If you have studied the lives of Civil War vets, you know about the Left-Handed penmanship contests for right-handed amputees. These contests rewarded those Union veterans who had learned to write with their non-dominant hand. The Library of Congress has put together a page looking at these contests. The originals are from contests held in 1865, 1866, and 1867.
Here is an advertisement for one contest:
In this entry in the contest, the amputee makes an appeal for work that a one-armed man can do. Please read it. The soldier write “The right arm gone, the nation yet remains…” It is a moving piece.
Here the amputee identifies himself as part of the Left Arm Corps.
The same soldier, Alfred Whitehouse, gives a brief sketch of his unit’s service in his left-handed penmanship.
