Interesting Civil War Photo

connecticut yankee

First Sergeant
Joined
Jun 2, 2017
The following photo is now on eBay for auction. It is a late 1800's sepia albumen mounted on card stock. It measure about 6" x 9". It is obviously a reprint image of a Civil War cdv. I find the photo to be very interesting and am posting it for your identification as to uniforms, Union or Confederate, etc. The seller claims it depicts three Confederates.

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Their demeanor & appearance is that of three brothers. The light shade of both their pants & jackets is consistent with Confederate uniforms. The collar of the central figure has what could be a Confederate officer’s rank marking. That would be consistent with the length of his jacket. The lack of frogging on his sleeves would be a common the late war period. The crossed sabers on the hats were added on, as was the color on the buttons. The sabers are very crude & likely are embellishments where no pin existed. The hats are consistent with the Western theater, but not definitive.

Given the evidence, this is likely a photograph of three Western Theater Confederate cavalrymen.
 
Their demeanor & appearance is that of three brothers. The light shade of both their pants & jackets is consistent with Confederate uniforms. The collar of the central figure has what could be a Confederate officer’s rank marking. That would be consistent with the length of his jacket. The lack of frogging on his sleeves would be a common the late war period. The crossed sabers on the hats were added on, as was the color on the buttons. The sabers are very crude & likely are embellishments where no pin existed. The hats are consistent with the Western theater, but not definitive.

Given the evidence, this is likely a photograph of three Western Theater Confederate cavalrymen.
Thank you for the thoughtful analysis. I, too, think they are western Confederate cavalrymen and they very well might be brothers.
 
They look to be about 5 feet tall, all roughly the same height. And the middle man has a head rather large for his size. Well if they are late war Confederates, at least two of them are teenagers. That works.
 
They're NOT Confederates. They're plainly Union artillerymen wearing regulation artillery shell jackets, as well as the artillery insignia on their ever-so-stylish hats. This is also a wartime image made in a field studio, though this may be a copy made at a later date.
 
I thought those looked like crossed cannon?
My initial thought too but now I am unsure. However like Rhea said the cross swords seem to have been added. I have dug CW cross sabers and these appear to be larger than any CW ones I ve ever dug. Also I “believe “ regement numbers were added above the cross swords at some point after the CW. Since these don’t have the regimental number it might be a clue when the photo was taken
 
The hat insignia looks like crossed cannon barrels to me. I can't detect the curve to the crossed items on the insignia, which would be the case of they were crossed sabers, I believe. Just a thought.

John
I tend to agree John. The more I look at them the more convinced I am they are indeed cannons
 
The following photo is now on eBay for auction. It is a late 1800's sepia albumen mounted on card stock. It measure about 6" x 9". It is obviously a reprint image of a Civil War cdv. I find the photo to be very interesting and am posting it for your identification as to uniforms, Union or Confederate, etc. The seller claims it depicts three Confederates.

View attachment 387856
At first sighting, they look like union volunteer recruits from the midwest. If hat insignias are crossed sabers, maybe cavalry; if crossed rifles, then possibly infantry. That's my best guess.
 
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