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H 70in. x D 70in.  H 34in. x D 14in.  H 12in. x W 16in. x D 12in.  H 48in. x D 18in.

H 70in. x D 70in. $12000.00

 

H 34in. x D 14in. $1500.00

 

H 12in. x W 16in. x D 12in. $0.00

 

H 48in. x D 18in. $1500.00

H 14in. x D 12in.  H 20in. x D 10in.


Sold as a pair.  H 38in. x D 10in.  H 28in. x D 9in.

H 14in. x D 12in. $750.00

 

H 20in. x D 10in.

Sold as a pair. $1400.00

 

H 38in. x D 10in. $850.00

 

H 28in. x D 9in. $650.00

H 32in. x D 11in.  H 16in. x W 10in. x D 13in.


Sold as a Pair.  H 36in. x D 21in.  H 18in. x D 16in.

H 32in. x D 11in. $2400.00

 

H 16in. x W 10in. x D 13in.

Sold $1200.00

 

H 36in. x D 21in. $950.00

 

H 18in. x D 16in. $3800.00

H 21in. x D 8in.  A medical / surgical relic from a time when chloroform was administered by hand utilizing a specially designed <I>dripper</I> bottle and a cloth over the nose and mouth.  (In a search of our personal collection / museum site at MaineLegacy.com you will find an account of how Gettysburg Artillerist, Col. Freeman McGilvery was killed by an overdose of chloroform during simple surgery for a wound of the thumb.)  This little dripper stands approximately 4 ¼ inches including the stopper.   Remaining in pleasing condition with no chips or cracks, this seldom seen dripper will make a nice addition to any quality medical / surgical grouping.


<B>Buy with confidence! </B><I>  We are pleased to offer a <B><U>no questions asked</U> three day inspection with return as purchased on direct sales!</B> <I>Just send us a courtesy  e-mail to let us know your item will be returned per these provisions and your purchase price will be refunded accordingly.</I>  <FONT COLOR=#0000FF>Thanks for visiting Gunsight Antiques! </FONT COLOR=#0000FF>

 A bit of a variation in design, this nice <U>Civil War vintage</U> tinned sheet iron mess cup stands 4 11/16  X  4 ½ inches in diameter and will appeal to the <I>deep-dish</I> period tin enthusiast as it features a <U>non-typical recessed base</U>.  Clearly not of the usual design that is seen in later construction, but the skilled application of an earlier design, this period variant is entirely hand crafted with led soldered seems and will add a rare period variation of the more common Civil War era soldier’s mess cup.  <B>Buy with confidence! </B><I>  We are pleased to offer a <B><U>no questions asked</U> three day inspection with return as purchased on direct sales!</B> <I>Just send us a courtesy  e-mail to let us know your item will be returned per these provisions and your purchase price will be refunded accordingly.</I>  <FONT COLOR=#0000FF>Thanks for visiting Gunsight Antiques! </FONT COLOR=#0000FF>


 This attractive little Civil War vintage amber apothecary bottle stands approximately 3 ½  inches and remains in fine condition with its original seal and bears the spirits of camphor label of the early Hannibal Missouri <I>BROWN’S DRUG STORE</I>.  (see: Missouri Historical Society collection : 1858-1860 prescription book) A common cure of the period Camphor Spirit was used topically, orally and even vaporized to treat a variety of common physical maladies. (Note: J.B. Brown operated one of Hannibal’s earliest drug stores originally purchased with money brought back from his participation in the California Gold Rush.)  <B>Buy with confidence! </B><I>  We are pleased to offer a <B><U>no questions asked</U> three day inspection with return as purchased on direct sales!</B> <I>Just send us a courtesy  e-mail to let us know your item will be returned per these provisions and your purchase price will be refunded accordingly.</I>  <FONT COLOR=#0000FF>Thanks for visiting Gunsight Antiques! </FONT COLOR=#0000FF>

H 21in. x D 8in. $2400.00

 

19th century amber Chloroform Dripper $75.00

 

especially nice! Civil War era CUP $135.00

 

Civil War era Hannibal Missouri – APOTHE $55.00

This single stirrup remains in original as found condition and is marked <B>B. M. Co. U. S. </B>  Not a big deal but worthy of an appreciative home.   <B>Buy with confidence! </B><I>  We are pleased to offer a <B><U>no questions asked</U> three day inspection with return as purchased on direct sales!</B> <I>Just send us a courtesy  e-mail to let us know your item will be returned per these provisions and your purchase price will be refunded accordingly.</I>  <FONT COLOR=#0000FF>Thanks for visiting Gunsight Antiques! </FONT COLOR=#0000FF>  


<b>McDowell commanded the Union army at the 1st Battle of Bull Run, Virginia in 1861


Photo taken in Arlington, Virginia, 1862


RETAIL PRICE $150.00</b>


Wet plate, albumen carte de visite photograph, mounted to 2 3/4 x 4 1/8 card. Excellent view of an octagon house in Arlington, Va., that was used as the headquarters of General Irvin McDowell in the early summer of 1862. Three Union soldiers can be seen standing on the front porch. A ladder can be seen leaning against the cupola at the top of the house which was used as an observation post. Card is trimmed. No back mark, but this is most likely a Mathew Brady view. Sharp image. This view is published in The Image of War; The Guns of '62. Scarce.  


<b>In December 1855, he was severely wounded in a skirmish with Seminole Indians near Fort Drane, Florida, a wound that would  eventually cause his death!</b> 


<b>Severely wounded at the battle of Antietam, Maryland, in September 1862</b>


<b>From the personal collection of Surgeon & General Bernard John Dowling Irwin. Irwin has the distinct honor of being the first recipient of the Medal of Honor in U.S. military history by date of action, February 13, 1861</b>


(1830-74) Born at Tyre, New York, he graduated in the West Point class of 1852, and was assigned to the 4th U.S. Artillery. He served with them first in Texas, and later against the Florida Seminoles, when he was severely wounded in a skirmish near Fort Drane, Florida, in December 1855. This wound eventually caused his death. On the fateful day of September 8, 1860, Hartsuff was extremely lucky when he survived the wreck of the steamer, "Lady Elgin," on Lake Michigan. In 1861, he went with the expedition that secretly re-enforced Fort Pickens, Florida. During the fall and winter of 1861-62, he was chief of staff to General William S. Rosecrans in West Virginia, and on April 15, 1862, was appointed brigadier general. He fought gallantly at the 2nd Battle of Bull Run, and was severely wounded at the battle of Antietam. He was promoted to the rank of major general, November 19, 1862, and was appointed to the commanded of the 23rd Corps, until being incapacitated again by his wounds. In March 1865, he took command of the Bermuda Hundred, Va. front, during the siege of Petersburg. Located between the James and Appomattox rivers, the fall of Petersburg, Va., would signal the fall of Richmond, and ultimately the surrender of the Confederacy. After the evacuation of the Confederates, he commanded the District of Nottaway, with his headquarters in Petersburg. Hartsuff was mustered out of the U.S. Volunteer Service, on August 24, 1865. He then served in the Regular U.S. Army, with rank of lieutenant colonel. George Lucas Hartsuff resigned from the Regular Army on June 29, 1871, because of disability caused by his old war wounds. He retired with the rank of major general, and died on May 16, 1874, in New York. He is buried in the West Point Cemetery, at the United States Military Academy.


Wet plate, albumen carte de visite photograph, mounted to 2 3/8 x 3 7/8 card. Mount is slightly trimmed. Excellent quality, standing view in uniform, with rank of major general, and holding his hat. Back mark: E. & H.T. Anthony, 501 Broadway, New York, made from a photographic negative in Brady's National Portrait Gallery. Written in period ink on the front of the card mount is, Maj. Genl. G.H. Hartsuff, U.S.A. Written in period ink in Irwin's hand on the reverse is, Maj. Genl. Geo. Hartsuff, U.S.A. Died, 1874. Genl. B.J.D. Irwin album, No. 92 is written in another hand in pencil at the bottom. Very sharp image. Rare with this provenance literally making this image "one of a kind." 


<h2><b>History of United States Surgeon & General Bernard John Dowling Irwin</h2></b>


<b>Surgeon & General Irwin was the first United States Medal of Honor Recipient by date of action, February 13, 1861</b>


(1830-1917) Born in County Roscommon, Ireland, he immigrated with his parents to the United States in the 1840s. He attended New York University from 1848 to 1849, and then served as a private in the New York Militia. In 1850, he entered Castleton Medical College, and he later transferred to New York Medical College, where he graduated in 1852.


He served as a surgeon and physician at the State Emigrant Hospital on Ward's Island, NYC, until his appointment as assistant surgeon in the U.S. Army in 1856. He was an assistant army surgeon during the Apache Wars, and was the first Medal of Honor recipient chronologically by date of action. His actions on February 13, 1861, at Apache Pass, Arizona, are the earliest for which the Medal of Honor was awarded! The citation on his medal of honor reads; "Voluntarily took command of troops and attacked and defeated hostile Indians he met on the way. Surgeon Irwin volunteered to go to the rescue of 2d Lt. George N. Bascom, 7th U.S. Infantry, who, with 60 men, was trapped by Chiricahua Apaches under Cochise. Irwin and 14 men, not having horses, began the 100-mile march riding mules. After fighting and capturing Indians, recovering stolen horses and cattle, he reached Bascom's column and helped break his siege."


Cochise, the Apache Indian chief, and a group of Apache warriors were accused of kidnapping a boy and a small group of U.S. soldiers in the Arizona Territory after the Army had captured Cochise's brother and nephews. When the Army refused to make a prisoner exchange, Cochise killed his prisoners. Soldiers then killed Cochise's brother and nephews. 2nd Lieutenant George Nicholas Bascom led a group of 60 men from the 7th U.S. Infantry after Cochise but was soon besieged, prompting a rescue mission by the army. In response to the siege of Bascom and his men, Irwin set out on a rescue mission with 14 men of the 1st U.S. Dragoons. He was able to catch up with the Apaches at Apache Pass in present day Arizona. He strategically placed his small unit around Cochise and his men, tricking the Apache leader into thinking that he had a much larger army with him. The Apaches fled and Bascom and his men were saved. Bascom and his men joined Irwin and together they were able to track Cochise into the mountains & rescued the young boy that Cochise had captured.


The Medal of Honor did not exist during the time of the "Bascom Incident," and would not be established until a year later in 1862. However, the actions of Irwin were well remembered, and he was awarded the Medal of Honor just prior to his retirement. Irwin's actions were the earliest for which the Medal of Honor was awarded, predating the outbreak of the American Civil War.


Irwin subsequently served with the Union army during the Civil War, and was promoted to captain in August 1861, and the next year was appointed medical director under Major General William "Bull" Nelson. He improvised one of the first field hospitals used by the U.S. Army at the Battle of Shiloh, on April 7, 1862. He was captured during the Battle of Richmond, Ky., while attempting to save the wounded General Nelson. He was promoted to major in September 1862, and after his release from a Rebel prison he became medical director in the Army of the Southwest. From 1863 to 1865, he was superintendent of the military hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, and in March of 1865, he was brevetted to the rank of colonel. He was a companion of the California Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, and the Order of the Indian Wars of the United States. After the Civil War, Irwin served as a senior medical officer at several U.S. army posts, including West Point from 1873 to 1878. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in September 1885, to colonel in August 1890, and to brigadier general in April 1904. He died in Ontario, Canada, on December 15, 1917, and is buried in the West Point Cemetery, at the U.S. Military Academy, New York.


His son George LeRoy Irwin, graduated from West Point in 1889, and served in World War I, becoming a Major General in the U.S. Army.


His grandson Stafford LeRoy Irwin, graduated from West Point in 1915, and served in World War II, and became a Lieutenant General in the U.S. Army.


His daughter, Amy Irwin Addams McCormick, was a nurse with the American Red Cross and served during World War I.


General Irwin was an admirer and collector of photographs, and he put together a very large, and superb collection of Union and Confederate images. Interestingly, he collected photographs of both Rebel and Yankee alike. I have owned several famous military photograph albums before and never came across one that collected images from both sides of the rebellion. He numbered each individual image, and wrote a brief historical notation on each one. The collection was split up by another dealer, and by the time I found out about it, I was still very fortunate to be able to acquire about one third of his superb Civil War image collection. Each image is rare because it is "one of a kind" having come from the Irwin collection!


The image of B.J.D. Irwin pictured here is a copy photograph from the "Find a Grave" website and is used here for illustration purposes only.   


<b>"you have heard all the news about the battle at Winchester. The Rebels lost killed, wounded & prisoner about twelve hundred, & we followed them about thirty miles, all along the road where they left their dead & wounded, nearly every horse was killed with the wounded."</b> 


3 pages, 5 x 7 1/2, in ink, written by John A. Yeckley, Company E, 28th New York Infantry, to his brother.


<u>Camp Near Edinburg, Va., March 8th/62</u>


Dear brother,


I received your letter last night & was glad to hear from you for I had not heard from you in some time. We have not had any pay in nearly four months & money is rather scarce with us. What I had I let to the boys. We are having pretty fair times just now, rather short rations sometimes, but we are bound not to go hungry so long as there is a porker to squeal & a cock to crow. We don't show much mercy to the Secesh. I suppose that you have heard all the news about the battle at Winchester. The Rebels lost killed, wounded & prisoner about twelve hundred & we followed them about thirty miles, all along the road where they left their dead & wounded, nearly every horse was killed with the wounded. They burned all the bridges where they had a chance which hindered us considerably & I think it is the only thing that saved their bacon. I was detailed to work on the bridge over Stony Creek at Edenburg & the Rebels thought they would stop us & they sent some of them around us, but no one was hurt. One ball upset my coffee while I was eating dinner. That is the closest they have come to me. I suppose that we will move again as soon as everything is in order. We received a dispatch at headquarters this morning from Secretary Stanton that Island No. 10 is taken with two thousand prisoners & all their munitions of war, that Gen. Grant has met Beauregard near Corinth & completely routed him. If it is a true report the Rebellion will soon be wiped out. We expect now that we will get home by the fourth of July. We are all well & enjoying ourselves very well. Paper & stamps are rather a scarce article with the soldiers & they are more so with the citizens. Salt is worth twenty dollars per bushel & is not to be had, potatoes, coffee & writing paper in the same proportions. Write as often as you can conveniently for I am always glad to hear from home.


John A. Yeckley


Some light scattered age toning and staining. Bold and neatly written. Very fine.


John A. Leckley, was 24 years old when he enlisted in the Union army as a private, at Canadaigua, New  York, on May 14, 1861, and was mustered into Company E, 28th New York Infantry, on May22nd. He was mustered out of the service on June 2, 1863, at Albany, New York, when the regiment's term of service expired.


<u>Edinburg, Virginia</u>: Located in Shenandoah County, in the lower Shenandoah Valley, (the Shenandoah Valley ran opposite from normal directional description: it went from upper at the south, near Lexington, to lower at the north near Winchester). This small town was incorporated in 1852. During the War Between the States troops from both armies served and skirmished in this vicinity. The important Edinburg Mill, founded in 1848, was located here.

U. S. marked MILITARY STIRRUP $35.00

 

CDV, Headquarters of General Irvin McDow $125.00

 

CDV, General George L. Hartsuff $200.00

 

28th New York Infantry Letter

Backmarked by Civil War photographer D. K. Brownell of Scranton, Pennsylvania, this well got up, armed, Highlander  offers a fine representation of the presents of Scottish militia as the  Union Army possessed several predominantly Scottish regiments between 1861 and 1865.  Mostly based on pre-war militia units as approximately 600,000 Scots migrated to the United States between 1851 and 1861, many continued to represent their ethnic heritage and rich military tradition wearing full Highland uniforms. 

<B>Buy with confidence! </B><I>  We are pleased to offer a <B><U>no questions asked</U> three day inspection with return as purchased on direct sales!</B> <I>Just send us a courtesy  e-mail to let us know your item will be returned per these provisions and your purchase price will be refunded accordingly.</I>  <FONT COLOR=#0000FF>Thanks for visiting Gunsight Antiques! </FONT COLOR=#0000FF>


 For the collector who <I>’thinks’</I> they have everything, this antique    ring has an outside diameter of 3 3/8 inches and was fashioned in two pieces fitting together and held by counter sunk screws to form a stout bronze ring.  When clipped to a strong wood shaft a nose ring became a mainstay of handler protection and control a rambunctious bull. This antique example remains untouched and in good honest condition with that natural age patina that comes to bronze with the decades.   Will make a  truly eclectic conversation piece. <B>Buy with confidence! </B><I>  We are pleased to offer a <B><U>no questions asked</U> three day inspection with return as purchased on direct sales!</B> <I>Just send us a courtesy  e-mail to let us know your item will be returned per these provisions and your purchase price will be refunded accordingly.</I>  <FONT COLOR=#0000FF>Thanks for visiting Gunsight Antiques! </FONT COLOR=#0000FF>

4444


 A nice pair of period of the pattern of 1872 U. S. Cavalry Sgt. stripes.  All original and in ‘minty’ condition after decades of storage, this pair should not be confused with the later issue and outright reproductions that are more frequently seen.  With their sturdy yellow wool and higher quality chain stitch trim, these original issue cavalry stripes will add quality and color to any Indian Wars era or U.S. insignia grouping. A relatively common item only a few years ago, real examples are now difficult to find.  <B>Buy with confidence! </B><I>  We are pleased to offer a <B><U>no questions asked</U> three day inspection with return as purchased on direct sales!</B> <I>Just send us a courtesy  e-mail to let us know your item will be returned per these provisions and your purchase price will be refunded accordingly.</I>  <FONT COLOR=#0000FF>Thanks for visiting Gunsight Antiques! </FONT COLOR=#0000FF>


 


<b>Written on a beautiful full color Union patriotic letter sheet


"I hope this [war] will soon come to an end and have peace again in our country."</b>


4 pages, 5 x 8, in ink, written by Benjamin Frey, to George H. Yeckley, on a beautiful full color patriotic letter sheet featuring Columbia holding a sword and the American flag. Very fine condition. Desirable patriotic stationary used in 1862. 


Gorham, (Maine), February the 5th, 1862


Mr. George H. Yeckley,


Dear Sir,


My friend I must once more take the opportunity to write to you for I shall be glad to hear from an old friend again. Well George, there has been a great change in Gorham since you left here. Now I will tell you some of the changes that happened here with me. For one thing I have only enjoyed married life a little over a year. It was a happy one too, but the Lord seen fit to part us again in our happiness. I suppose you heard who I married. It was Dear Lovine E., but she is gone now. We shall never see her again in this world. She died the 9 of Dec. 1861. My little boy died 4 of Nov. 1861. When Lovine died she left me with a little girl, only two weeks old. I have given up keeping house, and July has took my baby home to her Father. It is well and a gaining. The rest of my Father-in-Laws folks are all well and I am well at present. I hope these few lines may find you the same George. This is a lonesome winter for me, but I must submit to my lot. There may be sunshine again for me now. George, I will tell you that I have been out west and what parts. I left home the 2nd of Jan. 1860. I went to Ohio. I stayed there until spring. From there I went to Ind.[iana] & on through to Wisconsin. I stayed there through the summer. In the fall I made my return home again. I seen a great deal of the western country while I was gone, and got pretty well satisfied too of it for one route. When I got home I found some changes myself, but no matter I soon brought the changes all right. The shame was that me & Lovine had a little boy to see to now so we got married the 8th of Oct. 1860 & lived happily together as ever a married couple did in this world. We lived right across the road from my father in a house that my father bought of the Dunn Boys, and moved there, and I worked for my father in the copper shop. Me & Lovine had everything arranged very comfortably for new beginners, but now all hopes is blasted, but I hope to meet her in Heaven where there will be no more parting, but the ever lasting joy. Lovine spoke about you a great many times and of the old times we used to all have together. She had your likeness so me & her could see you. It recalled us back to the old times we use to all have together, but now she is gone & left me & you and all of us we will never hear her voice again. About your brother enlisting (he is referring to John A. Yeckley, who served in Co. E, 28th New York Infantry) I guess you know as much about them as I do. Your folks are all well as far as I know. The news is nothing but we are now a daze. I guess it is the same where you are, but I hope this will soon come to an end and have peace again in our country. [he is referring to the Civil War now almost ready to start its second year]. George we have now got a brass band of music in our great city of Bethel. There is nine in the band. I will bring my letter to a close for this time. I shall be greatly pleased to hear from you soon. Write as soon as you get this letter. My best respects and wishes to you from your old friend.


Benjamin Frey


I hope to see you soon. I thought you would have made us a visit before this time. Good bye. 


Very bold and neatly written letter with some heart breaking content regarding the loss of his wife and child, and his desire for the war to end and have peace restored in the country.

