(MILITARY CIVIL WAR) Storming Fort Wagner

Sale 2598 - Lot 317

Price Realized: $ 4,250

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500

(MILITARY--CIVIL WAR.) Storming Fort Wagner. Chromolithograph, 22 x 28 inches; moderate dampstaining along left edge, 1/2-inch chip on right edge, 2 short closed tears with tape repairs. Chicago: Kurz & Allison, 1890

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The Second Battle of Fort Wagner on 18 July 1863 was the first appearance of Black troops in a major Civil War battle. Union troops charged a heavily defended Confederate battery guarding the harbor at Charlestown, SC. The 54th Massachusetts Infantry suffered heavy losses in the heroic but doomed attack. The battle was depicted in the popular 1989 film Glory. This stirring print shows the 54th surging over the Confederate fortifications, engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the defenders. Colonel Robert Gould Shaw stands on the wall by his flag-bearer, clutching his chest, having apparently suffered his fatal wound. "No one else in the late nineteenth century produced such heroic depictions of black soldiers"--Neely & Holzer, Union Image, page 218 and plate 21.