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Item Code: 2024-1829
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A superb bust view of the much-admired General Philip Kearny. Featuring a full side profile, a contrasted General Kearny is shown in great detail with full uniform and stoic pose.
The reverse/back features a cursive “General Kearny”, which is a label and does not match examples of the General’s known signature and a stamp by the photographer that reads “R.W. Addis, Photographer, McCLEES GALLERY, 308 Penna. Avenue, WASHINGTON, D.C.”
The overall length of the Carte de Visite photograph is 4.25” with an overall width of just over 2.25”.
Over the years, there have been various versions of the events immediately following the general’s death at Chantilly Virginia during the Union withdrawal from Manassas Junction. When Stonewall Jackson, who knew Kearny in Mexico, arrived, he purportedly said, “My God, boys, do you know who you have killed? You have shot the most gallant officer in the United States army.” Jackson removed his hat and bowed his head in tribute, as did a number of other Confederate soldiers around him. According to another account, Confederate Maj. Gen. A.P. Hill recognized the body by lantern-light after it was laid out on the porch of Jackson’s headquarters and proclaimed, “You’ve killed Phil Kearny[;] he deserved a better fate than to die in the mud.”
The next morning, Jackson’s battle dispatches arrived at Robert E. Lee’s headquarters. After reading the one announcing Kearny’s death, Lee immediately ordered Major Henry Taylor of his staff to arrange for passing Kearny’s body through the lines. Taylor had Kearny’s body and personal effects loaded aboard Jackson’s personal ambulance and taken to Fairfax Court House. After the war, Taylor recalled thinking “There is no place for exultation in the contemplation of the death of so gallant a man…I was conscious of a feeling of deep respect and great admiration for the brave soldier.”
At St. Mary’s Church near Fairfax Station, the body was turned over to Federal pickets. Major General David Birney, commander of the Union troops at Chantilly after Stevens and Kearny were killed, selected troops and the color guard of the 57th Pennsylvania Infantry—part of “Kearny’s Own”—to accompany the body to Alexandria, Va. for autopsy and embalming. Word of Kearny’s death had already spread throughout the North, and the outpouring of admiration and grief was immediate and widespread. Harper’s Weekly plaintively asked, “Who can replace Phil Kearny?” The Tribune lamented “The death of Phil Kearny is a national loss.” In England, The Times of London noted: “At Chantilly fell one of the more gallant officers of the Federal Army, General Kearny.”
From Alexandria, a train carried Kearny’s body to Bellegrove, his palatial mansion in northern New Jersey. Thousands of people filed by the coffin during the four days it lay in state. On September 8, under a brilliant autumn sky, Kearny’s hearse rolled through Newark and Jersey City. His likeness adorned many windows along the route. Then it crossed the Passaic River by ferry and on to New York City. Thousands lined Broadway as Kearny’s flag draped coffin passed his childhood home at Number 3 and made its way to Trinity Church. There the coffin was placed in the massive Watt family crypt next to his maternal grandfather, James, whose death allowed Kearny to fulfill his passion to become a soldier.
Born to wealth, Kearny could have lived a safe and comfortable life. Instead, he chose service to his country, leaving behind a military record that few have matched. A.P. Hill had grieved that Kearny deserved a better fate than to die in the mud, but Kearny might have disagreed. If judged by his motto, “Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori” (“It is a sweet and fitting thing to die for one’s country”), Kearny likely died a happy man.
An uncommon chance to own a view of General Kearny before his tragic death, taken by a desirable D.C. photographer. A worthy addition to any collection. [cm][ph:L]
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