also offered in two different quality levels (7 and 11 jewel movements) at two different price points. Production for 1862 reached 16,620 watch movements, an increase of over 600% from 1861 and doubled again to 34,121 units in 1863. War period growth finally leveled off to production of about 46,000 in both 1864 and 1865!(9) By that time Ellery grade watches represented 44.6% of the total AWCo. production.(10)

It is worth noting that AWCo. like its immediate predecessor ATCo. and its competitors, not only made completed watches in different models and grades but sold watch movements wholesale to retailers, who had the cases made for their retail customers themselves. The company case manufactory in Waltham produced cases for direct sales, but cased watches were also wholesaled to retail outlets or agents who sold them to the customer. Several case variations were available from the factory. The most regularly ordered case style was a coin silver hunting case which had a top lid, opened with a push button in the pendant, that covered the hinged crystal over the dial in front (Figure 14). The alternative style was an “open-face” case where the dial was covered by a thicker crystal and no metal lid (Figure 15). On the back, both styles had two hinged lids, an outer and an inner, called the dust cover, over the back of the movement itself. (Figure 16) A hole in the dust cover lid allowed access to wind the watch, while on some (i.e., Model 59) a second access hole was provided to set time from the back. Setting time on a Model 57 was done from the front in the center of the dial.(11)

From period wholesale price lists, regular hunting cases were available in coin silver. Nickel alloy material (“albata,” “silveroid,” “silverode,” etc.,) factory cases appear to have been post war but possibly a few became available from retailers supplying their own cases toward the end of the war.(12) Silver cases came in different weights with 2oz. being the least expensive and increasing in weight to 3 and 4 oz. models with corresponding price jumps. Open face cases were slightly less expensive than hunting cases and also were available in different weights. It is worth noting that in surviving examples case weights as heavy as 6.5 oz are seen but may not be factory made. Solid gold cases were also available but must have been special order or supplied by retailers. No pricing for them was provided in the wholesale price lists but presumably represented significant bumps in cost to the customer. Based upon the 1864 catalog from wholesale dealer Robbins and Appleton, the wholesale price for a basic 7 jewel “Wm. Ellery” grade movement in a 2oz. coin silver hunting case would have been about $26.00. A basic “soldier’s watch” from AWCo. would, therefore, have retailed for more than twice a private’s monthly wages.(13)

The distribution channels to reach the customers took a number of forms. Many of the wholesalers operated large jewelry or dedicated watch/clock businesses in big cities like Boston or New York. These enterprises usually purchased the watch movements at wholesale from AWCo. and supplied their own cases as discussed above. Figure 17 shows an 1864 advertisement for AWCo pocket timepieces placed by one such major retailer on Broadway in New York City which highlights the Wm. Ellery line for soldiers. This company manufactured its own cases so both standard styles and custom versions and would have been able to do special engraving as well. Traveling salesmen offering the company’s watches, along with other (foreign) brands, sold them in smaller towns, often through jewelers, or directly in more rural locations where retail stores were not present. This is significant because sutlers who traveled with the armies in the field or operated at garrison posts acted as agents for watch sales to soldiers or, as Dr. Geller points out quoting author Carlene Stevens, “Roving merchants sold thousands of cheap watches to eager customers in wartime encampments.”(14) Furthermore, some of these retail agents struck lucrative deals (“kickbacks”) with unscrupulous Quartermaster officers in the field to facilitate sales to the troops as documented in at least one court-martial concerning such a case associated with the 2nd Connecticut Volunteer Artillery.(15)

Mr. Lincoln’s “soldier’s” watch

Abraham Lincoln is known to have owned an Wm. Ellery grade watch, but unfortunately, the present location of this time piece is not known. Lincoln’s Ellery timepiece was first described by his biographer Carl Sandburg. It was suggested he may have been presented with the watch, serial number 67613, as an honorarium for his appearance and speech at Gettysburg for the dedication of the National Cemetery there on November 19th, 1863. Recent research by watch historian Nathan Moore who investigated the watch’s history in detail has raised questions about this story.(16) From Moore’s research, this watch was completed in January 1863 and fitted with a coin silver case. It is not stated in company records to whom it was sold so its path to Lincoln’s pocket is not clear given that it was produced some ten months earlier than the Gettysburg ceremony. In any event, Lincoln did not carry the watch regularly, preferring a gold cased English watch he had purchased in Illinois before the war (see below). It would certainly seem strange, therefore, that Lincoln would have himself purchased the modest silver case watch for his own use or that this unpretentious timepiece, without engraving to commemorate the occasion, would have been given to him at Gettysburg that long after its manufacture (Figure 18.)