Civil War vintage Pennsylvania - Highlan $165.00

 

antique bronze – Bull NOSE RING $48.00

 

1872 Pattern Cavalry SERGEANT CHEVRONS $165.00

 

1862 Letter From Gorham, Maine




<b>Chief Engineer of the defenses of Washington, D.C., in 1861 


Photograph taken by Alexander Gardner, Washington, D.C.</b>


(1819-78) Born in Nicholas County, Kentucky, he graduated #7 in the West Point class of 1842, and was commissioned into the elite U.S. Engineers Corps. He served in the Mexican War, as an engineer officer building fortifications to protect the  supply lines of the U.S. Army during their advance upon Mexico City. After the war, he was stationed in Washington, D.C., where he served as architect for the Scott Building of the U.S. Soldiers' Home, now known as the Armed Forces Retirement Home. The building was named for General Winfield Scott, and he took over the completion of the Smithsonian Institution building after the first architect was dismissed. Alexander worked on several fortification projects along the East Coast of the United States, including Forts Pulaski, Jackson, and the defenses of New York City. Afterwards he traveled to New England, where he supervised the rebuilding of the Minot's Ledge Lighthouse, a project widely considered to be one of the most difficult to be attempted by the U.S. Government up to that time. On September 28, 1861, he was commissioned lieutenant colonel and he served as an advisor to the Engineering Brigade of the Army of the Potomac, and became Chief Engineer of the defenses of Washington, D.C. Alexander put his skills to military use for the first time since the Mexican War, when on May 24, 1861, he was among several hundred engineers who marched into Virginia to begin building fortifications to protect Washington, D.C. In July 1861, the force that had marched into northern Virginia on May 24th found itself opposed by a large Confederate Army force that had marched up from the south. In the haste to meet the Confederates in battle, Alexander found himself serving as an infantry officer and was assigned to the 1st Division of the Army of Northeastern Virginia, under the command of General Daniel Tyler. It was a situation common to the young Union Army soldier, which found itself short of experienced officers. Many engineer officers building defenses south of Washington were assigned to a regiment or division during the First Battle of Bull Run. Alexander received a brevet to major in the regular army for his service during the battle. He was cited for gallantry and meritorious service at 1st Bull Run, and Yorktown, and was promoted to brevet brigadier general, on March 13, 1865. He later served as chief engineer of the Military Division of the Pacific, making him the head engineer for every military construction project on the West Coast. In later years, he persuaded the U.S. government to acquire Pearl Harbor from the Kingdom of Hawaii and supervised numerous irrigation and land reclamation projects in California's central valley. He died on December 15, 1878, in San Francisco, California. He is buried in San Francisco National Cemetery.  


Wet plate, albumen carte de visite photograph, mounted to 2 3/8 x 3 3/4 card. Bust view in uniform with shoulder strap visible. Back mark: Alex. Gardner Galleries, Photographer to the Army of the Potomac, 511 Seventh Street and 332 Pennsylvania Av., Washington, D.C., with vignette of the U.S. Capitol, and a 3 cents green Internal Revenue Proprietary tax stamp with stamped date Aug. 28 on the reverse. Card mount is trimmed. Scarce.  


<b>From the personal collection of Surgeon & General Bernard John Dowling Irwin. Irwin has the distinct honor of being the first recipient of the Medal of Honor in U.S. military history by date of action, February 13, 1861


RETAIL PRICE $195.00</b>


(1807-71) Known as "Prince John," a resplendently uniformed man with a theatrical manner, he attained a reputation for his social grace and etiquette. Born at Port Royal, Virginia, he graduated in the West Point class of 1830. He fought gallantry during the Mexican War, while an artillery officer, and at the Battle of Palo Alto, on April 18, 1847, Magruder served with "zeal and ability," in General Winfield Scott's expedition, under heavy fire and turned Mexican artillery against them at Cerro Gordo, for which he was praised by his superiors and was promoted to the rank of brevet major. In the Battle of Mexico City, he was wounded, and ordered the first shots to be fired, and began a heavy pursuit, despite superior Mexican numbers, to capture the Anzures, Veronica, and Belen intersection, a crucial crossroads that would block efforts by General Santa Anna to relieve the palace. From the conflict in Mexico, Magruder learned the value of deceiving and flanking forces outnumbering his own. He also saw the war as a way to demonstrate that the science of artillery was continually advancing, and submitted a detailed plan for separating the light artillery from ordnance, field, and sea coast artillery, resulting in an enlightened division of labor" and specialization. Magruder resigned from the U.S. Army on April 20, 1861, and was appointed brigadier general in the Provisional Confederate Army on June 17, 1861, and major general on October 7, 1861. He won the Battle of Big Bethel, Va., the first land battle of the war, and distinguished himself in the early part of the 1862 Virginia Peninsula campaign, completely deceiving General George B. McClellan as to the size of his forces at Yorktown. He was less successful during the Seven Days battles, and was later assigned to command the District of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. Here he was successful in the recapture of Galveston, Texas and the dispersal of the Federal blockading fleet. After surrendering the Trans-Mississippi Department in June 1865, General Magruder fled to Mexico refusing to be formally paroled and then joined Emperor Maximilian's Imperial forces with the rank of major general. He did not return to the United States until 1867. John B. Magruder died in Houston, Texas, on February 18, 1871, and is buried at the Episcopal Cemetery, in Galveston.  


Wet plate, albumen carte de visite photograph, mounted to 2 3/8 x 3 7/8 card. Full standing view of the flamboyant Magruder wearing a double breasted frock coat with epaulets, over the shoulder belt, aiguillete, sash, gauntlets, and holding his sword in one hand and a chapeau hat with plume, and eagle hat plate in the other. Back mark: Charles D. Fredricks & Co., 587 Broadway, New York. The card mount has been slightly trimmed. Written in period ink on the front of the card mount is, Maj. Genl. J.B. Magruder, C.S.A. Written in period ink in Irwin's hand on the reverse is, Maj. Genl. J.B. Magruder, C.S.A., Died Feb. 19, 1871. Age 64. Genl. B.J.D. Irwin album, No. 185 is written in another hand in pencil at the bottom. Splendid pose of Magruder wearing a uniform of his own design! Very desirable image. Rare with the provenance.


<u>History of United States Surgeon & General Bernard John Dowling Irwin</u>


<b>Surgeon & General Irwin was the first United States Medal of Honor Recipient by date of action, February 13, 1861.</b>


(1830-1917) Born in County Roscommon, Ireland, he immigrated with his parents to the United States in the 1840s. He attended New York University from 1848 to 1849, and then served as a private in the New York Militia. In 1850, he entered Castleton Medical College, and he later transferred to New York Medical College, where he graduated in 1852.


He served as a surgeon and physician at the State Emigrant Hospital on Ward's Island, NYC, until his appointment as assistant surgeon in the U.S. Army in 1856. He was an assistant army surgeon during the Apache Wars, and was the first Medal of Honor recipient chronologically by date of action. His actions on February 13, 1861, at Apache Pass, Arizona, are the earliest for which the Medal of Honor was awarded! The citation on his medal of honor reads; "Voluntarily took command of troops and attacked and defeated hostile Indians he met on the way. Surgeon Irwin volunteered to go to the rescue of 2d Lt. George N. Bascom, 7th U.S. Infantry, who, with 60 men, was trapped by Chiricahua Apaches under Cochise. Irwin and 14 men, not having horses, began the 100-mile march riding mules. After fighting and capturing Indians, recovering stolen horses and cattle, he reached Bascom's column and helped break his siege."


Cochise, the Apache Indian chief, and a group of Apache warriors were accused of kidnapping a boy and a small group of U.S. soldiers in the Arizona Territory after the Army had captured Cochise's brother and nephews. When the Army refused to make a prisoner exchange, Cochise killed his prisoners. Soldiers then killed Cochise's brother and nephews. 2nd Lieutenant George Nicholas Bascom led a group of 60 men from the 7th U.S. Infantry after Cochise but was soon besieged, prompting a rescue mission by the army. In response to the siege of Bascom and his men, Irwin set out on a rescue mission with 14 men of the 1st U.S. Dragoons. He was able to catch up with the Apaches at Apache Pass in present day Arizona. He strategically placed his small unit around Cochise and his men, tricking the Apache leader into thinking that he had a much larger army with him. The Apaches fled and Bascom and his men were saved. Bascom and his men joined Irwin and together they were able to track Cochise into the mountains & rescued the young boy that Cochise had captured.


The Medal of Honor did not exist during the time of the "Bascom Incident," and would not be established until a year later in 1862. However, the actions of Irwin were well remembered, and he was awarded the Medal of Honor just prior to his retirement. Irwin's actions were the earliest for which the Medal of Honor was awarded, predating the outbreak of the American Civil War.


Irwin subsequently served with the Union army during the Civil War, and was promoted to captain in August 1861, and the next year was appointed medical director under Major General William "Bull" Nelson. He improvised one of the first field hospitals used by the U.S. Army at the Battle of Shiloh, on April 7, 1862. He was captured during the Battle of Richmond, Ky., while attempting to save the wounded General Nelson. He was promoted to major in September 1862, and after his release from a Rebel prison he became medical director in the Army of the Southwest. From 1863 to 1865, he was superintendent of the military hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, and in March of 1865, he was brevetted to the rank of colonel. He was a companion of the California Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, and the Order of the Indian Wars of the United States. After the Civil War, Irwin served as a senior medical officer at several U.S. army posts, including West Point from 1873 to 1878. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in September 1885, to colonel in August 1890, and to brigadier general in April 1904. He died in Ontario, Canada, on December 15, 1917, and is buried in the West Point Cemetery, at the U.S. Military Academy, New York.


His son George LeRoy Irwin, graduated from West Point in 1889, and served in World War I, becoming a Major General in the U.S. Army.


His grandson Stafford LeRoy Irwin, graduated from West Point in 1915, and served in World War II, and became a Lieutenant General in the U.S. Army.


His daughter, Amy Irwin Addams McCormick, was a nurse with the American Red Cross and served during World War I.


General Irwin was an admirer and collector of photographs, and he put together a very large, and superb collection of Union and Confederate images. Interestingly, he collected photographs of both Rebel and Yankee alike. I have owned several famous military photograph albums before and never came across one that collected images from both sides of the rebellion. He numbered each individual image, and wrote a brief historical notation on each one. The collection was split up by another dealer, and by the time I found out about it, I was still very fortunate to be able to acquire about one third of his superb Civil War image collection. Each image is rare because it is "one of a kind" having come from the Irwin collection!


The image of B.J.D. Irwin pictured here is a copy photograph from the "Find a Grave" website and is used here for illustration purposes only.  


  


<b>Nicknamed "Little Poison," the defensive great patrolled center field for the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1920's and 1930's


RETAIL PRICE $75.00</b>


(1906-82) Born in  Harrah, Oklahoma, along with his older brother, Paul Waner, known as "Big Poison," he anchored the Pittsburgh Pirates outfield throughout the 1920s and 1930s. The younger Waner started his professional baseball career in 1925 with the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League. Waner broke into the major leagues with the Pirates in 1927, and quickly built his reputation as a slap hitter with an astute sense of plate discipline. In his rookie campaign, he batted .355 with 223 hits while only striking out 23 times (the highest strikeout total of his career). As the lead off hitter of the powerful Pittsburgh offense, he led the National League with 133 runs scored which set set a MLB rookie record. The Pirates won the 1927 National League pennant with Waner batting .400 in his only World Series, but they lost to the powerful New York Yankees, the team led by Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig known as "Murder's Row," in four straight games. He continued to bat well and earned a record-setting 678 hits over his first three seasons (1927–1929), and  finished in the top ten in MVP voting in 1927 and 1929. He finished his career in September 1945. Waner led the NL in putouts four times, using his excellent speed to cover the spacious Forbes Field outfield. He recorded a career .983 fielding percentage at that position. He (2,459) and his older brother Paul (3,152) hold the career record for hits by brothers (5,611), outpacing the three Alou brothers, and the three DiMaggio brothers, among others. Lloyd Waner was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1967. His career batting average was .316, and he is also a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates Hall of Fame.


3 x 5 index card signature, beautifully signed in ink, Lloyd Waner, "Little Poison." Excellent condition. Very desirable with the addition by Waner of his nickname! Comes with a 7 x 9 photograph of him in uniform taken from a book.


     


Wet plate, albumen carte de visite photograph, mounted to 2 3/8 x 4 card. Full standing view of an officer wearing a double breasted frock coat with rank of brigadier general, epaulets, sash, eagle belt plate, sword attached to his belt, and holding his chapeau with a cloth U.S. infantry hat insignia in the front, and pinned up on the side with a Hardee hat plate. Studio pose with column, railing and drapes in the background. No back mark. Light age toning. Excellent content. Very fine Civil War image of an unidentified United States officer.

CDV, Lieutenant Colonel, Barton S. Alexa $125.00

 

CDV, General John B. Magruder $150.00

 

Autograph, Lloyd Waner, Baseball Hall of $50.00

 

CDV, Armed United States Civil War Offic $100.00




<b>Founder and lead guitarist of "The Blue Moon Boys," the original backing band of Elvis Presley


RETAIL PRICE $125.00</b>


(1931-2016) Born in Gadsden, Tennessee. Scotty was in the United States Navy from 1948-1952, lying and entering the service under age! He served in China and Korea. He was the lead guitarist for Elvis Presley from 1954-1968, working with "The King" in the recording studio, movie sound tracks (even appearing on camera in some of the early films), and in his touring band. Scotty was part of the original Sun Studio recordings in 1954 in Memphis, Tennessee. The first song they ever recorded was the Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup tune, "That's All Right (Mamma)" which was the start of the iconic career of Elvis Presley! (I actually was privileged to hold the original microphone Elvis used in those early recordings on one of my visits to Memphis. I was fortunate to be friends with several members of the Presley band and the "Memphis Mafia.")  You will see Scotty on all of the various television shows that Elvis appeared on in the 1950's culminating with the spectacular 1968 television show now famously known as "The Comeback Special." Elvis wore his now iconic black leather suit in the live performances in that show. Having gotten out of his movie obligations, Elvis wanted to return to the stage and "The Comeback Special" produced by Steve Binder was the start of his live performances. Elvis never looked or sounded better in that show! 


8 x 10, black and white photograph, of Elvis and Scotty performing on one of their television appearances in the 1950's with musical notes background. Seen at the right, but obscured somewhat are legendary drummer D.J. Fontana, and stand up bass player Bill Black, both part of the original "Blue Moon Boys." Signed at the lower right in silver pen, Scotty Moore. Obtained in person. Mint condition. Very desirable Elvis Presley related item.


<u>Music History Trivia</u>:  


Rolling Stones' guitarist, and one of its founding members, Keith Richards, said of Scotty Moore: When I heard "Heartbreak Hotel," for the first time, I knew what I wanted to do in life. It was as plain as day. All I wanted to do was to be able to play and sound like the way Scotty Moore did. Everyone wanted to be Elvis, I wanted to be Scotty!


     


Served as brigadier general in the New York State Militia in the 1850's and during the Civil War.


Wet plate, albumen carte de visite photograph, mounted to 2 3/8 x 4 1/4 card. Standing view wearing double breasted frock coat with epaulets and rank of brigadier general. He is also wearing what appears to be a two piece N.Y. belt plate, sash, and is holding his sword. His chapeau with plume sits on top of the studio table at his side. Back mark: J. Gurney & Son, 707 Broadway, N.Y. Very sharp. Excellent image.  


<b>Promoted to Brevet Brigadier General in 1865</b>


(1814-83) Born in Onondaga County, N.Y., he was an architect and builder by trade. Otis designed St. John's Church, in Savannah, Ga., in 1851, the Buffalo Broadway Auditorium, the Buffalo Medical College and Mariners Church of Detroit. During the Civil War he served as lieutenant colonel of the 100th New York Infantry, and led his regiment during the capture of Folly Island, South Carolina. He was promoted to rank of brevet brigadier general, on March 13, 1865, for "faithful and meritorious services during the war." He died on January 22, 1883, at Cuba, N.Y., and is buried there.


Wet plate, albumen carte de visite photograph, mounted to 2 3/8 x 4 card. Full standing view in uniform wearing a double breasted frock coat with rank of lieutenant colonel, eagle sword belt plate, sash, and holding his sword at his front. No back mark. Period pencil ID on the reverse. This a known published image. Light age toning. Very fine view. Scarce.  


<b>The first Regular U.S. Army officer to be wounded in action during the Civil War, June 1861


Colonel 2nd New York Cavalry


He was wounded again in the 1864 Atlanta, Georgia campaign


United States Minister to Chile


RETAIL PRICE $195.00


From the personal collection of Surgeon & General Bernard John Dowling Irwin. Irwin has the distinct honor of being the first recipient of the Medal of Honor in U.S. military history by date of action, February 13, 1861</b>


(1836-81) Born near Deckertown, New Jersey, he graduated in the West Point class of May 1861, and only a month after graduating from the academy he had the distinction of being the first Regular U.S. Army officer to be wounded in action during the Civil War, this coming at the battle of Big Bethel, Va., which took place on June 10, 1861, on the Virginia Peninsula, near Newport News. In September 1861, he became the lieutenant colonel, and in December, colonel of the 2nd New York Cavalry. He successively commanded his regiment, a brigade, and later a division of cavalry in the Army of the Potomac, playing a creditable role in virtually every important cavalry action in the eastern theater of war, including Beverly Ford, Stoneman's raid, and Gettysburg. He was promoted to brigadier general, June 14, 1863. In February 1864, he commanded the celebrated Richmond raid which was to free the Union prisoners there, but instead resulted in a fiasco and the death of Colonel Ulric Dahlgren, the son of Admiral John A. Dahlgren. Sent south by General U.S. Grant, he was wounded in the early part of the Atlanta campaign, at Resaca, Ga. He returned to duty in late July 1864 to finish that campaign which included several raids and skirmishes against his old classmate, General Joseph Wheeler. He then took part in Sherman's March to the Sea, and the 1865 Carolina's campaign. General William T. Sherman was quoted as saying, "I want just that sort of man to command my cavalry in this expedition!" Kilpatrick was an early member of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, a military society composed of officers who had served in the Union armed forces. He was appointed United States Minister to Chile, by President Andrew Johnson, and served from 1866-70. He became active in politics as a Republican, and in 1880, was an unsuccessful candidate for the U.S. Congress from his home state of New Jersey. In March 1881, in recognition of Kilpatrick's service to the Republican Party, in New Jersey, as well as a consolation prize for his defeat for a House seat, President James A. Garfield appointed Kilpatrick once again to the post of Minister to Chile. Kilpatrick died, on December 4, 1881, shortly after his arrival in the Chilean capital of Santiago. He was only 45 years old. His remains were returned to the United States in 1887, and were interred at the West Point Cemetery, United States Military Academy.


Wet plate, albumen carte de visite photograph, mounted to 2 3/8 x 4 card. Half view, seated pose, wearing a double breasted frock with rank of brigadier general. He is holding his slouch hat on his lap, and you can see the stripes on his trousers. Maj. Genl. J. Kilpatrick, U.S.A. is written in period ink on the front mount. Back mark: C.D. Fredricks & Co., 587 Broadway, New York. Written in period ink in Irwin's hand on the reverse is, Maj. Genl. Judson Kilpatrick, U.S.A. Cavalry. Died Oct. 1881. 45. Genl. B.J.D. Irwin album, No. 129. The card mount is very slightly trimmed. Very fine image. Rare. (because of the provenance).


<u>History of United States Surgeon & General Bernard John Dowling Irwin</u>


<b>Surgeon & General Irwin was the first United States Medal of Honor Recipient by date of action, February 13, 1861.</b>


(1830-1917) Born in County Roscommon, Ireland, he immigrated with his parents to the United States in the 1840s. He attended New York University from 1848 to 1849, and then served as a private in the New York Militia. In 1850, he entered Castleton Medical College, and he later transferred to New York Medical College, where he graduated in 1852.


He served as a surgeon and physician at the State Emigrant Hospital on Ward's Island, NYC, until his appointment as assistant surgeon in the U.S. Army in 1856. He was an assistant army surgeon during the Apache Wars, and was the first Medal of Honor recipient chronologically by date of action. His actions on February 13, 1861, at Apache Pass, Arizona, are the earliest for which the Medal of Honor was awarded! The citation on his medal of honor reads; "Voluntarily took command of troops and attacked and defeated hostile Indians he met on the way. Surgeon Irwin volunteered to go to the rescue of 2d Lt. George N. Bascom, 7th U.S. Infantry, who, with 60 men, was trapped by Chiricahua Apaches under Cochise. Irwin and 14 men, not having horses, began the 100-mile march riding mules. After fighting and capturing Indians, recovering stolen horses and cattle, he reached Bascom's column and helped break his siege."


Cochise, the Apache Indian chief, and a group of Apache warriors were accused of kidnapping a boy and a small group of U.S. soldiers in the Arizona Territory after the Army had captured Cochise's brother and nephews. When the Army refused to make a prisoner exchange, Cochise killed his prisoners. Soldiers then killed Cochise's brother and nephews. 2nd Lieutenant George Nicholas Bascom led a group of 60 men from the 7th U.S. Infantry after Cochise but was soon besieged, prompting a rescue mission by the army. In response to the siege of Bascom and his men, Irwin set out on a rescue mission with 14 men of the 1st U.S. Dragoons. He was able to catch up with the Apaches at Apache Pass in present day Arizona. He strategically placed his small unit around Cochise and his men, tricking the Apache leader into thinking that he had a much larger army with him. The Apaches fled and Bascom and his men were saved. Bascom and his men joined Irwin and together they were able to track Cochise into the mountains & rescued the young boy that Cochise had captured.


The Medal of Honor did not exist during the time of the "Bascom Incident," and would not be established until a year later in 1862. However, the actions of Irwin were well remembered, and he was awarded the Medal of Honor just prior to his retirement. Irwin's actions were the earliest for which the Medal of Honor was awarded, predating the outbreak of the American Civil War.


