Flavius Fine enlisted in Company I, 10th Missouri Infantry on August 6, 1862, in Oregon County, Missouri.

The 10th Missouri Infantry joined General Mosby Parsons’s brigade of General Daniel Frost’s Division, and participated in the Battle of Prairie Grove on December 7, 1862.

Fine, serving as a drummer, joined the 10th Missouri Infantry in the Confederate attack on Helena, Arkansas, on July 4, 1863. Captured by the Federals, he was paroled at Polk’s Plantation, six miles from Helena, on July 7, by order of Union General Benjamin M. Prentiss. Fine died on July 21, 1863, from wounds received in the battle. He is thought to be buried in the Confederate Cemetery in Helena as “Fleming Fine.”

A newspaper clipping is attached inside the case containing Fine’s photograph. It reads:

(For the New York Mercury.)
A Departed Brother.
By Louisa B. Flanders.

I thought he came at dewy eve,
To whisper in my ear,
But now I know in morn’s pale beam,
My brother lost, is near.

I know him by the gentle rap
Upon the inner door
Of my sad heart, so like the rap
He used to give of yore.

I know him by the gentle words:
‘Awake! my sister dear;’
So like the gentle words of old,
My ear was wont to hear.

And, too, my soul discerns the smile
That lights his pleasant eye;
So like the smile it used to wear
Ere he ascended high.

And the blest counsels that he breathes,
I heed with willing ear,
For well I know where wisdom reigns,
There reigns my brother dear.

Ambrotype by unknown photographer.

Image Courtesy Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield; WICR 12194