COMPREHENSIVE AND IMPORTANT GROUPING RELATED COMMODORE JOHN RANDOLPH TUCKER, CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY (1812–1883)

INCLUDES IMPORTANT MATERIAL RELATING TO AMAZON EXPLORATION IN SOUTH AMERICA 

United States & Peru, 1861–circa 1876 (and later). Highlights include: Commodore Tucker’s m1852 Ames naval officer’s sword, CSS Patrick Henry Letter‑Book, a Confederate signal chart, an Amazon Expedition Map on Silk, a purse made by a “Peruvian Princess,” and related family relics.

A large and unusually rich archive documenting the naval, Confederate, and Peruvian chapters of Commodore John Randolph Tucker’s long career, from the James River Squadron and Hampton Roads to the Charleston ironclads, the retreat to Saylor’s Creek, and his post‑war service as Admiral of the Peruvian Navy and explorer of the upper Amazon.

The group comprises:

1. Model 1852 Ames Naval Officer’s sword: Pre‑war U.S. Navy issue, dated and inspected; one of approximately 500 swords issued directly by the Navy to officers. Brass guard and pommel, shagreen‑and‑wire grip; with scabbard.

2. Scrivener’s letter‑book from CSS Patrick Henry: An orderly book recording approximately 130 outgoing letters, June 1861–March 1862, addressed to Confederate authorities including Navy Secretary Stephen R. Mallory, Generals Benjamin Huger and John B. Magruder, and Captains French Forrest, Franklin Buchanan, and Duncan N. Ingraham. An exceptional, near‑daily chronicle of the improvised Confederate Navy in its formative year.

3. Confederate signal chart: Hand‑drawn (with colored flag vignettes), prepared at Norfolk, Virginia by order of General Huger.

4. Tucker’s hand‑drawn manual from the U.S. Ship of the Line USS Columbus: A personal compendium prepared while Columbus and Tucker were at Norfolk at the opening of the war (the ship later scuttled by withdrawing U.S. forces).

5. Amazon expedition map on silk: Hand‑drawn and lightly tinted, locating Tucker’s plantation (spelled “Tuker”) and those of fellow Confederate expatriates Walter Raleigh Butt and James Norris; archivally mounted.

6. Portrait group: Three family images of Tucker: two albumen prints (one in Peruvian Admiral’s uniform; another taken at Petersburg) and a tintype of Tucker and a friend at Niagara Falls, c. 1876.

7. Locks of hair: From Tucker and his wife Elizabeth Webb Tucker

8. Presentation purse: Made in the Amazon and said to be by a “Peruvian Princess.”

9. CDV of General Robert E. Lee

10. Fragment of an order signed by General Robert E. Lee: A remnant preserved by the Tucker family.

Provenance: By descent in the family of Commodore John Randolph Tucker; acquired directly from his great‑great‑grandson in 2013; thence private collection.

A Virginian by birth, John Randolph Tucker entered the U.S. Navy as a midshipman in 1826, served off Mexico aboard USS Stromboli (1847–48), and resigned in 1861 to take a commission in the Virginia, soon Confederate, Navy. That autumn and winter he commanded the James River Squadron (Patrick Henry, Jamestown, Teaser) and was engaged during Hampton Roads, supporting the CSS Virginia in her epochal duel with the USS Monitor. The letter‑book offered in this lot is a primary record of Tucker’s operations in these months aboard the gunboat CSS Patrick Henry.

In May 1862, Tucker commanded the improvised shore battery that repulsed the Union assault at the First Battle of Drewry’s Bluff. Transferred to Charleston, he took command of the ironclad CSS Chicora and, in concert with Palmetto State, attacked the blockading fleet in January 1863, temporarily breaking the blockade. Elevated to Flag Officer at Charleston, Tucker flew a personal Second National flag, the silk example offered in the subsequent lot. worked and presented by the ladies of Charleston.

With the fall of Charleston in February 1865 Tucker marched his sailors and marines overland to Drewry’s Bluff and then toward Amelia County, where they stood with Lee’s army at Saylor’s Creek (6 April). Fighting hand‑to‑hand, some with naval cutlasses, Tucker refused to yield until persuaded by Union General Warren Keifer, who later (and famously) saw to the ceremonial return of Tucker’s sword. Paroled months later, Tucker was unable to obtain a U.S. pardon; he accepted Peru’s invitation to command its navy as Admiral during the war with Spain, and afterward led a government expedition to survey the upper Amazon (work reflected in the silk expedition map included here).

This artifacts here represent an uncommon trajectory: U.S. naval professional, Confederate flag officer and ironclad commander, and post‑war Peruvian admiral and explorer.

An exceptional, museum-quality grouping.

Note: This lot cannot be packaged and shipped in-house. Successful bidders winning items marked as being packaged and shipped by a third-party service are responsible for paying the third party directly. We are happy to offer complimentary drop-off service to local third-party packing/shipping companies in Columbus, Ohio.