Be sure to see the Civil War images in CDV and Cabinet Card, Tintype, and Large Albumen Image formats!


CW199.
E&HT Anthony. Prominent Portraits. No. 2275 (crossed out and 2929 pencilled in). Maj. Gen. N.P. Banks. Small scrape on left image and several spots. VG. $200


CW650.
Negative by T.H. O’Sullivan, Gardner Gallery. Published by E&HT Anthony. Photographic Incidents of the War. No. 281. Gen’l Prince and Staff, October, 1863. General Henry Prince of the 2nd Division, 3rd Corps, and Staff – Culpeper, VA.  Seated, left to right: Captain B.W. Hoxie (70th N.Y. Infantry), Lt. E.A. Belger (70th N.Y. Infantry), Lt. W.J. Rusling (5th N.J. Infantry), General Prince, Major Charles Hamlin, A.A.G., Captain G.S. Russell (5th N.J. Infantry). Standing: Captain J. W. Holmes (72 N.Y. Infantry), Captain T. P. Johnson, A.Q.M., unknown, Assistant Surgeon J.F. Calhoun, Lt. Albert Ordway (24th Massachusetts Infantry), unknown, unknown. Henry Prince (6/19/1811-8/19/1892), born in Eastport ME; graduated West Point 1835; fought in Seminole War; Mexican War; frontier duty. Appointed Brig. Gen. of Volunteers April 1862, commanded 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, II Corps at Cedar Mountain; captured; released Dec. 1862; commanded 5th Div., XVIII Corps at New Berne and Kingston. Committee suicide in London. VG. $500


CW678.
E&HT Anthony, although unlabeled. Photographic History The War for the Union. War Views. No. 3678. View of Fort McAllister, Ga. looking up the Ogechee River. Fort McAllister on the great Ogeechee River was taken soon after the end of Sherman’s March. This view is astounding for its lighting, composition, and the clouds in the sky. There is a tear line in the bottom left of the right image. G. $350


CW686.
E. Anthony. No. 818. Col. Corcoran and Staff of the gallant 69th. View of  Colonel Corcoran and the regimental staff of the famed “fighting 69th” NYSM taken prior to Corcoran being wounded and captured at First Bull Run in July 1861. The eagles on Corcoran’s shoulder straps are visible and the non-regulation white duck pants are indicative of hot weather. After Gettysburg his “Irish Legion” was transferred to the Department of Washington and Corcoran assumed command of the parent division in October 1863. He was killed on December 22, 1863 in a riding accident. Corcoran was insubordinate and known to proselytize against English rule in Ireland suggesting a larger conspiracy afoot. The general’s dogmatic regard for Irish troops as “his own” earned Corcoran the genuine affection of his men. Corcoran’s behavior was largely tolerated because the urban Irish were a large and important body of immigrants and wellspring of recruits. VG. $500


CW716.
The War Photograph & Exhibition Company. Photographic History The War for the Union. 730. General Grant’s Council of War. This view shows a “Council of War” in the field near Massaponax Church, Va., May 21, 1864. The pews or benches have been brought out under the trees, and the officers are gathered to discuss the situation. It has been a disastrous day for the Union troops; the losses have been heavy, and nothing apparently gained. General Grant is bending over the bench looking over General Meade’s shoulder at a map which is held in Meade’s lap. The Staff Officers are grouped around under the trees; the orderlies are seen in the background; the ambulances and baggage wagons can also be seen in the background. VG. $500


CW726.
Negative by James F. Gibson for Gardner’s Gallery, Wash, DC. Photographic Incidents of the War. No. 356. Group, Duc de Chartres and Friends, Camp Winfield Scott, Near Yorktown, May 3, 1862. Looks like they are playing dominoes. Spot on lower left image. View may be pseudoscopic or flat. G. $300


CW738.
Negative by Brady & Co. Published by E&HT Anthony. The War for the Union Photographic History. War Views. No. 3333. Gen. Ferrero and Staff, Petersburgh, Va. VG. $300


CW746.
E&HT Anthony. Prominent Portraits. No. 2118. Com. John Rogers, U.S.N. VG. $350


CW750.
The War Photograph & Exhibition Company. The War for the Union. 431. A Battery of “Flying Artillery.” Flying Artillery, as it is sometimes called, is a battery of light artillery (usually 10-pounder rifle guns), with all hands mounted. In ordinary light artillery the cannoneers either ride on the gun-carriage or go afoot. In flying artillery each cannoneer has a horse. This permits very rapid movements of the battery. Flying artillery usually serves with cavalry. This is Gibson’s battery )”C,” 3d U.S.) near Fair Oaks, June, 1862. VG. $200


CW763.
McCullum & Butterworth, Boston. Original image by William Morris Smith. Bull Run Monuments. No. 1. Gathering of Generals at Bull Run Monument. This was taken on June 10, 1865 during the dedication ceremony of the Bull Run Monument. Brig. Gen. Henry Washington Benham, standing with hand on hip 5th from left; Maj. Gen. Montgomery Cunningham Meigs next to him; Maj. Gen. Samuel Peter Hentzelman, 6th from right; Maj. Gen. Orlando Bolivar Wilcox, 5th from right; Brig. Gen. William Gamble, 4th from right; & Lt. James McCallum, standing above. VG. $150


CW767.
John C. Taylor. Photographic History The War for the Union. No. 3181, pencilled over on back to 6181. Confederate artillery soldiers killed at Petersburgh April 2, 1865. Their uniform is gray cloth trimmed with red. The one in the foreground has on U.S. belts, doubtless taken from some federal prisoner. VG. $200


CW769.
Alexandre Pouget, Cap Haytien. Officers of U.S.S. Rhode Island. Manuscript title on verso. This is the first U.S.S. Rhode Island. It was a side-wheel steamer in the US Navy, commissioned in 1861. Built at New York, NY in 1860 by Lupton & McDermut, named John P. King, burned and rebuilt, renamed Eagle in 1861, purchased by the Navy 27 June 1861, renamed Rhode Island, Comdr. Stephen D. Trenchard in command. The Rhode Island was employed as a supply ship visiting various ports and ships with mail, paymasters officers stores, medicine and other supplies. Nevertheless the ship captured a chased a number of confederate vessels. The Rhode Island towed the Monitor from Hampton Roads, rounded Cape Hatteras and encountered a heavy storm. The Monitor sank taking four officers and 12 enlisted men with her. E. $325


CW783.
Negative by Brady & Co. Published by E&HT Anthony. Photographic History The War for the Union. War Views. No. 3387. Col. Ord, at the mansion formerly occupied by Jeff Davis, Richmond, Va. In the doorway is the table upon which the surrender of Gen. Lee was signed. VG. $150


CW871.
Negative by Brady & Co. E&HT Anthony. Photographic History The War for the Union. War Views. No. 2377. Rebel Winter Quarters, near Yorktown, Va. VG. $200

 
CW887. 
Negative by Brady & Co. Published by E&HT Anthony. Photographic History The War for the Union. War Views. No. 2438. Gen. Custer at his Head Quarters in the field, Army of the Potomac, Va. Brigadier General Custer is pictured on or about July 11, 1864. E. $1200


