Private Edgar H. Klemroth drew these "Very Rough Sketches" (45 pages) while serving in the 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry Regiment during General Philip Henry Sheridan's campaign in Shenandoah from August 1864 to March 1865. Klemroth later presented them to Captain Rudulph Ellis of the 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry. The materials include pencil sketches, ink drawings, and wash drawings; a few of the pages contain more than one image. The original black leather binding (15.2 x 24.5 cm) is included in the back of Volume 3. Underneath some of the sketches are faint, hand-written lines of poetry pulled from works of various poets. Klemroth's illustrations show a variety of military scenes, including army camps, winter headquarters near Winchester, and wagons and supply trains in the Virginia countryside. Many sketches highlight the hardships of camp life. Soldiers are shown on horseback and at leisure, sometimes eating, talking, or watching equestrian and mule races. Images 26 and 27 feature soldiers firing during a skirmish, and another (image 10) shows a dog mourning over its dead Confederate owner's body. African Americans, including a young boy and men racing on mules, appear in a few of the drawings. Portraits of General Philip Henry Sheridan, General George Custer, Captain Rudulph Ellis, Brigadier General David Allen Russell, First Lieutenant John Spreadbury, and men in Klemroth's regiment (including scouts) are also present. Some of the items are dated November 1864 or December 1864, and some have descriptions of images written on the back.
Edgar Halstead Klemroth was born in New York City on September 24, 1837 and worked as a book binder in Philadelphia in the years before the Civil War. He enlisted in the 17th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment before joining the 6th Regiment of the Pennsylvania Cavalry Volunteers' Company A of the 2nd U.S. Cavalry Division as a Corporal on August 24, 1861. Klemroth was tried in a General Court Martial held by the 6th Regiment for absence without leave. He was accused of leaving on September 13, 1862, the night before a minor battle near Jefferson, Maryland, after visiting a surgeon for heart palpitations. He then traveled to Washington D.C. during his unauthorized departure and did not return to duty until October 8, 1862. Klemroth pleaded not guilty to leaving the area but pleaded guilty to absence without leave, arguing that he followed orders, ended up lost, and went to D.C. in hopes of finding his unit. He was found guilty of the charges, reduced in rank from corporal to private, and his monthly pay was reduced by six and a half dollars for six months. Klemroth reenlisted on January 1, 1864, and by August of 1864, he was on "detached duty", serving under General Torbert in the Shenandoah campaign. On August 7, 1865, he was discharged from the army as a Private of the 2nd Pennsylvania Provisional Cavalry Regiment.
After the war, Klemroth lived in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Mary Quinn, and their four children, John, Louisa, William, and Edgar. After Mary's death in 1886, he remarried Florence Shick on October 19, 1887. Following the war, Klemroth worked as a government architect, frequently supervising the construction of federal buildings across the country. He was also an active member of both the Washington Architectural Club and the Union Soldiers' Alliance. Klemroth died at the age of 96 on May 5, 1934, and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
