Couple more CDVs - maybe some rank here - ?

gormer

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Oct 25, 2010
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AZ
Full disclosure: I intend to sell these and pass them along to someone who will appreciate more, as I don't collect paper images anymore. If it's not ethical to post for some ID help, I totally understand and am happy to remove.

I have spent hours online looking up everything I can to try to ID these two, but to no avail. They both have NYC backmarks - one is a Fredricks' "Specialite," which was usually reserved for VIPs and famous people. I thought the one with the sword might be Navy - maybe the other guy, too - ?

They weren't much, so I won't be unhappy if they're "nobodies," as far as rank goes - pretty cool looking anyway, and they would have been in the thick of it 150 years ago! - amazing to think about. Thanks for any light you might shed.
 

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stripes-jpg.jpg

Looks like a U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander after May 1863, based on the cuffs. The gap between the upper ring and the lower three is distinctive. The oak leaves on his shoulder boards would be gold, and the fouled anchor silver. This might be a postwar image, too.


sword-jpg.jpg

This may be a U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander under the uniform regulations of August 1, 1862 – May 23, 1863, two plain, heavy bands.

In both cases, it would have been a help if the images included the cap, as those badges were distinctive both to the date and type of service within the Navy.

Uniform guides:
http://web.archive.org/web/20160310030753/http://www.usnlp.org/civilwarnavalranks/index.htm
 
Thank you! - yes, I found a bunch of stuff on uniforms, but you're right, without the caps it was difficult - I also had no idea that the bands changed so much in just a short time. I'm going to see if I can find anything out about the portrait studios now - sometimes the backmarks can help date the image and give me a better timeframe to work within.
 
I also had no idea that the bands changed so much in just a short time.
I'm sure the part of that was the fact that the U.S. Navy expanded in enormously over the first course of the war. At the beginning of the conflict there were (IIRC) only 50 or 60 ships in active service. By the latter part of the war it was 10 times that, and probably 15 times as many officers and seamen.
 
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