Signed Carte-de-Visite of Gustav Knabe, Civil War Musician and Music Professor in Tennessee, c. 1870s

Tennessee, 1870. Carte-de-visite photograph measuring 3 ¾ x 2 ⅜ inches on larger mount. Some foxing, very good overall, signed by Knabe as “Proff Knabe” on recto. Very Good. Gustav Knabe was born in Leipzig and formally educated in music in Germany before emigrating to the United States and serving as a “principal musician” in the Company H of the Second Regiment of the Ohio Heavy Artillery. Following the war he moved to Tennessee, where he worked as a professor and band director and established Knabe’s Musical Academy in 1873. He composed several works, including a funeral march for Andrew Johnson, and was given an honorary degree by the University of Tennessee in 1881.