"Custer's Last Fight" - Artist - Wounded at Vicksburg - NEW

Item NMC-11210

Description

United States Navy 
Cassilly Adams
Acting Ensign
Wounded at Vicksburg, MS
Backmark: Cincinnati, Ohio

Grouping includes (3) images of Cassilly Adams (2 in Naval Uniform & 1 Civilian dress). Also included is an image of a "Galvanized Yankee" - a Confederate Pilot who was captured a Adams and then joined the Union Navy.



Born in Zanesville, Ohio, Adams was the son of William Apthorp Adams, a lawyer who traced his ancestry back to the John Adams family of Boston. The elder Adams was an amateur artist. At an early age, young Adams was interested in art.


A descendent of President John Adams, Cassilly Adams created history paintings and genre scenes that captured the spirit of life on the American frontier. Adams studied at the Boston Academy of Art under Thomas S. Noble and later at the Cincinnati Art School before joining the Union army during the Civil War. He served in the navy during the Civil War (enlisted on December 16, 1862 in the United States Navy. He served in the Mississippi Marine Squadron, attaining the rank of Masters Mate. Acting Ensign, 3 October, 1863. was wounded while aboard the U.S.S. Osage at the Battle of Vicksburg. Honorably discharged 15 September, 1865.
After being wounded in the Battle of Vicksburg, Adams produced his masterpiece, Custer's Last Fight (1884-85), which drew upon his own experience during the war. The painting was considered a vital document of American history and was exhibited across the country. Following that success, Adams concentrated on depicting the American West and gained prominence for his compelling portrayals of the Cheyenne, Sioux and Plains Indians. His work is in important collections throughout the United States, including the Amon Carter Museum in Texas, the Joslyn Art Museum in Nebraska, the Shelburne Museum in Vermont, and the Arizona Historical Society.


"Cassilly Adams painted many western scenes. But he is best known remembered for his epic work, Custer's Last Fight, which he completed in 1885. His rendering of that famous battle at the Big Horn River in Montana eventually was obtained by the Anheuser-Busch Brewing Company, which made thousands of reproductions for advertising and promotional purposes. Lithographs hung in taverns across the nation. "
 
(The lithograph can even be seen in the movie, "The Gunfighter"1950, starring Gregory Peck. The large painting on the wall behind Gregory Peck's chair in a bar room scene is "Custer's Last Fight".)
 
Late in the 1870s, Adams moved to St. Louis where he found work as an artist and engraver.
Custer’s Last Fight took one year to complete. As models he used actual Sioux Indians in battle dress and cavalrymen in uniforms of the period. The painting, which measured approximately    9 1/2 feet by 16 1/2 feet, was produced for two members of the St. Louis Arts Club, who exhibited the historical canvas around the country, charging s fifty-cent admission fee. The two promoters did not realize the profit they wanted from the venture, so they sold the painting to a St. Louis saloon keeper who hung it in his barroom. When the saloon went bankrupt, the painting was acquired by one of the creditors- Anheuser-Busch Company. At the time it was valued at $10,000. The brewery gave the painting to the 7th Cavalry, and it was destroyed in a fire at Fort Bliss, Texas in 1946.

Adams was a relatively unknown artist, a victim of circumstance. Most of his illustrations were done for book publishers who did not credit him with the work. Therefore, many of his illustrations were borrowed for other books and were not attributed to him. Actually, he painted many scenes of frontier life, and it is known that he illustrated Conquering the Wilderness by Frank Triplett, published in 1883.
 
Source:  Taken from American Western Art by Dorothy Harmsen and Find A Grave.