UNMOUNTED SILVER PRINT OF CONFEDERATE GENERAL RALEIGH EDWARD COLSTON

UNMOUNTED SILVER PRINT OF CONFEDERATE GENERAL RALEIGH EDWARD COLSTON

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$150.00

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Item Code: 1189-156

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This unmounted silver print measures approximately 5.5 inches in length and 4 inches in width.

Early Life and Education

Raleigh Edward Colston was born in Paris in 1825. At a young age, he was adopted by Raleigh Travers Colston, a Virginia physician working in Paris, and his Italian-born wife, Therese Gnudi, who herself had a unique history. In 1842, after completing his education, Colston relocated to the United States and attended the Virginia Military Institute (VMI), where he would later serve as a professor.

Military Career

In 1859, Colston was tasked with supervising the hanging of John Brown. When the Civil War began, he served as colonel of the 26th Virginia regiment, which was later redesignated as the 16th Virginia. He was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General in 1862. After a period of recovery from malaria, Colston participated in several significant battles, including Chancellorsville and Petersburg. Throughout the war, he served in various commands, such as the Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, the First Military District of North Carolina, and as Commandant of Lynchburg.

Later Life and Death

Following the war, Colston moved to Egypt, where he worked as a professor at an Egyptian military college and conducted numerous expeditions to study the country's terrain for military purposes. After contracting a serious, unidentified illness, he returned to the United States. Beginning in 1882, he served under the War Department and continued this role until 1894. That year, he entered a Richmond Soldiers’ Home, where he remained until his death in July 1896. Colston was buried in Hollywood Cemetery.

This photograph is a lesser-known photograph type called a silver print, where silver halide is suspended in a gelatin emulsion. This emulsion coats the base and then a chemical wash is poured over the paper exposing the image. This image was produced from the original negative by the Cook Studio in Richmond sometime after 1880.

The Cook studio was owned by George S. Cook whose two sons, George LaGrange Cook and Heustis Cook, also worked as photographers. The father, George S. Cook, is famously known for taking the first combat images of ironclads firing on Ft. Moultrie in 1863. George S. was born in 1819 in Connecticut and moved south to Louisiana in 1839. From there, he moved several times (always remaining in the South), making money as a merchant and studying photography until he eventually wound up in Richmond in 1880, where he bought Anderson’s photography studio. This is where many of the original glass plate negatives came from to reproduce his photographs. The Cook studio also purchased other collections of negatives as well.

The photograph is in very good, strong condition with no issues to note. The reverse is clean as well with some minor dirt throughout. There are pencil notations present: “Colston,” “380,” and “(Cook)”.    [cla] [ph:L]

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