Regardless of how Lincoln acquired the watch, in 1864 his friend and first cousin, Dennis F. Hanks, traveled to Washington after March 28, 1864 riots in Charleston, Illinois, to petition the President for release of several imprisoned residents of that town.(17) During the visit, after agreeing to Hank’s request, Lincoln gave him the silver Wm. Ellery watch after being told how his cousin’s own watch had been stolen on his way to Washington D.C. According to Hanks, when he gave to him, Lincoln said “Here is my watch, Dennis, keep that. They don’t allow me to have anything like that here.” Hanks accepted the gift and took the watch with him back to Illinois retaining it until his death in 1891. When it was inherited by his granddaughter, it came with paperwork describing how he had acquired the watch from Mr. Lincoln. The following year, Hanks’ granddaughter sold the watch to Charles F. Gunther who displayed it in his museum located in Richmond’s Old Libby Prison, also exhibiting it at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. After Gunther’s Richmond Museum closed, the watch passed through the hands of a number of other individuals, including the Waltham Watch Company, direct descendant of AWCo., until it was finally acquired by Lincoln collector Roy P. Crocker, President of Lincoln Savings & Loan in Los Angeles. While on permanent display there in 1977, Lincoln’s Wm. Ellery watch was stolen and has never been recovered.(18)

The Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of American History has in its collection the only other watch carried by Lincoln during the Civil War, which itself has a remarkable story.(19) This watch was acquired by Lincoln in the 1850’s from an Illinois jeweler. It represents an excellent example of the top-quality, high-end timepieces produced in England at that time. It has a solid gold case of American manufacture suggesting that the Liverpool firm that made the movement wholesaled it to a U.S. firm which provided an elegant solid gold hunting case and chain often found on high end watches as discussed above. Figures 19 through 21 show this watch. It was gifted to the Museum in 1958 by Lincoln Isham, great-grandson of Abraham Lincoln.

The inscriptions scratch engraved under the watch face on the movement, probably unknown by Lincoln, were only discovered in 2009 by staff at the Museum after the great- great grandson of Jonathan Dillon, a Washington Civil War era watchmaker, told them his ancestor did so while repairing it in April of 1861. According to the story, recounted in a NY Times article written in 1902, Dillion claimed he was working on the timepiece for the President on April 13, 1861, the day after Fort Sumter was shelled. Upon hearing the news, Dillion engraved a short message on the watch to commemorate the event, “Jonathan Dillon April 13, 1861 Fort Sumpter [sic] was attacked by the rebels on the above date J Dillon April 13, 1861 Washington” and “thank God we have a government Jonth Dillon." Three years later in 1864, a second watchmaker L. E. Gross added his own inscription: "LE Grofs[sp] Sept 1864 Wash DC," and, apparently, also inscribed “Jeff Davis” on one of the brass levers either as a joke or political statement.

“Soldier’s” watches during the War

Watches with known histories of ownership identified to a specific soldier represent personalized ties to the past. In his book, Dr. Geller provides photographs and histories for a large number of original watches with provenance linking them to Civil War participants, some made by AWCo. but also, examples made by E. Howard & Company and a few from overseas (mainly England).(20) Again this book is recommended to readers interested in seeing a larger compendium of such timepieces, including some owned by significant personages from the conflict. Below two watches with known association to Union soldiers, both William Ellery grade examples, will highlighted to illustrate the close association some of these timepieces still have to their first owners from 160 years ago.

Dr. G. D, O’Farrell Model 57 Wm. Ellery grade watch

In addition to the Lincoln watch, the Smithsonian Collection includes a fine example of a William Ellery grade watch which has a solid provenance associating it with a specific soldier from the war. This watch, shown in the Figures 22 - 24 below, belonged to Army Surgeon G. D. O'Farrell. O’Farrell was given the watch by his patients at an Army Hospital in Philadelphia in 1865. Made in 1864, it has a silver hunting case and has been inscribed on the dust cover: “White Hall USA Gen'l Hospital, Feb. 15, 1865 Presented to Dr. G. D. O'Farrell, USA by the patients of Ward C as a token of regard & respect for his ability as a surgeon and unswerving integrity as a man."(21)

Sgt. Salathiel Benjamin Rush Model 57 Wm. Ellery grade watch

Another example of a “Soldier’s” watch carried in the war was owned by Sgt. Salathiel Benjamin Rush. Rush, as a Veteran re-enlistee in the 63rd Ohio Infantry, purchased his watch in Nashville, Tenn. in March of 1864 before the start of General William Tecumseh Sherman’s “Atlanta Campaign,” in the spring of that year. Rush had his father’s name, Peter, engraved on the silver case. He carried the watch with him throughout the remainder of the war, taking part, after the capture of Atlanta, in the “March through Georgia” to Savannah that fall and the “Carolina” campaign of 1865. Rush was part Sherman’s personal entourage when the General met with Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston at “Bennett’s House” on April 26, 1865, to accept the surrender of the forces under Johnston’s command. He also participated in the 2nd day of the “Grand Review” with Sherman’s army in Washington later in May. Sgt, Rush was mustered out with his unit on 8 July 1865.(22) His watch is shown in Figures 25 – 26.