Irwin subsequently served with the Union army during the Civil War, and was promoted to captain in August 1861, and the next year was appointed medical director under Major General William "Bull" Nelson. He improvised one of the first field hospitals used by the U.S. Army at the Battle of Shiloh, on April 7, 1862. He was captured during the Battle of Richmond, Ky., while attempting to save the wounded General Nelson. He was promoted to major in September 1862, and after his release from a Rebel prison he became medical director in the Army of the Southwest. From 1863 to 1865, he was superintendent of the military hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, and in March of 1865, he was brevetted to the rank of colonel. He was a companion of the California Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, and the Order of the Indian Wars of the United States. After the Civil War, Irwin served as a senior medical officer at several U.S. army posts, including West Point from 1873 to 1878. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in September 1885, to colonel in August 1890, and to brigadier general in April 1904. He died in Ontario, Canada, on December 15, 1917, and is buried in the West Point Cemetery, at the U.S. Military Academy, New York.


His son George LeRoy Irwin, graduated from West Point in 1889, and served in World War I, becoming a Major General in the U.S. Army.


His grandson Stafford LeRoy Irwin, graduated from West Point in 1915, and served in World War II, and became a Lieutenant General in the U.S. Army.


His daughter, Amy Irwin Addams McCormick, was a nurse with the American Red Cross and served during World War I.


General Irwin was an admirer and collector of photographs, and he put together a very large, and superb collection of Union and Confederate images. Interestingly, he collected photographs of both Rebel and Yankee alike. I have owned several famous military photograph albums before and never came across one that collected images from both sides of the rebellion. He numbered each individual image, and wrote a brief historical notation on each one. The collection was split up by another dealer, and by the time I found out about it, I was still very fortunate to be able to acquire about one third of his superb Civil War image collection. Each image is rare because it is "one of a kind" having come from the Irwin collection!


The image of B.J.D. Irwin pictured here is a copy photograph from the "Find a Grave" website and is used here for illustration purposes only.

Autograph, Scotty Moore, Rock n' Roll HO $100.00

 

CDV, General Charles B. Spicer $125.00

 

CDV, Lietenant Colonel Calvin N. Otis, 1

 

CDV, General Hugh Judson Kilpatrick $150.00




<b>Union commander who defeated General Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Gettysburg</b>


(1815-1872) He was born in Cádiz, Spain, to a wealthy merchant and banking family from Philadelphia. He graduated in the West Point class of 1835, and fought with distinction in the Second Seminole War, and the Mexican War where he earned a brevet for gallantry in the battles at Monterey. He served in the United States Army Corps of Topographical Engineers, and led construction of lighthouses in Florida and New Jersey from 1851 to 1856, and the United States Lake Survey from 1857 to 1861. He fought in the 1862 Virginia Peninsular campaign, and in the Seven Days battles in Virginia where he was very severely wounded leading his brigade at Glendale. He recovered in time to fight at 2nd Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. Elevated to the command of the Army of the Potomac on the eve of the Gettysburg campaign, he defeated Confederate General Robert E. Lee, Commander of the famed Army of Northern Virginia, in the epic 3 day battle at Gettysburg, and went on to fight in all of their battles culminating in the surrender of General Lee at Appomattox Court House, Va., on April 9, 1865. He was well known for his notoriously short temper and disdain for the press, and earned the nickname of the "snapping turtle." After the war, he commanded the Military Division of the Atlantic from 1865 to 1866, the Department of the East from 1866 to 1868 and the Military Division of the Atlantic again from 1869 to 1872. 


Wet plate, albumen carte de visite photograph mounted to 2 3/8 x 4 card. Half view in uniform with rank of major general. His kepi is just visible at the lower left. Back mark: E. & H.T. Anthony, 501 Broadway, New York, made from a photographic negative in Brady's National Portrait Gallery. The corners of the mount are very slightly trimmed. Minor age toning and wear. Sharp image. Very desirable pose of the victorious Union commander at the battle of Gettysburg!  


<b>He died while on active service in 1863


From the personal collection of Surgeon & General Bernard John Dowling Irwin. Irwin has the distinct honor of being the first recipient of the Medal of Honor in U.S. military history by date of action, February 13, 1861</b>


(1806-63) He entered the navy in 1822, and sailed in the West Indies, off Africa, and along the China coast. He was appointed commander of the western flotilla at the beginning of the Civil War, and in Feb. 1862, with the cooperation of Gen. U.S. Grant, captured Fort Henry on the Tennessee River. In the ensuing capture of Fort Donelson, Foote was wounded. He aided General John Pope on the Mississippi River, but his wound was not healing and he was obliged to take leave of his command. Having proved himself a gallant fighter on the rivers, he was awarded the Thanks of Congress, and appointed Rear Admiral, June 16, 1862. While still recuperating from his wound, he was put in charge of the Bureau of Equipment and Recruiting, and on June 4, 1863 was given command of the fleet off Charleston, South Carolina. Unfortunately, Foote's wound never healed properly and he died enroute to his assignment on June 26, 1863.


Wet plate, albumen carte de visite photograph, mounted to 2 3/8 x 3 3/4 card. Standing view portrait wearing naval uniform with epaulets and holding his sword and chapeau. Back mark: Charles D. Fredricks & Co., 587 Broadway, New York. Card mount has been trimmed. This image came from the Surgeon and General Bernard J.D. Irwin collection. There is a period ink inscription written on the front mount, Foot, Commodore, U.S. Navy. Written in period ink in Irwin's hand on the reverse is, Commodore Foot, U.S. Navy, Comdg. Mississippi Squadron, 1862-3. Light age toning and wear. Rare. (because of the provenance).


<u>History of United States Surgeon & General Bernard John Dowling Irwin</u>


<b>Surgeon & General Irwin was the first United States Medal of Honor Recipient by date of action, February 13, 1861.</b>


(1830-1917) Born in County Roscommon, Ireland, he immigrated with his parents to the United States in the 1840s. He attended New York University from 1848 to 1849, and then served as a private in the New York Militia. In 1850, he entered Castleton Medical College, and he later transferred to New York Medical College, where he graduated in 1852.


He served as a surgeon and physician at the State Emigrant Hospital on Ward's Island, NYC, until his appointment as assistant surgeon in the U.S. Army in 1856. He was an assistant army surgeon during the Apache Wars, and was the first Medal of Honor recipient chronologically by date of action. His actions on February 13, 1861, at Apache Pass, Arizona, are the earliest for which the Medal of Honor was awarded! The citation on his medal of honor reads; "Voluntarily took command of troops and attacked and defeated hostile Indians he met on the way. Surgeon Irwin volunteered to go to the rescue of 2d Lt. George N. Bascom, 7th U.S. Infantry, who, with 60 men, was trapped by Chiricahua Apaches under Cochise. Irwin and 14 men, not having horses, began the 100-mile march riding mules. After fighting and capturing Indians, recovering stolen horses and cattle, he reached Bascom's column and helped break his siege."


Cochise, the Apache Indian chief, and a group of Apache warriors were accused of kidnapping a boy and a small group of U.S. soldiers in the Arizona Territory after the Army had captured Cochise's brother and nephews. When the Army refused to make a prisoner exchange, Cochise killed his prisoners. Soldiers then killed Cochise's brother and nephews. 2nd Lieutenant George Nicholas Bascom led a group of 60 men from the 7th U.S. Infantry after Cochise but was soon besieged, prompting a rescue mission by the army. In response to the siege of Bascom and his men, Irwin set out on a rescue mission with 14 men of the 1st U.S. Dragoons. He was able to catch up with the Apaches at Apache Pass in present day Arizona. He strategically placed his small unit around Cochise and his men, tricking the Apache leader into thinking that he had a much larger army with him. The Apaches fled and Bascom and his men were saved. Bascom and his men joined Irwin and together they were able to track Cochise into the mountains & rescued the young boy that Cochise had captured.


The Medal of Honor did not exist during the time of the "Bascom Incident," and would not be established until a year later in 1862. However, the actions of Irwin were well remembered, and he was awarded the Medal of Honor just prior to his retirement. Irwin's actions were the earliest for which the Medal of Honor was awarded, predating the outbreak of the American Civil War.


Irwin subsequently served with the Union army during the Civil War, and was promoted to captain in August 1861, and the next year was appointed medical director under Major General William "Bull" Nelson. He improvised one of the first field hospitals used by the U.S. Army at the Battle of Shiloh, on April 7, 1862. He was captured during the Battle of Richmond, Ky., while attempting to save the wounded General Nelson. He was promoted to major in September 1862, and after his release from a Rebel prison he became medical director in the Army of the Southwest. From 1863 to 1865, he was superintendent of the military hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, and in March of 1865, he was brevetted to the rank of colonel. He was a companion of the California Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, and the Order of the Indian Wars of the United States. After the Civil War, Irwin served as a senior medical officer at several U.S. army posts, including West Point from 1873 to 1878. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in September 1885, to colonel in August 1890, and to brigadier general in April 1904. He died in Ontario, Canada, on December 15, 1917, and is buried in the West Point Cemetery, at the U.S. Military Academy, New York.


His son George LeRoy Irwin, graduated from West Point in 1889, and served in World War I, becoming a Major General in the U.S. Army.


His grandson Stafford LeRoy Irwin, graduated from West Point in 1915, and served in World War II, and became a Lieutenant General in the U.S. Army.


His daughter, Amy Irwin Addams McCormick, was a nurse with the American Red Cross and served during World War I.


General Irwin was an admirer and collector of photographs, and he put together a very large, and superb collection of Union and Confederate images. Interestingly, he collected photographs of both Rebel and Yankee alike. I have owned several famous military photograph albums before and never came across one that collected images from both sides of the rebellion. He numbered each individual image, and wrote a brief historical notation on each one. The collection was split up by another dealer, and by the time I found out about it, I was still very fortunate to be able to acquire about one third of his superb Civil War image collection. Each image is rare because it is "one of a kind" having come from the Irwin collection!


The image of B.J.D. Irwin pictured here is a copy photograph from the "Find a Grave" website and is used here for illustration purposes only.  


<b>Commanded the 1st Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia


Severely wounded in the Battle of the Wilderness, Virginia in May 1864</b>


(1821-1904) Born in Edgefield District, South Carolina, he was one of the foremost Confederate generals of the Civil War, and the principal subordinate to General Robert E. Lee, who called him his "Old War Horse." An 1842 graduate of West Point, Longstreet fought in the Mexican War, and was wounded in the Battle of Chapultepec.  Throughout the 1850s, he served on the western  frontier.  In June 1861, he resigned his U.S. Army commission, and joined the Confederacy. He commanded Confederate troops during an early victory at Blackburn's Ford in July, in action at the First Battle of Manassas. Longstreet made significant contributions to most major Confederate victories, primarily in the Eastern Theater with the Army of Northern Virginia. He played an important role in the Confederate success during the Seven Days Battles in the summer of 1862, where he helped supervise repeated attacks which drove the Union army away from the Confederate capital of Richmond. Longstreet led a devastating counterattack that routed the Union army at the Second Battle of Manassas in August. He also played vital roles at the battles at Sharpsburg and Fredericksburg. Longstreet's most controversial service was at the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863, where he openly disagreed with General Lee on the tactics to be employed, and reluctantly supervised several unsuccessful attacks on the Union forces who held the high ground. Sent to the Western Theater to aide General Braxton Bragg, his troops launched a ferocious assault on the Union lines at Chickamauga that carried the day. Returning east, he ably commanded troops during the Battle of the Wilderness in May 1864, where he was seriously wounded by friendly fire. He later returned to the field, serving under General Lee in the Siege of Petersburg, and in the Appomattox campaign. Longstreet enjoyed a successful post-war career working for the U.S. government as a diplomat, civil servant, and administrator. His support for the Republican Party, and his cooperation with his old pre-war friend, President Ulysses S. Grant, as well as critical comments he wrote about General  Robert E. Lee's wartime performance, made him anathema to many of his former Confederate colleagues.  Consequently, his detractors focused on Longstreet's  actions at Gettysburg as a principal reason for why the South lost the Civil War turning him into their personal scapegoat, actions that would prove unjustified. Longstreet's reputation has undergone a reassessment, and many Civil War historians now consider him among the war's most gifted tactical commanders.  General James Longstreet died in Gainesville, Georgia, on January 2, 1904, six days before his 83rd birthday. Bishop Benjamin Joseph Keiley, who had served under Longstreet during the war, said his funeral Mass. Longstreet's remains are buried in Alta Vista Cemetery in Gainesville.


Wet plate, albumen carte de visite photograph, mounted to 2 3/8 x 4 card. Half view pose wearing his double breasted Confederate general's frock coat. Imprint on the front mount, "Gen. Longsteet." Back mark: The Monumental Photograph Company, No. 178 W. Baltimore St., Baltimore, Md. Light age toning and wear. Desirable pose with Maryland back mark.  


<b>Confederate Lieutenant General


Governor of Kentucky


From the personal collection of Surgeon & General Bernard John Dowling Irwin. Irwin has the distinct honor of being the first recipient of the Medal of Honor in U.S. military history by date of action, February 13, 1861</b>


(1823-1914) He was born at Glen Lily, his family's estate near Munfordville, Kentucky. His closest friend in Munfordville was Thomas J. Wood, who would become a Union Army general opposing Buckner at the Battles of Perryville, Ky., and at Chickamauga, Ga. during the Civil War. He graduated from West Point in the class of 1844, and later returned to the Military Academy to serve as an assistant professor of geography, history, and ethics. He was wounded and brevetted for gallantry in the Mexican War Battle of Churubusco, and was again cited for gallant conduct at the Battle of Molino del Rey, and was appointed a brevet captain. He fought in the Battle of Chapultepec, the Battle of Belen Gate, and the storming of Mexico City. At the conclusion of the war, American soldiers served as an army of occupation, and Buckner was accorded the honor of lowering the American flag over Mexico City for the last time during the occupation. Appointed adjutant general of Kentucky by Governor Beriah Magoffin in 1861, he tried to enforce Kentucky's neutrality policy in the early days of the Civil War, but when the state's neutrality was breached, Buckner accepted a commission in the Confederate Army. When his C.S.A. commission was approved, Union officials indicted him for treason, and seized his property. He was appointed a brigadier general on September 14, 1861, and saw action at Fort Donelson, Tenn. where he was forced to surrender the fort to his old friend and West Point classmate, General Ulysses S. Grant who demanded an  "unconditional surrender."  He was confined at Fort Warren prison in Boston for 5 months. After his release, he led a division in General Braxton Bragg's Kentucky campaign, and a corps at the battle of Chickamauga. He later received promotion to lieutenant general to rank from September 20, 1864. Near the end of the war he became chief of staff to General Edmund Kirby Smith in the Trans-Mississippi Department, and he later traveled to New Orleans, and arranged terms of surrender on May 26, 1865. The terms of Buckner's parole in Shreveport, Louisiana, on June 9, 1865, prevented his return to Kentucky for three years. He remained in New Orleans, worked on the staff of the Daily Crescent newspaper, engaged in a business venture, and served on the board of directors of a fire insurance company, of which he became president in 1867. Buckner returned to Kentucky when he was eligible in 1868, and became editor of the Louisville Courier newspaper. Like most former Confederate officers, he petitioned the United States Congress for the restoration of his civil rights as stipulated by the 14th Amendment. He recovered most of his property through lawsuits and regained much of his wealth through shrewd business deals. Buckner had a keen interest in politics and friends had been urging him to run for governor of Kentucky for years. Delegates to the 1887 state Democratic convention nominated Buckner unanimously for the office of governor, and he won the general election against his opponent William O. Bradley, and was appointed the 30th Governor of Kentucky, serving from 1887-1891. On a visit to the White House in 1904, Buckner asked President Theodore Roosevelt to appoint his only son as a cadet at West Point, and Roosevelt quickly agreed. His son Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr. would later serve in the U.S. Army as a Lieutenant General, and was killed at the Battle of Okinawa, making him the highest-ranking American to have been killed by enemy fire during World War II. Buckner became the last surviving Confederate soldier with the rank of lieutenant general. He died on January 8, 1914, and was buried in Frankfort Cemetery in Frankfort, Kentucky.


Wet plate, albumen carte de visite photograph, mounted to 2 3/8 x 3 7/8 card. The card mount has been trimmed. Early war, half view wearing his Kentucky State Guard uniform. Back mark: Charles D. Fredricks & Co., 587 Broadway, New York. This image came from the Surgeon and General Bernard J.D. Irwin collection. There is a period ink inscription written on the front mount, Maj. Genl. S.B. Buckner, C.S.A. Written in period ink in Irwin's hand on the reverse is, Maj. Genl. S.B. Buckner, C.S.A. This is image No. 182 in the Irwin collection as indicated on the reverse of the card. Rare. (because of the provenance).


<u>History of United States Surgeon & General Bernard John Dowling Irwin</u>


<b>Surgeon & General Irwin was the first United States Medal of Honor Recipient by date of action, February 13, 1861.</b>


(1830-1917) Born in County Roscommon, Ireland, he immigrated with his parents to the United States in the 1840s. He attended New York University from 1848 to 1849, and then served as a private in the New York Militia. In 1850, he entered Castleton Medical College, and he later transferred to New York Medical College, where he graduated in 1852.


He served as a surgeon and physician at the State Emigrant Hospital on Ward's Island, NYC, until his appointment as assistant surgeon in the U.S. Army in 1856. He was an assistant army surgeon during the Apache Wars, and was the first Medal of Honor recipient chronologically by date of action. His actions on February 13, 1861, at Apache Pass, Arizona, are the earliest for which the Medal of Honor was awarded! The citation on his medal of honor reads; "Voluntarily took command of troops and attacked and defeated hostile Indians he met on the way. Surgeon Irwin volunteered to go to the rescue of 2d Lt. George N. Bascom, 7th U.S. Infantry, who, with 60 men, was trapped by Chiricahua Apaches under Cochise. Irwin and 14 men, not having horses, began the 100-mile march riding mules. After fighting and capturing Indians, recovering stolen horses and cattle, he reached Bascom's column and helped break his siege."


Cochise, the Apache Indian chief, and a group of Apache warriors were accused of kidnapping a boy and a small group of U.S. soldiers in the Arizona Territory after the Army had captured Cochise's brother and nephews. When the Army refused to make a prisoner exchange, Cochise killed his prisoners. Soldiers then killed Cochise's brother and nephews. 2nd Lieutenant George Nicholas Bascom led a group of 60 men from the 7th U.S. Infantry after Cochise but was soon besieged, prompting a rescue mission by the army. In response to the siege of Bascom and his men, Irwin set out on a rescue mission with 14 men of the 1st U.S. Dragoons. He was able to catch up with the Apaches at Apache Pass in present day Arizona. He strategically placed his small unit around Cochise and his men, tricking the Apache leader into thinking that he had a much larger army with him. The Apaches fled and Bascom and his men were saved. Bascom and his men joined Irwin and together they were able to track Cochise into the mountains & rescued the young boy that Cochise had captured.


The Medal of Honor did not exist during the time of the "Bascom Incident," and would not be established until a year later in 1862. However, the actions of Irwin were well remembered, and he was awarded the Medal of Honor just prior to his retirement. Irwin's actions were the earliest for which the Medal of Honor was awarded, predating the outbreak of the American Civil War.


Irwin subsequently served with the Union army during the Civil War, and was promoted to captain in August 1861, and the next year was appointed medical director under Major General William "Bull" Nelson. He improvised one of the first field hospitals used by the U.S. Army at the Battle of Shiloh, on April 7, 1862. He was captured during the Battle of Richmond, Ky., while attempting to save the wounded General Nelson. He was promoted to major in September 1862, and after his release from a Rebel prison he became medical director in the Army of the Southwest. From 1863 to 1865, he was superintendent of the military hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, and in March of 1865, he was brevetted to the rank of colonel. He was a companion of the California Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, and the Order of the Indian Wars of the United States. After the Civil War, Irwin served as a senior medical officer at several U.S. army posts, including West Point from 1873 to 1878. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in September 1885, to colonel in August 1890, and to brigadier general in April 1904. He died in Ontario, Canada, on December 15, 1917, and is buried in the West Point Cemetery, at the U.S. Military Academy, New York.


His son George LeRoy Irwin, graduated from West Point in 1889, and served in World War I, becoming a Major General in the U.S. Army.


His grandson Stafford LeRoy Irwin, graduated from West Point in 1915, and served in World War II, and became a Lieutenant General in the U.S. Army.


His daughter, Amy Irwin Addams McCormick, was a nurse with the American Red Cross and served during World War I.


General Irwin was an admirer and collector of photographs, and he put together a very large, and superb collection of Union and Confederate images. Interestingly, he collected photographs of both Rebel and Yankee alike. I have owned several famous military photograph albums before and never came across one that collected images from both sides of the rebellion. He numbered each individual image, and wrote a brief historical notation on each one. The collection was split up by another dealer, and by the time I found out about it, I was still very fortunate to be able to acquire about one third of his superb Civil War image collection. Each image is rare because it is "one of a kind" having come from the Irwin collection!


The image of B.J.D. Irwin pictured here is a copy photograph from the "Find a Grave" website and is used here for illustration purposes only.

CDV, General George G. Meade $150.00

 

CDV, Admiral Andrew H. Foote $125.00

 

CDV, General James Longstreet

 

CDV, General Simon B. Buckner $150.00




<b>Led Pickett's Charge, at Gettysburg, on July 3, 1863


With back mark of Tanner & Vanness, Lynchburg, Va.


