USS Louisville, Albumen Photograph of Brown Water Navy Gunboat

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American Historical Ephemera and Photography

By Cowan's Auctions

Nov 19, 2020

Set Reminder 2020-11-19 10:00:00 2020-11-19 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : American Historical Ephemera and Photography https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/cowans/american-historical-ephemera-and-photography-5894
Cowan’s Auctions, a Hindman Company, is pleased to present the November 19 Fall Auction, featuring over 400 lots of historically significant photography, manuscript material, artwork, and other ephemera dating from the 18th through the early 20th century, including the Civil War. Cowan's Auctions dawnie@cowans.com

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• Lot Description
  Albumen photograph, 3.25 x 6.5 in., on 7 x 9.25 in. mount with period identification, showing the USS Louisville in near profile with a number of crewmen loitering on the casemate top. A canvas sun awning is positioned aft of the twin funnels and the bow and port batteries are run out for dramatic effect. 
  
  USS Louisville was a purpose built ironclad gunboat constructed at St. Louis and commissioned on January 16, 1862. Originally an army warship dictated by budgetary imperative, she was later transferred to Navy command in October 1862 and served as such for the duration. USS Louisville first joined in combined operations leading to the capture of Fort Donelson on February 16, 1862. In March she assisted in the occupation of Columbus, Kentucky and capture of Island No. 10 and New Madrid, Missouri through April 7. An established routine of vigorous patrolling prevented the small Confederate naval flotilla and vital transports from ascending the Mississippi while cutting off surreptitious cross river traffic. Louisville joined the Mississippi Flotilla for the attack on Memphis and shared in the laurels for sinking or capturing the entire Rebel naval force on June 6. Afterwards, Louisville bombarded the upper shore batteries of Vicksburg before shifting to the White River. Meeting with a large contingent of Mississippi Squadron warships, Louisville joined in a combined operation in support of W.T. Sherman's troops who captured the dominant feature of Fort Hindman at Arkansas Post, bagging nearly five thousand prisoners but getting no closer to the strategic prize of Vicksburg. In April 1863, USS Louisville and others ran the batteries at Vicksburg on the 16th and engaged in the bombardment of Confederate positions at Grand Gulf silencing those guns so that the siege ring was closed by April 29. From March to April 1864 Louisville and her sisters participated in the ill-fated expedition up the Red River. The campaign included the element of both naval bombardment - there being no enemy warships to fight - and the rapid transport of army troops to pursue and outmaneuver a numerically inferior Confederate force.  Just the opposite happened. Confederate General Richard Taylor succeeded in not only defending the Red River Valley with his smaller force, he also forced Banks to retreat after defeating a portion of the Union Army at the back-to-back battles of Mansfield and Pleasant Hill. On June 20 gunfire from Louisville was instrumental in breaking up a Confederate attack on an isolated Union brigade at a backwater called Gaines' Landing. The final year of Brown Water Navy endeavor focused on patrolling to interdict supplies to the Trans-Mississippi while rapidly transporting supplies and troops in lieu of a satisfactory railroad network. Louisville was finally decommissioned at Mound City on July 21, 1865 and laid up awaiting disposal. She was sold at auction in September 1868.
  
  The Richard B. Cohen Civil War Collection 
  
  Lots 37, 69-98, 295 
  
  Cowan's enthusiastically presents the second installment of collector Richard B. Cohen's matchless archive of Civil War Brown Water Navy photography. Richard was known to many in the field - indeed some of these images may resonate from a bygone transaction or "show and tell' - but to those who knew him best he'll be remembered as a "disciplined collector who maintained a relatively narrow focus having built an important, perhaps unsurpassed collection in his area of specialization." This catalogued portion of the core collection is a seamless continuation of high quality photography highlighted by an array of Brown Water Navy warships in desirable carte-de-visite format. We counted no fewer than 22 different Mississippi River vessels, some battle-weary and familiar, others obscure, but all identified with many named in period ink. Research confirmed that several of these CDVs were signed by an officer who had served aboard the ship conveying the historic connection and spirit of "wooden ships and iron men." The last of the larger format albumen warships are also included - the USS Blackhawk, Eastport, and Louisville. A fine quartet of lots feature sought-after enlisted sailors. We proceed with eight additional lots of multiple identified officer cartes, the myriad of navy rank insignia during the Civil War both complex and instructive. We think it opportune to quote a comment from a previous buyer who emailed that, "...I draw inspiration from their BWN service when known, and when not offering (him) the opportunity to reconstruct an aspect of overlooked Civil War naval history." Now comes the time to further disperse Richard B. Cohen's collection and recycle the photography to the care of the next generation, and in so doing we salute a lifelong endeavor unlikely ever to be duplicated.
  
  Provenence: The Richard B. Cohen Civil War Collection

  Condition

  Louisville albumen with strong clarity lifting from mount, same with scattered soiling, near EXC.  Tyler albumen with strong tones and excellent clarity showing minor mottling in field, near EXC.  Mount severely clipped left side upper and lower with scattered mottling. 
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