1862 Mathew Brady Album Gallery Card

Wet plate, albumen carte de visite photograph, mounted to 2 1/2 x 4 card. Imprint on the front mount, Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1862, by Barnard & Gibson, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Columbia. Photographic label on the reverse, Brady's Album Gallery, No. 365. South-West View Of Battery, No. 1. At Farnhold's House, York River, mounting 5- 100 pound, and 1- 200 pound rifled gun. Light wear and age toning. Very desirable 1862 Virginia Peninsula campaign image.

An unprecedented siege battery; never before had so heavy a siege battery been mounted. It was placed half a mile farther down the York River than Battery No. 4. From its six Parrott guns, five 100 pounders and one 200 pounder, it could at a single firing drop 700 pounds of shot and shell upon the fortifications and landing at Yorktown, two miles away. It opened up on May 1, 1862, with such telling effect that the evacuation of the town was greatly hastened. Source: Miller's Photographic History of the Civil War.