RETAIL PRICE $750.00</b>


(1825-1875) Born in Richmond, Va., he graduated last in the West Point class of 1846, and was brevetted twice for gallantry in the Mexican War. Appointed brigadier general, January 14, 1862, he led a Confederate brigade with skill during the 1862 Virginia Peninsular campaign, and was severely wounded at Gaines's Mill. Serving with General James Longstreet's 1st Corps, Army of Northern Virginia, he was present at Fredericksburg and Suffolk, Va., and was promoted to major general, October 10, 1862. Pickett gained immortality at Gettysburg, on July 3, 1863, when his division spearheaded the assault on the strongly defended Union position on Cemetery Ridge. Forever known as "Pickett's Charge," the casualties in the assault were terrible. Pickett later commanded the Department of Virginia and North Carolina. In 1864, he fought in the Petersburg campaign, and in 1865 at Five Forks, Va. Following the war, Pickett feared prosecution for his execution of deserters and temporarily fled to Canada. An old Army friend, General Ulysses S. Grant, interceded on his behalf, and he returned to Virginia in 1866. He could not rejoin the Army, so he tried his hand at farming, then selling insurance. He died at age 50 in July 1875 at Norfolk, Va., from an "abscess of the liver." He is buried in Hollywood Cemetery, in Richmond, Va.


Wet plate, albumen carte de visite photograph, mounted to 2 3/8 x 4 card. Bust view in Confederate uniform. This war time view is apparently him as a major general. Back mark: Tanner & Vanness, Photographers, 124 Main Street, Lynchburg, Va. Ex-Bill Turner collection, the author of "Even More Confederate Faces." Light wear and foxing. Very scarce and desirable Confederate image.

 


<b>General "Stonewall" Jackson was mortally wounded at Chancellorsville, Virginia on May 2, 1863


RETAIL PRICE $395.00</b>


(1824-1863) Born in Clarksburg, Virginia (now West Virginia), he graduated in the West Point class of 1846, a class that furnished 24 general officers to the Union and Confederate armies during The War Between the States. He earned the brevets of captain and major during the Mexican War distinguishing himself at the Battle of Chapultepec. He was an instructor at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Va., from 1851-61. When Virginia seceded from the Union in May 1861, Jackson joined the Confederate Army, and distinguished himself as a brigade commander at the 1st Battle of Manassas, on July 21, 1861. He appeared on the field of battle just in the nick of time to furnish crucial reinforcements to the Confederate forces, and beat back a fierce Union assault. Confederate General Barnard E. Bee, shouted encouragement to his men by saying, look there stands Jackson like a stonewall, rally around the Virginians! From that July day forward, the sobriquet "Stonewall" stuck with General Jackson forever! He waged a magnificent campaign of surprise and maneuver in the spring of 1862, against the Federal Army in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, in such places as Kernstown, Front Royal, Winchester, and Port Republic, in what became known as "Jackson's Valley Campaign. Using a combination of great audacity, excellent knowledge of the terrain, and the great ability to inspire his troops to great feats of marching and fighting, his men earned the nickname of "Jackson's Foot Cavalry." General Jackson was regarded by many military historians to be one of the most gifted tactical commanders in U.S. military history. He would go on to fight in the Seven Days Battles in Virginia, the Battles of Cedar Mountain, 2nd Manassas, Chantilly, Harpers Ferry, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville. It was at the Battle of Chancellorsville, one of General Robert E. Lee's greatest victories that Stonewall Jackson would have his date with destiny, and be mortally wounded by friendly fire on the evening of May 2, 1863. While returning from a night reconnaissance, Jackson and his staff came upon sentries of the 18th North Carolina Infantry, who mistook the group for a Union cavalry unit. In the confusion shots were fired and General Jackson was struck by 3 bullets, two in the left arm, and one in the right hand. Jackson's personal surgeon, Doctor Hunter Mc Guire, amputated his arm, and he was placed in an army ambulance and brought to a farmhouse at Guinea Station, Va., where he died 8 days later, on May 10, 1863, of complications from pneumonia. When General Robert E. Lee first learned of Jackson's wounding and the amputation of his left arm, he famously said you have lost your left arm, but I have lost my right arm, illustrating the place that Jackson held in Lee's eyes, and in his gallant Army of Northern Virginia. Lee wrote to Jackson after learning of his injuries: "Could I have directed events, I would have chosen for the good of the country to be disabled in your stead." Lee had not only lost a good friend, but his best tactical general. The loss of Jackson was catastrophic to the Confederacy. Historians believe that if Stonewall Jackson had been with Lee at Gettysburg, less than 2 months after Jackson's death, the epic 3 day battle in Pennsylvania may very well have had a much different outcome. General Jackson's body was moved to the Governor's Mansion in Richmond for the public to mourn, and then was brought back to his beloved Lexington, to be buried in Oak Grove Cemetery. Lexington, Va., was the town where Jackson taught at V.M.I., and owned the only house he ever owned in his lifetime. In 1870, his commander General Robert E. Lee, would join his old comrade in eternal rest, as Lee was interred not far away in the chapel of Washington College, in Lexington.  


Wet plate, albumen carte de visite photograph, mounted to 2 3/8 x 4 card. Seated view wearing a double breasted frock coat with rank of major general. He poses with his legs crossed showing off the high leather boots he is wearing, and at the right side of the view a portion of a tent flap is visible. This is a variant of the February 1862 Winchester, Va. portrait. It shows retouching, but it is possible that it is from a genuine seated print that is now lost to the ages. The known portrait of Jackson taken at the Winchester session is said to be Mrs. Jackson's favorite image of her husband. There is a period ink inscription on the front mount which simply reads, "Jackson." Nothing more needed to be said to introduce this hero of the Confederacy. There is also a blind stamp imprint of Bendann, Baltimore on the front mount. Back mark: Bendann Bros., 207 Baltimore St., Baltimore, with their logo and a 2 cents blue/green George Washington U.S. Internal Revenue Proprietary tax stamp on the verso. Very nice portrait of "Old Blue Light." Scarce and very desirable.


<u>WBTS Trivia</u>: Confederate General Stonewall Jackson was called "Old Blue Light" because his men said his blue eyes glowed with a bright blue light when the battle commenced.   


<b>General-in-Chief of the U.S. Army during the Civil War, 1862-64</b>


(1815-1872) Born on a farm in Westernville, Oneida County, New York, his father fought as an officer in the War of 1812. He graduated 3rd in the West Point class of 1839, and became a noted expert in military studies earning the nickname, "Old Brains," which was later turned around to mock him by fellow officers. An assistant professor while still an undergraduate at the United States Military Academy, he first worked upon the fortifications of New York Harbor, and in 1844 inspected those of France. Upon his return to the U.S., he wrote a "Report on the Means of National Defence," which was published by Congress and won him an invitation from the Lowell Institute of Boston to deliver a series of lectures. These were published as "Elements of Military Art and Science," a work which enjoyed wide circulation among soldiers for many years. He received a brevet as captain in the Mexican War. At the beginning of the Civil War, General Winfield Scott recommended to President Abraham Lincoln that Halleck be appointed major general in the regular army. In November 1861, Halleck relieved General John Fremont at St. Louis, and in a demonstration of his talents as an administrator quickly brought order out of the chaos in which his predecessor had plunged the Department of the Missouri. He had a series of successes  at Forts Henry & Donelson, Pea Ridge, Island No. 10 and Shiloh. President Lincoln later called him to Washington to serve as general-in-chief of the U.S. Armies a position he held from 1862-64. After General Ulysses S. Grant Grant forced General Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House, Halleck was assigned to the command of the Military Division of the James, headquartered at Richmond. Halleck was a cautious general who believed strongly in thorough preparations for battle, and in the value of defensive fortifications over quick, aggressive action. He was a master of administration, logistics, and the politics that were necessary at the top of the military hierarchy. He was an important participant in the admission of California as a state in the Union, and was a principal author of the California State Constitution. General Halleck was present at the death bed of President Abraham Lincoln, and was a pall bearer at his funeral. He died at his post in Louisville, Kentucky, on January 9, 1872, just 7 days short of his 57th birthday. He was buried in the family plot in Greenwood Cemetery, in Brooklyn, New York, on January 25th. 


Wet plate, albumen carte de visite photograph, mounted to 2 3/8 x 4 card. Standing view wearing a double breasted frock coat with rank of major general as he holds his kepi at his waist while posing in front of a large studio column. Back mark: E. & H.T. Anthony, 501 Broadway, New York, with a 2 cents orange George Washington Internal Revenue tax stamp. Very fine.  


<b>1865 Autograph Endorsement Signed


Recommendation for captain of the 20th N.Y.S.M.</b>


(1833-99) Born in New York, he was appointed to West Point, and graduated in 1855, and assigned to the 1st U.S. Artillery who he fought with in the Third Seminole Indian War. When the Civil War began, Turner was quickly promoted to captain, and he served on the staff of General David Hunter, first in Kansas, then in the Department of the South where he rendered valuable services at the battle of Fort Pulaski, Ga. On June 13, 1863, Turner was appointed chief of staff in the Department of the South under General Quincy A. Gillmore, and participated in the operations against Charleston, South Carolina. On September 6, 1863, he was awarded a brevet promotion to Major, U.S. Army for his service at Battery Wagner, where the gallant 54th Massachuseets Colored Regiment commanded by Colonel Robert Gould Shaw led the assault. The following day he was appointed brigadier general of U.S. Volunteers. In May 1864, General Gillmore's 10th Corps was transferred to the Petersburg, Va., front and Turner continued as chief of staff through the Bermuda Hundred Campaign. On June 22, 1864, he received his first infantry command of the war at the head of the 2nd Division, 10th Corps. Turner and his division participated in the Siege of Petersburg, and during the winter of 1864-65, he served as chief of staff of the Army of the James. The defeat of the  Confederate forces in the Shenandoah Valley freed up available units in General Philip H. Sheridan's Army of the Shenandoah to be sent to the Petersburg front and in March, General Turner assumed command of the Independent Division of reinforcements from the recently victorious Army of the Shenandoah. Despite its name, Turner's Independent Division was attached to the newly created 24th Corps under General John Gibbon. At the end of the Petersburg Campaign, Gibbon's corps was assigned the task of assaulting Forts Gregg and Whitworth. Turner's division was split between the two forts, sending one brigade against the lesser Fort Whitworth, while the other two joined General Robert S. Foster in the main attack against Fort Gregg. Turner received praise from his commanding officers for gallant services at Petersburg, and after the fall of the city, he participated in the forced march to Appomattox Courthouse, where he and other troops of the Army of the James directly intercepted General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Turner remained in command of the 24th Corps, and was responsible for overseeing occupied Virginia. He then commanded the District of Henrico, Virginia, including Richmond, the former Confederate capital, from June 9, 1865 until April 6, 1866, and the entire Department of Virginia, from April 7th until May 17th. Part of his responsibility in Virginia was re-establishing the local government and persuading it to take the responsibility for law enforcement as well as support of the unemployed persons both former Rebel soldiers and former slaves! This proved especially problematic, as Richmond's long-time mayor, Joseph C. Mayo used vagrancy laws against black persons, and the vast majority of those fed by soup kitchens were African Americans. Thus, General Turner ordered his men not to follow Mayo's orders until Governor Francis Pierpont replaced him with city council president David J. Saunders, who was also appointed head of the city run gasworks and waterworks. John W.Turner continued as major general in the U.S. Army until 1871, and commanded the purchasing depot and commissary in St. Louis, Missouri from October 31, 1866 to February 1871, and he resigned from the regular army on September 4, 1871. Upon retiring from the army, he settled in St. Louis, where he became a prominent citizen. He worked as a banker, civil engineer and served more than a decade as commissioner of streets and public works until his death. General Turner died in St. Louis, on April 8, 1899, and was buried in Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis.


<u>1865 Autograph Endorsement Signed</u>: 7 1/2 x 9 1/2, in ink, with the endorsement by General Turner on the verso. The front page is a letter written by Brevet Major W.W. Beckwith, U.S.V. & Assistant Provost Marshal.


Office of the Provost Marshal

Head Quarters Dist. of Henrico

Richmond, Va., Dec. 16th, 1865


This is to certify that I am personally acquainted with Capt. Charles S. Parker, 20th N.Y.S.M. During my acquaintances with him his conduct as an officer in the army has been such as to merit the approval and praise of his superior officers. While the Regiment served under the orders of Brig. Genl. M.R. Patrick, Captain Parker's gentlemanly qualities were so well recognized as to induce his selection for the discharge of delicate and important duties.


W.W. Beckwith

Capt. 20th N.Y.S.M.

& Brevet Major U.S.V.

Asst. Pro. Marshal


The autograph endorsement signed by General Turner on the verso is as follows: 


Hd. Qrs. Dist. Henrico

Richmond, Va.

Dec. 18, 1865


The endorsement of Maj. Beckwith is cordially recommended.


Jno. W. Turner

Bvt. Maj. Genl.

Comdg.


Very fine. Excellent content and endorsement.

CDV, General George E. Pickett $650.00

 

CDV, General Thomas J. Stonewall Jackson $350.00

 

CDV, General Henry W. Halleck $125.00

 

Autograph, General John W. Turner $150.00

Offered here in eye appealing as found and as used condition is this pair of early Augustus Buermann hand forged sheet iron spurs.  A staple of the old west, appreciated for their affordability and prized for their comfort and  durability, the Buermann <I>tin-belly</I> Eureka Style Spur was once the most popular among 1870s working cowboys.  The first commercial offering by German immigrant and American Civil War veteran Augustus Buermann (Co. B 9th New Jersey Infantry) these early hand forged so-called <I>tin belly</I> spurs saw heavy use in the period tending to be used up and eventually cast aside leaving a precious few matched pairs surviving.  This all original pair remain in sound unmolested condition demonstrate that desirable natural age patina and evidence of period wear that collector / historians covet.  <B>Buy with confidence! </B><I>  We are pleased to offer a <B><U>no questions asked</U> three day inspection with return as purchased on direct sales!</B> <I>Just send us a courtesy  e-mail to let us know your item will be returned per these provisions and your purchase price will be refunded accordingly.</I>  <FONT COLOR=#0000FF>Thanks for visiting Gunsight Antiques! </FONT COLOR=#0000FF>


 Set here with a period quarter for size comparison, this attractive <B> No3 MABIE TODD & CO PAT AUG 14 77 </B>marked dipping pen measures 5 7/8 inches in length to include its original tapered shank gold nib.  All original and in fine condition this eye catching ink pen will make a nice addition laid out with a period document, letter, journal or simply displayed with a period ink stand or desk. <B>Buy with confidence! </B><I>  We are pleased to offer a <B><U>no questions asked</U> three day inspection with return as purchased on direct sales!</B> <I>Just send us a courtesy  e-mail to let us know your item will be returned per these provisions and your purchase price will be refunded accordingly.</I>  <FONT COLOR=#0000FF>Thanks for visiting Gunsight Antiques! </FONT COLOR=#0000FF>


 Best described here by our illustrations as to condition and eye appeal suffice it to say this<B>6th Me Bat </B> branded  hames horse collar fixture is fashioned from white ash wood with black iron strapping and harness fixtures (note distinctively period square nuts), measures 26 inches from tip  to tip and remains in pleasing original condition.  Acquired some years ago accompanied by the 6th Battery field desk, this remnant of the hard fought Maine Light Artillery Battery has been set aside with our personal <I>stuff</I>since.(see: MaineLegacy.com pages 31 through 35 for a small sampling)  A bit traumatic as we seldom offer things from the <I>collection</I> but alas time marches on.  A note for the uninitiated: The Hames horse collar fixture surrounded the heavily padded leather collar and was affixed with iron fixtures to accommodate harness reins and traces.

      <B>Buy with confidence! </B><I>  We are pleased to offer a <B><U>no questions asked</U> three day inspection with return as purchased on direct sales!</B> <I>Just send us a courtesy  e-mail to let us know your item will be returned per these provisions and your purchase price will be refunded accordingly.</I>  <FONT COLOR=#0000FF>Thanks for visiting Gunsight Antiques! </FONT COLOR=#0000FF>


 This Civil War import combination screwdriver features a 3 5/8 inch long walnut grip with iron ferrule and was designed to accept a double ended driver blade especially designed to properly fit the thin slotted hammer and utility screws used in many of the earlier to mid-1800 muskets.  Originally issued with the Austrian Mod.1854 Lorenz, these handy accoutrements found their way to this continent in limited numbers as they accompanied what was considered one of the better Civil War import arms used by both Union and Confederate. <B>Buy with confidence! </B><I>  We are pleased to offer a <B><U>no questions asked</U> three day inspection with return as purchased on direct sales!</B> <I>Just send us a courtesy  e-mail to let us know your item will be returned per these provisions and your purchase price will be refunded accordingly.</I>  <FONT COLOR=#0000FF>Thanks for visiting Gunsight Antiques! </FONT COLOR=#0000FF>

Early production August Buermann - Ha $145.00

 

Fine condition! MABIE TODD & CO - Paten $85.00

 

Civil War vintage- 6th Maine Battery Mou

 

Civil War import Lorenz Rifle – combinat $85.00

      Best described here as to condition by our photo illustrations, this Grant family CDV remains in pleasing condition as it depicts  Civil War Gen. Ulysses S. Grant gathered with his family.  Rendered in 1863, this photo captures (left to right)  Ellen <I>‘Nellie’</I> Wrenshall Grant, Gen. Grant, Jesse Root Grant, Frederick Dent Grant, Mrs. Julia Dent Grant and middle son  Ulysses "Buck" Simpson Grant Jr.  

      By all accounts a doting, devoted father, Ulysses and Julia Grant had four children, three boys and a girl, with elder sons Frederick and Ulysses Jr., attending West Point and Harvard.   Later the youngest, Jesse, ran about the White House giving President Grant much-needed cheer.  Daughter Ellen,<I>Nellie</I>, was married at the White House in 1874.    [ see: <I>Nellie</I>Grant bronze cannon / www.MaineLegacy.com page 5 ]<B>Buy with confidence! </B><I>  We are pleased to offer a <B><U>no questions asked</U> three day inspection with return as purchased on direct sales!</B> <I>Just send us a courtesy  e-mail to let us know your item will be returned per these provisions and your purchase price will be refunded accordingly.</I>  <FONT COLOR=#0000FF>Thanks for visiting Gunsight Antiques! </FONT COLOR=#0000FF>

 


<b>Colonel 5th South Carolina Infantry


He also commanded the elite Palmetto Sharpshooters


Wounded at the Battle of Seven Pines, Virginia in 1862


Wounded in the Second Battle of Manassas, Virginia in 1862


Mortally wounded at the Wilderness, Virginia in May 1864


EXTREMELY RARE CONFEDERATE CARTE DE VISITE

</b>


(1835-64) Born on Edisto Island, South Carolina, he graduated at the head of his class in 1854, at the South Carolina Military Academy, now The Citadel in Charleston, S.C. He founded King's Mountain Military School at York, S.C., in 1855, and served as a teacher and administrator until the winter of 1860-61. He married Caroline Jameson in 1856, and his father-in-law was David F. Jameson, who was the president of the South Carolina Secession Convention in December of 1860.  On December 20, 1860, South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union, and on April 12, 1861, Confederate forces bombarded Fort Sumter and the War Between the States commenced. Jameson also served as Secretary of War for the state of South Carolina during the conflict. An enthusiastic supporter of states rights, he helped raise and organize the 5th South Carolina Infantry, and on June 4, 1861, he was elected their colonel. Ordered north, the regiment departed from Orangeburg, S.C., and arrived at Manassas Junction, Virginia on June 21st. Assigned to the brigade of General David R. Jones, Jenkins led his South Carolinian's into their first battle, crossing McLean's Ford, and attacking the Federal left near Little Rocky Run, in what became the First Battle of Manassas, Va. earning the praise of their commanding general. During the 1862 reorganization of the Confederate army, Jenkins recruited and organized the elite Palmetto Sharpshooters which included a good portion of the officers and men who had served under him in the 5th South Carolina Infantry. Assigned to General Richard H. Anderson's South Carolina Brigade, Jenkins and his sharpshooters reinforced the Confederate line at Yorktown and Williamsburg, Va. When General Anderson rose to division command, Jenkins was placed in command of the South Carolina Brigade which he led with distinction in the Battle of Seven Pines where he was wounded. It became a bitter slugging match against Union General Darius N. Couch's 4th Corps. Colonel Jenkins broke the Union lines and reached Seven Pines where he captured the colors of the 16th Michigan infantry. His gallant actions and heroism brought with them the high praise of General James Longstreet himself calling attention to the bravery and skill of Jenkins. He was promoted to brigadier general, on July 22, 1862, at the age of 26, becoming one of the great "boy generals of the Civil War." He was wounded in the shoulder and chest at the Second Battle of Manassas, Va. in August 1862.  He was next assigned to serve in the division of General George E. Pickett, and was with him at Fredericksburg, but they saw little action there. General Pickett's division then participated in the 1863 Suffolk, Va. campaign under General Longstreet. Jenkins' Brigade was detached from Pickett's division in the summer of 1863, and assigned to protect Richmond where they were stationed during the Gettysburg campaign. In September 1863, General Jenkins was ordered to join the division of General John Bell Hood, and accompany General Longstreet's troops to northwest Georgia to reinforce General Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee. General Hood was so severely wounded at the Battle of Chickamauga that it resulted in the amputation of his right leg, and Jenkins was elevated to division command to replace Hood. Bragg's army occupied Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain, forcing the defeated Union army back into Chattanooga. Jenkins served with Longstreet in East Tennessee in November and through the winter of 1863-64. He was highly commended by General Longstreet for his vigorous pursuit of the Yankees from Lenoir Station to Knoxville, Tenn. where Jenkins troops participated in the siege of Knoxville, Tennessee, in November and December 1864, and in the engagement at Bean's Station, on December 14th. As the Federals pursued Longstreet's troops he hit them hard and stopped them in their tracks ending their pursuit and the winter campaign. With the arrival of cold weather, General Jenkins brought his brigade into winter quarters at Russellville, Tennessee. During this period he led them to a very decisive victory at Kimbrough's Crossroads, Tennessee, on January 16, 1864, when they clashed with Federal cavalry in a very sharp battle. In the spring of 1864, Jenkins joined his commanding officer, General James Longstreet who was ordered to return east to rejoin General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, reaching Gordonsville, Va., on May 2nd. Within 48 hours of their arrival, the Army of the Potomac, crossed the Rapidan River, and entered into the tangled devilish woodlands known as the Wilderness. In the late afternoon on the fateful day of May 4th, General Micah Jenkins turned his brigade out for the very last time! At noon on May 6th, General Longstreet called on Jenkins South Carolina boys to exploit the success gained by the Confederates devastating flank attack on General Winfield S. Hancock's 2nd Corps. As the two Confederate generals rode eastward down the Orange Plank Road, Jenkins remarked to Longstreet, "I am happy. I have felt despair of the cause for some months, but am relieved and feel assured that we will put the enemy back across the Rapidan before night."  In only a few minutes, the crash of musketry sounded in the dense woods, and both Generals' Jenkins and Longstreet were thrown from their horses, and sprawled out upon the sacred soil of "Old Virginia." Longstreet was critically wounded, but Jenkins took a minie' ball to the head, the bullet lodging in his brain. As he lay there mortally wounded. delirium set in as he ordered his men forward. Jenkins was dead before nightfall that day. What made matters even worse was that the horror of Chancellorsville, almost a year earlier to the day, when General Stonewall Jackson was mortally wounded by friendly fire, was repeated. This tragic event took place only 4 miles from where Stonewall Jackson was mortally wounded! The musketry that felled Generals' Jenkins and Longstreet, was fired by some of General William Mahone's Virginians who were in the woods just south of the road and mistook the mounted Confederate officers for Yankee cavalry. Jenkins was buried in Magnolia Cemetery, in Charleston, South Carolina.


