THREE-QUARTER SEATED VIEW OF BRIGADIER GENERAL CHARLES DEVENS

$375.00

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Item Code: 1041-267

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Image shows Devin in the uniform of a brigadier general with one hand thrust in his coat a la Napoleon. The General is posed with his slouch hat in his lap.

Bottom of mount has period ink inscription “GEN. DEVENS.”

Image has good clarity and contrast. Mount edges have faint surface dirt from age and storage.

Reverse has photographers imprint for J. E. TILTON & CO. … BOSTON.

Charles Devens was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts on April 4, 1820. He graduated from Boston Latin School and attended Harvard College from which he graduated in 1838. He then attended Harvard Law School graduating in 1840. He was admitted to the bar in Franklin County, Massachusetts and practiced from 1841 to 1849.

In 1848, he was a Whig member of the Massachusetts Senate. From 1849 to 1853, Devens was United States Marshal for Massachusetts and then practiced law at Worcester, Massachusetts, from 1853 until 1861.

A few days after the start of the Civil War, on April 16, 1861, Devens gave an impassioned speech at Mechanics Hall in Worcester. He called upon the young men of the town to "rise and go with" him to the "rescue of Washington". Three days later, he was appointed major of the 3rd Massachusetts Rifle Battalion.

Devens was commissioned colonel of the 15th Massachusetts Infantry in July 1861 and was wounded at the Battle of Ball's Bluff in Virginia in October.

While recovering from his wound, Devens was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers in April 1862 and assigned command of the 1st Brigade, 1st Division, 4th Corps. He was wounded a second time at the Battle of Seven Pines and spent most of the summer recovering. His brigade was not heavily engaged in the Maryland Campaign and shortly afterwards it was reassigned to be the 2nd Brigade, 3rd Division, 6th Corps. Devens led his brigade through the Battle of Fredericksburg and then into winter quarters.

In January 1863, Devens was given command of the 1st Brigade, 3rd Division, 6th Corps but after Maj. Gen Oliver O. Howard took command of the 11th Corps, he appointed Devens to command his 1st Division. During the fight at Chancellorsville Devens was wounded a third time. According to a report by Gen. Steward L. Woodford, who served with him, Devens remounted his horse, stayed with his men and did not go to the hospital until his men had bivouacked.

After recovering from his Chancellorsville wound Devens distinguished himself at the Battle of Cold Harbor while commanding the 3rd Division, 18th Corps in Grant's Overland Campaign. During the final stages of the Siege of Petersburg, he commanded the 3rd Division of the 24th Corps and his troops were the first to occupy Richmond after its fall in April 1865.

Devens received a brevet promotion to Major General of Volunteers on March 12, 1866 with date of rank from April 3, 1865. He remained in the army for a year as commander of the military district of Charleston, South Carolina, before mustering out and returning home.

After the war, Devens became a companion of the Massachusetts Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States and served as the fifth Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic from 1873–75 and was also a veteran companion of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States.

He was a judge of the Massachusetts superior court, from 1867 to 1873, and was an associate justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court from 1873 to 1877, and again from 1881 to 1891. From 1877 to 1881, he was Attorney General of the United States in the Cabinet of President Rutherford B. Hayes and was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1878.

Charles Devens died of heart failure in Boston, Massachusetts on January 7, 1891, and is buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  [ad]

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