CIVIL WAR MEDICAL OFFICER GREEN SASH - IDENTIFIED

Surgeon's sash attributed to Dr. Elias J. Marsh. Vivid and unfaded green silk sash in excellent condition with no tears, wholly intact, and bearing the knots and tassels, with minor repair to one knot in the remote past. The sash, including tassels is 118" in length. The tassel head is consistent with those seen on Civil War sashes. An excellent and identified example of an officer's sash as used by surgeons during the Civil War. Dr. Marsh was appointed Surgeon's Mate, 3rd New Jersey (3 months regiment) in April 1861 with which he was engaged at First Bull Run. In August 1861 he was appointed Assistant Surgeon, U.S.A. He served throughout the Civil War. In 1862 he was in the Peninsula Campaign and was taken prisoner at Gaines' Mill. For most of 1863 Dr. Marsh was in charge of the Judiciary Square Hospital in Washington. Then in 1864 he was assigned to the 2nd Division Cavalry Corps, Army of the Potomac. Later in the War he was on General Philip Sheridan's staff in Texas. Dr. Marsh has been referred to as "the man who stopped the Civil War": while Grant and Lee were negotiating terms of surrender at Appomattox, and portions of the armies were still fighting, Dr. Marsh was asked by General Grant's adjutant to ride through the lines to transmit the cease fire orders to the commanding officers, thus bringing the fighting to a close. Dr. Marsh came from a prominent medical family in Paterson, New Jersey. This sash, along with Marsh's medical staff sword and officer's belt rig were procured together as a collection several decades ago with that attribution having been transmitted at the time of acquisition. No written provenance was obtained. excellent