Wet plate, albumen carte de visite photograph, mounted to 2 1/2 x 4, thick pink blockade run card stock, with no back mark which is typical of these cards which were oftentimes smuggled into the Confederacy, usually through Cuba, from England on blockade runner ships. This is an incredibly rare 3/4 seated view of Jenkins wearing his double breasted frock coat with shoulder straps, as he sat for this circa 1861 portrait while Colonel of the 5th South Carolina Infantry Regiment. He poses holding his kepi on his lap which clearly shows his hat wreath insignia and regimental numeral 5 which is reversed indicating that this was printed as a reverse negative. There is a tiny area of black at the upper right corner of the albumen which was printed into the image when it was originally produced. There is some light staining in the background area which does not affect the beauty of the image, and of course its remarkable rarity! Light wear. General Jenkins is lightly inscribed on the card mount below his portrait. In my 46 years in business, and 62 years as a Civil War collector, I have never owned this image, nor have I ever seen one for sale. Until I purchased this carte de visite, the only other one I know of is in the collection of the Library of Congress. Exceedingly rare, and extremely desirable!         


<u>WBTS Trivia</u>: General Micah Jenkins's son, Micah John Jenkins was born on July 3, 1857, and he graduated from West Point in 1879. He served in the Spanish American War, as Captain of Troop K, 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, the "Rough Riders," then commanded by Colonel Teddy Roosevelt. He fought with the regiment in Cuba and participated in the attack on San Juan Hill.  He was promoted to major of the regiment on August 11, 1898; and was mustered out of the service at Montauk Point, Long Island, New York, in September 1898.  He died in Charleston, South Carolina on Oct. 17, 1912.  


<b>Colonel of the 2nd Kentucky Infantry


Captured at Fort Donelson, Tennessee in February 1862


Mortally wounded on January 2, 1863 at the Battle of Murfreesboro while leading a charge which cost his brigade 400 casualties


General Hanson's dying words: "I die in a just cause, having done my duty." 


From the personal collection of Surgeon & General Bernard John Dowling Irwin. Irwin has the distinct honor of being the first recipient of the Medal of Honor in U.S. military history by date of action, February 13, 1861


RETAIL PRICE $395.00</b>


(1827-63) Born in Clark County, Kentucky, he served as 1st lieutenant of the 4th Kentucky Volunteers in the Mexican War, and was cited for bravery at the Battle of Cerro Gordo. After the war he returned home to Kentucky and studied law in Lexington, where he engaged in a duel with a classmate. He was shot in the leg just above the knee, making him lame for the rest of his life. In 1853 and 1855 he was a member of the Kentucky State legislature, and in 1860 he stumped the state for the Presidential election ticket of Bell and Everett. Hanson was a colonel in the Kentucky State Guard in 1861, and on September 3rd of that year was commissioned colonel of the 2nd Kentucky Infantry, C.S.A. Captured at the Battle of Fort Donelson, Tennessee, in February 1862, by Union General Ulysses S. Grant, he was exchanged 7 months later for General Michael Corcoran. Hanson was presented with a new horse by admiring friends, and his regiment reenlisted for the war, and Hanson was promoted to brigadier general on December 13, 1862. He commanded his old regiment, the 2nd Kentucky Infantry, as well as the 3rd, 4th, 6th and 9th Kentucky Infantry Regiments, serving in General John C. Breckenridge's division, and Lieutenant General William J. Hardee's corps. He led the Kentucky Brigade, known as "The Orphan Brigade," in his first battle as a general, at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, on January 2, 1863. General Braxton Bragg, commanding the Confederate army, ordered General Breckenridge's division to take a hill occupied by Union forces several hundred yards in his front, that was well protected by massed Union artillery. General Breckenridge and his brigade commanders, including Hanson, agreed that this mission was impossible, and Hanson was so furious that he had to be physically restrained from attempting to kill General Bragg. The attack began at 4 p.m., and moving in good order the Confederates seized the hill, but then the Union guns opened up with a devastating fire on the Rebs. While leading a charge which cost his brigade 400 casualties, General Hanson was mortally wounded when he was struck above the left knee by a fuse from an artillery case shot that severed his artery. General Breckenridge, the original commander of "The Orphan Brigade," rode among the survivors, crying out repeatedly, "My poor Orphans! My poor Orphans," They vainly tried to stop the bleeding in General Hanson's leg, and nursed by his wife, he died two days later in a house near the battlefield. His last words were "I die in a just cause, having done my duty." Hanson was considered to be a dependable subordinate who could be counted on to have his troops ready for battle, and to carry out his orders in a timely manner. General Breckenridge remarked in his official report, "Endeared to his friends by his private virtues and to his command by the vigilance with which he guarded its interest and honor, he was, by the universal testimony of his military associates, one of the finest officers that adorned the service of the Confederate States." Temporarily buried in Nashville, he was reinterred in Lexington, Kentucky, on November 11, 1866. In 1895, the survivors of the "Orphan Brigade," dedicated a monument to General Hanson's memory.  


Wet plate, albumen carte de visite photograph, mounted to 2 3/8 x 4 card. Standing view wearing a double breasted Confederate frock coat with braiding on his sleeves and the rank of colonel while wearing his sash around his waist. He strikes a Napoleonic pose and stands next to a table at his side with a vase of flowers on it. Back mark: Published by E. & H.T. Anthony, 501 Broadway, New York. Very minor corner wear. This is the best known war time image of Hanson and was probably taken just before he was captured at Fort Donelson, Tennessee in 1862. This image came from the Surgeon and General Bernard J.D. Irwin collection. Written in period ink in Irwin's hand on the front mount is, Major Genl. Roger Hanson, C.S.A. This is image No. 155 in the Irwin collection as indicated on the verso of the card. Excellent photograph. Very desirable. Rare.


<u>History of United States Surgeon & General Bernard John Dowling Irwin</u>


<i><b>Surgeon & General Irwin was the first United States Medal of Honor Recipient by date of action, February 13, 1861.</i></b>


(1830-1917) Born in County Roscommon, Ireland, he immigrated with his parents to the United States in the 1840s.  He attended New York University from 1848 to 1849, and then served as a private in the New York Militia.  In 1850, he entered Castleton Medical College, and he later transferred to New York Medical College, where he graduated in 1852.

  

He served as a surgeon and physician at the State Emigrant Hospital on Ward's Island, NYC, until his appointment as assistant surgeon in the U.S. Army in 1856.  He was an assistant army surgeon during the Apache Wars, and was the first Medal of Honor recipient chronologically by date of action. His actions on February 13, 1861, at Apache Pass, Arizona, are the earliest for which the Medal of Honor was awarded! The citation on his medal of honor reads; "Voluntarily took command of troops and attacked and defeated hostile Indians he met on the way. Surgeon Irwin volunteered to go to the rescue of 2d Lt. George N. Bascom, 7th U.S. Infantry, who, with 60 men, was trapped by Chiricahua Apaches under Cochise. Irwin and 14 men, not having horses, began the 100-mile march riding mules. After fighting and capturing Indians, recovering stolen horses and cattle, he reached Bascom's column and helped break his siege."


Cochise, the Apache Indian chief, and a group of Apache warriors were accused of kidnapping a boy and a small group of U.S. soldiers in the Arizona Territory after the Army had captured Cochise's brother and nephews. When the Army refused to make a prisoner exchange, Cochise killed his prisoners. Soldiers then killed Cochise's brother and nephews.  2nd Lieutenant George Nicholas Bascom led a group of 60 men from the 7th U.S. Infantry after Cochise but was soon besieged, prompting a rescue mission by the army. In response to the siege of Bascom and his men, Irwin set out on a rescue mission with 14 men of the 1st U.S. Dragoons. He was able to catch up with the Apaches at Apache Pass in present day Arizona. He strategically placed his small unit around Cochise and his men, tricking the Apache leader into thinking that he had a much larger army with him. The Apaches fled and Bascom and his men were saved. Bascom and his men joined Irwin and together they were able to track Cochise into the mountains & rescued the young boy that Cochise had captured.

  

The Medal of Honor did not exist during the time of the "Bascom Incident," and would not be established until a year later in 1862.  However, the actions of Irwin were well remembered, and he was awarded the Medal of Honor just prior to his retirement. Irwin's actions were the earliest for which the Medal of Honor was awarded, predating the outbreak of the American Civil War.  


Irwin subsequently served with the Union army during the Civil War, and was promoted to captain in August 1861, and the next year was appointed medical director under Major General William "Bull" Nelson. He improvised one of the first field hospitals used by the U.S. Army at the Battle of Shiloh, on April 7, 1862. He was captured during the Battle of Richmond,  Ky., while attempting to save the wounded General Nelson. He was promoted to major in September 1862, and after his release from a Rebel prison he became medical director in the Army of the Southwest.  From 1863 to 1865, he was superintendent of the military hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, and in March of 1865, he was brevetted to the rank of colonel.  He was a companion of the California Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, and the Order of the Indian Wars of the United States. After the Civil War, Irwin served as a senior medical officer at several U.S. army posts, including West Point from 1873 to 1878. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in September 1885, to colonel in August 1890, and to brigadier general in April 1904.  He died in Ontario, Canada, on December 15, 1917, and is buried in the West Point Cemetery, at the U.S. Military Academy, New York.

  

His son George LeRoy Irwin, graduated from West Point in 1889, and served in World War I, becoming a Major General in the U.S. Army.

 

His grandson Stafford LeRoy Irwin, graduated from West Point in 1915, and served in World War II, and became a Lieutenant General in the U.S. Army.

 

His daughter, Amy Irwin Addams McCormick, was a nurse with the American Red Cross and served during World War I.


General Irwin was an admirer and collector of photographs, and he put together a very large, and superb collection of Union and Confederate images. Interestingly, he collected photographs of both Rebel and Yankee alike. I have owned several famous military photograph albums before and never came across one that collected images from both sides of the rebellion. He numbered each individual image, and wrote a brief historical notation on each one. The collection was split up by another dealer, and by the time I found out about it, I was still very fortunate to be able to acquire about one third of his superb Civil War image collection. Each image is rare because it is "one of a kind" having come from the Irwin collection!


The image of B.J.D. Irwin pictured here is a copy photograph from the "Find a Grave" website and is used here for illustration purposes only.


    


<b>Commander in Chief of the Union army in 1861-1862


RETAIL PRICE $100.00</b>


(1826-85) Graduated in the West Point class of 1846 and fought in the Mexican War. Hailed at the beginning of the Civil War as the "Young Napoleon," he proved to be a brilliant military organizer, administrator, and trainer of men, but an officer totally lacking in the essential qualities of successful command of large forces in battle. He saw action at Rich Mountain, W.V., in the 1862 Virginia Peninsular campaign and at the battle of Antietam, the bloodiest single day in American history. He was defeated for the presidency in 1864 by Abraham Lincoln. 


Ellen Mary Marcy (1836-1915) Was the daughter of General Randolph B. Marcy, McClellan's former commander, and future subordinate. Ellen, known to her family and friends as "Elly," had turned down George's first proposal of marriage. A very popular young lady, she was courted by several young men and received some nine marriage proposals, one of which came from McClellan's West Point classmate and future Confederate General A.P. Hill. Nelly had actually accepted Hill's proposal in 1856, but her family did not approve of the Virginian, so he withdrew. Ellen and George B. McClellan were eventually married at the Cavalry Church, in New York City, on May 22, 1860.


Wet plate, albumen carte de visite photograph, mounted to 2 3/8 x 4 card. General McClellan is seated wearing his double breasted frock coat with rank of major general. His wife Ellen is standing at his side. No back mark. Minor age toning and wear. Very fine.

c. 1863 Gen. U. S. Grant Family CDV $55.00

 

CDV, General Micah Jenkins

 

CDV, General Roger W. Hanson $350.00

 

CDV, General George B. McClellan & Wife $75.00




<b>Autographed carte de visite


General-in-Chief of the U.S. Armies during the Civil War, 1861-62


Democratic Presidential Candidate that was defeated by President Abraham Lincoln in 1864


Governor of New Jersey


RETAIL PRICE $1,250.00


From the personal collection of Surgeon & General Bernard John Dowling Irwin. Irwin has the distinct honor of being the first recipient of the Medal of Honor in U.S. military history by date of action, February 13, 1861</b> 


(1826-85) Hailed as the "Young Napoleon," McClellan was thought to have of the greatest military minds of his generation. He was born in Philadelphia, the son of a prominent surgeon, Dr. George McClellan, the founder of Jefferson Medical College. One of McClellan's great-grandfathers was General Samuel McClellan of Woodstock, Connecticut, a brigadier general who fought in the Revolutionary War. George Brinton McClellan graduated 2nd in his class of 59 cadets at West Point in 1846, where he was an energetic and ambitious cadet, deeply interested in strategic principles.  He was commissioned a brevet second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. His closest friends at the Academy were southerners George Pickett, Dabney Maury, Cadmus Wilcox, and A.P. Hill. After graduation, he served with distinction in the Mexican War, as an engineering officer who was frequently subject to enemy fire, and was appointed a brevet first lieutenant for his services at Contreras, and Churubusco, and to captain for his service at Chapultepec. He performed reconnaissance missions for General Winfield Scott, a close friend of McClellan's father. McClellan's experiences in the Mexican War would shape his military and political life. He learned that flanking movements that were used by General Scott at Cerro Gordo are often better than frontal assaults, and the value of siege operations against Veracruz was another well learned lesson. He witnessed Scott's success in balancing political with military affairs, and his good relations with the civil population as he invaded, enforcing strict discipline on his soldiers to minimize damage to civilian property. In the fall of 1852, McClellan published a manual on bayonet tactics that he had translated from the original French. He also received an assignment to the Department of Texas, with orders to perform a survey of Texas rivers and harbors. In 1853, he participated in the Pacific Railroad surveys, ordered by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, to select an appropriate route for the planned transcontinental railroad. Because of his political connections and his mastery of French, McClellan received the assignment to be an official observer of the European armies in the Crimean War in 1855, as part of the Delafield Commission, led by Richard Delafield. Traveling widely, and interacting with the highest military commands and royal families, McClellan observed the siege of Sevastopol. Upon his return to the United States in 1856, he requested an assignment in Philadelphia to prepare his report, which contained a critical analysis of the siege and a lengthy description of the organization of the European armies. He also wrote a manual on cavalry tactics that was based on Russian cavalry regulations. Capitalizing on his experience with railroad assessment, he became chief engineer and vice president of the Illinois Central Railroad, and then president of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad in 1860. At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, McClellan was appointed major general, and he played an important role in raising the Army of the Potomac, and proved to be a brilliant military organizer, administrator, and trainer of men, but as the war developed he proved to be an officer totally lacking in the essential skills and qualities of successful command of large forces in battle. He served as the Commanding General of the United States Army, 1861-62. General McClellan organized, and led the Union Army in the 1862 Virginia Peninsula campaign in southeastern Virginia which was the first large-scale offensive in the Eastern Theater of the war with the capture of the Confederate capital of Richmond, Va., as their objective.  McClellan was somewhat successful against Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston, but the emergence of General Robert E. Lee to command the Army of Northern Virginia turned the subsequent Seven Days Battles into a Union defeat, but Lee failed to destroy McClellan's Army of the Potomac, and suffered a bloody repulse at Malvern Hill, Va. General McClellan and President Abraham Lincoln developed a mutual distrust for each other, and McClellan was privately derisive of Lincoln. Lincoln on the other hand accused McClellan of being too cautious in the field and once asked "Little Mac" if he was not going to use his army if he (Lincoln could borrow it). Lincoln removed him from command in November 1862, in the aftermath of the bloody battle of Antietam, Md., fought on September 17, 1862, which was the single bloodiest day in U.S. military history. A contributing factor in this decision was McClellan's failure to pursue Lee's army following the tactically inconclusive, but strategic Union victory at the Battle of Antietam outside of little town of Sharpsburg, Maryland. McClellan went on to become the Democratic Party's nominee in the 1864 presidential election against the incumbent Republican President Lincoln. The effectiveness of his campaign was damaged when General McClellan repudiated his party's platform, which promised an end to the war, and negotiations with the Confederacy. Consequently he was beaten by Lincoln. He later served as the Governor of New Jersey from 1878-81. The concluding chapter of his political career was his strong support in 1884 for President Grover Cleveland. He was interested in the position of Secretary of War in Cleveland's cabinet, but did not get it.  McClellan devoted his final years to traveling and writing; producing his memoirs, 'McClellan's Own Story," in which he stridently defended his conduct during the war. He died unexpectedly of a heart attack at the age of 58 at Orange, New Jersey. He was buried at Riverview Cemetery in Trenton.


Wet plate, albumen carte de visite photograph, mounted to 2 3/8 x 4 1/4 card. Standing view striking a Napoleonic pose while wearing a double breasted frock coat with rank of major general. Superbly autographed in a bold ink hand on the front mount, Geo. B. McClellan. Back mark: Whipple, 96 Washington Street, Boston. McClellan was not camera shy, but this is a pose I have never encountered before. This image came from the Surgeon and General Bernard J.D. Irwin collection. Written in period ink in Irwin's hand on the reverse is, Major Genl. Geo. B. McClellan, Com'der in Chief U.S.A., Com'der Army of the Potomac. Died Oct. 29, 1885, at 59. This is image No. 37 in the Irwin collection as indicated on the reverse of the card. Excellent photograph. Very desirable autographed image of "Little Mac." Rare. 


<u>History of United States Surgeon & General Bernard John Dowling Irwin</u>


<i><b>Surgeon & General Irwin was the first United States Medal of Honor Recipient by date of action, February 13, 1861.</i></b>


(1830-1917) Born in County Roscommon, Ireland, he immigrated with his parents to the United States in the 1840s.  He attended New York University from 1848 to 1849, and then served as a private in the New York Militia.  In 1850, he entered Castleton Medical College, and he later transferred to New York Medical College, where he graduated in 1852.

  

He served as a surgeon and physician at the State Emigrant Hospital on Ward's Island, NYC, until his appointment as assistant surgeon in the U.S. Army in 1856.  He was an assistant army surgeon during the Apache Wars, and was the first Medal of Honor recipient chronologically by date of action. His actions on February 13, 1861, at Apache Pass, Arizona, are the earliest for which the Medal of Honor was awarded! The citation on his medal of honor reads; "Voluntarily took command of troops and attacked and defeated hostile Indians he met on the way. Surgeon Irwin volunteered to go to the rescue of 2d Lt. George N. Bascom, 7th U.S. Infantry, who, with 60 men, was trapped by Chiricahua Apaches under Cochise. Irwin and 14 men, not having horses, began the 100-mile march riding mules. After fighting and capturing Indians, recovering stolen horses and cattle, he reached Bascom's column and helped break his siege."