CW917.
E&HT Anthony. Photographic History The War for the Union. War Views. No. 3154. Captured Brass Howitzer Guns at the Rocketts, Richmond, Va. VG. $185


CW923.
Published by E&HT Anthony. Photographic History The War for the Union. War Views. No. 3611. Gen. Sherman’s soldiers tearing up the railroad, before leaving Atlanta, Ga. VG. $325


CW947.
The War Photograph & Exhibition Company, Hartford, Conn. 2351. Field Telegraph Station. It was often necessary to establish a telegraph service between different points in our lines very hurriedly. This view shows one of the characteristic field telegraph stations. An old piece of canvas stretched over some rails forms the telegrapher’s office, and a hard-tack box is his telegraph table; but from such a rude station messages were often sent which involved the lives of hundreds and thousands of soldiers. VG. $300


CW960.
E&HT Anthony. War Views. No. 1493. Camp Life. Uncommon view in this series. G+. $375

Lord Abbinger and Friends at Hdqrts, Falmounth April 1863 Lord Abbinger and Friends at Hdqrts, Falmounth April 1863
CW984. Negative by James F. Gibson for Gardner’s Gallery, Washington, DC. Photographic Incidents of the War. No. 695. Group Lord Abbinger and Friends at Headquarters Army Potomac, Falmouth, April, 1863. 3-cent tax stamp on verso. G. $400

General Stoneman and Staff, Fair Oaks General Stoneman and Staff, Fair Oaks
CW985. Negative by James F. Gibson for Gardner’s Gallery, Washington, DC. Photographic Incidents of the War. No. 436. Gen. Stoneman and Staff at his Headquarters, near Fair Oaks. 3-cent tax stamp on verso. VG-. $600

Sally-port and Draw-bridge  Sally-port and Draw-bridge
CW1039. Taylor & Huntington, Hartford, Conn. Photographic War History. The War For The Union. 2318. The Sally-port and Draw-bridge. This is Fort Slemmer, Washington, DC. VG. $250

Field Telegraph Battery by O'Sullivan/Gardner  Field Telegraph Battery by O'Sullivan/Gardner
CW1042. Negative by T.H. O’Sullivan for Gardner’s Gallery, Washington, DC. Photographic Incidents of the War. No. 786. Field Telegraph Battery Wagon and Officers Tent of Military Telegraph Corps-Headquarters Army of the Potomac, 24th June, 1864. Rare view. VG. $850

Fortress Monroe VA by Stacy Fortress Monroe VA by Stacy
CW1052. [George Stacy]. 629. Fortress Monroe, Va. Zouaves Camp. From another copy of this view the title is No. 147. Camp Hamilton near Fortress Monroe, Va. VG. $275

Chesapeake Hospital Chesapeake Hospital
CW1053. [Alexander Gardner]. Ladies College, Hampton, Va. Used as Hospital. Chesapeake Hospital. VG. $400

Sunny Side of Camp Life Sunny Side of Camp Life
CW1063. E&HT Anthony. War Views-Army of the Potomac. No. 2063. Sunny Side of Camp Life. VG. $300

John Brown's Armory, Harpers Ferry John Brown's Armory, Harpers Ferry
CW1065. [George Stacy]. John Brown’s Armory Building, Harpers Ferry. VG. $250

cw1090 cw1090b
CW1090. Alexander Gardner, Washington, D.C. Negative by James F. Gibson. Photographic Incidents of the War. No. 439. Major Robertson’s Battery of Horse Artillery. Near Richmond, June, 1862. Gardner & Gibson’s 1862 copyright line bottom rector. G. $450

cw1102 Union Dead at Gettysburg
CW1102. 
The War Photograph  & Exhibition Company, Hartford, Conn. 245. Union Dead at Gettysburg. This group of dead was in “the wheat-field.” The burial details found many such groups on that terrible field. The work of burying the thousands of dead was a Herculean task in itself. The hot July sun made it imperative that the dead should be placed underground as soon as possible. In some cases a little mound of earth was heaped over the bodies as they lay and after the first rain storm the hands and feet of the dead could be seen sticking out from their covering of earth. VG. $350

cw1105 Major General Baldy Smith and Staff
CW1105. John C. Taylor, Hartford, Conn. Photographic History. The War for the Union. War Views. No. 2436. Major-General W.F. Smith (Baldy Smith), Commander of the 6th Corps. This view was taken near Malvern Hill, during the ‘sever days’ fight’ in 1862. VG. $300

cw1144 cw1144b
CW1144. Negative by Brady & Co., Washington. E&HT Anthony. War Views. No. 2468. Monitor Canonicus, on the James River, taking in Coal. VG. $150

cw1146 City Point Va.
CW1146. Negative by Brady & Co., Washington. E&HT Anthony. War Views. No. 2449. View of City Point, Va., showing barges, transports, &c. VG. $100

cw1149 Soldiers Filling Water Cart
CW1149. Negative by Brady & Co., Washington. E&HT Anthony. War Views. No. 2505. Soldiers filling their water cart, Army of the Potomac, Va. VG. $85

cw1155 Knoxville RR Depot
CW1155. E&HT Anthony. War Views. No. 2654. Knoxville R.R. Depot at Chattanooga. Group of Rebel prisoners waiting transportation North. G. $150

cw1169 cw1169b
CW1169. E&HT Anthony. War Views. No. 3259. Ruins of a Locomotive in the Petersburg Railroad Depot, Richmond, Va. VG. $150

Mrs. Gen. Grant pp274b
PP274. E&HT Anthony. Prominent Portraits. No. 2096. Mrs. Lieut. Gen. Grant. G. $200

cw1189 Battery No. 1, Farnhold's House
CW1189. Negative by James F. Gibson for Gardner’s Gallery, Washington, DC. Photographic Incidents of the War. No. 364. View of Battery No. 1, at Farnhold’s House, York River, Mounting one 200 Pound, and Five 100 Pound Rifled Guns. G. $175


CW1206. Rare Civil War Glass Stereoview. Image is by George Stacy although published by Platt D. Babbitt titled Col. Duryea’s Adjutant’s Mess. Possibly taken at Fort Schuyler in the Bronx NY before they headed south. VG. $650


CW1208. E&HT Anthony. War Views. No. 2041. Bounty Brokers Looking Out for Substitutes. Signs read “Stop and Read, US Navy Rendezvous, Battery New York, Bounty Seamen $408.” 2-cent tax stamp on verso. VG. $500


CW1219. John P. Soule. No. 353. Interior of Fort Moultrie Battery B and group of Palmetto Trees in distance. VG. $150


CW1224. E&HT Anthony. Photographic History. The War for the Union. War Views. No. 3186. A dead Rebel Soldier, inside the Union Picket lines. This view was taken the morning after the storming of Petersburg, Va., April 2d, 1865. VG. $150


CW1241. J.W. Campbell. War Views. No. 188. Ruins of Circular Church and Secession Hall, Charleston. VG. $200


CW1258. Taylor & Huntington, Hartford, Conn. Photographic War History. The War for the Union. 1171. Railroad Battery Before Petersburg. Chips at corners. G. $100


