Mar 21, 2013 - Sale 2308

Sale 2308 - Lot 409

Price Realized: $ 480
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 750 - $ 1,000
(MILITARY--CIVIL WAR.) JOHNSON, MAJOR A.H. Major A.H. Johnson, Drummer Boy 54th Regiment, 1861-1865. Cabinet sized printed blue card, 3-5/8 x 5-1/4 inches, light wear to corners, slight discoloration. inscribed by johnson on the reverse Np, circa 1900-1914
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Additional Details

inscribed, quite possibly to his mother: "compliment [sic] to mrs. perry, december 23rd, 1914." Alexander's original surname was Howard, his mother's name was Perry. His grandfather was Peter Perry, a native Hawaiian whaler who married an Indian woman
At the age of 16, Alexander H. Johnson was the first African American musician to enlist in U.S. military, joining the 54th Massachusetts Volunteers under Robert Gould Shaw. Johnson was adopted by William Henry Johnson, the second black lawyer in the United States and close associate of Frederick Douglass.