Allen (Carter) Christian Redwood [1844-1922]
American Author/Illustrator
The Open Door, ca.1900
Oil on board
12 x 10 inches
Signed at lower right.

Period frame.

BIOGRAPHY
Born in Lancaster, Virginia on June 19, 1844, Allen Redwood is best known as an author and illustrator of the Civil War. He fought for the Confederacy during the war as part of the 55th Northern Virginia Infantry and battled at Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, the Second Bull Run, and was part of the Seven Days battle. He was eventually taken prisoner and encarcerated until the end of the conflict in 1865. He wrote biographies on “Stonewall” Jackson and others.

Redwood was one of the few sketch artists of the Civil War who actually fought in military battles, and his documentation was of noted historical value to the Southern side of the War. His detailed drawings were used by Century magazine to show Confederate Sharepshooters in Fredericksburg which graphically brought the war to the general public.

After the war, Redwood studied at the Polytechnic Institute in Brooklyn, New York between 1860 and 1861. He maintained studios in Baltimore and New York City and traveled to the West for illustration assignments for Century and Harper’s magazines.

Redwood eventually settled in Asheville, NC and remained their until his death on December 24, 1922.

– Original biography written by David Smernoff, From Here To Antiquity, October 4, 2016.

SOURCES:
– “Five Lieutenants: The Heartbreaking Story of Five Harvard Men Who Led America to Victory in World War I” by James Carl Nelson, Macmillan, New York, NY, 2012.
– “The Secret Careers of Civil War Photographs.” Mysteries & Conundrums. Updated April 27, 2010. Accessed October 4, 2016. https://npsfrsp.wordpress.com/2010/04/27/the-secret-careers-of-civil-war-photographs
– “Artists in California, 1786-1940” by Edan Hughes.
– Asheville Citizen-Times, Asheville, NC, “Artists and Illustrators of the Old West (obituary)” by Robert Taft, December 26, 1922.
– “The Illustrator in America, 1860-1940” by Walt Reed.
– American Company, New York, NY, “The American: A National Journal”, Volumes 9-10, 1885, number 262, page 236, not illustrated.