Beschreibung:

William Van Wyck Reily (1853-1876) was born into a naval family but lost his father, William Reily, and his namesake, William Van Wyck, in the sinking of the USS Porpoise off of China when he was just nine months old. His mother remarried another Navy man, Col. Simeon M. Johnson, who helped young William secure an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy in 1870, however the adventurous Reily was bored by academics and dropped out of the academy to join a surveying expedition to Nicaragua in 1872. He impressed his peers and was given a supervisory role in the dismantling of old warships at the Washington Navy Yard, from which he was directly commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant of the Army's 10th Cavalry "Buffalo Soldiers" in 1875. He was transferred to Custer's 7th Cavalry three months later and became one of the many raw, inexperienced soldiers fighting under the battle-tested Civil War veteran commanders at Little Bighorn. Many, including the 1879 Reno Court of Inquiry, have attributed this contrast as a major cause of the Army's chaotic, disorganized fighting and subsequent defeat; nonetheless, Lt. Reily was a casualty. His body was found on the battlefield and buried at Custer Hill but now rests at Mt. Olive Cemetery, near his birthplace in Washington; a ring he was wearing when he was killed, supposedly returned by the Indian who killed him, resides in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. (see Lot 459) Lot of 5 photographs, including: an albumen cabinet vignette of Lt. Reily in civilian dress on a cream mount with Gerlach & Fromhagen's Philadelphia imprint and pencil inscription Uncle Willie on verso; a Gerlach & Fromhagen backmarked CDV of Reily in civilian dress; a 3.25 x 4.25 in. oval albumen photograph of Reily in civilian dress, cut from a W. Kurtz cabinet card, ink inscribed William Reily above verso imprint; an albumen cabinet photograph of a young Reily as a naval cadet, on a light gray mount lacking imprint, pencil and ink inscribed Washington DC / Uncle Willie Riley[sic] at Naval Academy; and an cabinet photograph of Lt. Reily in his full dress 10th Cavalry uniform, ca late 1875, on a gray mount lacking imprint, ink inscribed on verso Lieutenant William Van Wyck Reily / Killed with Gen Custer / Battle of Litle Big Horn / June 25 - 1876, and previous owner's address in pencil. Provenance: Archive of 2nd Lt. William Van Wyck Reily, 7th Cavalry Condition: All in very good condition. The Gerlach & Fromhagen cabinet card has a 1" tear halfway up the right side not affecting the subject.