Johnny Clem Signed Carte de Visite....

Description

Johnny Clem Signed Carte de Visite. 2 1/2 x 4 inches, Ohio; January 1872. A photograph of Union drummer boy Johnny Clem, the youngest non-commissioned officer in the history of the United States Army. Clem, likely eleven or twelve years old in this portrait, poses in uniform next to a saber that reaches over half his own height. He signs on the verso: "Yours [tru]ly / Jno. L. Clem / January, 1872." With photographer's imprint for "J. Loveridge" in Newark, Ohio.

Although popular accounts long claimed that Clem ran away from home at age nine to join the army, the historical record indicates that he served as a drummer boy with the 22nd Michigan Infantry somewhat later, likely after the Battle of Shiloh. He was present with the regiment at Chickamauga, and is said to have shot a Confederate colonel who demanded his surrender at that battle. After the war Clem completed his education and returned to military service. In December 1871, just weeks before this photograph was signed, President Ulysses S. Grant appointed him a second lieutenant in the 24th Infantry Regiment, formally beginning his commissioned career. Clem remained in uniform for decades and retired at the mandatory age of sixty-four, the last Civil War veteran still serving in the U.S. Army at the time of his retirement.

Condition: Lightly toned. Minor soiling to the recto of the card mount. Remnants from previous mounting on the verso, affecting a few letters of Clem's signature.

Provenance: Elizabeth Dole and by descent, to our consignor.

More Information: Elizabeth "Lizzie" Dole was the wife of William Palmer Dole, Lincoln's Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Born in Bedford, New Hampshire, Lizzie married William Dole in 1861 after the death of her first husband, Frank Allis. When William was appointed Commissioner of Indian Affairs on March 12, 1861, the newly married couple moved to the nation's capital. With her husband now a member of the Lincoln administration, Lizzie found herself at the very center of Washington's political and social elite; a marked change from the small-town world she had left behind.

According to The History of Edgar County, Illinois (1879), William "was on the most intimate relations with the President so long as Mr. [Abraham] Lincoln lived." However, we can only speculate as to exactly when the two men were first acquainted. Born in 1811, he was two years younger than Lincoln, and in his youth traveled along the Mississippi River by flatboat selling produce. Lincoln similarly worked as a flatboat laborer during the same years. Dole moved to Paris, Illinois in 1854, and Lincoln spent time in Edgar County while riding the Eighth Judicial Circuit from 1847 to 1859. What is in the historical record is that Dole was an early member of the Republican Party, served as a delegate to the 1860 Republican National Convention, and was an ardent supporter of Lincoln's nomination for President.

Lots 47146 to 47164 were assembled by Lizzie during her years in Washington. They speak to the access she had as a member of Lincoln's inner social circle and capture significant moments of both triumph and anguish. In addition to the two printed passes to the East and North rooms for Lincoln's funeral, note the quickly handwritten pass jotted by Mary Todd Lincoln's cousin, John Blair Smith Todd allowing entrance to the White House a day earlier on April 18, 1865. None but the most intimate of friends would have been welcomed by Mary on such a grievous occasion. An autograph album she began in the 1860s includes signatures as late as an 1898 signing by William McKinley; and so diverse as to include two signatures by "Kit" Carson, six associate Supreme Court Justices, and King Kamehameha V of Hawaii. The countless letters and calling cards collected are the story of a rich life that crossed paths with one of America's most cherished presidents.

The items have been passed down through multiple generations and are now offered here for the first time.