(PHOTOGRAPHY) Slaves of Thomas Drayton Hilton Head

Sale 2105 - Lot 70

Price Realized: $ 10,800

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

Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 5,000

(PHOTOGRAPHY.) Slaves of Thomas Drayton, Hilton Head. Albumen photograph, showing a group of newly freed slaves, the women sitting and the men standing, a Union soldier next to them. 6x8 inches, sepia toned, on the original stiff paper mount; identified on verso, with a pencil note; some very slight discoloration to the upper left blank field (sky). [Hilton Head, circa 1861-62]

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Additional Details

On November 7, 1861, Union forces consisting of approximately 60 ships and 20,000 men under the command of Navy Captain Samuel F. DuPont and Army General Thomas W. Sherman attacked Confederate forces commanded by General Thomas F. Drayton (a local plantation owner) defending Hilton Head Island at Fort Walker and Fort Beauregard. By 3:00 pm, the Confederate forces had retreated from the forts; when Union troops landed on Hilton Head Island, they encountered no resistance and discovered that the white inhabitants of the island had already fled to the mainland. Hilton Head Island became the Union's southern headquarters for the war, and a military supply depot. Fortifications (such as Fort Howell), a hospital, barracks, and other utilitarian structures were built for the military, which at times numbered 30,000 men. The island was used as a staging ground for the blockading of Savannah and Charleston.