CW1272. The War Photograph & Exhibition Company, Hartford, Conn. Photographic War History. The War for the Union. 6258. A Crippled Locomotive in Richmond. E. $200


CW1277. John C. Taylor, Hartford, Conn. Photographic History. The War for the Union. War Views. No. 175. Watching for blockade runners. off Charleston. U.S. Steamer New Hampshire. LOC site says man in view is Admiral David Porter. VG. $250


CW1282. John C. Taylor, Hartford, Conn. Photographic History. The War for the Union. War Views. No. 2348. Professor Lowe observing the battle of Fair Oaks, Va., from his balloon. VG. $350


CW1283. E&HT Anthony. Photographic History. The War for the Union. No. 2641. Bridge over the Cumberland River on the Louisville and Nashville R.R. G. $95


CW1284. E&HT Anthony. Photographic History. The War for the Union. War Views. No. 2542. Celebrated Aikens Landing, where all the Rebel Prisoners are exchanged, on the James River near Dutch Gap; the double turreted monitor Omdagua at anchor in the river. Trimmed at sides. G. $150


CW1291. E&HT Anthony. War Views. No. 1488. Camp Life. G. $150


CW1300. F.B. Gage, St. Johnsbury, Vt. No. 221. Co. G. (St. Johnsbury Boys) 3rd Vermont Infantry. July 10, 1861. Nearly all wearing havelocks. These men were mustered in on July 16, 1861 and left Vermont for Washington, DC towards the end of July. Later in the year they became part of the 1st Vermont Brigade which suffered the highest casualty count of any brigade in the history of the United States Army, with some 1,172 killed in action. Rare. VG. $750


CW1308. [George Stacy]. No. 223. Hospital Scene at Fortress Monroe, Va. Amputation Scene. G. $300


CW1315. No photographer ID. N.Y. 7th, Washington, May 1861. G. $300


CW1317. Negative by Brady & Co., Washington. Photographic History. The War for the Union. War Views. No. 2417. Group of Officers of New York Battery. Tinted.  G. $200


CW1322. Stacy’s Fortress Monroe Stereoscopic Views. No. 5. The 15 in. Gun at Fortress Monroe, Va. Weight 50,000 lbs. and carries a ball 475 lbs weight from 4 to 5 miles. G. $125


CW1442. E&HT Anthony. War Views. No. 2596. Soldiers’ Winter Quarters, Army of the Potomac. Inside the first line of fortifications, City Point, Va. G. $150


CW1445. Negative by Brady & Co., Washington. Published by E&HT Anthony. War Views. No. 2398. All the live stock on Mr. Gill’s plantation after the Battle of Gettysburgh. G. $250


CW1448. E&HT Anthony. War Views. No. 3307. Grand Review of the Great Veteran Armies of Grant and Sherman at Washington, on the 23d and 24th May, 1865. The Army of the Potomac. Looking up Pennsylvania Avenue from the Treasury Buildings. Maj. Gen. Humphrey and Staff, and 2d Army Corps passing in review. G. $125


CW1454. Negative by Brady & Co., Washington. Published by E&HT Anthony. War Views. No. 2455. Army Wagons, Cannon, Caissons &c., at City Point, Va. G. $125


CW1463. James F. Gibson for Gardner’s Gallery, Washington, DC. Photographic Incidents of the War. No. 430. Camp Lincoln, near Richmond, June, 1862. VG. $425


CW1466. E&HT Anthony. War Views. No. 1503. Camp Life. Army of the Potomac. Going the Picket Rounds. G $275


CW1469. E&HT Anthony. War Views. No. 3328. Grand Review of the Great Veteran Armies of Grant and Sherman at Washington, on the 23d and 24th of May, 1865. Instantaneous. Sherman’s Grand Army. Looking up Pennsylvania Avenue from the Treasury Buildings, during the passage of the 20th Army Corps. VG. $225


CW1470. E&HT Anthony. War Views. No. 3308. Grand Review of the Great Veteran Armies of Grant and Sherman at Washington, on the 23d and 24th of May, 1865. Instantaneous. Army of the Potomac. Looking up Pennsylvania Avenue from the Treasury Buildings, Maj. Gen. Humphrey and Staff, and 2d Army Corps Passing in Review. G. $150


CW1471. E&HT Anthony. War Views. No. 3312. Grand Review of the Great Veteran Armies of Grant and Sherman at Washington, on the 23d and 24th of May, 1865. Instantaneous. Army of the Potomac. Looking up Pennsylvania Avenue from the Treasury Buildings. A Division of Artillery passing in Review. G. $125


CW1472. E&HT Anthony. War Views. No. 3324. Grand Review of the Great Veteran Armies of Grant and Sherman at Washington, on the 23d and 24th of May, 1865. Instantaneous. Sherman’s Grand Army. Looking up Pennsylvania Avenue from the Treasury Buildings, during the passage of the “Red Star” Division. G. $150


CW1474. E&HT Anthony. War Views. No. 3398. Grand Review of the Great Veteran Armies of Grant and Sherman at Washington, on the 23d and 24th of May, 1865. Instantaneous. Sherman’s Grand Army. Looking up Pennsylvania Avenue from the Treasury Buildings. A portion of the 20th Army Corps passing in Review. G. $125


CW1475. E&HT Anthony. War Views. No. 3393. Grand Review of the Great Veteran Armies of Grant and Sherman at Washington, on the 23d and 24th of May, 1865. Instantaneous. Sherman’s Grand Army. Looking up Pennsylvania Avenue from the Treasury Buildings. Maj. Gen. Slocum and Staff and Army of Georgia passing in Review. G. $200


CW1477. Negative by James F. Gibson for Gardner’s Gallery, Washington, DC. Published by E&HT Anthony. Photographic Incidents of the War. No. 385. Mr. Foller’s House, Cumberland, Va., May, 1862. Allan Pinkerton sits in the rear smoking a pipe. William Moore, secretary to Secretary of War Stanton is one of the men at the table. A contraband sits facing us. These are all Pinkerton’s spies and detectives. Fair. $350


CW1493. Sam Cooley. While untitled, this image appears to be a variant of another Cooley image titled “Deck of the U.S. Steamship Arago.” VG. $650


CW1505. Alexander Gardner, Washington, DC. Photographic Incidents of the War. No. 557. Gathered Together for Burial after the Battle of Antietam. E. $750


CW1506. T.H. O’Sullivan for Gardner’s Gallery, Washington, DC. Photographic Incidents of the War. No. 248. View around Abraham Trossel’s House, near centre of Battle-Field of Gettysburg. G. $300


CW1508. John P. Soule, Boston. War Views. Charleston, S.C. and Forts in Vicinity. Photographed on the spot, in March and April, 1865. No. 337. Interior of Fort Sumpter, showing Gabions and Bomb Proofs. 3-cent tax stamp on verso. E. $150


CW1510. E&HT Anthony. Photographic History. The War for the Union. War Views. No. 3659. Umbrella Rock, Lookout Mountain, Tenn. I believe that the man seated left on the rock has been identified as Mathew Brady. It looks like there is a bottle of photo processing chemicals on the rock above to the left. VG. $200


CW1524. E&HT Anthony. War View. No. 1498. Group of Union troops defending the Viaduct on the Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road. VG> $300


CW1525. E&HT Anthony. War Views. No. 1508. Camp Life. Army of the Potomac. Artillery Practice. Tinted. G. $300


CW1527. [E&HT Anthony] Unlabeled. 134 in negative. Environs of Washington. A commanding spot for a Camp (with some signs of camping. G. $300


CW1528. John P. Soule, Boston. War Views. Charleston, S.C. and Forts in Vicinity. No. 335. Fort Sumter from the Bar. The man sitting at left on the camera is George Barnard (See Davis, pps. 93-94). It has been said that the man at right is Mathew Brady but I have not been able to confirm that. 3-cent tax stamp on verso. VG. $225

The following 3 stereoviews are of Albert James Myer (September 20, 1828 – August 24, 1880). Myer was a surgeon and United States Army general. He is known as the father of the U.S. Army Signal Corps, as its first chief signal officer just prior to the Civil War, the inventor of wig-wag signaling (or aerial telegraphy), and also as the father of the U.S. Weather Bureau.

