Museum Collections

This ribbon belonged to New Yorker Samuel Phillips Dill (1834-1902), who served in the Civil War with the 173rd Regiment, New York State Volunteers. While fighting in the southwest he was captured and spent fourteen months in the Confederate prison at Camp Ford near Tyler, Texas. Dill wrote an account of his escape and recapture in 1867, a copy of which is in the N-YHS Library. The library also holds a copy of "A Brief Sketch of the 173rd Regiment" (1868) by Dill and a copy of the Camp Ford newspaper, "The Old Flag," which was also reportedly written by Dill. The Camp Ford prisoner ribbon was likely made after the war, possibly for a reunion of 173rd Regiment prisoners.