Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image. U.S. Navy gunboats Hunchback , Hetzel , Ceres and Shawsheen are firing from the river at Confederate forces, as Union artillery and infantry move into position on the near shore. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Photographed by Matthew Brady. One man is playing the banjo in the foreground, another is holding a small white dog, while others are reading newspapers.
Men seated in center appear to be peeling potatoes.
About a fifth of this ship's crew appear to be African-Americans. The original photograph has Brady negative number B-2011. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Some of the ship's officers and crewmen pose on deck, while she was serving on the James River, Virginia, in 1864-65. Photographed by Matthew Brady.