Item No. 4960494

Featured in this mounted albumen image is the US Navy gunboat Commodore Perry and her crew, likely on Virginia’s Pamunkey River in 1864. Named after Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, she was built in New York in 1859 as a 512-ft side-wheel ferry, and was acquired by the Navy in October 1861. She carried a crew of 125, while her armament included two 32-pounder smoothbores, two 9” guns, and one 12-pounder howitzer. Commodore Perry patrolled the waters off North Carolina from 1861-1863, participating in operations against Roanoke Island and Elizabeth City. For their heroic service during an October 1862 joint Army-Navy expedition to Franklin, Virginia, four of the gunboat’s crew were awarded the Medal of Honor. Commodore Perry patrolled the coastal and inland waters of Virginia during 1864-1865, supporting the Army’s operations against Richmond and Petersburg. She returned to New York in June 1865, where she was soon after decommissioned and sold.

In the photograph a number of the crew pose among three of the cannon on the foredeck, with other officers and crew among the pilothouse and raised shoreboats. The U.S. flag flies briskly from the bow. A second U.S. flag is mounted to the stern of the boat in the foreground, which is crewed by an officer and three men. The officer appears to be a lieutenant, and quite possibly is Acting Volunteer Lieutenant Amos P. Foster, who skippered the gunboat from April 1864 through the end of the war.

The albumen measures 8 1/2” x 6 1/4” on a mount measuring 12” x 10”. Very minor surface wear to the albumen. The mount has uniform toning and minor pencil notations, including one misidentifying the vessel as the gunboat Pawnee. Near fine.