Civil War Roanoke Island Map

   Well, the girlfriend pulled through for me again and got me a really cool Christmas gift.  This is an 1866 map of Roanoke Island as it was on February 8th, 1862 during the American Civil War.  The image below details the Confederate forces on the island, and the rebel and U.S. fleets.  Note the three forts on Roanoke Island, and the Confederate line of defense in the center of the island between the "O" and "K" in the word ROANOKE.

The Confederates held Roanoke in order to provide a backdoor way of getting supplies to and from Norfolk, VA, through the sounds to the north.  The Union dispatched Navy and Army gunboat fleets, as well as a division of infantry under the command of Brig. Gen. Ambrose Burnside.  He would have 10,000 troops under his command, while the Confederates would only have about 2,000 under the command of Colonel Henry M. Shaw.

The battle began on February 7th when the U.S. gunboats engaged the rebel forts in an artillery battle.  At the end of the first day, Burnside was able to land his troops on the shore unopposed, but the darkness forced them to retire for the day.  The next day, February 8th, the Union infantry advanced into the Confederate line shown in the center of the map and were stopped.  The Confederate line poured blistering rifle and some cannon fire into the Federals.  The Confederates thought the swamps on either of their flanks would prevent forward progress by the enemy, and did not place any men there.  This proved to be a fatal error, as Union troops poured around their line, crushing it.  The Confederate infantry had no place to go, their forts being captured from the rear, and the entire force surrendered to the Union.

The Union now had control over the North Carolina sounds, and Norfolk, VA, no longer had access to the ocean.

P.S.  In 1587 the English would try to establish their first colony in the New World.  The colony failed however, disappearing under mysterious circumstances.  Where the "Lost Colony" of Roanoke Island went is one of the most debated events in American history.

AFK

Sorry for my long absence guys.  Just know I haven't forgotten about you.  I will be updating this week with a post about a history book from either 1898 or 1903 (still have to decide).  See you then!

Interesting Notes on Robert C. Grier Likenesses

I recently obtained a lithograph dating from 1891 of Supreme Court Justice Robert C. Grier (serving from 1846-1870).  After I purchased it I was instantly curious to determine its origin, because it's a lithograph of the Justice that I had never seen before.  I really stumbled into what I think may be some cool history.

After doing some searching, I was able to determine that it came from a book published in 1891 entitled The Supreme Court of the United States: Its History by Hampton L. Carson.  All I had to do was search for the artist's name, which is luckily right on the lithograph, Albert Rosenthal.  Apparently Mr. Rosenthal and his brother had quite the reputation at the time for etching famous Americans.  From the book:

The portraits have been etched by the well-known artists of Philadelphia, Max Rosenthal and Albert Rosenthal, who suggested the idea of illustrating the text, and whose knowledge, judgment taste and skill in the execution of portraits of distinguished Americans are familiar to all collectors and historical students.

 I had suspected that the lithograph was from a book, as they often are when they are this size (the lithograph is centered on a page which is not quite 8.5-11").  If anyone is fortunate enough to come across this book, you can find the above lithograph on an inset page before page 343.

It looks like Rosenthal etched the Grier likeness based off of an exceedingly rare albumen silver print (one of the first commercial photographing methods) made of the Justice in the mid 1800's by two men, probably brothers, named M.P. and A.I. Rice.  I know that the Supreme Court Historical Society has one of the original prints.  I'd like to get my hands on one if I come across it someday, but I understand they are pretty rare.  Here is the original print:

The Romance of the Carpet

   This is one fine poem from Robert J. Burdette's The Rise and Fall of the Mustache and Other Hawkeyetems (1877).

   Burdette's book is a collection of humorous stories, poems and jokes that he collected during his time as an orator (1870s stand-up comic).  I'll posting more of these little tidbits up as I skim through this hilarious work.

Heroic Deeds of Heroic Men: Charles Ellet, Jr., Harper's New Monthly Magazine (1866)

   I made a new acquisition last week--the first since this blog has been in existence!  Last week I found an interesting article on eBay called "Heroic Deeds of Heroic Men: Charles Ellet and His Naval Steam Rams."  It was published in 1866 in Harper's New Monthly Magazine (Volume XXXII).  This acquisition is very exciting for me.  I've always wanted a piece from Harper's.  More importantly, it is about a civil engineer and badass who gained national fame in the 1850s and 60s, Charles Ellet, Jr.  Ellet was a pioneering civil engineer of the 1840s and 50s, designing early suspension bridges and other works of public importance.  As an example of his work, in 1849 he designed and built the longest spanning bridge in the world at the time, the Wheeling Suspension Bridge at Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia).

Note that all pictures in this post are taken from the article.

A Note on White Erasers

I am not an expert on restoration of old documents, but I do know that white erasers can be used carefully to remove atmospheric dirt and dust, and sometimes darker marks.  The trick to not damage the document is to do very light strokes.  You do not want to put stress on the surface of the paper.

Here is an example of a mark I was able to almost entirely remove by just using a white eraser.

You might notice the image on the right is generally more clean of imperfections.  I used the eraser to lightly clean the surface of the lithograph.

Action of the Gunboats at Memphis

Action of the Gunboats at Memphis (1865)

I obtained this lithograph at a place called the Book Garden in New Jersey for $10.  I had no idea what I had purchased, but was guessing that it was printed in the 1870s-80s based on the paper and printing style.  It turns out it is a steel lithograph based on a painting by Alonzo Chappel called "Action of the Gunboats at Memphis."

This lithograph appears to come out of a book called Battles of the United States by Sea and Land published in 1865.  The volume contains descriptions of the battles engaged by the United States with accompanying lithographs to illustrate.  All the illustrations/lithographs are based on paintings done by artist Alonzo Chappel.  My guess is that over the years these books were taken apart for the lithographs and sold piecemeal.  You often just see the lithographs for sale online.

I was able to find the second volume of this set online in a PDF form.  The second volume contains descriptions and illustrations of the French and Indian War, American Revoluation, War of 1812 and the Mexican-American War.  It was published in 1858, just before the outbreak of the American Civil War.  My guess is that after the Civil War they published a third volume just focused on the American Civil War, and this is the book that this lithograph comes from.

Screen shot taken of the title page of the

second volume of the series.

I've seen prices for Action of the Gunboats at Memphis lithograph range from $50 to $100 online, so I think I did pretty well with this $10 purchase.  Also, if you look carefully at the left side of the image you might notice that it looks a little cleaner (the corners, especially).  This is because I took a white eraser to it, and did some very light restoration.  I will probably do the right side now, but I wanted to leave it half done to show what can be done simply with a white eraser (and a very careful hand).