Image shows Crittenden with shorter hair than is normally seen. He wears a commercial sack coat with a black felt collar and brigadier generals shoulder straps.

Image is very clear with great contrast and is clean. Written on the bottom of the mount in period ink is “MAJ. GEN. THOMAS L. CRITTENDEN OF WHOM YOU HAVE HEARD ME SPEAK OF OFTEN AS “TOM.” Below the inscription is publication information with an 1862 date.

Reverse has an E. ANTHONY back mark of an EA in a wreath.

Thomas Leonidas Crittenden was born May 15, 1819 in Russellville, Kentucky, the son of U.S. Senator John J. Crittenden who later became 17th governor of Kentucky. He was also brother of Confederate general George B. Crittenden.

Crittenden was admitted to the bar and served in the United States Army during Mexican War as a volunteer aide to General Zachary Taylor and as lieutenant colonel of the 3rd Kentucky Volunteer Infantry from 1847 to 1848. After the war's end he served as U.S. consul in Liverpool.

When the Civil War began in 1861, Crittenden and his father remained loyal to the Union, but his brother joined the Confederate Army, a common occurrence in the Border States. Crittenden had been a major general in the Kentucky militia since 1860. He was appointed brigadier general of volunteers in September and placed in command of the 5th Division in the Army of the Ohio. He led the division at the Battle of Shiloh in 1862. After Shiloh he was appointed major general of volunteers and commanded the II Corps in the Army of the Ohio during the Perryville Campaign although his corps was only lightly engaged in the fighting.

When Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans assumed command of the army, Crittenden's forces were re-designated the Left Wing of the Army of the Cumberland and were heavily engaged at the Battle of Stones River. The Army of the Cumberland was again reorganized and Crittenden's corps was again renamed, this time the XXI Corps. He led the corps through the Tullahoma Campaign and at Chickamauga. Crittenden and fellow corps commander Alexander McDowell McCook were blamed for the defeat and relieved of command, but both were later exonerated and acquitted of any charges.

General Crittenden was chosen to take command of the 1st Division, IX Corps. He assumed command on May 12 and led it during the final days of Spotsylvania and through the Battle of Cold Harbor, before resigning on December 13, 1864.

After the war Crittenden served as the state treasurer of Kentucky and was appointed as a colonel and then brevetted to brigadier general in the regular army before retiring in 1881. He was elected a member of the Society of the Cincinnati in 1883. He was also a companion of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. He died on October 23, 1893 in Annandale, Staten Island, New York, and is buried in Frankfort, Kentucky.  [ad]

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