Mexican War Photograph

[Shanghai Jack]

The first American War to be photographed was the Mexican War and these images are extremely rare. A superb example is being auctioned off in Cowan's upcoming auction.

 

http://www.cowanauctions.com/auctions/item...x?ItemId=102794

 

ICONIC QUARTER PLATE MEXICAN WAR DAGUERREOTYPE OF CAPTAIN WILLIAM H. CHAPMAN, 5TH US INFANTRY & FRIEND

 

 

 

A singular animated portrait of career soldier Captain William H. Chapman (1810-1887) seated at left with his hand on the shoulder of another 5th US Infantry officer tentatively identified as Captain Moses Merrill who would later be killed in action at Molino Del Rey on September 8, 1847. The roguish looking pair are haphazardly attired —the fundamental appeal of the image—“in a most casual and non-regulation manner” reflecting both the exigency of an army on the march and the suffocating Mexican heat that demanded wide-brimmed hats. Chapman also wears the single-breasted M1839 undress frock coat with a row ten buttons while his friend is attired in a comfortable ‘New England’ style over shirt popular in the 1840s. Both have light colored shirts of ribbed linen material supplied to officers during the war with Mexico according to other research. While the identity of Captain Chapman is positively confirmed in a side-by-side comparison to another daguerreotype of brevet Major/Lt. Colonel Chapman (State Historical Society of Wisconsin Collection) wearing a high-collared double-breasted frock said to have been taken circa 1849. One source indicates that double-breasted frock coats were “authorized” for officers above the rank of captain and first appeared “towards the end of 1847.” Alternatively, the coat could represent the later 1851 regulations. Either way, Chapman was brevetted major in August 1847 and lieutenant colonel in September.

 

Fewer than fifty military daguerreotypes survive from the seat of the war in Mexico with most documented in a scholarly book entitled Eyewitness to War published as an adjunct to the important Amon Carter Museum exhibition in 1989. The Mexican War was the first major event to be recorded by the fledgling technology of photography perfected, of course, by the Frenchman Louis Daguerre and introduced to the world in 1839 with great fanfare

 

The fine daguerreotype is believed to have been made at Veracruz, Mexico sometime in April 1847 by itinerant artist Charles J.C. Betts who followed Winfield Scott’s army “city to city” advertising that “he was prepared to take portraits and, on request, would go to residences to take miniatures of the dead and wounded.” From the distant interior of Mexico we know that Captain Chapman sent this daguerreotype home to his wife and ten-year old son living in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Miraculously, a surviving note in the collection of the Neville Public Museum, Green Bay, WI penned by a 1st Lieutenant John C. Robinson, a 5th Infantry comrade of Captain Chapman, and dated May 15, 1847 relates: “My Dear Mrs. Chapman, /The accompanying miniature/ was handed to me by Capt. C. /as I was about leaving Mexico with/the request that I would send it to/Henley (Capt. Chapman’s son Henley Wedlock Chapman). I avail myself of the first/opportunity of doing so as I have no doubt/ your dear boy is anxious to receive it./ I left Vera Cruz on the 20th April/ at which time your husband was in the/enjoyment of excellent health./Mrs. R. unites with me in Kind regards/to you & yours—Yrs.(?)/Jno. C. Robinson.”

 

