NEAR LIFE SIZE 19th century enhanced photographic portrait in important frame

COLONEL WILLIAM GEORGE MOORE
circa 1870
Near life-size 19th Century Photograph/Crayon Enlargement, Paper backed by Cloth, stretched, glazed;
in exceptional "Stars & Stripes Shields" Carved Wood, Gesso & Gold Gilt Frame

The Portrait
signed, lower right : " C.H. McAllister "
(probably Cynthia H. McAllister, photographer, active in Washington D.C circa 1870.)
Size of Portrait : 55-1/2 ” x 34-1/2 ”

The Frame
Framers label (verso) : " A. P. McElroy
Guilder and Upholsterer / Pier and Mantel Mirrors / MADE TO ORDER / 1001 Pennsylvania Ave / Washington, D. C."
Outside dimensions of frame : 67- 1/2 ” x 48- 1/2 ”

Colonel William George Moore (1829 – 1898)

Born 1829 in Washington, DC, he began his career as a newpsaper reporter covering congressional debates., and in 1857 began service in the Department of Public Works, serving under General Meigs.
Upon the outbreak of war, he enlisted as a private in the National Rifles, Smead's Company of District Volunteers. Promoted to rank of major, made adjutant general of volunteers.

Private Secretary to two Secretaries of War and two Presidents (1861-1865)

Soon appointed Private Secretary to Secretary of War Simon Cameron, by 1862, Private Secretary to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. He served briefly as Private Secretary to President Abraham Lincoln, and then to President Andrew Johnson, with whom he was said to have had an attachment like that between father and son.

He appears in a photograph by Alexander Gardner s Antietam Campaign photograph, October 1862, labeled "Secret Service men. Seated, L. to R. William Moore (Stanton's private secretary), Major Allan Pinkerton..."

Before leaving the Executive Mansion, President Johnson commissioned Colonel Moore a paymaster in the army, his assignments taking him through Kansas and the Indian Territory.

In 1870, he returned to Washington and was made commander of the Washington Light Infantry, then Colonel of the First Regiment of the District Militia.
From 1886-1888 Colonel Moore served as the Major and Superintendent of the Washington DC Police Department. where he is credited with great advances in police procedures.

Information sources include Historic Congressional Cemetery, Metropolitan Police Department records
Condition : "As Found", including some losses to frame
# 01008 m ........................................................................................................................................................ $ 18,500.