BACHMANN, JOHN | Panorama of the Seat of War. Kentucky and Tennessee. New York: John Bachmann, 1861 [but 1862]

BACHMANN, JOHN

Panorama of the Seat of War. Kentucky and Tennessee. New York: John Bachmann, 1861 [but 1862]

Chromolithograph (sheet size: 20 7/8 x 31 in.), by Bachmann. 

A fine bird's-eye by Bachmann, recalling a pivotal moment in the Civil War

The clouds of smoke over Fort Donelson show that this image is intended to recall a moment in time between 11-16 February 1862, when Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant besieged and secured the surrender of Fort Donelson. The 12,000-strong garrison's unconditional surrender was a major victory for the Union and a catastrophe for the South: Kentucky stayed in the Union, and Tennessee became vulnerable to a Northern advance along the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers. Grant, who received the nickname "Unconditional Surrender," was also promoted to Major General, and came to be considered as an important figure in the western theater of the war. "Bachmann did six views of the Confederate States like this one ... They are very rare" (Rumsey).

(See following lot.)

PROVENANCE:

Stephenson Civil War Maps (1989) 23.5; Rumsey 2657; Reps 60 ("No finer artist of city views worked in America than John Bachmann")