Having survived the hazardous 2,200 mile return junket to Green Bay into the hands of William’s family, the captain’s bright, jovial demeanor no doubt buoyed their spirits until he finally returned home from the war early in 1848. Like so many bits and pieces accumulated in life, the cherished photograph was at some point finally consigned to the contents of a well traveled field chest spending the next 150 years as a family heirloom transforming from obscure to anonymous as the generations passed. Incredibly, Chapman’s trunk is mentioned briefly in a diary entry dated October 6, 1847. Indeed, this splendid daguerreotype only resurfaced in California in 1991, seemingly nameless at first, found amongst the trunk’s dusty effects. By 1992 some diligent research had confirmed that the daguerreotype had “come from Hank Chapman, a man who is descended from a very old and prestigious military family." The very extensive genealogy that accompanies the daguerreotype reveals a disproportionate number of illustrious family members with martial DNA. Hank’s great grandfather on his mother’s side was Major General William McClaskey, and his great-great grandfather was the namesake William H. Chapman in the daguerreotype. Two more Chapman men were Military Academy graduates and war heroes. Colonel Chapman’s grandson, Capt. William Henry Henley Chapman, Class of ’91, 20th Infantry, was cited for “gallantry in action” during the Santiago Campaign in Cuba and fought in the Philippines. The great-grandson, Captain Henry Henley Chapman, Class of ’17, 120th Infantry, was killed in action at Bellicourt on September 29, 1918. The Chapman daguerreotype had descended in the family and only became the property of the current owner and consignor because Hank Chapman did not realize exactly who was pictured in the otherwise anonymous photograph.

 

The Chapman daguerreotype has been extensively published since its resurrection and subsequent identification in 1992. The plate appears in articles and books including The Daguerreian Annual 1992, Military Images Magazine, September-October 1992, the 1992 Southwestern Historical Quarterly, the Collector’s Guide to Early Photography-Second Edition, Brassey’s History of Uniforms, the Mexican-American War 1846-48 (1997), the PBS-TV Documentary, The U.S. Mexican War 1846-48 (1998), and The Rogue’s March, John Riley and the St. Patrick’s Battalion 1846-48 (1999).

 

Born in Maryland of Revolutionary War forebearers, William H. Chapman graduated West Point fifteenth in the Class of 1831. William was dutifully brevetted a 2nd Lieutenant in the 5th Infantry and would remain with the regiment for the next thirty years. We are fortunately able to delve into William’s personality as he was a prolific writer “and hundreds of his missives were preserved by his descendants, particularly by his great-great grandson Hank Chapman, and in the collections of the United States Military Academy and the Neville Museum in Green Bay, Wisconsin.” His early career consisted of the usual series of routine postings on the edge of the expanding American frontier interspersed with duty at West Point as a junior instructor. In 1831 Chapman served at Fort Mackinac during the Black Hawk War before returning to the Academy as assistant instructor of infantry tactics. He was once more transferred back to the Midwest in 1833 assigned to 5th Infantry regimental headquarters at Fort Howard, Wisconsin where he was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant on March 4 assuming the duty of regimental adjutant in November 1833. Lt. Chapman retained the position until July 1838. Chapman was intermittently detached and assigned to obligatory recruiting duty through 1840 which allowed him to meet his future wife. The lieutenant married Abbey Ann Wheelock of Green Bay, Wisconsin in July 1836, the daughter of retired General Jonathan Wheelock. Shortly afterward, the young officer was promoted to 1st Lieutenant in December 1836 and transferred to Fort Cumberland in his home state of Maryland where he served two years. In 1840 he was posted back to the frontier at Fort Snelling, Minnesota with frequent posting of short duration to the familiar Fort Mackinac. Chapman’s promotion to captain occurred on June 8, 1845. In September 1845 the 5th US Infantry was mobilized for war with Mexico and transported via steamboat to a point of rendezvous at New Orleans Barracks. With winter approaching the five companies that composed the 5th Infantry were then assigned to Zachary Taylor’s Army of Observation camped at Corpus Christi where exposure led to rampant sickness and the regiment’s first casualties. By May 1846 Taylor had marched the army to the Rio Grande in preparation for an invasion of Mexico. Subsquently, Captain Chapman and the 5th Infantry combined with elements of the 7th and 8th Infantry were engaged in all of the early battles of the war on the Northern front including Palo Alto (May 8, 1846), Resaca de la Palma (May 9, 1846), and Monterey (Sept, 21-23, 1846).