Cochise, the Apache Indian chief, and a group of Apache warriors were accused of kidnapping a boy and a small group of U.S. soldiers in the Arizona Territory after the Army had captured Cochise's brother and nephews. When the Army refused to make a prisoner exchange, Cochise killed his prisoners. Soldiers then killed Cochise's brother and nephews.  2nd Lieutenant George Nicholas Bascom led a group of 60 men from the 7th U.S. Infantry after Cochise but was soon besieged, prompting a rescue mission by the army. In response to the siege of Bascom and his men, Irwin set out on a rescue mission with 14 men of the 1st U.S. Dragoons. He was able to catch up with the Apaches at Apache Pass in present day Arizona. He strategically placed his small unit around Cochise and his men, tricking the Apache leader into thinking that he had a much larger army with him. The Apaches fled and Bascom and his men were saved. Bascom and his men joined Irwin and together they were able to track Cochise into the mountains & rescued the young boy that Cochise had captured.

  

The Medal of Honor did not exist during the time of the "Bascom Incident," and would not be established until a year later in 1862.  However, the actions of Irwin were well remembered, and he was awarded the Medal of Honor just prior to his retirement. Irwin's actions were the earliest for which the Medal of Honor was awarded, predating the outbreak of the American Civil War.  


Irwin subsequently served with the Union army during the Civil War, and was promoted to captain in August 1861, and the next year was appointed medical director under Major General William "Bull" Nelson. He improvised one of the first field hospitals used by the U.S. Army at the Battle of Shiloh, on April 7, 1862. He was captured during the Battle of Richmond,  Ky., while attempting to save the wounded General Nelson. He was promoted to major in September 1862, and after his release from a Rebel prison he became medical director in the Army of the Southwest.  From 1863 to 1865, he was superintendent of the military hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, and in March of 1865, he was brevetted to the rank of colonel.  He was a companion of the California Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, and the Order of the Indian Wars of the United States. After the Civil War, Irwin served as a senior medical officer at several U.S. army posts, including West Point from 1873 to 1878. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in September 1885, to colonel in August 1890, and to brigadier general in April 1904.  He died in Ontario, Canada, on December 15, 1917, and is buried in the West Point Cemetery, at the U.S. Military Academy, New York.

  

His son George LeRoy Irwin, graduated from West Point in 1889, and served in World War I, becoming a Major General in the U.S. Army.

 

His grandson Stafford LeRoy Irwin, graduated from West Point in 1915, and served in World War II, and became a Lieutenant General in the U.S. Army.

 

His daughter, Amy Irwin Addams McCormick, was a nurse with the American Red Cross and served during World War I.


General Irwin was an admirer and collector of photographs, and he put together a very large, and superb collection of Union and Confederate images. Interestingly, he collected photographs of both Rebel and Yankee alike. I have owned several famous military photograph albums before and never came across one that collected images from both sides of the rebellion. He numbered each individual image, and wrote a brief historical notation on each one. The collection was split up by another dealer, and by the time I found out about it, I was still very fortunate to be able to acquire about one third of his superb Civil War image collection. Each image is rare because it is "one of a kind" having come from the Irwin collection!


The image of B.J.D. Irwin pictured here is a copy photograph from the "Find a Grave" website and is used here for illustration purposes only.


   


<b>War Date Letter Signed With Rank


General Porter writes to Governor Morgan of New York to send him recruits for the 13th, 17th and 25th New York Volunteer Regiments</b>


(1822-1901) Born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, he was the cousin of Union Admiral David D. Porter. He graduated in the West Point class of 1845, and earned the brevets of captain and major for gallantry and bravery in the Mexican War at the Battle of Molino del Rey, and at the Battle of Chapultepec where he was wounded. From 1849 to 1855 he was the assistant instructor of artillery at the U.S. Military Academy, and from 1857 to 1860, he served as Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston's adjutant in the Utah expedition. Porter was promoted to brigadier general on May 17, 1861. He became a trusted adviser and loyal friend to General George B. McClellan, but his association with the soon-to-be-controversial commanding general of the Union army would prove to be disastrous for Porter's military career. In the 1862 Virginia Peninsular campaign, Porter led a division of the 3rd Corps, and during the 7 Days battles he commanded the 5th Corps where he demonstrated some of the finest defensive fighting of the entire Civil War, and at the Battle of Malvern Hill, Porter also played a leading role. General Porter had a very memorable experience when he decided to make aerial observations in a hot air balloon without the assigned expert to handle the craft, Professor Thaddeus Lowe. When he ascended with only one securing line, the balloon subsequently broke loose and General Porter found himself drifting west over enemy lines in danger of being captured or killed. Fortunately, the combination of a favorable wind change and Porter himself adjusting the gas valves allowed him to return to the Union lines and land safely. Although it was an embarrassing accident, General Porter was able to perform his observations of enemy defenses as intended and recorded his findings, although the observation balloon program was disbanded a year later. He saw action in the 2nd Bull Run campaign, and at Antietam. Porter became the unfortunate scape goat for the anti General George B. McClellan faction in the army & the government headed by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, and was tried on trumped up charges by a military commission for his actions in the 2nd Bull Run campaign. With the odds greatly stacked against him by virtue of defective maps, perjury and hearsay testimony, Porter was found guilty and dismissed from the army in 1863. He spent the rest of his life in an effort to vindicate his name and honor and have his name reinstated on the army roster. Sixteen years later a board headed by General John M. Schofield not only completely exonerated Porter from the charges brought up against him, but also cited him as the savior of the Army of Virginia at 2nd Bull Run! The ruining of the career of this magnificent soldier simply for his devotion to his friend and commanding officer, General McClellan, was a disgraceful chapter in the history of the Army of the Potomac. President Grover Cleveland commuted Porter's sentence and a special act of the U.S. Congress restored Porter's commission as an infantry colonel in the Regular U.S. Army, backdated to May 14, 1861. Two days later, August 7, 1886, Porter, seeing vindication, voluntarily retired from the Army. He served as the New York City Commissioner of Public Works, the New York City Police Commissioner, and the New York City Fire Commissioner. On December 27, 1894, Porter, along with 18 others, founded the Military and Naval Order of the United States, which was soon renamed the Military Order of Foreign Wars. Porter's name was at the top of the list of signers of the original institution and received the first insignia issued by the Order. Porter died in Morristown, New Jersey, on May 21, 1901, and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York.


<u>War Date Letter Signed:</u> 2 pages, 7 3/4 x 9 3/4, in ink, written to the Governor of New York.


To

His Excellency Edwin D. Morgan

Governor of New York

Albany, New York


Division Head Quarters

Hall's Hill, Va., January 26/62


Governor,


If in your power to fill up at an early day the following Regiments from your State, in my command, you will be doing them- already remarkable for their efficiency- a most excellent service which will redound to the credit of the State so soon as they take to active service which I doubt not will be soon. The Regiments are small in comparison with those from other States in the same brigades- which have been kept at the maximum. They are well armed, equipped, disciplined & drilled and prepared to take the field- but their small numbers will not permit them to compete to the desired extent with other excellent Regiments, in the same brigade and division. The number of men required for the 13th New York Vols- 260 men, 17th New York Vols. 217 men, 25th New York Vols. 405 men. May I ask your aid & hope soon to hear of recruits arriving from you.


I am Governor,

Your Obt. Servant,

F.J. Porter

Brig. Genl. Com'g.


Docketed on the reverse.  Very fine letter and content. Neatly written.      


<b>United States Secretary of the Interior appointed by President John F. Kennedy in 1961


United States Congressman from Arizona


Card signature as Secretary of the Interior


World War II Air Force hero


RETAIL PRICE $75.00</b>


(1920-2010) Born in St. Johns, Arizona, Udall attended the University of Arizona for two years until World War II. He then served four years in the U.S. Air Force as an enlisted gunner on a B-24 Liberator, flying fifty missions over Western Europe from Italy with the 736th Bomb Squadron, 454th Bomb Group, for which he was awarded the Air Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters. He returned to the University of Arizona in 1946, where he attended law school and played guard on their 1946 championship basketball team. He was admitted to the Arizona bar in 1948, and began a law practice in Tucson. A Democrat, he was a United States Congressman from Arizona, 1955-1961, and served as U.S. Secretary of the Interior, under Presidents' John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson (1961-1969). Among his many accomplishments, Udall oversaw the addition of four national parks, six national monuments, eight national seashores and lake shores, nine national recreation areas, twenty national historic sites, and fifty-six national wildlife refuges. In September 1962, Udall was summoned unexpectedly into a meeting with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev while on a tour of the Soviet Union. It was during this meeting that Khrushchev famously hinted at his secret deployment of nuclear missiles to Cuba by telling Udall: "It's been a long time since you could spank us like a little boy. Now we can swat your ass." This was a prelude to the Cuban Missile Crisis. In 1967, the National Audubon Society awarded Udall its highest honor, the Audubon medal.  He died on March 20, 2010 at his homer in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The United States Department of the Interior Building is named the "Stewart Lee Udall Department of the Interior Building" in his honor.


<u>Card Signature With Title</u>: 4 1/2 x 2 1/2, thick card with imprint, Autograph of, then signed in ink, "Stewart L. Udall," above his printed titled, The Secretary of the Interior. Choice condition vintage 1960's autograph. Extremely desirable President John F. Kennedy cabinet member who was involved in the Cuban Missile Crisis! 


 


<b>Letter Signed Regarding the annual Lady Washington Reception


RETAIL PRICE $150.00</b>


(1827-1894) Born in Carrollton, Illinois, he graduated in the West Point class of 1847 and was assigned to the 3rd U.S. Artillery. He served during the Mexican War under General Winfield Scott, and was later on frontier duty and garrison duty as an assistant to Major George H. Thomas. He was adjutant at the United States Military Academy from 1854 to 1859, under Colonel Robert E. Lee. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he was commanding a battery of light artillery in the defenses of Washington, when he was assigned as chief of staff to General Irvin McDowell serving in the Battle of 1st Bull Run. Afterwards he served as chief of staff under General Don Carlos Buell, in the Army the Ohio, taking part in the battles of Shiloh and Corinth, and the pursuit of General Braxton Bragg's army in Kentucky. Fry was appointed Provost Marshal General of the United States Army, on March 17, 1863, and promoted to rank of brigadier general. General Ulysses S. Grant was quoted as saying that General Fry was the officer best fitted to handle the position. General James B. Fry was brevetted to brigadier general, and major general, in the Regular U.S. Army, for faithful, meritorious, gallant and distinguished service during the Civil War. After the war Fry remained on active duty in the Regular U.S. Army, and served as the adjutant general of the Division of the Pacific, and as adjutant general of the Department of the East, until his retirement from the Army on July 1, 1881. General Fry died in Newport, Rhode Island, and was buried at the Church of St. James the Less in Philadelphia.


<u>Letter Signed</u>: 4 1/2 x 6 3/4, 2 pages in ink, on his imprinted letter sheet with his initials "JBF" at the top center.


Dear Madam,


I deeply regret that an engagement of long standing for the 22 instant which cannot be broken or accommodated to any other will deprive me of the pleasure & the honor of availing myself of your kind offer to escort one of the ladies at the opening of the "Lady Washington Reception" on the 22 inst. 


Very truly yours,

James B. Fry


To:

Mrs. John D. Townsend

353 West 34th Street


Neatly written. Very fine letter. Interesting content relating to the very 1st Lady, Mrs. Martha Washington, the wife of President George Washington.


The "Lady Washington Reception" was an annual tradition that started in Philadelphia on May 7, 1789, during President George Washington's first term in office. This grand ball attended by a group of notables of the period was an event that provided the model for what would become the first official inaugural ball of the newly elected President and his 1st Lady. The term "Lady Washington" was a term used relating to British peerage and was meant to be a title of honor.

CDV, General George B. McClellan $1000.00

 

Autograph, General Fitz John Porter $250.00

 

Autograph, Stewart Lee Udall $50.00

 

Autograph, General James B. Fry $125.00




<b>Graduated #1 in the West Point class of 1853 


Killed in the Atlanta campaign in July 1864


From the personal collection of Surgeon & General Bernard John Dowling Irwin. Irwin has the distinct honor of being the first recipient of the Medal of Honor in U.S. military history by date of action, February 13, 1861</b>


(1828-64) He was born in Clyde, Ohio, and graduated #1 in the West Point class of 1853, a class which included future Civil War generals Philip H. Sheridan, John M. Schofield and John Bell Hood.  After graduation McPherson was commissioned brevet second lieutenant and he was appointed to the Corps of Engineers. For a year after his graduation, he was assistant instructor of  engineering at West Point, a position never before given to so young an officer. From 1854 to 1857, McPherson was the assistant engineer upon the defenses of New York harbor, and the improvement of the Hudson River. In 1857, he was superintendent of the building of Fort Delaware, and in 1857–61 he was superintending engineer of the construction of the defenses of Alcatraz Island, at San Francisco, California, and was promoted to first lieutenant in 1858. In 1859, while in San Francisco, he met Emily Hoffman, a woman from a prominent merchant family in Baltimore who had come to California to help care for her sister's children. She soon became engaged to McPherson and a wedding was planned, but ultimately was put off by the onset of the Civil War. 


At the outbreak of the rebellion, he requested a position on the staff of General Henry W. Halleck, one of the senior commanders in the west. Promoted to captain, on August 6, 1861, he was sent to St. Louis, Missouri, serving under General Halleck as his aide-de-camp, and was promoted to lieutenant colonel. McPherson's career began rising after this assignment, as he was the Chief Engineer in General Ulysses S. Grant's army during the capture of Forts Henry and Donelson, Tenn., February 1862. He was promoted to brigadier general on May 15, 1862, and served as military superintendent of the railroads in western Tennessee. On October 8th, he was promoted to major general and was soon after given command of the 17th Corps in General Grant's Army of the Tennessee. He saw service at Shiloh, Corinth and Vicksburg, and on March 26, 1864, he was given command of the Army of the Tennessee which he led in the subsequent campaign in northern Georgia. Eleven years after their graduation, now Confederate General John Bell Hood opposed General McPherson before Atlanta, and Hood's battle order would result in the death of his old friend and classmate. McPherson was killed before Atlanta on July 22, 1864. General William T. Sherman's tears rolled through his beard and down on the floor when he viewed the dead body of his friend laid upon a door torn from its hinges and improvised as a bier.


Confederate General John Bell Hood, wrote of his old friend McPherson's death:


"I will record the death of my classmate and boyhood friend, General James B. McPherson, the announcement of which caused me sincere sorrow. Since we had graduated in 1853, and had each been ordered off on duty in different directions, it has not been our fortune to meet. Neither the years nor the difference of sentiment that had led us to range ourselves on opposite sides in the war had lessened my friendship; indeed the attachment formed in early youth was strengthened by my admiration and gratitude for his conduct toward our people in the vicinity of Vicksburg. His considerate and kind treatment of them stood in bright contrast to the course pursued by many Federal officers."


General William T. Sherman openly wept upon the death of General McPherson, and  penned a letter to Emily Hoffman, McPherson fiance in Baltimore, stating: 


"My Dear Young Lady, A letter from your Mother to General Barry on my Staff reminds me that I owe you heartfelt sympathy and a sacred duty of recording the fame of one of our Country's brightest and most glorious Characters. I yield to none on Earth but yourself the right to excel me in lamentations for our Dead Hero. Why should death's darts reach the young and brilliant instead of older men who could better have been spared?"


McPherson was the second-highest-ranking Union officer to be killed in action during the war, the highest being General John Sedgwick. Miss Hoffman never recovered from his death, living a quiet and lonely life until her death in 1891.


Wet plate, albumen carte de visite photograph, mounted to 2 3/8 x 3 3/4 card. Bust view in uniform with rank of major general. Back mark: Published by E. & H.T. Anthony, 501 Broadway, New York. Card is slightly trimmed. This image came from the Surgeon and General Bernard J.D. Irwin collection. There is a period ink inscription written on the front mount, Maj. Genl. J.B. McPherson, U.S.A. This is written in red ink indicating that McPherson was killed during the Civil War. Written in period ink in Irwin's hand on the reverse is, Maj. Genl. Jas. B. McPherson, Comdg. 17th Corps N. Army. Written in red ink is, Killed July 22, '64 at Atlanta, Ga. This is image No. 61 in the Irwin collection as indicated on the reverse of the card. Very fine image. Rare.


<u>History of United States Surgeon & General Bernard John Dowling Irwin</u>


<i><b>Surgeon & General Irwin was the first United States Medal of Honor Recipient by date of action, February 13, 1861.</i></b>


(1830-1917) Born in County Roscommon, Ireland, he immigrated with his parents to the United States in the 1840s.  He attended New York University from 1848 to 1849, and then served as a private in the New York Militia.  In 1850, he entered Castleton Medical College, and he later transferred to New York Medical College, where he graduated in 1852.

  

He served as a surgeon and physician at the State Emigrant Hospital on Ward's Island, NYC, until his appointment as assistant surgeon in the U.S. Army in 1856.  He was an assistant army surgeon during the Apache Wars, and was the first Medal of Honor recipient chronologically by date of action. His actions on February 13, 1861, at Apache Pass, Arizona, are the earliest for which the Medal of Honor was awarded! The citation on his medal of honor reads; "Voluntarily took command of troops and attacked and defeated hostile Indians he met on the way. Surgeon Irwin volunteered to go to the rescue of 2d Lt. George N. Bascom, 7th U.S. Infantry, who, with 60 men, was trapped by Chiricahua Apaches under Cochise. Irwin and 14 men, not having horses, began the 100-mile march riding mules. After fighting and capturing Indians, recovering stolen horses and cattle, he reached Bascom's column and helped break his siege."


Cochise, the Apache Indian chief, and a group of Apache warriors were accused of kidnapping a boy and a small group of U.S. soldiers in the Arizona Territory after the Army had captured Cochise's brother and nephews. When the Army refused to make a prisoner exchange, Cochise killed his prisoners. Soldiers then killed Cochise's brother and nephews.  2nd Lieutenant George Nicholas Bascom led a group of 60 men from the 7th U.S. Infantry after Cochise but was soon besieged, prompting a rescue mission by the army. In response to the siege of Bascom and his men, Irwin set out on a rescue mission with 14 men of the 1st U.S. Dragoons. He was able to catch up with the Apaches at Apache Pass in present day Arizona. He strategically placed his small unit around Cochise and his men, tricking the Apache leader into thinking that he had a much larger army with him. The Apaches fled and Bascom and his men were saved. Bascom and his men joined Irwin and together they were able to track Cochise into the mountains & rescued the young boy that Cochise had captured.

  

The Medal of Honor did not exist during the time of the "Bascom Incident," and would not be established until a year later in 1862.  However, the actions of Irwin were well remembered, and he was awarded the Medal of Honor just prior to his retirement. Irwin's actions were the earliest for which the Medal of Honor was awarded, predating the outbreak of the American Civil War.  


Irwin subsequently served with the Union army during the Civil War, and was promoted to captain in August 1861, and the next year was appointed medical director under Major General William "Bull" Nelson. He improvised one of the first field hospitals used by the U.S. Army at the Battle of Shiloh, on April 7, 1862. He was captured during the Battle of Richmond,  Ky., while attempting to save the wounded General Nelson. He was promoted to major in September 1862, and after his release from a Rebel prison he became medical director in the Army of the Southwest.  From 1863 to 1865, he was superintendent of the military hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, and in March of 1865, he was brevetted to the rank of colonel.  He was a companion of the California Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, and the Order of the Indian Wars of the United States. After the Civil War, Irwin served as a senior medical officer at several U.S. army posts, including West Point from 1873 to 1878. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in September 1885, to colonel in August 1890, and to brigadier general in April 1904.  He died in Ontario, Canada, on December 15, 1917, and is buried in the West Point Cemetery, at the U.S. Military Academy, New York.

  

His son George LeRoy Irwin, graduated from West Point in 1889, and served in World War I, becoming a Major General in the U.S. Army.

 

His grandson Stafford LeRoy Irwin, graduated from West Point in 1915, and served in World War II, and became a Lieutenant General in the U.S. Army.

 

His daughter, Amy Irwin Addams McCormick, was a nurse with the American Red Cross and served during World War I.


General Irwin was an admirer and collector of photographs, and he put together a very large, and superb collection of Union and Confederate images. Interestingly, he collected photographs of both Rebel and Yankee alike. I have owned several famous military photograph albums before and never came across one that collected images from both sides of the rebellion. He numbered each individual image, and wrote a brief historical notation on each one. The collection was split up by another dealer, and by the time I found out about it, I was still very fortunate to be able to acquire about one third of his superb Civil War image collection. Each image is rare because it is "one of a kind" having come from the Irwin collection!


The image of B.J.D. Irwin pictured here is a copy photograph from the "Find a Grave" website and is used here for illustration purposes only.  



