Item No. 5973307

A very rare CDV vignette portrait of Brigadier General René Edward De Russy, in which he wears the uniform of a colonel (his wartime rank). The photograph is not identified and bears no photographer’s imprint, but was removed from the family album of Bernard J. D. Irwin, the noted army surgeon, naturalist, and Medal of Honor recipient. It measures about 2 3/8” x 4”.

De Russy was a long-serving officer of the Army and a member of the Corps of Engineers, best known for his work on coastal fortifications in the antebellum period. A veteran of the War of 1812, he spent much of his career designing and supervising the construction of important defensive works, including fortifications along the Gulf Coast and the Atlantic seaboard. In the mid-1830s, he served as superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point and remained on active duty into the Civil War, during which he held administrative roles within the engineer department. He was posthumously brevetted brigadier general by President Andrew Johnson after the general’s death in November 1865 De Russy was father the father of General Gustavus De Russy.