 

Hostility between General Scott and General Taylor conspired with politics to have the regular regiments transferred to General Scott’s southern command for a more direct approach ending at the gates of Mexico City. As a stepping stone to the Mexican capital the coastal port of Vera Cruz came under American siege and capitulated on March 29, 1847. Over the next month Scott consolidated his supply situation at Vera Cruz and by May his small force of regulars was marching in pursuit, nipping at the heels of Generalissimo Santa Anna’s army that evaded a stand-up fight while it consolidated its strength. On August 20, 1847 the retreating Mexicans were caught out in the open at Churubusco “and we cut off about 1000 men retiring toward the city and made a dash at them from the cornfields, killing and taking a great many of their men prisoner,” wrote Chapman. Chapman was “slightly wounded in the right thigh…but did not prevent me from keeping up the action,” he assured his wife. While Captain Chapman’s wound was not serious per-se, it was dutifully reported in the casualty lists printed in American newspapers. Later in the pursuit Chapman wrote that he was nearly killed by a canon ball that “struck Private Stanbury of my company…cut off Stansbury’s hand and let me off. I stooped down and tied up his arm to prevent him from bleeding so profusely and immediately went on (Stanbury died later).” On August 20th 1847 Captain Chapman was brevetted Major “for Gallant and Meritorious Conduct in the Battle of Contreras and Churubusco.”

 

After the battle Chapman’s company along with two others drew guard duty “for the Mexican prisoners and American deserters found fighting against us (there are some 50-60 American deserters in all).” The American deserters along with a number of European expatriates formed the Mexican Batallon de San Patrico (St. Patrick Battalion) having voluntarily served Santa Anna as expert artillerymen. The men were mostly disaffected Irish-Catholics, recent immigrants who, for reasons still debated, deserted the ranks and joined their co-religionists. As former American soldiers they were found guilty of treason and fifty were summarily executed by hanging in September 1847 after brief court-martial proceeding in which brevet Major Chapman was a presiding officer.

 

At the battler of Molino Del Rey on September 8, 1847 the 5th Infantry of Colonel Garland’s Brigade played a central role in the fighting. Shortly after the battle Major Chapman wrote, “Our division was ordered out at 3 o’clock this morning to attack a foundry near Chapultepec. One sergeant and 13 privates from each of our companies, commanded by Captain Merrill, were sent to join Major Wrights 8th Infantry, to advance upon the road towards the city of Mexico, while we went around to the left. Just at daylight we advanced upon the foundry in line of battle, on an inclined plain towards it, with not even a bush to obstruct their fire, the enemy lay by the thosands behind an embankment with a ditch in front of it. They suffered us to approach within 70 yards, when they poured upon us the most destructive fire that I have ever witnessed—it seemed to me that the whole of our regiment fell at the first fire. We returned the fire instantly, but our men appeared to be panic stricken for a few moments. The exertions of the officers soon started them ahead, and we rushed up until we got cover of a slight embankment in front of the ditch, where we lay in security. Someone gave the order to retire upon the battery, which was done with great loss to the old Fifth. In this affair, Col. Scott, Capt. Merrill, and Lieuts. Strong and Burell were killed. Col. McIntosh was twice wounded in the right leg. Capt. E. Kirby Smith severely in the head, Lieuts. Hamilton and Dent in the body. 118 rank and file killed, wounded and missing. If Duncan’s battery had opened upon the foundry we would have accomplished all we did without losing 50 men. Our severe loss places me in command of the regiment.” Major Chapman was brevetted Lieut. Colonel September 8, 1847 “For Gallant and Meritorious Conduct in the Battle of Molino Del Rey” and entered the gates of Mexico City at the head of his ragged, much reduced regiment on September 15.