 


<b>United States Congressman from Missouri


Governor of Missouri


Wounded at the Battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas in 1862


From the personal collection of Surgeon & General Bernard John Dowling Irwin. Irwin has the distinct honor of being the first recipient of the Medal of Honor in U.S. military history by date of action, February 13, 1861</b>


(1809-67) Born in Prince Edward County, Virginia, near Farmville, to a moderately wealthy family of planters. His father and older brother both fought in the War of 1812. He was educated at Hampton Sydney College, and afterwards studied law in Cumberland County, Virginia, under the jurist Creed Taylor. He spent six years in the Missouri state legislature, the last four as speaker of the house. From 1844-46, he was a member of the U.S. Congress from Missouri, and he resigned his seat to fight in the Mexican War as colonel of the 2nd Missouri Mounted Infantry, and was assigned to serve under the command of General Stephen W. Kearny. He was the governor of Missouri from 1853-57. Price was initially a public supporter of the Union, and backed Senator Stephen A. Douglas for president in 1860. When the states of the deep south seceded and formed the Confederate States of America, Price initially opposed the secession of Missouri. He was elected presiding officer of the Missouri Constitutional Convention on February 28, 1861, which voted against the state leaving the Union. In private, however, Price changed his mind and conspired with pro-Confederate Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson to arm the state's militia with Confederate weapons so they could seize the St. Louis Arsenal, and thereby gain control of the city and the state. The plot was foiled in May 1861, when Union forces under General Nathaniel Lyon seized the militia's Camp Jackson near St. Louis, where Confederate weapons had been delivered. No longer able to hide his private support, and using the Federal action as justification, Price gave his public support to the secessionists, and joined in requests for the Confederacy to occupy Missouri. Governor Jackson appointed Price to command the new Missouri State Guard in May 1861, and Price led his recruits, who nicknamed him "Old Pap," in a campaign to expel Lyon's troops. By that time, Lyon's troops had seized the state capital, and reconvened the pro-Union Missouri Constitutional Convention. The convention voted to remove Governor Jackson from office, and replace him with Hamilton Rowan Gamble, a pro-Union former chief justice of the Missouri Supreme Court. The climax of the conflict was the Battle of Wilson's Creek on August 10, 1861, when Price's Missouri State Guard, supported by Confederate troops led by General Benjamin McCulloch, soundly defeated Lyon's troops, with Lyon himself dying, the first Union general to die in battle. Price's troops launched an offensive into northern Missouri, defeating the Federal forces of Colonel James Mulligan at the First Battle of Lexington, Mo. However, the Union Army soon sent reinforcements to Missouri, and forced Price's men and Jackson to fall back to the Arkansas border. The Union retained control of most of Missouri for the remainder of the war, although there were frequent guerrilla raids. Operating as a Missouri militia general rather than a commissioned Confederate officer, Price was unable to agree on future operations with General McCulloch, and Price and McCulloch became such bitter rivals that the Confederacy appointed General Earl Van Dorn as overall commander of the Trans-Mississippi Dept. Van Dorn reunited Price's and McCulloch's formations into a force he named the Army of the West, and set out to engage Union troops in Missouri under command of General Samuel R. Curtis. Now under General Van Dorn's command, Sterling Price was commissioned into the Confederate States Army as a Major General on March 6, 1862. Outnumbering General Curtis's forces, Van Dorn attacked the Northern army at Pea Ridge, Arkansas on March 7–8, 1862. Although wounded in the battle, General Price pushed Curtis's force back at Elkhorn Tavern on March 7th, but the battle was lost on the following day after a furious Union counterattack. Price, now serving under General Van Dorn, crossed the Mississippi River to reinforce General P.G.T. Beauregard's army in northern Mississippi following Beauregard's loss at the Battle of Shiloh. Van Dorn's army was positioned on the Confederate right flank during the Siege of Corinth, and during General Braxton Bragg's "Heartland Offensive," Van Dorn was sent to western Mississippi, while General Price was given command of the District of Tennessee. As Bragg marched his army into Kentucky, he urged Price to make a move and  Price seized the Union supply depot at nearby Iuka, but was driven back by General William S. Rosecrans at the Battle of Iuka on September 19, 1862. A few weeks later, on October 3–4, Price, under Van Dorn's command once more, was defeated at the Second Battle of Corinth, Miss. Van Dorn was replaced by General John C. Pemberton, and Price, who had become thoroughly disgusted with Van Dorn, and was eager to return to Missouri, obtained a leave to visit Richmond, the Confederate capital. There, he obtained an audience with Confederate President Jefferson Davis to discuss his grievances, only to find out that his own loyalty to the South was sternly questioned by the Confederate president. Price did secure Davis's permission to return to Missouri but unimpressed with the Missourian, President Davis pronounced Price "the vainest man I ever met." Price contested Union control over Arkansas in the summer of 1863, and while he won some of his engagements, he was not able to dislodge Federal  forces from the state, and abandoned Little Rock. General Price convinced his superiors to permit him to invade Missouri in the fall of 1864, hoping yet to seize the state for the Confederacy, or at the very least imperil President Abraham Lincoln's chances for reelection in 1864. Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith agreed, though he was forced to detach the infantry brigades originally detailed to Price's force and send them elsewhere, thus changing Price's proposed campaign from a full scale invasion of Missouri to a large cavalry raid. Price amassed 12,000 horsemen for his army, and fourteen pieces of artillery. The first major engagement in Price's Raid occurred at Pilot Knob, where he successfully captured the Union held Fort Davidson, but needlessly subjected his men to high fatalities in the process, for a gain that turned out to be of no real value. From Pilot Knob, Price swung west, away from St. Louis, his primary objective, and toward Kansas City, Missouri, and nearby Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Forced to bypass his secondary target at heavily fortified Jefferson City, Price cut a swath of destruction across his home state, even as his army steadily dwindled due to battlefield losses, disease, and desertion. Although he defeated Union forces at Boonville, Glasgow, Lexington, the Little Blue River and Independence, Price was ultimately boxed in by two Union armies at Westport, where he had to fight against overwhelming odds. This unequal contest, known afterward as "The Gettysburg of the West," did not go his way, and he was forced to retreat into hostile Kansas. A new series of defeats followed, as General Price's battered and broken army was pushed steadily southward toward Arkansas, and then further south into Texas. "Price's Raid" was his last significant military operation, and his last significant Confederate campaign west of the Mississippi. Rather than surrender, Price emigrated to Mexico, where he and several of his former compatriots attempted to start a colony of Southerners. He settled in a Confederate exile colony in Carlota, Veracruz. There Price unsuccessfully sought service with the Emperor Maximilian. When the colony failed, he returned to Missouri. While in Mexico, Price started having severe intestinal problems, which grew worse in August 1866. Impoverished and in poor health, Price died in St. Louis, and his funeral was held on October 3, 1867, in St. Louis, at the First Methodist Episcopal Church. His body was carried by a black hearse drawn by six matching black horses, and his funeral procession was the largest to take place in St. Louis. He was buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery.


Wet plate, albumen carte de visite photograph, mounted to 2 3/8 x 3 3/4 card. The mount is very slightly trimmed. Back mark: Published by E. & H.T. Anthony, 501 Broadway, New York. This image came from the Surgeon and General Bernard J.D. Irwin collection. There is a period ink inscription written on the front mount, Maj. Genl. Sterling Price, C.S.A. Written in period ink in Irwin's hand on the reverse is, Lieut. Genl. Sterling Price, C.S.A. This is image No. 129 in the Irwin collection as indicated on the reverse of the card. This is Price's best known war date portrait taken as major general. Very fine Confederate image. Rare.


<u>History of United States Surgeon & General Bernard John Dowling Irwin</u>


<i><b>Surgeon & General Irwin was the first United States Medal of Honor Recipient by date of action, February 13, 1861.</i></b>


(1830-1917) Born in County Roscommon, Ireland, he immigrated with his parents to the United States in the 1840s.  He attended New York University from 1848 to 1849, and then served as a private in the New York Militia.  In 1850, he entered Castleton Medical College, and he later transferred to New York Medical College, where he graduated in 1852.

  

He served as a surgeon and physician at the State Emigrant Hospital on Ward's Island, NYC, until his appointment as assistant surgeon in the U.S. Army in 1856.  He was an assistant army surgeon during the Apache Wars, and was the first Medal of Honor recipient chronologically by date of action. His actions on February 13, 1861, at Apache Pass, Arizona, are the earliest for which the Medal of Honor was awarded! The citation on his medal of honor reads; "Voluntarily took command of troops and attacked and defeated hostile Indians he met on the way. Surgeon Irwin volunteered to go to the rescue of 2d Lt. George N. Bascom, 7th U.S. Infantry, who, with 60 men, was trapped by Chiricahua Apaches under Cochise. Irwin and 14 men, not having horses, began the 100-mile march riding mules. After fighting and capturing Indians, recovering stolen horses and cattle, he reached Bascom's column and helped break his siege."


Cochise, the Apache Indian chief, and a group of Apache warriors were accused of kidnapping a boy and a small group of U.S. soldiers in the Arizona Territory after the Army had captured Cochise's brother and nephews. When the Army refused to make a prisoner exchange, Cochise killed his prisoners. Soldiers then killed Cochise's brother and nephews.  2nd Lieutenant George Nicholas Bascom led a group of 60 men from the 7th U.S. Infantry after Cochise but was soon besieged, prompting a rescue mission by the army. In response to the siege of Bascom and his men, Irwin set out on a rescue mission with 14 men of the 1st U.S. Dragoons. He was able to catch up with the Apaches at Apache Pass in present day Arizona. He strategically placed his small unit around Cochise and his men, tricking the Apache leader into thinking that he had a much larger army with him. The Apaches fled and Bascom and his men were saved. Bascom and his men joined Irwin and together they were able to track Cochise into the mountains & rescued the young boy that Cochise had captured.

  

The Medal of Honor did not exist during the time of the "Bascom Incident," and would not be established until a year later in 1862.  However, the actions of Irwin were well remembered, and he was awarded the Medal of Honor just prior to his retirement. Irwin's actions were the earliest for which the Medal of Honor was awarded, predating the outbreak of the American Civil War.  


Irwin subsequently served with the Union army during the Civil War, and was promoted to captain in August 1861, and the next year was appointed medical director under Major General William "Bull" Nelson. He improvised one of the first field hospitals used by the U.S. Army at the Battle of Shiloh, on April 7, 1862. He was captured during the Battle of Richmond,  Ky., while attempting to save the wounded General Nelson. He was promoted to major in September 1862, and after his release from a Rebel prison he became medical director in the Army of the Southwest.  From 1863 to 1865, he was superintendent of the military hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, and in March of 1865, he was brevetted to the rank of colonel.  He was a companion of the California Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, and the Order of the Indian Wars of the United States. After the Civil War, Irwin served as a senior medical officer at several U.S. army posts, including West Point from 1873 to 1878. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in September 1885, to colonel in August 1890, and to brigadier general in April 1904.  He died in Ontario, Canada, on December 15, 1917, and is buried in the West Point Cemetery, at the U.S. Military Academy, New York.

  

His son George LeRoy Irwin, graduated from West Point in 1889, and served in World War I, becoming a Major General in the U.S. Army.

 

His grandson Stafford LeRoy Irwin, graduated from West Point in 1915, and served in World War II, and became a Lieutenant General in the U.S. Army.

 

His daughter, Amy Irwin Addams McCormick, was a nurse with the American Red Cross and served during World War I.


General Irwin was an admirer and collector of photographs, and he put together a very large, and superb collection of Union and Confederate images. Interestingly, he collected photographs of both Rebel and Yankee alike. I have owned several famous military photograph albums before and never came across one that collected images from both sides of the rebellion.  He numbered each individual image, and wrote a brief historical notation on each one. The collection was split up by another dealer, and by the time I found out about it, I was still very fortunate to be able to acquire about one third of his superb Civil War image collection. Each image is rare because it is "one of a kind" having come from the Irwin collection!


The image of B.J.D. Irwin pictured here is a copy photograph from the "Find a Grave" website and is used here for illustration purposes only.  


 


<b>He received a very rare on the battlefield promotion to general by President Jefferson Davis, at the First Battle of  Manassas, Va., in July 1861


Twice wounded in 1862; at the Battles of Cross Keys, and Gaines Mill, Virginia</b>


(1816-71) He was born on the "Elmwood" plantation along the Manokin River in Somerset County, Maryland. He graduated in the West Point class of 1837, and was assigned to the 2nd U.S. Artillery, and went to Florida to fight in the Second Seminole Indian War before being assigned to duty at Detroit, Michigan, during a series of territorial disputes between the United States and Canada. During the Mexican War, he was cited for bravery during the battles of Contreras and Churubusco, and was promoted to brevet captain. He also saw action in the engagements at Fort Brown, Vera Cruz, Cerro Gordo, Molino del Rey, Chapultepec, and the capture of Mexico City. He served in Florida again during the Third Seminole Indian War in 1849–50. At the outbreak of the Civil War he commanded the U.S. Arsenal at Augusta, Georgia which he surrendered to Rebel forces. Resigning his commission in the U.S. Army, he was commissioned Colonel of the 1st Maryland Infantry which he led at the Battle of 1st Manassas, where he received a very rare on the battlefield promotion to general by President Jefferson Davis. He served with distinction under General Stonewall Jackson in the 1862 Shenandoah Valley campaign, where he was wounded in the leg and had his horse shot out from under him at the Battle of Cross Keys. General Elzey was shot through the head at the Battle of Gaines Mill, Va., on June 27, 1862, a serious wound that kept him from active field command. Commissioned a major general, to date from December 4, 1862, he commanded the Department of Richmond, and was charged with the defense of the Confederacy's capital city of Richmond. He thwarted a Union cavalry raid by General George Stoneman during the 1863 Chancellorsville campaign, as well as dealing with the attacks by Union gunboats that threatened Richmond from the James River. Later in the war he served as General John Bell Hood's Chief of Artillery in the Tennessee campaign. After the collapse of the Confederacy, he was paroled in Washington, Georgia, in May 1865. After the war, Elzey returned to his native Maryland, and retired with his wife and son to a small farm near Jessup's Cut, in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. He died on February 21, 1871, in Baltimore, and was buried there in Green Mount Cemetery. 


Wet plate, albumen carte de visite photograph, mounted to 2 3/8 x 4 card. Half view wearing a double breasted Confederate uniform coat with his buttons spacing indicating his rank as that of brigadier general, but his collar insignia shows him with rank of colonel. This was probably Elzey's first war portrait taken, and it was not unusual early in the war for there to be some confusion with rank. Back mark: Published by E. & H.T. Anthony, 501 Broadway, New York. Very fine image. A desirable Maryland Confederate. Uncommon.     


<b>Killed at the battle of Shiloh, Tennessee, on April 6, 1862


From the personal collection of Surgeon & General Bernard John Dowling Irwin. Irwin has the distinct honor of being the first recipient of the Medal of Honor in U.S. military history by date of action, February 13, 1861


RETAIL PRICE $150.00</b>


(1803-62) Born in Washington, Kentucky, he was first educated at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, where he met and befriended fellow student Jefferson Davis, who was also born in Kentucky. Both were appointed to the United States Military Academy, with Johnston graduating in the West Point class of 1826, and Davis in 1828. He saw his first military action in the Black Hawk Indian War of 1832, then moved to Texas in 1836, and enlisted as a private in the Texian Army in the Texas War of Independence against the Republic of Mexico. He was named Adjutant General with rank of colonel in the Republic of Texas Army on August 5, 1836. On January 31, 1837, he became senior brigadier general in command of the Texas Army, and later was Secretary of War of the Republic of Texas. When the United States declared war on Mexico in May 1846, Johnston rode 400 miles from his home in Galveston to Port Isabel to volunteer for service in General Zachary Taylor's Army, and was appointed colonel of the Texas Volunteers. He later served as colonel of the 2nd U.S. Cavalry on the Texas frontier, led the Utah expedition against the Mormons, was appointed a full general in the Confederacy in 1861, commanded all C.S.A. troops west of the Alleghenies, and was mortally wounded during the battle of Shiloh, on April 6, 1862, dying on the battlefield. Tennessee Governor Isham G. Harris, who was serving on Johnston's staff, and the other staff officers wrapped General Johnston's body in a blanket so as not to damage the morale of the Confederate troops with the sight of their dead general. Johnston was soon taken to his field headquarters on the Corinth road, where his body remained in his tent for the remainder of the battle, with General P.G.T. Beauregard taking over command of the army. After the battle, the Confederate army retreated to Corinth, Miss., and General Johnston's body was taken to the home of Colonel William Inge, which had been his headquarters in Corinth. He was covered in the Confederate States flag and lay in state for several hours. Johnston was initially buried in New Orleans, and in 1866, a joint resolution of the Texas Legislature was passed to have his body moved and re-interred at the Texas State Cemetery in Austin. The re-interment occurred in 1867, and 40 years later, the state appointed Elisabet Ney to design a monument and sculpture of him to be erected at his grave site, which was installed in 1905. Confederate States President Jefferson Davis considered him to be the finest general officer in the Confederacy. Johnston was the highest-ranking officer on either side killed during the entire war, and Jeff Davis believed that the loss of General Albert Sidney Johnston was the turning point of the fate of the Confederacy!


Wet plate, albumen carte de visite photograph, mounted to 2 3/8 x 4 card. Bust view in uniform. No actual photograph of Johnston in Confederate uniform is known to exist. This view was adopted from his prewar U.S. Army uniform circa late 1850's. This image came from the Surgeon and General Bernard J.D. Irwin collection. There is a period ink inscription written on the front mount, Genl. A.S. Johnson, C.S.A. Written in period ink in Irwin's hand on the reverse is, Lt. Genl. A. Sidney Johnson, C.S.A. Killed at Shiloh, Tenn., April 6, '62. (written in red ink as are all the inscriptions of generals who were killed during the war). Oct. '59. (It is most likely that this date was written by Irwin indicating when this image of Johnston was originally done). This is image No. 17 in the Irwin collection as indicated on the reverse of the card. Back mark: C.D. Fredricks & Co., 587 Broadway, New York, 108 Calle de la Habana, and 31 Passage du Havre, Paris. Excellent condition, very desirable Confederate general. Rare.


<u>History of United States Surgeon & General Bernard John Dowling Irwin</u>


<i><b>Surgeon & General Irwin was the first United States Medal of Honor Recipient by date of action, February 13, 1861.</i></b>


(1830-1917) Born in County Roscommon, Ireland, he immigrated with his parents to the United States in the 1840s.  He attended New York University from 1848 to 1849, and then served as a private in the New York Militia.  In 1850, he entered Castleton Medical College, and he later transferred to New York Medical College, where he graduated in 1852.

  

He served as a surgeon and physician at the State Emigrant Hospital on Ward's Island, NYC, until his appointment as assistant surgeon in the U.S. Army in 1856.  He was an assistant army surgeon during the Apache Wars, and was the first Medal of Honor recipient chronologically by date of action. His actions on February 13, 1861, at Apache Pass, Arizona, are the earliest for which the Medal of Honor was awarded! The citation on his medal of honor reads; "Voluntarily took command of troops and attacked and defeated hostile Indians he met on the way. Surgeon Irwin volunteered to go to the rescue of 2d Lt. George N. Bascom, 7th U.S. Infantry, who, with 60 men, was trapped by Chiricahua Apaches under Cochise. Irwin and 14 men, not having horses, began the 100-mile march riding mules. After fighting and capturing Indians, recovering stolen horses and cattle, he reached Bascom's column and helped break his siege."


Cochise, the Apache Indian chief, and a group of Apache warriors were accused of kidnapping a boy and a small group of U.S. soldiers in the Arizona Territory after the Army had captured Cochise's brother and nephews. When the Army refused to make a prisoner exchange, Cochise killed his prisoners. Soldiers then killed Cochise's brother and nephews.  2nd Lieutenant George Nicholas Bascom led a group of 60 men from the 7th U.S. Infantry after Cochise but was soon besieged, prompting a rescue mission by the army. In response to the siege of Bascom and his men, Irwin set out on a rescue mission with 14 men of the 1st U.S. Dragoons. He was able to catch up with the Apaches at Apache Pass in present day Arizona. He strategically placed his small unit around Cochise and his men, tricking the Apache leader into thinking that he had a much larger army with him. The Apaches fled and Bascom and his men were saved. Bascom and his men joined Irwin and together they were able to track Cochise into the mountains & rescued the young boy that Cochise had captured.

  

The Medal of Honor did not exist during the time of the "Bascom Incident," and would not be established until a year later in 1862.  However, the actions of Irwin were well remembered, and he was awarded the Medal of Honor just prior to his retirement. Irwin's actions were the earliest for which the Medal of Honor was awarded, predating the outbreak of the American Civil War.  


Irwin subsequently served with the Union army during the Civil War, and was promoted to captain in August 1861, and the next year was appointed medical director under Major General William "Bull" Nelson. He improvised one of the first field hospitals used by the U.S. Army at the Battle of Shiloh, on April 7, 1862. He was captured during the Battle of Richmond,  Ky., while attempting to save the wounded General Nelson. He was promoted to major in September 1862, and after his release from a Rebel prison he became medical director in the Army of the Southwest.  From 1863 to 1865, he was superintendent of the military hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, and in March of 1865, he was brevetted to the rank of colonel.  He was a companion of the California Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, and the Order of the Indian Wars of the United States. After the Civil War, Irwin served as a senior medical officer at several U.S. army posts, including West Point from 1873 to 1878. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in September 1885, to colonel in August 1890, and to brigadier general in April 1904.  He died in Ontario, Canada, on December 15, 1917, and is buried in the West Point Cemetery, at the U.S. Military Academy, New York.

  

His son George LeRoy Irwin, graduated from West Point in 1889, and served in World War I, becoming a Major General in the U.S. Army.

 

His grandson Stafford LeRoy Irwin, graduated from West Point in 1915, and served in World War II, and became a Lieutenant General in the U.S. Army.

