Beschreibung:

A group of eight Confederate Navy buttons with English-made officer's two-piece sword belt plate, early book and pamphlet, with provenance written in 1935 showing descent from Miss. Elizabeth Sinclair Whittle of Baltimore, an aging daughter of Lieutenant William Conway Whittle, Jr. (1840-1920) who served as Executive Officer aboard the CSS Shenandoah during her famous late war cruise. Family provenance is established by an old note inked on a formal calling card belonging to "Miss Elizabeth Sinclair Whittle" and addressed to a Miss Orris Masi, presumably a granddaughter. Dated March 17, 1935 the note, written in fountain pen, reads: Dear Orris, As you have your splendid grandfather's name I want you to have the buttons which were on his uniform when he was a young naval officer on the "Shenandoah." Your mother will tell you the rest and all about how brave and fine he was. You must be very proud to have his name. Give my love to your mother. Affectionately, your friend, Elizabeth S. Whittle. Elizabeth Sinclair Whittle also counted among her nautical fore-bearers the celebrated Confederate sailor Lt. Arthur Sinclair IV (1837-1925) whose service on both the CSS Virginia (vs. Monitor) and CSS Alabama (vs. Kearsarge) is legend. Arthur Sinclair resided in Baltimore after the war thriving as a successful merchant and author of Two Years on the Alabama. Four of the buttons are 23mm Tice CSN210A1 with "CN" device and Courtney & Tennent/S.C./Charleston dm. Two more marked just Courtney & Tennant are identical 18mm CSN210Am cuff or vest size with round stud back instead of shank for closing a buttonhole. One more is a souvenir Royal Navy button stamped C & J. Weldon/London. The cast brass sword belt plate is fire gilded and nearly identical to the US Navy plate detailed in the 1852 regulations (Gavin 30). Significantly, the tongue is stamped J.R. GAUNT & SON LTD./LONDON. Commenting on the "exceedingly scarce" English-made plates Gavin wrote, "All of the specimens known are of the two piece design, probably patterned after the prescribed plate for United States Navy officers." The group further includes a green pebble bound 1st edition of The Cruise of the Shenandoah by Cornelius E, Hunt, G.W. Carlton & Co., New York, 1866. Inked on the fly is an ostensibly unrelated name, J. Perkins/Louisiana, opposite his printed book plate. Also, a 1910 bound paper pamphlet entitled Cruises of the Confederate States Steamers "Shenandoah" and "Nashville" by the namesake William Whittle who dedicated his personal account to "my dear comrades on board, to whose loyalty and zeal success was attributable." The most recent historical account of the Shenandoah's exploits is covered in the 2006 book The Officers of the Shenandoah by Angus Curry, which is included. Born into a naval family at Norfolk in 1840 (his father William Conway Whittle, Sr. was also a noteworthy US and Confederate Navy officer), young Whittle graduated from the Naval Academy in 1858 and got his shakedown aboard the Roanoke and Preble in the Caribbean and Gulf. When his native state seceded, Whittle resigned from the old navy and was commissioned a lieutenant in the Virginia Navy, and later the Confederate Navy. Whittle's first wartime assignment was command of the naval battery at West Point on the York River, Virginia during the Peninsula campaign. After a short stint on the James River Whittle proceeded to Charleston where he was posted to the CSS Nashville as 3rd Lieutenant. The Nashville made an epic cruise to England in November 1861 and a hazardous return voyage to Beaufort, N.C. where he was left in command. In March 1862 Whittle was assigned to New Orleans as 3rd Lieutenant of the steamer CSS Louisiana. He saw action against Farragut's fleet as the Federals passed Fort Jackson and St. Phillip and captured New Orleans. In the aftermath the Louisiana was scuttled and Whittle was taken prisoner and sent to Fort Warren in Boston Harbor. Exchanged in August 1862, Whittle took command