Prayer book of Confederate soldier killed at Rich Mountain discovered

ViaPam Steele

BEVERLY, W.Va. -- A prayer book carried by a Confederate soldier killed during the Battle of Rich Mountain on July 11, 1861, that turned up in the recess of an Ohio book cabinet more than a century later is now on display near the scene of the battle, in Randolph County's Beverly Heritage Center.

Sisters Carey Flinn Howells and Jennifer Flinn Marks discovered the 4-by-2.5-inch Catholic prayer book when they were examining some custom-made bookcases in the library of an old Cleveland Heights home Carey Howells and her husband, Dion, had just moved into.

The leather-bound book, titled "The Path to Paradise; Or, the Way of Salvation," was published in 1857 under the auspices of the Most Rev. John Hughes, the archbishop of New York. In addition to being filled with religious engravings and more than 500 pages of text, the little book contained a pair of mysterious handwritten inscriptions penned in old brown ink.

"Philip Bader, a Private in the 19th Ohio Infantry," read one of the inscriptions. "Presented to Mary Drumm by Philip Bader. Taken on the Battle Field at Rich Mountain from a Dead Secesh Soldier," read the other.

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