?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,500 - $ 3,500
MAP OF THE FIRST BATTLE OF MANASSAS / BULL RUN (CIVIL WAR--CONFEDERATE.) Gwynn, Thomas D. "Map of the Battlefield Fought on the 21st of July 1861 at Stone Bridge." Manuscript map in ink and pencil, on verso of an Autograph Letter Signed from a Confederate chaplain to his wife Laura Gwynn. Single sheet, 12 x 15 inches; moderate wear with separations at folds, a crude early repair, and slight paper loss affecting a few words. Culpeper Court House, VA, 18 August 1861
Gwynn was a chaplain and officer in the 4th South Carolina Infantry. At Manassas, known to his Yankee enemies as the First Battle of Bull Run, his regiment was part of a reduced brigade under the command of Col. Nathan Evans which played a critical role in the battle. This sketch, compiled less than a month after the battle, is an impressionistic effort which reflects his perspective from Evans's unit. Gwynn's letter on verso is dedicated entirely to an explanation of the map. In the upper left part of the map, he explains, "you will see where the battle began. Here Gen. Evans, with eight hundred men . . . held the enemy at bay for an hour and a half without aid. Fought bravely till 2 o'clock, some fought all day." The map itself is full of narrative detail. A drawing of two men on horseback bears the note "3 rifled cannon shots at me & Dr. Burnham, we left toward 'G.'" Along the Warrenton Pike coming from Centerville, Gwynn notes a major Union advance which was staved off by Evans: "This column crossed the bridge at 10 o'clock, 6 thousand strong, while our men were fighting in the woods above the pike. Reinforcements arrive and turn them up Bull Run, and thus prevent our men from being surrounded and cut off." Where Evans's outnumbered brigade finally collapsed, Gwyn notes "retreating 12 oclock, Yankees thought the day was theirs." At the final line of battle, however, he notes the path of General Johnston's reinforcements and writes "Rallying 1 oclock, fight till Yankees give up & strike for Washington." In the midst of the battlefield, Gwynn notes "B" to indicate "Gen. Bee fell." General Barnard Bee died there shortly after providing Colonel Thomas Jackson with the most enduring nickname of the war: "There is Jackson standing like a stone wall." This sale comes just in time for the 150th anniversary of this first major battle of the Civil War. Provenance: By descent to Rev. Gwyn's daughter Laura Katie (Gwynn) Carpenter (1862-1952), and then to her son Paul Marshal Carpenter (1886-1970) of Simpsonville, SC, and found in his estate. with--small daguerreotype, 2 1/2 x 2 inches, labeled on verso "Mrs. Laura Gwyn."