Myer was born in Newburgh, New York, son of Henry Beekman Myer and Eleanor McClanahan Myer. The family moved to Western New York and after the death of his mother in 1834, he was raised primarily by his aunt in Buffalo.

Myer worked as a telegrapher before entering Geneva College (now Hobart College) in Geneva, New York, in 1842, at age 13, and from where he was graduated in 1847 as a member of The Kappa Alpha Society. He received his M.D. degree from Buffalo Medical College in 1851, while working part-time for the New York State Telegraph Company. His doctoral thesis, A New Sign Language for Deaf Mutes, showed concepts that he later used for his invention of aerial telegraphy.

He was ambitious and intellectually curious. It was said “that he was specially noted for the manner in which he would take hold of an idea or principle, and, following it to its length and breadth, develop all there was in it or of it.” He inherited a large fortune from his family.

He engaged in private medical practice in Florida and then sought a commission as a U.S. Army assistant surgeon (lieutenant), entering service September 18, 1854, posted at Fort Duncan, Texas, and Fort Davis, Jeff Davis County, Texas. His major interest of the time, besides medicine, was to devise a system of signaling across long distances, using simple codes and lightweight materials. This system of codes using a single signal flag (or a lantern or kerosene torch at night), known as wig-wag signaling or aerial telegraphy, would be adopted and used by both sides in the Civil War and afterward.

In 1858, the Army expressed interest in Myer’s invention and appointed a board to examine “the principles and plans of the signaling, mode of use in the field, and course to be pursued in introducing to the army.” Myer appeared before the board, chaired by Lt. Col. Robert E. Lee, in 1859 and convinced them to authorize field testing of his invention. He conducted field tests starting in April of that year around New York Harbor. The tests were successful and Secretary of War John B. Floyd recommended to Congress that the Army adopt Myer’s system and that Myer be appointed as chief signal officer. Congress approved Myer’s appointment as major and chief signal officer and the Signal Corps was formed, despite opposition in the Senate by Jefferson Davis from Mississippi. Myer was sent to the Department of New Mexico for further field trials of his system in a campaign against the Navajos.

On August 24, 1857, he married Catherine Walden, daughter of a prominent Buffalo attorney, with whom he would have six children.

The June 21, 1860, letter from the War Department that ordered Myer to organize and command the new U.S. Army Signal Corps provided little of substance. It authorized $2000 for equipment and a promotion for Myer to major, effective June 27. Myer was faced with the responsibility of recruiting subordinates who could be detailed from elsewhere in the Army. The Signal Corps would not commence as an official Army organization until March 3, 1863, at which time Myer was promoted to colonel. Between these two dates, Myer served first under Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler at Fort Monroe, Virginia, where he established a camp of instruction, and then as the chief signal officer for Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan’s Army of the Potomac in its campaigns from the Peninsula Campaign to the Battle of Antietam. During this period Myer was awarded a brevet promotion to lieutenant colonel in the regular army for his actions at Hanover Court House, and to brevet colonel for Malvern Hill.

Ironically, the first use in combat of Myer’s signaling system was by Confederate Captain Edward Porter Alexander at the First Battle of Bull Run. Alexander had been a subordinate of Myer’s and assisted in the New York field trials.

In addition to his aerial signaling, Myer recognized the need for electrical telegraphy in field communications. He introduced a field telegraph train of wagons to support a device called the Beardslee telegraph, which used a dial instead of a key tapping Morse code, developed to require less training for its operators.

Myer’s Signal Corps was actually a separate entity from the Military Telegraph Service, a War Department bureau staffed primarily by civilian telegraph operators. He had numerous organizational disputes with the assistant secretary of war for this function, attempting on several occasions to take control of all telegraphic operations. When he proposed to remove the less than dependable Beardslee device and recruit trained telegraphers into the Signal Corps, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton removed him from his post as chief signal officer on November 15, 1863, and reassigned him out of Washington, D.C., effectively exiling him.

While conducting routine reconnaissance of the Mississippi River from Cairo, Illinois, to Memphis, Tennessee, Myer wrote the Manual of Signals for the United States Army and Navy. In June 1864, he was appointed by Maj. Gen. E.R.S. Canby to be the signal officer of the Military Division of West Mississippi. Under Canby, Myer added a new duty to the tasks of the Signal Corps by working out a system for interrogating deserters and refugees who came into the Union lines. He also developed a coding system for transmitting routine messages between land and sea forces. He organized communications plans for the operations in the Mobile area and participated, with U.S. Navy officers, in the surrender of Fort Gaines. He served as signal officer for the Department of the Gulf from August 1864 to 1865.

While he was preparing for the Mobile campaign, Myer received the disturbing news that his appointment as colonel and chief signal officer, which had been made before his dismissal in 1863, had not been confirmed by the Senate and was revoked, thus returning him to his permanent rank of major. Through early 1865, Myer employed lawyers and political connections to attempt to correct what he perceived as an injustice. On July 28, 1866, reacting to the influence of Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and President Andrew Johnson, Congress reorganized the Signal Corps and, with the permanent rank of colonel, Myer again became chief signal officer. He was particularly gratified when word of this victory came on October 30, 1866, as his old nemesis, Edwin Stanton, had to inform him of his reinstatement. He was not confirmed in the position until February 1867 and was not ordered to active duty until August 1867. His new duties included control of the telegraph service, resolving the dispute that had removed him from his position.

On December 3, 1867, President Andrew Johnson nominated Myer for appointment to the grade of brevet brigadier general in the Regular Army, to rank from March 13, 1865, and the Senate confirmed the appointment on February 14, 1868. Myer received the brevet grade in honor of his formation of the Signal Corps. His commission as brigadier general in the regular Army came on June 16, 1880, two months before his death. As an Army officer, Myer was nicknamed “Old Probabilities” by his subordinates.

The U.S. Congress, on February 9, 1870, authorized “… meteorological observations at the military stations in the interior of the continent and at other points in the states and territories of the United States, and for giving notice on the northern lakes and seaboard by telegraph and signals of the approach and force of storms”. This duty, previously conducted by the Smithsonian Institution, was assigned to General Myer’s Signal Corps, due in part to his previous interests in storm telegraphy. It was the birth of the U.S. Weather Bureau, now the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In 1873 at the International Meteorological Congress of Vienna, he proposed a resolution for the establishment throughout the world of weather stations and daily exchange of simultaneous weather observations, the effective beginning of the World Meteorological Organization.

