George Holyoke was in a Union army camp in the South, likely South Carolina, when he spied this quilt in another soldier’s billet. Holyoke was a seasoned fighter, having survived many battles since leaving his farm to join the 45th Illinois Infantry. Finding an elegant bedcover in a dirty camp bothered Holyoke, so he bought this chintz friendship quilt in Broderie Perse style and sent it home to his wife, Anna (Prentice) Holyoke, in Illinois. Holyoke served out the Civil War and returned home to Illinois. Eventually he moved to Kansas with his wife, carrying the quilt with them. Mrs. Holyoke donated the quilt after her husband’s death. Researchers traced the quilt’s origin to James Island off the coast of South Carolina. James Island supported a thriving agricultural community in the antebellum years. The families whose names are recorded on the quilt were all residents of the island or neighboring mainland communities. They had a front row seat to the bombardment that began the Civil War, because Fort Sumter was just off James Island’s northeastern tip. Their homes did not fare well, and the island suffered skirmishes, an evacuation, martial law, and occupation by the Confederate army. By the end of the war, the once-prosperous plantations were in ruins. The capstone of James Island’s wartime saga came in the spring of 1865, when Union general William Sherman’s military campaign swung north through the Carolinas. Union troops plundered property and often applied a scorched-earth policy. Among Sherman’s regiments was the 45th Illinois and soldier George Holyoke.