Berdan Knapsack

Preserving a Rare Piece of History

On September 30, 1864, a Union sharpshooter found himself surrounded by a band of determined Confederates on a Virginia battlefield. Outnumbered, the soldier and his brethren bolted for safety, cutting loose their knapsacks in the scramble to live.

A youthful Confederate sharpshooter named Oscar Fitzland Chappell picked up one of those sacks. Just 17 years old, Chappell held onto that simple canvas pack for the rest of the war, even through the misery of a New York prisoner-of-war camp. Chappell was a Private in Co. F of the 12th South Carolina Volunteers (Dunlop’s Sharpshooters).

For more than a century, the rare knapsack has been in the collection of the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Museum.

New research suggests the knapsack may have belonged to Nathaniel Rodgers of the 1st Michigan Sharpshooters.  Yet, the mystery remains how a Michigan sharpshooter had a knapsack specific to another Union unit – Berdan’s Sharpshooters (1st and 2nd Regiment US Sharpshooters).  Dr. David Moore at North Georgia College and State University has researched the knapsack mystery since 2003.

The fur-covered knapsack was patterned after 19th century Prussian design and manufactured by Tiffany & Co. in New York.  The knapsack belonging to the SC Confederate Relic Room and Museum is one of only five known to exist today.

The SC Confederate Relic Room & Military Museum, with the help of Berdan Sharpshooters Living Historians, is raising funds to conserve this rare knapsack.   It will cost $3500 - $5000 to conserve this wonderful piece of history.  If you would like to contribute to the knapsack conservation fund, please contact W. Allen Roberson, Museum Director, at arobers@crr.sc.gov or 803.737.8096.

LEFT: Oscar Chappell at a UCV Renuion
RIGHT: Berdan Sharpshooter's Knapsack