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Page 18          The Antique Shoppe            October, 2018
                                                                                    Hello, I have a very                                Lt. Harry T. Buford
           The Civil War Collector                                                good  to  fine  1st  edition                 aka Loreta Janeta Velazquez.
                                                                                  book  published  in  1877
                                                                                  that concerns the memoirs
           By John Sexton                                                         of a Cuban-American
                                                                                  woman who dressed as a
                                                                                  man and fought  and was
                                                                                  injured during three years
           Mr. Sexton, I have two boxes of glass plate negatives of the Civil War, believed   in the Confederate  Army.
        to be copies of plates made by Matthew Brady, called presentation sets. They   It is called,  The Woman
        include  Lincoln, Mead, Grant, Stanton, Lee, the Capitol, battleships, army   in  Battle:  A  Narrative  of
        camps and soldiers.                                                       the  Exploits,  Adventures,
           I took them to the Fleetwood Photography Museum in Plainfield, N.J., and   and travels of Madame
        Richard Bosenburg, a Civil War buff, was able to identify almost everyone in   Loreta  Janeta  Velázquez,
        the slides. There are 50 slides per box with a total of 100. The museum had a   Otherwise  Known  as
        projector that was used with them.                                        Lieutenant Harry  T. Buford, Confederate
                                         The owner would like to know their value   States  Army. She most notably fought at
                                       and where you would suggest he could sell   Shiloh and went on to be jailed in Richmond,
                                       them. Thank you for your assistance.       worked as a Confederate  spy, and either
                                          — Kathleen  Palmer, Director, Studio  7   defected and worked for the Union as a spy or as a double agent.
                                       Fine Art Gallery, Bernardsville, NJ
                                                                                    Her story was told in 2013 on PBS’s American Voices program. Born in Cuba,
                                         JS: The glass plate images you show are   she was raised in New Orleans and lost her three children to fever in St. Louis.
                                       more commonly known as magic  lantern      Her husband left the Union Army to train Confederate soldiers but was killed in
                                       slides.  Prior to  motion  pictures,  magic   a training accident. The author’s memoirs were brushed aside and discounted
                                       lanterns were in many homes, and public    by Confederate General Jubal Early, and few of her books were published and
                                       shows were held in cities around the world.   are very rare.
                                       According  to  the  website  magiclantern.org,   Do you know of any Civil War Era book collectors who might be interested
                                                   there were between 30,000 and   in this book given the transgender, female in arms, Cuban and New Orleans
                                                   60,000 magic lantern showmen   origins, and who owned a slave as an officer in the Confederate army? She was
                                                   worldwide  in  1895,  which  is   injured, imprisoned by the Confederacy, and was hired by the Union’s Secret
            Magic lantern                          about the date of your slides.   Service. Her story has gained interest, and the narrative checks out as to her
                 slides of                         Magic lanterns, which would    ordeals.
         Abraham Lincoln                           project an image onto a wall,    I feel that this book is a museum or special collections’ piece. I wanted to
         & Grace Fletcher                          date  back to the 18th century   see if it is a valuable item to any library or collection that you may be aware of.
        (Daniel Webster’s                          when hand-painted glass slides   Thank you in advance for any information you might provide.
                1st wife)                          were utilized. That’s right, the   JS: Your book is a fairly scarce first edition telling a mostly fictional account
                                                   1700s; the technology was
                                                   actually developed in the 1600s.  of a woman posing as a Confederate officer with extraordinary adventures in
                                                     Photographic plates were     the Civil War. This book has been reprinted several times and is available as an
                                                   first  used  in  the  mid-19th   ebook for $8. Your original, published in 1897, appears clean and very good
                                                   century. These  Civil War      overall. I can find two Ex-Libris original copies for sale for about $100 each.
        examples date to the late Victorian Era. Magic lantern slides are fairly common   Your better copy with good, embossed decorated covers might sell for $200-
        to the antique marketplace and are seen in many genres. Between 6,000 and   $300 based on its scarcity and notoriety from the TV series on History Channel,
        8,000 slides are listed on eBay each day. On the day of this              “Full Metal Corset Secret Soldiers of the
        writing, there were more than 24,000 listed.                              Civil War.
           Prices on eBay range from a few dollars to a few hundred                 Wikipedia reports this on her:
        dollars per slide. Skinner Auctions Boston sold two of the                Loreta Janeta Velázquez (June 26, 1842
        most expensive slides I know of for $1,600 on February                    – c. 1902) was a Cuban-born woman
        1 of this year, lot 1062 of slaves. Civil War slides can be               who claimed that she masqueraded as
        found priced individually from about $5 and up online and                 a male Confederate soldier during the
        at Civil War trade shows. Better groups of Civil War slides               American Civil War… Everything known
        sell between $20 and $30 in groups. Cowan’s auctions in                   about Velázquez comes from her 600-
        Cincinnati sold a group of 157 Civil War slides of a similar              page book.  How much of it is true is
        genre as lot 79 on June 9, 2017 for $4,800, $30 per slide.                unknown. Historians have generally
                                                                                  doubted its veracity for the improbability
                                                                                  of many of her adventures, her frequent
           Hello,  John.  I  have  a  cane  that  has  the  following             vagueness or inaccuracy about names
        inscription and would like to find its true worth.                        and places, and the absence of any
           The writing is as follows: “Cut in the center of Seven                 evidence to corroborate her sensational
        Pines  battlefield  where  15,000  soldiers  were  killed.                claims, due to Jubal Early’s refusal to
        May  31st  to  June  1st  1862.  Battle  fought  by  Lee  and             accept her memoirs as fact… In 2007,
        McClellan. Battlefield Guide J.E. Lynn.”                                  The History Channel broadcast Full Metal
           Looking forward to your answer and thank you for your                  Corset, a program that presented details   A first edition book of the factual/
                                                                                                                          fanciful exploits of Loreta Janeta
        expertise.                                                                of Velázquez’s story as genuine. However,   Valazquez who fought in the Civil
           JS: Civil War folk art canes are popular collector items.              the overall truthfulness of her account    War dressed as a soldier,
        Some were quite elaborate, professionally carved, and sold   A folk art cane   remains indeterminate and highly            $200-$300.
        to  veterans.  Similar  uncarved  battlefield  souvenirs,  such   carved from wood   questionable.
        as this with similar inked inscriptions, sell in auction for   from a Civil War     John Sexton is an independent appraiser and expert of Civil War memorabilia. He is an accredited member of
        between $200 and $500.                                 battlefield, $200-  appraisal of a Civil War item, email a photo and a description to mclwriter@gmail.com.
                                                                         $500.
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