Final Thoughts

The simple availability of pocket watches and their use by Civil War veterans had a profound effect on American Society in the second half of the 19th Century. Large scale manufacture of quality time pieces, available at reasonable cost, meant that many more citizens acquired and used them. In subtle ways this changed the role time played in their lives from being abstract and only imprecisely determinable to measurable through a mechanical device. Soldiers returning from the war carried and used their watches everyday so that they were no longer a luxury but became something of a standard tool in managing their work and their affairs.

While certainly foreign made time pieces continued to be imported in substantial numbers, the relative success of the American Watch Company of Waltham Mass. stimulated demand which, in turn, resulted in a number of new American watch manufacturers coming into existence after the conflict. American made mass produced watches became competitive domestically with European products so that after 1880, the Swiss, in particular, needed to refine their strategy to produce better quality watches in a moderate price range to order to compete in the American market.(23)

The American Watch Co. continued to operate and make watches into the 20th Century. In 1885 it became the American Waltham Watch Company, renamed again in 1906 as the Waltham Watch Company. It continued to make watches (and clocks) until 1957 when it ended production. The 1850 startup’s vision, mass producing timepieces using precision machine made parts, was ultimately realized in moderately priced, good quality American made watches like the “Soldier’s” watch.

Endnotes

1. Geller, Clint B., The Appreciation and Authentication of Civil War Timepieces, Columbia, PA (National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors, 2019) (hereafter Geller)

2. Ibid. 75

3. Gomelsky, Victoria, “How Switzerland Came to Dominate Watchmaking“ New York Times, Style Section, 20 Nov 2014, New York Times website, https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/21/style/international/what-enabled-switzerland-to-dominate-watchmaking.html. Ms. Gomelski includes a number of quotes from David Christian’s book in her Times article. (hereafter Gomelsky article)

4. Geller 114

5. Ibid. 101, 105-106. The early period of the Boston Watch Co. enterprise was somewhat more complicated than described here with the coming and going of a number of different actors and several changes in direction. Geller indicates that the first watch production didn’t really occur (serial numbers 1 – 50) until 1852 and that only about 1000 were made by the end of 1854.

6. Price, Ron, Origins of the Waltham Model 57 Evolution of the First Successful Industrialized Watch, NAWCC Special Order Supplement No. 7, On -Line Version, http://www.plads.com/m57/monograph/. (hereafter Price)

7. Geller 106 – 113. The product line and grades available during the war period were somewhat more extensive than described in that two variants of the Model 1859 type design in different movement sizes (one larger and one smaller,) designated today as the Models 1860 and 1862, were also produced in limited numbers. In addition, a higher end quality level, the American Watch Co. grade was introduced for Model 1859 movements. This grade was apparently not produced in significant numbers for the Model 1857 line.

8. Ibid. 51

9. Ibid.

10. Price

11. Geller 57

12. Ibid. 94

13. Ibid. Many sources portray the cost of the least expensive Ellery watches to soldiers as $13.00, set it is claimed to be equivalent to the typical privates’ monthly wage. While advertisements of the period do advertise watches available for prices as low as $7.00 (see Geller 50) these “bate-and-switch” ads refer to imported time pieces not ones made in America, likely “cheap” Swiss or “bargain” English versions made for export during the war.

14. Ibid, N 55 p203.

15. Ibid, 52-53

16. Moore, Nathan, “Keeping Time with Lincoln- The History of Abraham Lincoln’s Waltham Watch” Published on January 26, 2021,, The American Magazine website, https://www.theamerican.co.uk/pr/ft-Keeping-Time-With-Lincoln, (hereafter Moore article)

17. “The Charleston Riot of 1864”, Publish Illinois website, The Charleston Riot of 1864 – Illinois History & Lincoln Collections March 31, 2020, What would become known as the Charlestown Riots, involved anti-war Democrats who clashed with Union soldiers on leave in Charleston, Illinois, on the Coles County courthouse square, leaving nine dead and twelve wounded, making it one of the deadliest soldier-civilian encounters in the North during the Civil War. In recounting of his meeting with the President later, Hanks suggested that Lincoln granted the pardons over the strong objections of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. 

18. Moore article

19. Allen-Greil, Dana, “A secret message inside Lincoln's watch?”, 10 March 2009, National Museum of American History Blog -Behring Center website, A secret message inside Lincoln's watch? | National Museum of American History

20. Geller 135 – 182. The last chapter, 9, pages 135 to 182 is devoted to the stories and pictures of watches known to have been owned by significant participants in the conflict. Dr. Geller also uses watches identified to other soldiers throughout the other chapters as illustrative examples as he describes feature and characteristics of watches used in the war years.

21. “A closer look at a Civil War watch,” National Museum of American History Blog -Behring Center web site, A closer look at a Civil War watch | National Museum of American History (si.edu)

22. Bowman, John, “WALTHAM William Ellery 1863 Civil War Pocket Watch,” Wheeling the Birthplace of the American Steamboat website, WALTHAM William Ellery 1863 Civil War Pocket Watch – JOHN BOWMAN (steamboat-birthplace-wheeling.com)

23. Gomelsky article