 

Lieutenant Colonel Chapman returned home early in 1848 and took leave before reporting for duty at Fort Columbus, N.Y. later in the year. The end of the war meant the resumption of routine garrison duty at a host of stodgy army posts in the east with the good prospect of more active duty on the Great Plains against Indians or in burgeoning California rife with gold fever. In the decade before the Civil War Chapman was posted to Fort Gibson, Indiana Territory (1849-1850) with much of the time spent in Texas including recruiting duty (1851), Clear Fork on the Brazos, Texas (1851-53), Ringgold Barracks, Texas (1854-55), the March to Eagle Pass, Texas (1855-56), and a second posting at Ringgold Barracks (1855-56). Chapman went briefly to Florida in 1857 during the last Seminole Uprising and then to frontier duty in the Utah Territory (1857-58) where he participated in the Mormon Expedition led by Albert Sidney Johnston in 1859-60.

 

On the eve of the Civil War Chapman was promoted to Major to rank from February 25 1861. The requirements of seniority complicated by the resignation of numerous Southern born officers dictated that Major Chapman leave his ‘Old Fifth’ and transfer to the 2nd Infantry then stationed in the New Mexico Territory. Major Chapman was deeply anguished over the having leave his old regiment after 30 years while describing the prospect of Civil War as “heart rending news from the States.” The tone of Chapman’s writing from the period is downright gloomy reflecting a palpable incomprehension of the future. In a letter to his wife he confided, “(The news)…completely unmanned me, indeed for twenty-four hours after I heard it, I was not only sick, but I really though I should go crazy. I think all the people in the U.S. are deranged, both North and South…” Chapman appears to withdraw and perhaps for the first time in his military career is unable to conjure a decisive decision. He writes, “If I could be certain of remaining (in Albuquerque) until fall, perhaps it would be as well, for I might thereby escape the most disagreeable duty that ever devolved upon an officer, that of drawing his sword against his fellow countrymen. Indeed, in the present attitude of our national affairs, I think the best place for an officer of an army is in the heart of an Indian country, where orders cannot reach him.”

 

Promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, 3rd Infantry on February 20, 1862 Chapman commanded the regiment then stationed in the Washington Defenses. Forming part of Sykes’ Regular Brigade, the 3rd Infantry accompanied McClellan’s Army during the Peninsula Campaign and was engaged in the Siege of Yorktown and the Battle of Malvern Hill on July 1, 1862 and Harrison’s Landing on July 2. Chapman fought under Pope at the Second Battle of Bull Run on August 30, 1862 earning his third brevet promotion to Colonel for “Gallant and Meritorious Service.” Colonel Chapman requested a leave of absence in September 1862 and never returned to the field. He was officially retired from active service on August 26, 1863 for “disability resulting from long and faithful service, and disease contracted in the line of duty.” Thereafter, he was in charge of the Draft Rendezvous at Madison, Wisconsin from December 1863 through February 1865 followed by a short period of special duty in Washington until September. Post-war, Chapman served as a member of the Board of Examination of Officers for Promotion from October 1866 to January 1867.

 

The old soldier retired to Green Bay, Wisconsin and lived quietly with his wife until her death in 1872. It is not known if Chapman availed himself of Mexican War, GAR, or MOLLUS association, although he was more than adequately credentialed for any or all three. Colonel Chapman was 78 years old when he died at Green Bay on December 17, 1887.

 

In addition to this significant quarter plate daguerreotype and the slightly later sixth plate later portrait, at least five other Civil War or post-war paper photographs of Colonel Chapman are known to exist. A Mexican War engraving of Major Chapman from another lost daguerreotype is also documented. Accompanying the daguerreotype is a massive research file organized by decade containing photocopies of many of Chapman’s letters to his wife as well as pertinent copies of photographs and detailed genealogical information. A compilation of sources that cite or have published the Chapman daguerreotype are also included.

Condition: Plate is VG., bright with insignificant swipes along the right border near Captain Merrill’s head with minor chimical spots in bottom right quadrant. The heavily spotted pepple brass mat is original; the preserver and case are period replacements not original to the image.

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Lets repost this photo.

 

 

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The Close Up