Myer was instrumental in the development of heliography in the U.S. Army. In 1877, he acquired heliograph instruments from the British Army for experimental purposes and sent them on to General Nelson A. Miles, at the Yellowstone Department in Montana. Miles developed expertise with the heliograph, which he used to great purpose in the Arizona Apache campaigns.

Myer headed the Signal Corps from August 21, 1867, until his death of nephritis at Buffalo, New York, in 1880. He is interred in the Walden-Myer Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo.


CW1529. Very rare stereoview of Albert James Myer (9/20/28-8/24/80), center, founder of the U.S. Army Signal Corps. The man at left is Lieutenant Lemuel Norton and the man on the right is Lieutenant William Stryker. Taken during the Peninsula campaign, 1862. VG. Image 1 of 3.


CW1530. Very rare stereoview of Albert James Myer (9/20/28-8/24/80), founder of the U.S. Army Signal Corps. Taken during the Peninsula campaign, 1862. VG. Image 2 of 3.


CW1531. Very rare stereoview of Albert James Myer (9/20/28-8/24/80), founder of the U.S. Army Signal Corps. Taken during the Peninsula campaign, 1862. VG. Image 3 of 3.

The three stereoviews of Albert James Myer are available as a group for $2250.


CW1533. Unidentified image of sailors around large cannon. It looks like there is ice and snow on the water. Rough condition. G-. $150


CW1537. E&HT Anthony. War Views. No. 2621. Gen. Hospital Wharf, Army of the Potomac, City Point, Va. Tinted. 3-cent tax stamp on verso. Slight trim. VG. $250


CW1578. Taylor & Huntington, Hartford, Conn. 568. Where Sumner’s Corps Charged at Antietam. G. $125


CW1580. Negative by Alex. Gardner, published by E&HT Anthony. Photographic Incidents of the War. No. 554. He Sleeps His Last Sleep. A Confederate Soldier who after being Wounded had evidently dragged himself to a little ravine on the hill side, where he died. Card has an old crease at center but is firm. G. $250


CW1583. E&HT Anthony. War Views. No. 3177. C.S. Soldier killed by a shell in the Trenches of Fort Mahone, called by the Soldiers “Fort Damnation.” This view was taken the morning after the storming of Petersburgh, Va., April 2d, 1865. G. $150


CW1587. E&HT Anthony. War Views. No. 3185. A dead Rebel Soldier, barefooted, killed by a shell, which tore his side out. The entrails are protruding from his side. This View was taken in the Trenches before Petersburgh, Va., April 2d, 1865. G-. $75


CW1588. E&HT Anthony. War Views. No. 3187. This View was taken in the Trenches of the Rebel Fort Mahone, called by the Soldiers “Fort Damnation,” the morning after the storming of Petersburgh, Va., April 2d, 1865, and shows a boy about 14 years, who must have been asleep when the attack was made, as his is but partially dressed; he was killed as he came out from a bomb-proof; he has on the Rebel grey uniform. VG. $200


CW1591. Sights and Scenes from the Battle of Gettysburg. No. 495. Confederate Soldiers and Breast-works. Stamp on verso “Gettysburg PA. July 1, 2, 3 G.H.B.” VG. $300


CW1593. John C. Taylor, Hartford, Conn. War Views. No. 143. The “Monitor,” showing her ports open, and the muzzle of her “barkers.” This view also shows dents in turret where she was struck by Rebel shot, but this side of her turret does not show as many marks of shot. Chip at bottom left, wear at top left. G+. $200


CW1606. E&HT Anthony. Feats of the Chivalry–Destruction of Chambersburgh. No. 2022. Ruins of Lambert and Huber’s Straw Board Mill. 2-cent cancelled tax stamp on verso. CG. $225


CW1609. Alexander Gardner. Photographic Incidents of the War. There is no label on this view but it shows the Headquarters of General O.B. Wilcox in front of Petersburg, Va., August, 1864. Officers watching a cock fight conduct by African-American men. This view is a variant of the Library of Congress view, No. LC-B817-7222. 1864 copyright lilne bottom recto. G. $500


CW1611. Alexander Gardner. Photographic Incidents of the War. No. 268. View near the Emmittsburg Road on Battle-Field of Gettysburg. 1863 copyright line bottom recto. G. $500


CW1615. Gen. Sherman’s men destroying the R.R. before the evacuation of Atlanta. VG. $400


CW1617. E&HT Anthony. War Views. No. 1502. Camp Life, Army of the Potomac. Stirring the Pot. 2-cent cancelled tax stamp on verso. G. $275


PP362. E&HT Anthony. Prominent Portraits. No. 1811. The Prisoner, Miss Pauline Cushman, the Federal Scout and Spy. G. $350


CW1623. John P. Soule, Boston. War Views. Harper’s Ferry, Va. Photographed from Nature, 1865. No. 377.-Harper’s Ferry, from Virginia side-looking up. VG. $85


CW1637. E&HT Anthony. Prominent Portraits. No. 2888. Maj. Gen. Thos. L. Chittenden. Thomas Leonidas Crittenden (May 15, 1819 – October 23, 1893) was an American statesman, politician, soldier and lawyer from the U.S. state of Kentucky. He served as a general for the Union during the Civil War. His family was fairly typical for Kentucky, in that he and his father supported the Union during the war, but his elder brother fought for the Confederacy. VG. $200


CW1639. E&HT Anthony. Prominent Portraits. No. 2928. Brig. Gen. Torbett of N.J. Contrary to the spelling on this stereoview this is Alfred Thomas Archimedes Torbert (July 1, 1833 – August 29, 1880). He was a career United States Army officer, a Union Army General commanding both infantry and cavalry forces in the Civil War, and a U.S. diplomat. VG. $200


CW1641. E&HT Anthony. Prominent Portraits. No. No. 2101. Brig. Gen. N.J.T. Dana, of Minnesota. Napoleon Jackson Tecumseh Dana (April 15, 1822 – July 15, 1905) was a career U.S. Army officer who fought with distinction during the Mexican–American War and served as a general in the Union Army during the Civil War. He was wounded several times during his military career, often severely, and later in life was involved with railroads and veteran soldier affairs. VG. $200


CW1642. E&HT Anthony. Prominent Portraits. No. 3893. Brig. Gen. Barry, U.S.A. William Farquhar Barry (August 18, 1818 – July 18, 1879) was a career officer in the United States Army, serving as an artillery commander during the Mexican–American War and Civil War. He was the co-author of Instruction for Field Artillery (1860), along with William H. French and Henry J. Hunt. VG. $200


CW1643. E&HT Anthony. Prominent Portraits. No. 2855. Brig. Gen. K. Smith. Thomas Kilby Smith (September 23, 1820 – December 14, 1887) was a lawyer, soldier, and diplomat from the state of Ohio who served as a general in the Union Army during the Civil War and then in the postbellum United States Army. He led a brigade and then a division in the Army of the Tennessee in several of the most significant campaigns of the Western Theater of operations before failing health forced him to a series of desk jobs. VG. $200


