Item No. 9671509

A CDV portrait of a U.S. Navy officer posting with his sword by his side. The officer is identified on the reverse, having signed in period ink, “Peter M. Beam Jr. / Act’g Master Mate / US Steamer Juniper.” Records indicate Beam enlisted in 1861 as a seaman and was discharged in September 1865. On both sides of the carte is the imprint of photographer Sherman of Brooklyn, New York.

Commissioned in July 1864, USS Juniper served with the Union Navy’s Potomac River Flotilla during the final year of the Civil War. Employed as a tug, dispatch vessel, and patrol ship, she performed a variety of essential support duties protecting the approaches to Washington, D.C., and maintaining Union control of the Potomac until the war’s conclusion in May 1865.