Captain John S. Crawford, 114th PA (Zouaves)

ColorizedPast

Corporal
Joined
Aug 27, 2016
Location
Hangzhou, China (Wisconsin, USA)
Captain John S. Crawford
114th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry (Collis Zouaves), during the Siege of Petersburg, Virginia, 1864

Captain John S Crawford, 114th Pennsylvania Infantry, Petersburg, Va.jpg


Updated version. Added more color to the tent and add rope color as per suggestion from CivilWarInColor.

Captain John S Crawford, 114th Pennsylvania Infantry, Petersburg, Va.jpg
 
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Nicely done, but a few comments. He may have been part of Collis Zouaves, but there is not indication that this is a Zouave uniform. I think the pants should be standard Union blue.

Also, it does not appear that the tent or the rope has any color. While the tent is normally white it should have some color. It has been out in the elements and will have picked up some dirt or other color to give it a little character. The ropes as well should have some color more like the image below. It will look better in the overall image.

end-of-rope.png


Finally, I cannot see the detail in his shoulder boards enough, but the interior of it should be pale blue and the the rank insignia should be gold.

Otherwise looks good!
 
I did color the tent a canvas color. I'll go back and fiddle with color and see if I can make it a little more apparent and try out some dirt spots. I didn't do the ropes, but I'll go back and do those.

As for the uniform. I did initially have him in the lighter blue pants (for a captain that would be accurate?), but everywhere I looked I kept seeing pictures of Zouave officers wearing red pants. I had a lot of questions about this one but really couldn't find any information. If you look closely on his right arm, he seems to be wearing an armband that had faint markings similar to the piping on the regular Zouave jackets.

As for the shoulder boards, I colored what was there. Only a little blue shows up because the orientation of the boards obscures most of the middle part where the blue field would be (again I saw many photos from reenactments of zouave officers wearing shoulder boards with red in the middle but couldn't verify the accuracy).

Thanks for the feedback.
 
I decided to download the original LOC file and have a look. The armband that you mention is interesting. Have not seen something like that before. As to the shoulder boards, I realize that there is not much detail, was more so just passing along standard uniform information.

As for the pants. I was really torn on this. Having red uniform pants in a non-zouvae uniform did not seem right. I decided to look up the Collis Zouaves and found this image by Carl Rochling (1855-1920) showing the group at Fredericksburg in 1862. The image was personally commissioned by Col. Collis, so I have to believe that the color selections used are accurate.

If you enlarge the image you will notice that Col. Collis and at least two other officers (one on horseback and one on foot holding a sword above his head) appear to be wearing regulation uniforms with red pants. There are a few others on the far left (on horse or falling) that have more traditional dark blue pants.

I did also notice that the shoulder boards for several of these officers are shown in red (traditionally artillery). My belief has been for many years that while it is possible to have only one "correct" colorization (what it would have looked like if you had an actual color camera that day) that as long as there is historical evidence to support other valid color selections then each choice was equally valid. I see this most often in civilian clothes since I may choose a green for a woman's dress and someone else might choose a blue or red, any of those options are valid and cannot be excluded.

Since there is historical evidence in this image from Col. Collis himself (as the person commissioning the image) I have to say: Great work! It most likely would not have been my color selection, but I find it (red pants) and any red shoulder boards for this group to be historically justified. I commend you on your excellent sleuthing. :thumbsup:

Carl_R%C3%B6chling_-_The_Battle_of_Fredericksburg%2C_December_13%2C_1862.jpg
 
Yeah, I'm still wondering if my officers in the Company F group shot are accurate. Like you said, some of them wore the dark blue pants, but I've also seen images with the officers wearing read kepi hats. I originally had Crawford in light blue pants, but then I switched to the red and it's something different. Yeah, I want to get as accurate as I can. Thanks for the back and forth. I've noticed it in many colorizations (especially in Brady's studio, everyone has a different interpretation of that chair with the tassels. Heck, I have two different interpretations myself.

Look at the image, cool, I do see them wearing red hats with the red pants. Maybe I should revise my Company F to reflect that. Interesting. Thanks for this picture!
 
I wonder if those other officers wearing the regular uniform are from other regiments falling back.
There blue pants on the right. Imho they are from the reg to the right. The prominent officer on horse is in red as are those on foot even the officer behind the right most of collis's companies, he is their capt?
 
I wonder if those other officers wearing the regular uniform are from other regiments falling back.

There blue pants on the right. Imho they are from the reg to the right. The prominent officer on horse is in red as are those on foot even the officer behind the right most of collis's companies, he is their capt?

I should have been clear on which ones I was commenting one. There soldiers from two different regiments here. The closest ones (on the left) are Collis Zouaves and the group on the right are all in regulation uniform.

The two officers in question are on horse (or just fallen from a horse) just to the left of Col. Collis and directly in front of the Zouaves. It is a little hard to see, but I believe that these men are in standard regulation uniforms. So it is possible that "some" Zouaves wore a regulation uniform and some wore a modified Zouave version.

Unless the uniform for Captain Crawford exists I believe that there is justification for his pants to be either blue or red.
 
Great work! I remember when ted turner started colorizing old films. imho what a mess.

I think colorizing photos isn't too terrible a thing to do...really helps us feel the subject happened in our world of color. However, most films just don't NEED to be colorized.

To be fair the technology for colorizing was in its bare infancy with what Turner did. It achieved his goal of finding a new market for films that otherwise had little resale value. That said, yeah pretty much of a mess compared to what can be done today.

We are fortunate too that these images are being colorized one at a time and not an entire movie. More care can be spent on really pulling together a single image and using a really sharp high definition negative makes it much more powerful.
 
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