[CIVIL WAR] Jewish Memphis Militia Ephemera

Board of Examiners, Enrolled Militia, District of Memphis partly printed document completed in manuscript. Memphis, Tennessee, 29 June 1864. 4 7/8 x 3 5/8 in. Undersigned to recto and verso. Docketed to verso. Bears embossed stamp.

A rare piece of ephemera from a prominent German Jewish immigrant. The small document is an exemption from service for William J. Young in the Memphis Militia service. The recto is signed by the colonel of the militia, F.W. Buttinghaus, and three surgeons, suggesting Young's exemption is due to a medical condition.

Notably, the verso is signed by the militia's acting adjutant general, Joseph Ashner Gronauer (1830-1888). Gronauer was a Jew born in Stuttgart and probably immigrated to the United States in the 1850s, settling in Memphis. He was a partner of Block, Gronauer, & Co., which sold liquor, wine, cigars, and cotton. Joseph and his brother Herman were prominent members of the growing German-Jewish community in Memphis - they were members of the Memphis Club, a social and dramatic organization for the German Jewish community; Turn Verein, a German socio-political organization; and the German Casino Club, composed of the German elite who produced musicals, operas, and masquerade balls. In 1863, Joseph joined the Steuben Guard section of the Union-loyal enrolled militia, District of Memphis, which was composed of Jewish and German Memphis citizens. The commanding officer, Colonel Fred W. Buttinghaus, who has also signed this document, had been president of the German Casino in 1860 and likely influenced members to participate. After the war, he worked as a secretary for the Mississippi Valley Insurance Co., and in 1872 he was named the vice-president of the synagogue and vice-president of the Euphrates Lodge No. 35, Independent Order of B'nai B'rith.

Information on Gronauer's civic, business, and military service is taken from "Documents; Joseph A. Gronauer and the Civil War in Memphis by Jack D. L. Homes," a copy of which is included with the lot.

Condition: very minor brown spotting, old fold.

[Civil War, Union, Confederate, Jewish History, Jewish American History, Judaica, Ephemera, Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Militia, Militaria]