Beschreibung:

Lot of 2 CDVs, including a portrait of a trio of young tars with hands intertwined in comradeship. E. Jacobs: New Orleans, LA, n.d. All are uniformed identically with caps, navy blouses, and bell bottom trousers; and a portrait of a youngster with embryonic mustache and goatee. Uncredited, n.d. His cap tally reads, "USS Powhatan," a sidewheel steam frigate commissioned in September 1852. Powhatan served as part of both the Atlantic and Gulf blockading squadrons patrolling Mobile and New Orleans, later operating off Charleston, and participating in the capture of Fort Fisher in January 1865. The Richard B. Cohen Civil War Collection Lots 133-162 Cowan's is pleased to offer the first contingent of an unparalleled assembly of Brown Water Navy images archived over a lifetime of study by consummate collector Richard B. Cohen, a familiar name to many in the field of Civil War photography. To those who knew him best, Richard B. Cohen will be remembered as a "disciplined collector who maintained a relatively narrow focus having built an important, perhaps unsurpassed collection in his area of specialization." Richard was particularly well read and his historical knowledge informed his collecting as reflected by the photography that follows. The array of carte-de-visites and albumen photographs gathered here include a number of identified naval officers - both famous and obscure - along with a handful of enlisted sailors and Mississippi Marine Brigade images, and, significantly, many views of unique Brown Water Navy sidewheel and sternwheel warships - no two vessels looking exactly the same. Subjectively, the most appealing aspect of the Cohen Collection are the photographs of these gunboats, transports, and impressed vessels quickly converted at St. Louis, Cairo, and Cincinnati for duty on the waters of the Mississippi River and its tributaries. The gamut of improvised warships range from the earliest types of steam powered vessels first taken up by the Army to create a small timberclad flotilla, to the several purpose-built War Department Ellet rams, and later, the more numerous classes of tinclads, some converted but all built for and crewed by the Navy. A few captured Confederate vessels impressed into Union service are also present. It is supremely evident that Richard B. Cohen's collecting instincts were always evolving, but uniformly refined. We trust that both advanced and neophyte collectors will find something to pique interest now that the time has come to inevitably recycle these exceptional images to a new cadre of aficionados. Provenance:The Richard B. Cohen Civil War Collection Condition: The group shot somewhat soft in focus with dented corners, else near EXC. The Powhatan carte very sharp with soiling commensurate with age, about EXC.