CW1644. E&HT Anthony. Prominent Portraits. No. 2904. Brig. Gen. J.J. Bartlett. Joseph Jackson Bartlett (November 21, 1834 – January 14, 1893) was a New York attorney, brigadier general in the Union Army during the Civil War, and postbellum international diplomat and pensions administrator for the United States Government. He was chosen to receive the stacked arms of General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House. VG. $200


CW1645. E&HT Anthony. Prominent Portraits. No. 3902. Brig. Gen. Walcot [sic]. Contrary to the spelling of the general’s name on the stereoview, this is Charles Carroll Walcutt (February 12, 1838 – May 2, 1898) was an American surveyor, soldier, and politician, and a maternal cousin to Davy Crockett. He served as a general in the Union Army during the Civil War, in which he was wounded twice. After the war, Walcutt was warden of the Ohio State Penitentiary and also was active in civic affairs in Ohio, and his death was attributed to his wounds from the Civil War. VG. $200


CW1646. E&HT Anthony. Prominent Portraits. No. 3903. Brig. Gen. Carlin. William Passmore Carlin (November 23, 1829 – October 4, 1903) was a career soldier from the state of Illinois who served as a general in the Union Army during the Civil War and then in the postbellum United States Army. He led a brigade and then a division in the Army of the Cumberland in several of the most significant campaigns of the Western Theater of operations. VG. $200


CW1647. E&HT Anthony. Prominent Portraits. No. 2998. Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger (November 6, 1821 – January 10, 1876). Granger was a career U.S. Army officer, and a Union general during the Civil War, where he distinguished himself at the Battle of Chickamauga. Granger is best remembered for his part in the Battle of Chickamauga and the Battle of Chattanooga and for issuing General Order No. 3 on June 19, 1865, in Galveston, Texas, further informing residents of, and enforcing, Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation which set all Confederate states’ slaves free on January 1, 1863. June 19 is now commemorated by the federal holiday of Juneteenth. VG. $200


CW1648. E&HT Anthony. Prominent Portraits. No. 3900. Brig. Gen. C.R. Wood. Charles Robert Woods (February 19, 1827 – February 26, 1885) was a career United States Army officer and a Union general during the Civil War. He is noted for commanding the relief troops that first attempted to resupply Fort Sumter prior to the start of the conflict, and served with distinction during the war. Charles Woods was born in the city of Newark in Licking County, Ohio, the younger brother of William Burnham Woods and the brother-in-law of Willard Warner, both future Union generals. He grew up on his family’s farm in Ohio, where he received a minimal education from tutoring. Woods entered the United States Military Academy at West Point in July 1848, and graduated four years later, standing 20th out of 43 cadets. He was appointed a brevet second lieutenant on July 1, 1852, and ordered to join the 1st U.S. Infantry Regiment. On July 31 of that year Woods was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant. During 1855 he was transferred to the 9th U.S. Infantry as of March 3, and was promoted to first lieutenant on October 16. Woods’ pre-war military career consisted of “routine duty” in Texas as well as in the Washington Territory until 1860. In early 1861, Woods was ordered by the U.S. Army to lead reinforcements to Fort Sumter, located in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. On January 5 his command of 200 officers and men left from Governors Island in New York Harbor aboard the steamer SS Star of the West, escorted by the sloop USS Brooklyn, for Fort Sumter. On January 8 at dark Woods arrived off Charleston Harbor, and when it was light enough on January 9 they entered the bay. Woods and the steamer weren’t fired upon until they arrived within one and three-quarter miles (about three kilometers) of both Sumter and Fort Moultrie, when they were fired on by an artillery battery near the northern end of Morris Island. Woods described in his report what occurred next:

We kept on, still under the fire of the battery, most of the balls passing over us, one just missing the machinery, another striking but a few feet from the rudder, while a ricochet shot struck us in the fore-chains, about two feet above the water line… The American flag Was flying at Fort Sumter, but we saw no flag at Fort Moultrie, and there were no guns fired from either of these fortifications. Finding it impossible to take my command to Fort Sumter, I was obliged most reluctantly to turn about, and try to make my way out of the harbor before my retreat should be cut off by vessels then in sight…

Woods and the Star of the West returned to New York Harbor on January 12, 1861, and he filed his full report the next day from Fort Columbus. On April 1 he was promoted to the rank of captain, and on October 13 he was given command of the 76th Ohio Infantry Regiment with the rank of colonel. Woods’ first assignment with his regiment was briefly in what is now West Virginia in the fall of 1861. In 1862, Woods began his Western Theater service. His regiment participated in the capture of Fort Donelson in Tennessee on February 16, 1862, as well as the Battle of Shiloh on April 6. Woods was promoted to brigade command, replacing Charles Whittlesey in the Army of the Tennessee shortly before the Siege of Corinth on April 29, which lasted until June 10. He then took charge of his prior regiment during the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou that December. Woods fought well during rest of the Vicksburg Campaign and the Siege of Vicksburg, and for his performance during the siege Woods was appointed a brevet lieutenant colonel in the Regular Army as of July 4, 1863. Woods fought with distinction at the Third Battle of Chattanooga in November 1863, and was made a brevet colonel in the Regular Army as of November 24 for his efforts there. He was promoted to the rank of brigadier general in the Union Army on August 4, and by January 1864 was given divisional command. He was promoted to major in the Regular Army in the 18th U.S. Infantry on April 20, 1864, and was appointed a brevet major general in the Union Army for his actions during the Battle of Griswoldville on November 22, the first engagement of Sherman’s March to the Sea. Woods was then appointed a regular brevet brigadier general and quickly then to brevet major general on March 13, 1865, both in the Regular Army. Woods chose to continue his military career and remain in the U.S. Army after the end of the Civil War. He was assigned to command the Department of Alabama from June 27, 1865, to May 19, 1866, and then commanded the Department of the South until August 6. He was promoted in the Regular Army to lieutenant colonel on July 28 in the 33rd U.S. Infantry, and was mustered out of the volunteer service on September 1. On September 24, 1866, Woods was transferred to the 27th U.S. Infantry, lasting until March 15, 1869, when he was unassigned for 19 days. On March 24 he was assigned to the 5th U.S. Infantry, and on February 18, 1874, he was promoted to colonel and given command of the 2nd U.S. Infantry. He held this post until retiring on December 15 due to his failing health. Woods died at the age of 58 at his estate named “Woodside” in Newark, Ohio. He was buried there in Cedar Hill Cemetery, as would be his brother and brother-in-law. VG. $200


