MATHEW BRADY CIVIL WAR CDV MAJOR GENERAL JOHN ADAMS DIX

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Also Senator, Governor, Ambassador, Treasury Secretary Mathew Brady Civil War CDV of Armed Major General John Adams Dix Next up is a very nice Mathew Brady Civil War CDV of an armed Union Major General John Adams Dix, who was also a Senator from New York, Governor of New York, and U.S. Treasury Secretary. The CDV bears the Brady bottom mark, as you can see in the scan, plus a Brady logo etched in the neg, as well as the backmark "Published by E. & H.T. Anthony, 501 Broadway, New York, from Photographic Negative in Brady's National Portrait Gallery." T's a period ink identification of Dix under the image, but that's likely not his signature, as subjects tended to use their full name when signing. The Library of Congress has the same Brady CDV of Dix in the King Arthur sword pose in their archives, which you can see by clicking . Dix was born in New Hampshire in 1798. He joined the artillery as a military cadet during the war of 1812 and rose to the rank of captain. As an adult, he practiced law and was then appointed Adjutant General of New York State in 1830 and later served as New York State Secretary of State. He was elected to the United States Senate to fill a vacancy and served from 1845 to 1849. He was appointed United States Secretary of the Treasury by President James Buchanan in 1861 and remained into the early part of Abraham Lincoln's administration. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he sent a telegram to Treasury agents in New Orleans ordering: "If any one attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot." Although the telegram was intercepted by Confederates, the text found its way to the press, and Dix became one of the first Union heroes during the Civil War. The saying can be found on many Civil War tokens minted during the war. After Lincoln's first call for troops, Dix organized and sent to the field seventeen regiments and was thus appointed one of four major generals to command New York state forces. He subsequently was commissioned major general of volunteers, and ordered to Washington to take command of the Arlington and Alexandria Department. By a successful political intrigue, this disposition was changed, and he was sent instead to Baltimore to take command of the Department of Maryland, which was considered a post of small comparative importance at that time. However, after the defeat of Federal forces at Bull Run, Maryland became for a time the key of the national position. As a result of Dix's energetic and judicious measures, both Baltimore and Maryland were prevented from going over to the Confederate cause. In May 1862, General Dix was sent from Baltimore to Port Monroe. In June 1863, he commanded of a force of 10,000 men, moving up the York River, w he succeeded in cutting off Robert E. Lee's line of communication with the Confederate capital and also destroyed bridges, captured Confederate troops, and obtained control of the whole country between the Pamunkey and Rappahannock rivers. Then, when the city of Richmond was almost within his grasp, Dix was ordered to fall back and send all his available troops to defense of Washington and the Pennsylvania border, then threatened by the combined Confederate forces. Later that summer, after the Manhattan draft riots, he was transferred to New York, as commander of the Department of the East, a position he held until the end of the war. After the war was over, Dix served as Ambassador to France and then as Governor of New York. The image has no revenue stamp, so that dates it to before mid-1864. This is an original old Civil War-era CDV and not a copy or reproduction. Click to see an enlargement of the image. Note: This does not have a black border. We scanned it against a dark background so you could see the condition of all the edges. Size: Standard CDV size -- 2 3/8 by 4 inches. Condition: Very good condition overall with minor handling wear and little surface soil. Fairly sharp edges and minor corner wear. This image has alway... read more

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