Item No. 0940684

A vignette CDV view featuring Basil W. Duke wearing civilian clothing. Duke is identified in pencil on both sides of the carte. There is no photographer’s imprint. The corners of the mount are very slightly trimmed. Measures about 2 1/2” x 4”.

Basil Duke was a Kentucky lawyer, Confederate cavalry officer, and later historian best known for his close association with his brother-in-law, the celebrated raider John Hunt Morgan. Duke served as Morgan’s second-in-command throughout the daring cavalry operations that made “Morgan’s Raiders” famous, playing a major role in planning and executing their fast-moving raids across Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, and Ohio. Captured during the 1863 Great Raid, he spent nearly a year in Union prisons before returning to the field for the final campaigns of the war. After the Confederacy’s collapse, Duke resumed his law career in Louisville and became an influential writer and public figure, authoring authoritative histories of Morgan’s command and the Civil War in the West, which helped shape postwar memory.