Nov 21, 2024 - Sale 2687

Sale 2687 - Lot 85

Unsold
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
(CIVIL WAR--FLORIDA.) Attributed to J.D. Edwards. View taken from near Confederate-occupied Fort Barrancas in Pensacola. Salt print, 7¼ x 9¾ inches, on original mount with no visible stamp or credit; crudely trimmed to margins, moderate wear, two inked numbers inscribed on image, mount remnants on verso. [Pensacola, FL, circa April 1861]
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Additional Details

With copies of two 1975 letters from National Park Service historian George Berndt, thanking the owner of this photograph for providing a copy, attributing it to New Orleans photographer J.D. Edwards, and explaining its significance: "This particular photo was taken from the top of Fort Barrancas looking in a southwesterly direction toward Fort McRee. These two forts were occupied by the Confederates at this time, with . . . the camp of some Confederates directly below Fort Barrancas along the water's edge, and also a Confederate sand battery. From the undisturbed appearance of the surrounding area, it would seem highly likely that this photo was taken before the artillery bombardments of Nov. 22-23, 1861. I do not know exactly which Confederate troops are pictured here, but it is quite possible that they are part of the 1st Alabama Volunteer Regiment as this unit was stationed at Fort Barrancas during this time."

Berndt states that the image was unknown to him and apparently unpublished, and it seems to remain so. Fort Barrancas, on the Pensacola mainland, was abandoned by the United States Army to the Florida militia in January 1861. J.D. Edwards arrived in April 1861 to take several photographs of the area; this is apparently one of several he took from the 165-foot lighthouse just west of the fort. Barrancas and its environs were bombarded from nearby Union-held Fort Pickens in November 1861 and January 1862, and then abandoned by the Confederates after the May 1862 fall of New Orleans. Fort McKee is barely visible across the bay on the far horizon; Fort Pickens would have been to the left, just out of the frame. See: Leslie Jensen, "Photographer of the Confederacy, J.D. Edwards," in Davis, "Shadows of the Storm," I:344-345.