Does anyone recognize this headquarters?

[Mike Serpa]

The title at the National Archives is 'Headquarters' - #529325

 

[AndyHall]

The wooden barracks suggest a large, permanent camp, not a base on campaign. Interesting photo.

 

[PeterT]

Confederate? Looks like it to me. If the soldier on the right wasn't there at attention, I would have said it almost it looked like a reunion. Leave it to more knowledgeable types to opine.

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

Rats- for some reason I want to say Sanitary Commission, Tennessee? This is somewhere in a file, found it in Archives before Archives became so odd. Love the building!

 

[donna]

It is a neat building. Have no idea where it is.

 

[Reb]

The title at the National Archives is 'Headquarters' - #529325
View attachment 81824

Yes sir, it's a little bar in Maricopa, Arizona called the headquarters. We'd go there real early to eat before Quail hunting.

 

[civilwarincolor]

Yes sir, it's a little bar in Maricopa, Arizona called the headquarters. We'd go there real early to eat before Quail hunting.

Very funny. According to this Google Street View the place has changed a lot in the last 150 years.

 

[civilwarincolor]

The title at the National Archives is 'Headquarters' - #529325
View attachment 81824

No idea to it's origin. It is interesting that Headquarters is spelled as two words. Was this a mistake or a clue? I checked and could not find any general name "Head" on either side and I suspect that it was just a mistake. If this was a Naval base "Head" would have an entirely different meaning.

Also, even more odd is that there appears to be two pair of pants resting on the hillside to the right of the building. What they heck are they doing there?

 

[Anna Elizabeth Henry]

Interesting photo, thanks for sharing. It looks like a hospital complex since all the buildings surrounding it are identical. I do like the headquarters building, its got style to it for something that was no doubt thrown together in haste. Someone even took the time to add gingerbread-work to the eaves!

 

[AndyHall]

Interesting photo, thanks for sharing. It looks like a hospital complex since all the buildings surrounding it are identical. I do like the headquarters building, its got style to it for something that was no doubt thrown together in haste. Someone even took the time to add gingerbread-work to the eaves!

Good thinking (also [B]@JPK Huson 1863[/B] ) -- this image is at LoC with the identification, "headquarters of a convalescent camp, near Alexandria, Va."

 

[civilwarincolor]

And we have our answer! Thanks AndyHall!

Still want to know what the pants are doing on the lawn...

 

[Anna Elizabeth Henry]

You don't suppose they were drying the pants after laundering them?! A woman would never do such a thing, but soldiers might not care so much

 

[AndyHall]

Another view from LoC, I think of the same building and the camp beyond. Presumably later than the first one, after the landscapers had finished:

 

[AndyHall]

According to this Google Street View the place has changed a lot in the last 150 years.

The liberal application of medicinal spirits is still the preferred treatment.

 

[Anna Elizabeth Henry]

It appears to be the same building as the words headquarters are two words and the steps seem placed in the same spot with the same incline. The angle you found certainly adds depth to the sheer amount of hospital buildings housed at this location. There must at 50-75 buildings! What a massive operation!

 

[AndyHall]

This may be the second "Camp Convalescent," which (according to this) was located in what is now Arlington County, near the present-day Army/Navy Country Club and Glebe Road.

 

[civilwarincolor]

You don't suppose they were drying the pants after laundering them?! A woman would never do such a thing, but soldiers might not care so much

I thought of laundry as well. I disagree that this is something a soldier might do, but not a woman. First a soldier that might be inspected would not likely place their uniform on the ground. There are a lot of other period images of soldiers drying clothes on a rope clothesline.

Second, why would you place them on the ground to dry in front of the headquarters building??? Very odd.

Wondering if it was done by one of the staff at the hospital.

 

[civilwarincolor]

This may be the second "Camp Convalescent," which (according to this) was located in what is now Arlington County, near the present-day Army/Navy Country Club and Glebe Road.

Oh my. Looking up the image shown in the link (alternate of what you have in your previous post) the camp was referred to as "Camp Misery". Does not sound like a happy place.

 

[Anna Elizabeth Henry]

I thought of laundry as well. I disagree that this is something a soldier might do, but not a woman. First a soldier that might be inspected would not likely place their uniform on the ground. There are a lot of other period images of soldiers drying clothes on a rope clothesline.

Second, why would you place them on the ground to dry in front of the headquarters building??? Very odd.

Wondering if it was done by one of the staff at the hospital.

I didn't mean to make it sound like soldiers were messy, just that maybe they didn't have all the resources to string up a clothes line and made due with the ground if need be. If it was in camp I probably wouldn't think it as peculiar but right in front of an office where a photograph was shot makes no sense. No one thought, hey wait before you click that shutter let's pick up those pants!

 

[civilwarincolor]

I didn't mean to make it sound like soldiers were messy, just that maybe they didn't have all the resources to string up a clothes line and made due with the ground if need be. If it was in camp I probably wouldn't think it as peculiar but right in front of an office where a photograph was shot makes no sense. No one thought, hey wait before you click that shutter let's pick up those pants!

From the other images of the camp it looks like a fairly big place. I would be surprised if they did not have some type of laundry facility onsite. I doubt that they did not have the resources, a simple piece of string or twine strung between two of the buildings would do it. With a camp that large though, why two pair! Another mystery that will probably never be solved.

I would love the answer to be that the photographer had a sense of humor and said "Hey, let's put some pants on the ground and 150 years from now we will have people debating what they are doing here!"