 

His daughter, Amy Irwin Addams McCormick, was a nurse with the American Red Cross and served during World War I.


General Irwin was an admirer and collector of photographs, and he put together a very large, and superb collection of Union and Confederate images. Interestingly, he collected photographs of both Rebel and Yankee alike. I have owned several famous military photograph albums before and never came across one that collected images from both sides of the rebellion.  He numbered each individual image, and wrote a brief historical notation on each one. The collection was split up by another dealer, and by the time I found out about it, I was still very fortunate to be able to acquire about one third of his superb Civil War image collection. Each image is rare because it is "one of a kind" having come from the Irwin collection!


The image of B.J.D. Irwin pictured here is a copy photograph from the "Find a Grave" website and is used here for illustration purposes only.

CDV, General James B. McPherson $150.00

 

CDV, General Sterling Price $150.00

 

CDV, General Arnold Elzey

 

CDV, General Albert Sidney Johnston $125.00




<b>Vice President of the United States


One of several candidates who ran for president in 1860 against Abraham Lincoln


Confederate Secretary of War


From the personal collection of Surgeon & General Bernard John Dowling Irwin. Irwin has the distinct honor of being the first recipient of the Medal of Honor in U.S. military history by date of action, February 13, 1861</b>


(1821-75) After attending Centre College and Transylvania University, he began practicing law in his home town of Lexington, Ky. in 1845. A member of the Kentucky legislature from 1849-51, he became Vice President of the United States in 1856 in the Buchanan administration. He was defeated by Abraham Lincoln in the 1860 presidential election. On November 2, 1861, he accepted a commission as brigadier general in the Confederate army, and was promoted to major general to rank from April 14, 1862. He served at Shiloh, Vicksburg, Baton Rouge, Murfreesboro where he distinguished himself, Chickamauga, and the 1864 Shenandoah Valley campaign including the battle of New Market, Va. where the Virginia Military Institute cadets received their baptism in battle. In February 1865, President Jefferson Davis appointed him Confederate Secretary of War. After the fall of the Confederate capital at Richmond, he ensured the preservation of Confederate military and governmental records. He then fled to Cuba, Great Britain, and finally, to Canada. In exile, he toured Europe from August 1866 to June 1868. When President Andrew Johnson extended amnesty to all former Confederates in late 1868, he returned to Kentucky, but resisted all encouragement to resume his political career. John C. Breckenridge  died on May 17, 1875, at Lexington, Kentucky. Former Confederate General Basil Duke led the funeral procession to Lexington Cemetery where Breckenridge was buried.


Wet plate, albumen carte de visite photograph mounted to 2 3/8 x 4 card. Bust view wearing a double breasted Confederate uniform coat with rank of brigadier general. This view of Breckenridge was taken in Richmond, Va., in January 1864, and is the only known war time image of the general to have survived the war. This image came from the Surgeon and General Bernard J.D. Irwin collection. There is a period ink inscription written on the front mount, Lt. Genl. J.C. Breckenridge, C.S.A. Written in period ink in Irwin's hand on the reverse is, Lt. Genl. John C. Breckenridge, C.S.A., Died. This is image No. 190 in the Irwin collection as indicated on the reverse of the card. Back mark: C.D. Fredricks & Co., 587 Broadway, New York, 108 Calle de la Habana, and 31 Passage du Havre, Paris. Excellent, and very desirable Confederate image. Rare.


<u>History of United States Surgeon & General Bernard John Dowling Irwin</u>


<i><b>Surgeon & General Irwin was the first United States Medal of Honor Recipient by date of action, February 13, 1861.</i></b>


(1830-1917) Born in County Roscommon, Ireland, he immigrated with his parents to the United States in the 1840s.  He attended New York University from 1848 to 1849, and then served as a private in the New York Militia.  In 1850, he entered Castleton Medical College, and he later transferred to New York Medical College, where he graduated in 1852.

  

He served as a surgeon and physician at the State Emigrant Hospital on Ward's Island, NYC, until his appointment as assistant surgeon in the U.S. Army in 1856.  He was an assistant army surgeon during the Apache Wars, and was the first Medal of Honor recipient chronologically by date of action. His actions on February 13, 1861, at Apache Pass, Arizona, are the earliest for which the Medal of Honor was awarded! The citation on his medal of honor reads; "Voluntarily took command of troops and attacked and defeated hostile Indians he met on the way. Surgeon Irwin volunteered to go to the rescue of 2d Lt. George N. Bascom, 7th U.S. Infantry, who, with 60 men, was trapped by Chiricahua Apaches under Cochise. Irwin and 14 men, not having horses, began the 100-mile march riding mules. After fighting and capturing Indians, recovering stolen horses and cattle, he reached Bascom's column and helped break his siege."


Cochise, the Apache Indian chief, and a group of Apache warriors were accused of kidnapping a boy and a small group of U.S. soldiers in the Arizona Territory after the Army had captured Cochise's brother and nephews. When the Army refused to make a prisoner exchange, Cochise killed his prisoners. Soldiers then killed Cochise's brother and nephews.  2nd Lieutenant George Nicholas Bascom led a group of 60 men from the 7th U.S. Infantry after Cochise but was soon besieged, prompting a rescue mission by the army. In response to the siege of Bascom and his men, Irwin set out on a rescue mission with 14 men of the 1st U.S. Dragoons. He was able to catch up with the Apaches at Apache Pass in present day Arizona. He strategically placed his small unit around Cochise and his men, tricking the Apache leader into thinking that he had a much larger army with him. The Apaches fled and Bascom and his men were saved. Bascom and his men joined Irwin and together they were able to track Cochise into the mountains & rescued the young boy that Cochise had captured.

  

The Medal of Honor did not exist during the time of the "Bascom Incident," and would not be established until a year later in 1862.  However, the actions of Irwin were well remembered, and he was awarded the Medal of Honor just prior to his retirement. Irwin's actions were the earliest for which the Medal of Honor was awarded, predating the outbreak of the American Civil War.  


Irwin subsequently served with the Union army during the Civil War, and was promoted to captain in August 1861, and the next year was appointed medical director under Major General William "Bull" Nelson. He improvised one of the first field hospitals used by the U.S. Army at the Battle of Shiloh, on April 7, 1862. He was captured during the Battle of Richmond,  Ky., while attempting to save the wounded General Nelson. He was promoted to major in September 1862, and after his release from a Rebel prison he became medical director in the Army of the Southwest.  From 1863 to 1865, he was superintendent of the military hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, and in March of 1865, he was brevetted to the rank of colonel.  He was a companion of the California Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, and the Order of the Indian Wars of the United States. After the Civil War, Irwin served as a senior medical officer at several U.S. army posts, including West Point from 1873 to 1878. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in September 1885, to colonel in August 1890, and to brigadier general in April 1904.  He died in Ontario, Canada, on December 15, 1917, and is buried in the West Point Cemetery, at the U.S. Military Academy, New York.

  

His son George LeRoy Irwin, graduated from West Point in 1889, and served in World War I, becoming a Major General in the U.S. Army.

 

His grandson Stafford LeRoy Irwin, graduated from West Point in 1915, and served in World War II, and became a Lieutenant General in the U.S. Army.

 

His daughter, Amy Irwin Addams McCormick, was a nurse with the American Red Cross and served during World War I.


General Irwin was an admirer and collector of photographs, and he put together a very large, and superb collection of Union and Confederate images. Interestingly, he collected photographs of both Rebel and Yankee alike. I have owned several famous military photograph albums before and never came across one that collected images from both sides of the rebellion.  He numbered each individual image, and wrote a brief historical notation on each one. The collection was split up by another dealer, and by the time I found out about it, I was still very fortunate to be able to acquire about one third of his superb Civil War image collection. Each image is rare because it is "one of a kind" having come from the Irwin collection!


The image of B.J.D. Irwin pictured here is a copy photograph from the "Find a Grave" website and is used here for illustration purposes only.  


 


<b>From the personal collection of Surgeon & General Bernard John Dowling Irwin. Irwin has the distinct honor of being the first recipient of the Medal of Honor in U.S. military history by date of action, February 13, 1861</b> 


(1833-1908) Born in Charleston, South Carolina, he graduated in the West Point class of 1854. He resigned his commission in the U.S. Army on February 20, 1861, and joined the Confederate army with rank of captain, and his early war service was that of aide-de-camp to General P.G.T. Beauregard. Lee participated in the 1862 Virginia Peninsula Campaign, notably during the Battle of Seven Pines on May 31st and June 1st, the Battle of Savage's Station on June 29th, during the Seven Days Battles from June 25th to July 1st, and the Battle of Malvern Hill also on July 1st. He was promoted to colonel on July 9th, and commanded an artillery battalion of General James Longstreet's Corps. Under Longstreet, Lee fought in the Second Battle of Manassas that August, and then the Battle of Sharpsburg, Maryland, on September 17th, where his guns played a prominent role in defending the ground near the famed Dunker Church. On November 6, 1862, he was appointed brigadier general and assigned to the command of General John C. Pemberton's artillery at Vicksburg, Miss. Lee fought notably during the Battle of Champion Hill on May 16th, where he was wounded in the shoulder. Military historians praised Lee's performance in this action, saying, "he was the hero of the battle of Champion Hill. He was captured with the Confederate garrison when Vicksburg fell on July 4, 1863, and was later exchanged. Promoted to major general in August 1863, Lee was assigned to the command of the cavalry in the Department of Mississippi, Alabama, West Tennessee and East Louisiana, on May 9, 1864. Troops in General Lee's department under General Nathan Bedford Forrest won a convincing victory at the Battle of Brice's Crossroads on June 10th, and seriously threatened the U.S. supply lines supporting General William T. Sherman's army in Georgia. Lee personally reinforced Forrest, but the combined Confederate forces were defeated at the Battle of Tupelo, Miss., ensuring that Sherman's supply lines were still operative.  Promoted to lieutenant general on June 23, 1864, this made Stephen D. Lee the youngest at this grade in the entire Confederate States Army. On July 26th, he was assigned to lead the Second Corps, Army of Tennessee, commanded by General John Bell Hood. During the Atlanta Campaign, Lee fought at the Battle of Ezra Church on July 28th and was in command of the extended line in southwest Atlanta in August 1864. His troops, with the attachment of William B. Bate's Division and a brigade of Georgia militia, defeated General John M. Schofield's movement to break the railroad lines at East Point at the Battle of Utoy Creek. For this action, General Lee published a general order recognizing Bate's Division for defeating the attack of the combined Union's 23rd Corps and 14th Corps. He also commanded his corps at the Battle of Jonesborough, on August 31st, and September 1st. He fought in the Franklin-Nashville Campaign and was severely wounded in the foot at the Battle of Spring Hill, on November 29th, but did not give up the command until an organized rearguard took over the post of danger. Regarding the confused and disappointing fight at Spring Hill, Lee considered it "one of the most disgraceful and lamentable occurrences of the war, one that is in my opinion unpardonable." He then participated in the Battle of Franklin on November 30th. Lee's men arrived at Franklin at 4:00 pm with orders from General Hood to support General Benjamin F. Cheatham's force if necessary. Meeting with Cheatham, General Lee decided the situation was dire and attacked at 9:00 pm, taking serious losses from the Union position.  Following the Battle of Nashville, on December 15–16th, Lee kept his troops closed up and well in hand despite the general rout of the rest of the Confederate forces. For three consecutive days, they would form the fighting rearguard of the otherwise disintegrated Army of Tennessee. General Lee was wounded in the foot by an artillery shell on December 17th. After his recovery, he joined the remnants of General Joseph E. Johnston's army during the 1865 Carolina's Campaign and he surrendered with Johnston's forces in April 1865, and was paroled on May 1st. After the war Lee lived in Mississippi where he devoted his life to being a planter. He later served in the Mississippi State Senate in 1878, and was the first president of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Mississippi from 1880 to 1899. Lee was a delegate to the Mississippi Constitutional Convention of 1890. In 1895, he was the first chairman of the Vicksburg National Park Association, and was instrumental in the congressional passage of the law creating the national park in 1899. He also was an active member and commander-in-chief of the United Confederate Veterans society. He died on May 28, 1908, at Vicksburg, and is buried in Friendship Cemetery, Columbus, Mississippi. General Lee is memorialized with a statue in the Vicksburg National Military Park which was dedicated in 1909. 


Wet plate, albumen carte de visite photograph, mounted to 2 3/8 x 4 card. Chest up view in double breasted Confederate uniform coat. His insignia in this view show three stars on his collar indicating his rank being that of a full colonel, dating this image to mid or late 1862. This image came from the Surgeon and General Bernard J.D. Irwin collection. There is a period ink inscription written on the front mount, Lt. Genl. Stephen D. Lee, C.S.A. Written in period ink in Irwin's hand on the reverse is, Lt. Genl. Stephen D. Lee, C.S.A., Western Armies. This is image No. 192 in the Irwin collection as indicated on the reverse of the card. Back mark: Published by E. & H.T. Anthony, 501 Broadway, New York. Excellent, and very desirable Confederate image. Rare.


<u>History of United States Surgeon & General Bernard John Dowling Irwin</u>


<i><b>Surgeon & General Irwin was the first United States Medal of Honor Recipient by date of action, February 13, 1861.</i></b>


(1830-1917) Born in County Roscommon, Ireland, he immigrated with his parents to the United States in the 1840s.  He attended New York University from 1848 to 1849, and then served as a private in the New York Militia.  In 1850, he entered Castleton Medical College, and he later transferred to New York Medical College, where he graduated in 1852.

  

He served as a surgeon and physician at the State Emigrant Hospital on Ward's Island, NYC, until his appointment as assistant surgeon in the U.S. Army in 1856.  He was an assistant army surgeon during the Apache Wars, and was the first Medal of Honor recipient chronologically by date of action. His actions on February 13, 1861, at Apache Pass, Arizona, are the earliest for which the Medal of Honor was awarded! The citation on his medal of honor reads; "Voluntarily took command of troops and attacked and defeated hostile Indians he met on the way. Surgeon Irwin volunteered to go to the rescue of 2d Lt. George N. Bascom, 7th U.S. Infantry, who, with 60 men, was trapped by Chiricahua Apaches under Cochise. Irwin and 14 men, not having horses, began the 100-mile march riding mules. After fighting and capturing Indians, recovering stolen horses and cattle, he reached Bascom's column and helped break his siege."


Cochise, the Apache Indian chief, and a group of Apache warriors were accused of kidnapping a boy and a small group of U.S. soldiers in the Arizona Territory after the Army had captured Cochise's brother and nephews. When the Army refused to make a prisoner exchange, Cochise killed his prisoners. Soldiers then killed Cochise's brother and nephews.  2nd Lieutenant George Nicholas Bascom led a group of 60 men from the 7th U.S. Infantry after Cochise but was soon besieged, prompting a rescue mission by the army. In response to the siege of Bascom and his men, Irwin set out on a rescue mission with 14 men of the 1st U.S. Dragoons. He was able to catch up with the Apaches at Apache Pass in present day Arizona. He strategically placed his small unit around Cochise and his men, tricking the Apache leader into thinking that he had a much larger army with him. The Apaches fled and Bascom and his men were saved. Bascom and his men joined Irwin and together they were able to track Cochise into the mountains & rescued the young boy that Cochise had captured.

  

The Medal of Honor did not exist during the time of the "Bascom Incident," and would not be established until a year later in 1862.  However, the actions of Irwin were well remembered, and he was awarded the Medal of Honor just prior to his retirement. Irwin's actions were the earliest for which the Medal of Honor was awarded, predating the outbreak of the American Civil War.  


Irwin subsequently served with the Union army during the Civil War, and was promoted to captain in August 1861, and the next year was appointed medical director under Major General William "Bull" Nelson. He improvised one of the first field hospitals used by the U.S. Army at the Battle of Shiloh, on April 7, 1862. He was captured during the Battle of Richmond,  Ky., while attempting to save the wounded General Nelson. He was promoted to major in September 1862, and after his release from a Rebel prison he became medical director in the Army of the Southwest.  From 1863 to 1865, he was superintendent of the military hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, and in March of 1865, he was brevetted to the rank of colonel.  He was a companion of the California Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, and the Order of the Indian Wars of the United States. After the Civil War, Irwin served as a senior medical officer at several U.S. army posts, including West Point from 1873 to 1878. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in September 1885, to colonel in August 1890, and to brigadier general in April 1904.  He died in Ontario, Canada, on December 15, 1917, and is buried in the West Point Cemetery, at the U.S. Military Academy, New York.

  

His son George LeRoy Irwin, graduated from West Point in 1889, and served in World War I, becoming a Major General in the U.S. Army.

 

His grandson Stafford LeRoy Irwin, graduated from West Point in 1915, and served in World War II, and became a Lieutenant General in the U.S. Army.

 

His daughter, Amy Irwin Addams McCormick, was a nurse with the American Red Cross and served during World War I.


General Irwin was an admirer and collector of photographs, and he put together a very large, and superb collection of Union and Confederate images. Interestingly, he collected photographs of both Rebel and Yankee alike. I have owned several famous military photograph albums before and never came across one that collected images from both sides of the rebellion.  He numbered each individual image, and wrote a brief historical notation on each one. The collection was split up by another dealer, and by the time I found out about it, I was still very fortunate to be able to acquire about one third of his superb Civil War image collection. Each image is rare because it is "one of a kind" having come from the Irwin collection!


The image of B.J.D. Irwin pictured here is a copy photograph from the "Find a Grave" website and is used here for illustration purposes only.   


<b>Graduated #1 in the West Point class of 1849


Commanded the Department of the South at Charleston, South Carolina


A military medal called the "Gillmore Medal" was named in his honor</b>


(1825-88) Born in Lorain County, Ohio, he graduated #1 in the West Point class of 1849. After an assignment in New York City, Gillmore traveled to Lexington, Kentucky, where he supervised the construction of Fort Clay on a hilltop commanding the city. Gillmore commanded a division in the Army of Kentucky then the District of Central Kentucky. Though long associated with engineering and artillery, Gillmore's first independent command came at the head of a cavalry expedition against Confederate General John Pegram. Gillmore defeated the Confederates at the battle of Somerset for which he was given a brevet promotion to colonel in the U.S. Army. Gillmore was chief engineer of the Port Royal, S.C. expedition in 1861-62 which gained an important Union position on the South Carolina coast. His greatest moment in the Civil War came when his brilliant plan reduced Fort Pulaski, Ga., the Confederate stronghold which guarded the approach to the Savannah River. In 1863, he commanded the Department of the South and was in charge of the Charleston, South Carolina campaign. A military medal was named in his honor, the "Gillmore Medal" a military decoration of the United States Army which was first issued on October 28, 1863, after General Quincy A. Gillmore, who commanded Union troops attempting to seize Fort Wagner in 1863. Also called the Fort Sumter Medal, the "Gillmore Medal" commemorates the men who served in the fighting around Charleston, South Carolina, in 1863, and was presented to all Union soldiers who had served under General Gillmore's command. It was said that his operations constituted a new era in the science of engineering and gunnery. In 1864, he served under General Benjamin F. Butler and was involved in the Bermuda Hundred, Va. campaign. In February 1865, he returned to the command of the Department of the South until the end of the war. As the war was drawing to an end he was in command when Charleston and Fort Sumter were finally turned over to Union forces. He received brevet promotions to Brigadier General and Major General in the U.S. Army for the campaign against Battery Wagner, Morris Island and Fort Sumter dated March 13, 1865. Gillmore returned to New York City after the war. There he became a prominent civil engineer, authoring several books and articles on structural materials, including cement. Gillmore served on the city's Rapid Transit Commission that planned elevated trains and mass public transportation, and led efforts to improve the harbor and coastal defenses.  General Gillmore died at Brooklyn, New York, at the age of 63. His son and grandson, both also named Quincy Gillmore, were West Point graduates, officers in the U.S. Army and generals in the New Jersey National Guard. All three Gillmores were buried in the West Point Cemetery, at the United States Military Academy.  


Wet plate, albumen carte de visite photograph, mounted to 2 3/8 x 4 card. Standing view in uniform with rank of brigadier general, and holding his kepi with U.S. cloth hat wreath insignia. Back mark: E. & H.T. Anthony, No. 501 Broadway, New York, made from a photographic negative from Brady's National Portrait Gallery. Sharp image. Excellent.  An especially appealing instrument with its unusually heavy construction and well used <I>battle scarred</I> appearance, this attractive old bugle measures 11 3/4 inches from bell to its unusual period <I>composition</I> mouthpiece and is totally unmarked as to origin or maker.  Quickly appealing for its stout construction and obviously heavy period use, closer inspection leaves one wishing it could speak to its history as it remains untouched with a rich natural age patina over all surfaces and every bump bruise and scar.  An outstanding complement to any period military display!  <B>Buy with confidence! </B><I>  We are pleased to offer a <B><U>no questions asked</U> three day inspection with return as purchased on direct sales!</B> <I>Just send us a courtesy  e-mail to let us know your item will be returned per these provisions and your purchase price will be refunded accordingly.</I>  <FONT COLOR=#0000FF>Thanks for visiting Gunsight Antiques! </FONT COLOR=#0000FF>

CDV, General John C. Breckenridge $250.00

 

CDV, General Stephen D. Lee $350.00

 

CDV, General Quincy A. Gillmore $125.00

 

well period used – Indian Wars era Caval $275.00




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