Severely wounded at the battle of Cedar Mountain, Va.

He was at the deathbed of President Abraham Lincoln when he was assassinated in 1865!

From the personal collection of Surgeon & General Bernard John Dowling Irwin. Irwin has the distinct honor of being the first recipient of the Medal of Honor in U.S. military history by date of action, February 13, 1861


(1821-1885) Born in Kendall, New York, he graduated in the West Point class of 1843 which furnished ten generals to the North, among them General Ulysses S. Grant, and three generals to the South. He was a Mexican War veteran and during the 1850s he took an active part in the campaigns on the western frontier against the Yakima, and Rogue River tribes of Washington and in 1856, against the Oregon Indians. He served as the commandant of cadets at West Point, for part of 1861, where he also taught infantry tactics. In November 1861, Augur was appointed Brigadier General of volunteers and assigned the command of a brigade in General Irvin McDowell's Corps. Augur saw action during the 1862 Virginia Peninsular campaign. In July 1862, Augur was transferred to command a division under General Nathaniel P. Banks, and was one of several professional soldiers victimized by General Banks's poor showing at Cedar Mountain, and was severely wounded in the Federal rout. He was appointed Major General of volunteers by President Abraham Lincoln on November 14, 1862. General Banks relieved General Benjamin F. Butler of command of the Army of the Gulf, the forces of which became the new 19th Army Corps. General Augur was assigned to command its 1st Division, and was in charge at Baton Rouge, La. On May 2, 1863, when he unexpectedly received Colonel Benjamin H. Grierson leading his tattered and exhausted volunteer Brigade of Union cavalrymen from their sixteen-day, 600 mile raid (known as Grierson's Raid) behind Confederate lines in Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana, Augur insisted that Colonel Grierson's command be honored with a parade. Subsequently, Grierson and his troopers were regaled with flying banners and martial music as they entered the city marching in a column that extended for two miles through the streets of Baton Rouge. During the 1863 Siege of Port Hudson, La., General Augur commanded the 1st Division in the 19th Corps, of Bank's Army of the Gulf. After the fall of Port Hudson, he was assigned command of the 22nd Corps and the Department of Washington which he held until August 13, 1866. Augur was one of the Army officers who were present at the Petersen House where the mortally wounded President Abraham Lincoln was taken after he was shot by famous actor, John Wilkes Booth, at Ford's Theater. At Secretary of War Edwin Stanton's request, Augur went into the street and called out for a competent phonographer who knew shorthand well enough to take verbatim notes for Stanton as he interviewed witnesses to that night's tragic event. Corporal James R. Tanner answered Augur's call and volunteered to transcribe the witness accounts for Secretary Stanton. General Augur escorted Corporal Tanner into the Petersen House where he introduced Tanner to Secretary Stanton and Chief Justice David K. Cartter, who was also present for the depositions. Augur then outlined to Tanner what his duties would be for the rest of the night. At about 9:30 a.m. on the morning of April 15, 1865, about ninety-minutes after Mr. Lincoln had succumbed to the assassin's bullet, Augur served as one of the officers who walked as escorts with the president's body as it was taken from the Petersen House, where the president died, to the White House. On Wednesday, April 19, 1865, Augur served as the officer in charge of the military procession that escorted the president's body from the White House to the Capitol where it would lie in state. Throughout the following days, Augur was instrumental in mobilizing troops in his command to pursue and eventually capture Booth and his co-conspirators, including detailing the detachment of the 16th New York Cavalry under the command of Lieutenant Edward P. Doherty to follow a lead given to Secretary Stanton by a Union spy which eventually led to Doherty and his detachment tracking down, and cornering President Lincoln's assassin, Booth, and his associate, David Herold, in a tobacco barn near Port Royal, Virginia. Following the war, General Augur went on to command several military departments: the Department of the Platte, 1867-71; the Department of Texas, 1871-75; the Department of the Gulf, 1875-78; the Department of the South, 1878-80; and then he returned to the Department of Texas where he commanded for approximately another three years, 1881-83, and the Military Division of the Missouri, 1883–85. He also had a major role in negotiating the Treaty of Medicine Lodge in 1867; and the Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1868. A fort in the Wyoming Territory was named Fort Augur in his honor. He retired from the Army in 1885. General Christopher C. Augur, died in Georgetown, Washington, D.C., on January 16, 1898, and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Wet plate, albumen carte de visite photograph mounted to 2 3/8 x 4 card. Seated view with one arm resting on the back of a wooden chair. He is wearing a double breasted frock coat with rank of major general. Period ink inscription on the front mount, Maj. Genl. Augur, U.S.A. and Irwin ID in period ink on the reverse, Maj. Genl. C.C. Augur, U.S.A., This image came from the famous General B.J.D. Irwin album. Written at the bottom of the reverse is, Genl. B.J.D. Irwin album No. 111. Back mark: E. & H.T. Anthony, 501 Broadway, New York, From Photographic Negative in Brady's National Portrait Gallery. Corners of the mount are very slightly trimmed. Very fine. Rare "one of a kind image" having come from the General Irwin album!

