2020-07 2 sessions
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/23/2020
A rare and perhaps unique (in the market place, the only other located is in the Library of Congress) printed battle of Fort Anderson, New Bern, North Carolina broadside, 8" x 12.5," boldly, entitled: "Shelling of FORT ANDERSON," written by forty-six-year-old German H. Sutherland, a private in Co. B, 92nd New York Vols., concerning a pitched battle between Union gunboats and Confederate Major General James Pettigrew's land forces during their attack on Fort Anderson, N. C., on March 14, 1863. In an attempt to retake New Bern and break the grip of Union control in the region, Pettigrew ordered a three prong attack to drive the Federal forces in early March, 1863. Needless to say, he failed and New Bern remained in Federal hands until the end of the war. A woodcut portrait of a soldier with cane (possibly Pvt. German H. Sutherland himself) appears at the top flanked by the following statement, reading, in part: "Written by Dr. Sutherland, a live Yankee of the N. Y. S. V., giving a true and spicy sketch of the bombardment. The 92nd…some 300 strong was the only regiment in the fort at the time…the fort was not finished and without one single gun mounted. The rebels appeared…in the morning, on the 14th of March, 1863 some four thousand strong with 18 heavy pieces of artillery…the attack was on…the Anniversary of the Surrender of the City of Newbern…". To be sung to the "Air: 'Commence Ye Darkeys all.' " The poem/song, reads, in very small part: "Fort Anderson stand near Newbern…before we got it half finished, they found it hard to take…the rebels came this way…they found no cords in our ranks…the rebels came…commanded by…the brave old Pettigrew…they fired a grand salute which rang from shore to shore…they thought to catch us fast asleep but caught us wide awake…they come with flag in hand; we met this flag of truce…we called to take 'old Newbern' back…I hope you have not forgot one year ago to-day…they tried their best to coax us out…we signaled not the 'old gun boats,'…we crouched like tigers beneath our fort and hugged the breastworks…while shot and shell came pouring in…their shot and shells passed through our tents…they ventilated the colonel's houses with some two hundred balls…our colonel cries keep cool my boys and wait the word to fire and…we'll try and give what they may not desire…our friends upon the other shore now ring their hands with grief. They see the awful state we're in but could send us no relief…now they file off to the left. Our shells have changed their minds…soon they gather up their dead and leave the field behind…officers were cool and brave…prominent among the rest I'll mention Major [Thomas S.] Hall…'Old Pettigrew'…says he, 'they will not come, I thought to bag those Yankee boys, but I've burst my biggest gun. I did not like those 'yankee boys' the Ninety-second, you know, and as they don't conclude to come. We'd better conclude to go…". A rare opportunity to acquire this rare broadside with this being the first we have encountered in the marketplace. Negligible folds and spotting, else VG to near fine.
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