behind AotW

This stunning portrait of Major Peter Fayssoux Stevens (1830 – 1910), Superintendent of the South Carolina Military Academy – the Citadel – was painted by his granddaughter Grace Annette DuPré (1894 – 1984, NYT obit).

Miss DuPré and grandson Paul Stevens donated the painting to the Citadel in 1959. The original resides in the archives there and a copy hangs on campus in Bond Hall. Thanks to Citadel Archivist Major Tessa Updike for kindly providing this.

The plaque at the bottom reads:

This is Michigan farm boy Francis E. King, probably in about 1858 when he was 15 years old.

At age 19, in August 1862, he enlisted as a Private in the 17th Michigan Infantry. Just over a month later he was killed in the Battle of Antietam.

Thanks to John Banks for providing a copy of this lovely daguerreotype, from the collection of Nick Sacco.

Charles Urquhart Williams was a staff officer to Brigadier General David R Jones at Sharpsburg in 1862 and after Jones’ death in January 1863 was with Brigadier General Montgomery D Corse. He was captured near Petersburg in mid-1864 and was a prisoner to the end of the war.

He was afterward a prominent lawyer in Richmond, VA, where this photograph was probably taken, possibly on the occasion of his service in the Virginia Legislature (1875-77). Thanks to g-g-g-grandson Jerrold Johnson for sending me this copy.