History of United States Surgeon & General Bernard John Dowling Irwin

Surgeon & General Irwin was the first United States Medal of Honor Recipient by date of action, February 13, 1861

(1830-1917) Born in County Roscommon, Ireland, he immigrated with his parents to the United States in the 1840s. He attended New York University from 1848 to 1849, and then served as a private in the New York Militia. In 1850, he entered Castleton Medical College, and he later transferred to New York Medical College, where he graduated in 1852.

He served as a surgeon and physician at the State Emigrant Hospital on Ward's Island, NYC, until his appointment as assistant surgeon in the U.S. Army in 1856. He was an assistant army surgeon during the Apache Wars, and was the first Medal of Honor recipient chronologically by date of action. His actions on February 13, 1861, at Apache Pass, Arizona, are the earliest for which the Medal of Honor was awarded! The citation on his medal of honor reads; "Voluntarily took command of troops and attacked and defeated hostile Indians he met on the way. Surgeon Irwin volunteered to go to the rescue of 2d Lt. George N. Bascom, 7th U.S. Infantry, who, with 60 men, was trapped by Chiricahua Apaches under Cochise. Irwin and 14 men, not having horses, began the 100-mile march riding mules. After fighting and capturing Indians, recovering stolen horses and cattle, he reached Bascom's column and helped break his siege."

Cochise, the Apache Indian chief, and a group of Apache warriors were accused of kidnapping a boy and a small group of U.S. soldiers in the Arizona Territory after the Army had captured Cochise's brother and nephews. When the Army refused to make a prisoner exchange, Cochise killed his prisoners. Soldiers then killed Cochise's brother and nephews. 2nd Lieutenant George Nicholas Bascom led a group of 60 men from the 7th U.S. Infantry after Cochise but was soon besieged, prompting a rescue mission by the army. In response to the siege of Bascom and his men, Irwin set out on a rescue mission with 14 men of the 1st U.S. Dragoons. He was able to catch up with the Apaches at Apache Pass in present day Arizona. He strategically placed his small unit around Cochise and his men, tricking the Apache leader into thinking that he had a much larger army with him. The Apaches fled and Bascom and his men were saved. Bascom and his men joined Irwin and together they were able to track Cochise into the mountains & rescued the young boy that Cochise had captured.

The Medal of Honor did not exist during the time of the "Bascom Incident," and would not be established until a year later in 1862. However, the actions of Irwin were well remembered, and he was awarded the Medal of Honor just prior to his retirement. Irwin's actions were the earliest for which the Medal of Honor was awarded, predating the outbreak of the American Civil War.

Irwin subsequently served with the Union army during the Civil War, and was promoted to captain in August 1861, and the next year was appointed medical director under Major General William "Bull" Nelson. He improvised one of the first field hospitals used by the U.S. Army at the Battle of Shiloh, on April 7, 1862. He was captured during the Battle of Richmond, Ky., while attempting to save the wounded General Nelson. He was promoted to major in September 1862, and after his release from a Rebel prison he became medical director in the Army of the Southwest. From 1863 to 1865, he was superintendent of the military hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, and in March of 1865, he was brevetted to the rank of colonel. He was a companion of the California Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, and the Order of the Indian Wars of the United States. After the Civil War, Irwin served as a senior medical officer at several U.S. army posts, including West Point from 1873 to 1878. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in September 1885, to colonel in August 1890, and to brigadier general in April 1904. He died in Ontario, Canada, on December 15, 1917, and is buried in the West Point Cemetery, at the U.S. Military Academy, New York.

His son George LeRoy Irwin, graduated from West Point in 1889, and served in World War I, becoming a Major General in the U.S. Army.

His grandson Stafford LeRoy Irwin, graduated from West Point in 1915, and served in World War II, and became a Lieutenant General in the U.S. Army.

His daughter, Amy Irwin Addams McCormick, was a nurse with the American Red Cross and served during World War I.

General Irwin was an admirer and collector of photographs, and he put together a very large, and superb collection of Union and Confederate images. Interestingly, he collected photographs of both Rebels and Yankees alike. I have owned several famous military photograph albums before and never came across one that collected images from both sides of the rebellion. He numbered each individual image, and wrote a brief historical notation on each one. His was a superb Civil War image collection. Each image is rare because it is "one of a kind" having come from the Irwin collection!