The Fathers and Saviors of Our Country: A Presidential Sale

Comprising 62 photographs, including images of Van Vliet and family, Ralph Waldo Emerson, William H. Seward, Henry Ward Beecher, Ulysses S. Grant, and Civil War figures General Philip Sheridan, General Winfield Scott, Major Charles Mundee, Captain Duncan Archibald Pell, General Fitz John Porter, and others. Housed in a contemporary brown morocco carte-de-visite album, stamped in gothic pattern with brass clasps and catches, gilt edges (rubbing to extremities).

Stewart van Vliet entered the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1836 and graduated ninth in his class four years later; eleven of his classmates, including William Tecumseh Sherman and John Porter McCown, would serve as generals during the Civil War. He went on to serve under Generals Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott during the Mexican-American War. In 1857, he served with Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston in the Utah War, gaining renown for his courteous treatment of the Mormon settlers, which ultimately helped to bring a peaceful resolution to the crisis.

For most of the Civil War, Van Vliet was stationed in New York City, where he coordinated supplies and transportation for Union soldiers. Before the war's end, he received four promotions and would finish his military career in 1879 as a brigadier general. He died in 1901 and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

PROVENANCE:

The Van Vliet family (CDVs identified in pencil below each)