CW1649. Rush Christopher Hawkins (September 14, 1831 – October 25, 1920) was a lawyer, Union colonel in the Civil War, politician, book collector, and art patron. He was mustered out of the Union Army in 1863 but served in the New York Militia in 1865. In 1866, in consideration of his prior service, he was nominated and confirmed for appointment to the grade of brevet brigadier general of volunteers to rank from March 13, 1865. In 1861, Hawkins helped raise the 9th New York Infantry, a Zouave-styled regiment, popularly known as “Hawkins Zouaves” for service in the Civil War. Hawkins was appointed colonel of the regiment on May 4, 1861, and served with distinction in North Carolina early in the war. He was part of Benjamin F. Butler’s expedition to capture Fort Hatteras in 1861. Expecting to win a promotion to brigadier general for his service at Fort Hatteras he was instead relieved of command for insubordination. On October 8, 1861, a disgruntled Hawkins wrote “brigadier generals are made of such queer stuff nowadays, that I should not esteem it any great honor to be made one.” Hawkins would in fact receive a brevet promotion to brigadier general in 1866 to rank from March 13, 1865. Despite his belligerence an early dispatch of Hawkins’ caught the attention of President Abraham Lincoln. Hawkins was invited to the White House to confer with the President and General-in-Chief George B. McClellan. There he was instrumental in convincing the Union high command of the possibility of a combined operation against Pamlico Sound in North Carolina. The idea became the objective of Ambrose Burnside’s North Carolina Expedition. Hawkins was again conspicuous at the battles of Roanoke Island and New Bern in 1862. Upon the arrival of significant reinforcements to North Carolina in April 1862, he assumed command of a brigade. Hawkins’ brigade was attached to Jesse L. Reno’s division and fought at the Battle of South Mills on April 19, 1862, where he was wounded in the left arm. After recovering Hawkins returned to Virginia with his regiment and briefly commanded the 1st Brigade, 3rd Division in the newly formed IX Corps. He was not present with the brigade during the Maryland Campaign but resumed command during the battle of Fredericksburg. After Fredericksburg, the 3rd Division, commanded by George W. Getty, was transferred to the VII Corps in southeast Virginia. Hawkins led his brigade (now the 1st Brigade, 2nd Division, VII Corps) during the siege of Suffolk. Just two days before the siege was lifted, Hawkins turned over command of his brigade and on May 20, 1863, was mustered out of the volunteer service with his old regiment. He did not return to active duty. On July 9, 1866, President Andrew Johnson nominated Hawkins for appointment to the grade of brevet brigadier general of volunteers, to rank from March 13, 1865, and the United States Senate confirmed the appointment on July 23, 1866. He remained active in the New York Militia receiving a brevet promotion to brigadier general of New York Militia in 1865. Hawkins was a Republican member of the New York State Assembly (New York Co., 11th D.) in 1872. He became a noted—and certainly obsessive—rare book collector, having started shortly before the Civil War. He amassed a collection of 225 incunabula; his goal was to have the first and second books from every European printer before 1501. Remarkably, he was able to acquire 130 of the 238 known fifteenth century European printers. In 1990, the book collection was moved from the Annmary Brown Memorial at Brown University and transferred to the John Hay Library. Hawkins and his wife were also avid art collectors and created an excellent collection of 19th century American art. Hawkins was appointed Assistant to the Commissioner General for the United States Commission to the 1889 Universal Exposition in Paris, France. Hawkins was “Commissaire Expert des Beaux Arts” and was responsible for selecting and organizing American art works for the exhibition. Hawkins feuded with James McNeill Whistler, who removed all of his work in protest and later wrote The Gentle Art of Making Enemies (1890), which in-part details his experiences with Hawkins. While attempting to cross the street in front of his home at 42 5th Avenue in New York City, Hawkins was struck by a motorist and died from his injuries on October 25, 1920. He is buried with his wife in a crypt at the Annmary Brown Memorial on the Brown University campus in Providence, Rhode Island. VG. $400


CW1650. J.W. Winder & co., Cincinnati, Ohio. Clinton Bowen Fisk (December 8, 1828 – July 9, 1890) was a senior officer during Reconstruction in the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands and served as the Prohibition Party’s presidential candidate during the 1888 presidential election. Fisk University was named in his honor after he endowed it with $30,000. In addition, he helped establish the first free public schools in the Southern United States for white and African-American children. After the start of the Civil War Fisk joined the Union Army in 1861 as a private and was appointed colonel of the 33rd Missouri Volunteer Infantry of the Union Army on September 5, 1862. He was later commissioned as brigadier general in charge of a brigade on November 24, 1862 and also served on Major General George Armstrong Custer’s staff. He served most of the Civil War in Missouri and Arkansas, commanding first the District of Southeast Missouri and later the Department of North Missouri to opposing raids into Missouri by Confederate cavalry and guerrillas. In 1865 he was promoted to brevet major general. After the Civil War, Fisk was appointed assistant commissioner of the Freedmen’s Bureau for Kentucky and Tennessee under the command of Oliver Otis Howard. He worked through the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands and the American Missionary Association to establish the first free schools in the American South for both black and white children. He made the abandoned barracks in Nashville, Tennessee available to the American Missionary Association for the creation of the Fisk School, and endowed it with a total of $30,000. After authorizing legislation expired for the Freedmen’s Bureau, Fisk returned to his native New York where he returned to banking. In 1874 President Ulysses S. Grant appointed him to the Board of Indian Commissioners. He was a zealous leader of the prohibition movement. In 1886 he ran for governor of New Jersey with the Prohibition nomination. During the 1888 presidential election he served the Prohibition Party’s presidential nominee after being given the nomination by acclamation on June 6, 1888. He was accused of being a possible spoiler candidate that would prevent Benjamin Harrison from winning like John St. John had been accused of in 1884. Harrison won the election although without winning the national popular vote. “General,” said one Republican to Fisk, “if I should vote for this [prohibition] bill it would lay me in my political grave.” “Vote for it and die, then,” Fisk responded, “and I will write on your tombstone, ‘Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord.'” Fisk died in New York City on July 9, 1890, from influenza and was buried in Coldwater, Michigan. Prohibition Park, a planned community on Staten Island, New York, named one of its major streets Clinton B. Fisk Avenue in his honor. The name remains, although the community changed its name to Westerleigh. In 2001 he was the first to be inducted into the new Hillsdale County, Michigan Veterans’ Hall of Fame, for his distinguished service in the Civil War. 3-cent cancelled tax stamp on verso. VG. $250


CW1651. E&HT Anthony. War Views. No. 3417. Admiral Dahlgren. Taken on board U.S.S. Pawnee, Charleston Harbor, S.C. John Adolphus Bernard Dahlgren (November 13, 1809 – July 12, 1870) was a United States Navy officer who founded his service’s Ordnance Department and launched significant advances in gunnery. Dahlgren devised a smoothbore howitzer, adaptable for many sizes of craft and shore installations. He then introduced a cast-iron muzzle-loading cannon with vastly increased range and accuracy, known as the Dahlgren gun, that became the U.S. Navy’s standard armament. In the Civil War, Dahlgren was made commander of the Washington Navy Yard, where he established the Bureau of Ordnance. In 1863, he took command of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron at the rank of rear admiral. He helped William Tecumseh Sherman secure Savannah, Georgia. Partial 3-cent tax stamp on verso. G. $150


