Richards, John:

$38,500 · Offered by William Reese Company

[SKETCHBOOK OF FIFTY-FIVE ORIGINAL PEN, PENCIL, AND WATERCOLOR ILLUSTRATIONS BY PRIVATE JOHN RICHARDS, A UNION INFANTRYMAN IN VIRGINIA AND THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA NEAR THE END OF THE CIVIL WAR, ... An important and little-studied Civil War sketchbook, created by Union private and artist John Richards, providing fifty-five fresh, contemporary views of Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia in the closing months of the the Civil War. Richards' artwork, created in pen, pencil, and watercolors, includes views of Union-occupied cities and towns in Virginia, Union Army installations, and the soldiers and African-American laborers in them. There are also two memorial drawings – one for a fallen Union soldier and one for a fallen Confederate soldier - as well as views of Union steamers used for mail, troops, prisoners and supplies. This sketchbook, filled with drawings by a recently rediscovered Civil War artist, is a compelling and important visual chronicle of Richards' travels along the Mid-Atlantic Coast at the close of the Civil War. The sketchbook shows Union installations and the American South as they appeared in the closing months of the conflict, including structures no longer extant, and provides a firsthand visual account of prisoner transport and of the African-American soldiers and civilians associated with the Union war effort. Private Richards' drawings in the present sketchbook include views of Washington, D.C. as well as places in northern Virginia including Alex

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