Boston, Massachusetts
W. Crosby 

Wood, nickel-silver
ca. 1860-1865
Length: 17 3/8 inches
Wind Instruments – Woodwind Instruments – Flute

Engraved in wood:  W CROSBY / Boston
Engraved on nickel-silver top ferrule: Charles W. Dain / 1865

A Civil War Fife by Walter Crosby, with seven nickel-silver bands, two ferrules, one on each end, and a mouthpiece (MPC) whistle attachment. The whistle attachment allows the player to not only more easily play the fife, but hold the fife, by gripping the extended MPC with the teeth, possibly freeing up a hand to play the drum with a stick in one hand and the fife with the other.  Engraved on the top metal ferrule is “Charles W. Dain 1865” the gentleman who played the fife.  Checking with ‘Ancestry’:  Civil War Soldiers, 1861-1865, it shows that Dain served in the Regiment State of New York.  Engraved in the wood of the whistle is: W CROSBY /  Boston.  Walter Crosby worked in Boston from 1828 through 1872.

There are very few Crosby fifes still in existence with four of them in the Library of Congress.  This instrument was on display at the Missouri History Museum, 2012-2013.