CW1652. M.B. Brady, Washington, DC. John Sedgwick (September 13, 1813 – May 9, 1864) was a military officer and Union Army general during the Civil War. He was wounded three times at the Battle of Antietam while leading his division in an unsuccessful assault against Confederate forces, causing him to miss the Battle of Fredericksburg. Under his command, the VI Corps played an important role in the Chancellorsville Campaign by engaging Confederate troops at the Second Battle of Fredericksburg and the Battle of Salem Church. His corps was the last to arrive at the Battle of Gettysburg and thus did not see much action. Sedgwick was killed by a sharpshooter at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House on May 9, 1864, making him and Major Generals James B. McPherson, Joseph K. Mansfield, and John F. Reynolds the highest-ranking Union officers to be killed in the war. He is remembered for an ironic remark among his last words: “They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance.” VG. $350


CW1653. Man in uniform seated at desk. This is an unknown image that I’ve not seen before. Nothing is written on the card, front or back. Maybe someone viewing the image can identify the sitter. It is un unusual pose for a Civil War soldier. VG. $150


CW1654. John C. Taylor, Hartford, Conn. War Views. No. 156. General Q.A. Gilmore. Quincy Adams Gillmore (February 28, 1825 – April 7, 1888) was a civil engineer, author, and a general in the Union Army during the Civil War. He was noted for his actions in the Union victory at Fort Pulaski, where his modern rifled artillery readily pounded the fort’s exterior stone walls, an action that essentially rendered stone fortifications obsolete. He earned an international reputation as an organizer of siege operations and helped revolutionize the use of naval gunnery. VG. $175


CW1657. Emil Herzinger, St. Louis, Mo. Franz Sigel (November 18, 1824 – August 21, 1902) was a German American military officer, revolutionary and immigrant to the United States who was a teacher, newspaperman, politician, and served as a Union major general in the Civil War. His ability to recruit German-speaking immigrants to the Union armies received the approval of President Abraham Lincoln, but he was strongly disliked by General-in-Chief Henry Halleck. In this view one can see the photographer’s name written on the pedestal in the right image. Herzinger is a rarely encountered photographer. VG. $350

 
CW1658. [M.B. Brady, NY]. Louis Blenker (July 31, 1812 – October 31, 1863) was a German revolutionary and American soldier. On his arrival in the United States, he settled on a farm in New York, and ran a small business. Upon the outbreak of the Civil War he organized the 8th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment, of which he became colonel. He was noted for his coverage of the retreat at Bull Run and for his performance in western Virginia at the Battle of Cross Keys. For his gallantry at Bull Run he was raised to the rank of brigadier general of volunteers. But after Cross Keys a series of deficiencies plagued his command, the main accusation being carelessness with respect to supplies. There were also allegations of financial irregularities. In a letter to the Illinois Staatszeitung, Gustav Struve defended Blenker on this score, i.e. with regard to a charge that he got $100 a month from each of the sutlers he had licensed to service his troops. But the charges persisted. Stories appeared in the German-language press and the New York Tribune accusing Blenker’s troops of looting the countryside of edibles and theft of items of no military worth. Blenker was defended by the New Yorker Criminal Zeitung und Belletristisches Journal, and some editors suggested that Carl Schurz was planning to supersede Blenker. Blenker had a love of pomp. When McClellan became general of the Army of the Potomac, Blenker led a procession to his headquarters. Yet there were credible testimonials to his organizational ability, and no one questioned his courage. However, his command became notable for the quantities of foreign nobility in its ranks, the climax coming when Prince Felix Salm-Salm joined his ranks, an affront to republicans like Karl Heinzen and Struve. Struve, also a member of Blenker’s corps, resigned, and Heinzen broadcast protests in his newspaper, the Pionier. The allegations reached the War Department, and when his appointment as a general reached the Senate for confirmation several senators repeated them: questionable finances, command hierarchies and distinctions more appropriate to Europe than to the United States, exploitation of his troops through the sutlers. Alexander Schimmelfennig, a fellow officer, referred to him as a “bum,” and there was much controversy between supporters of Schurz, Blenker and Franz Sigel. Blenker was ultimately confirmed as a general, but his career was ruined. Soon he was superseded by Sigel. He was mustered out of service March 31, 1863, and died in October of injuries sustained while with his command at Warrenton, Virginia, leaving behind his wife, son and three daughters in dire circumstances. Blenker died in poverty and there was no proof he profited from the sutlers’ trade. Some members of his staff were convicted for financial irregularities however. McClellan continued to esteem him as an officer. VG. $350


CW1660. Negative by Brady & Co., Washington, DC. Published by E&HT Anthony. War Views. No. 2435. Gen Martindall and Staff in the field near Richmond, Va. Contrary to the spelling on this stereoview, this is John Henry Martindale (March 20, 1815 – December 13, 1881) and staff. Martindale was an American lawyer, Union Army general, and politician. On August 9, 1861, Martindale was commissioned a brigadier general of volunteers in the Union Army, and was assigned to command a brigade within the Union Army of the Potomac. He later participated in all the battles of the Peninsula Campaign in V Corps. After the retreat from Malvern Hill, he was brevetted a major general of volunteers, and appointed Military Governor of Washington, D.C., a post he held from November 1862 to May 1864. Afterward he returned to field service, fighting with the XVIII Corps in the Bermuda Hundred Campaign, the Battle of Cold Harbor and the Siege of Petersburg, commanding the corps briefly in mid-July 1864. In September 1864 he resigned his commission because of bad health. VG. $300


CW1662. E&HT Anthony. Feats of the Chivalry–Destruction of Chambersburg. No. 2018. General View from Market House, (looking north). G. $125


CW1663. City Point, Va. Convalescent soldiers at the general hospital 1863. African-American in dark coat at left. G. $100


CW1665. Negative by Brady & Co., Washington. Published by E&HT Anthony. War Views. No. 2384. Position of the centre of the Army at Gettysburg. Trimmed at left margin. G-. $95


CW1667. John C. Taylor, Hartford, Conn. No. 155. The “swamp angel” gun, Morris Island. VG. $125


CW1668. Taylor & Huntington, Hartford, Conn. Federal Camp at Johnsonville, Tenn., December, 1864, First Tennessee Colored Battery in the foreground. 6646. VG. $250


CW1669. Negative by Brady & Co., Washington. Published by E&HT Anthony. War Views. No. 2494. Crows’ Nest Battery, Petersburg, Va. G. $100


CW1676. Taylor & Huntington, Hartford, Conn. View of Big Round Top, taken from Little Round Top, showing Federal entrenchments on Little Round Top in the foreground. G. $150


CW1679. Taylor & Huntington, Hartford, Conn. 2512. Filling Their Canteens. VG. $125


CW1681. The War Photograph & Exhibition Company, Hartford, Conn. 831. The Thirteen-inch Mortar “Dictator.” VG. $150


CW1683. Taylor & Huntington, Hartford, Conn. 653. Gen. Sedgwick, Colonel Sackett and Lieutenant-Colonel Colburn, Harrison’s Landing, Va., August, 1863. VG. $200


CW1684. The War Photograph & Exhibition Company, Hartford, Conn. 259. General Meade’s Headquarters at Gettysburg. VG. $125


CW1685. Taylor & Huntington, Hartford, Conn. 6035. Where one of Grant’s Messages Called. G. $50


CW1689. [George Stacy]. Camp Scene at Fort Monroe, Va. No. 130. E. $600