From the on-line article,
Civil War Soldiers' Portraits: The Liljenquist Family Collection,
Historical Background, page 1:
"
Personal Portraits in a Time of War
From 1861-65, more than three million Americans took up arms in the bloodiest conflict of the nineteenth century. Hailing from every state and territory, these men were real people who loved, feared, and often died in the service of their country. The century and a half separating us from our Civil War counterparts can accentuate our differences, but in many ways these soldiers were just like contemporary Americans.
There is one fact that makes Civil War soldiers seem much more modern than soldiers of the nation's earlier wars: many of them had their pictures taken. The onset of war consided with a boom in photography in the United States. By the start of the Civil War,
photographs were much less expensive and much easier to produce than ever before. New technologies brought the price of the new ambrotype (glass-backed) and tintype (metal-backed) emulsion plates down to between 25 cents to $2.50 in the Union states. The average Civil War soldier, who might make between $11 - 16 per month, could finally afford his own personal photograph."
Read the rest of the article here:
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classro...nquist-civil-war-photos/pdf/teacher_guide.pdf
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