DRUMMER BOY ?

Joined
Mar 19, 2018
I was going through my CDV stash and this one caught my eye. The backmark photographer is W. WYKES & Co. South side Moroe St. Grand Rapids Mi. With a orange 2 cent stamp on it . Thank you in advance for your help.
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Maybe? It's terribly hard to tell. Noticed so many drummers photographed with the drum, seems odd this boy would not have been.

I don't know. Tons of veritable boys in that war, kids who look so young you wonder how they slid by enlistments even with faux papers stating they were of age. Two of my grgrgrandfathers joined under age, one 15, one 16. Would give around a million bucks to have a photo of either but if we did, guessing the images would be close.

May be just a very slight build, and a teenaged kid enlisted underage. His eyes seem awfully old, no?
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Maybe? It's terribly hard to tell. Noticed so many drummers photographed with the drum, seems odd this boy would not have been.

I don't know. Tons of veritable boys in that war, kids who look so young you wonder how they slid by enlistments even with faux papers stating they were of age. Two of my grgrgrandfathers joined under age, one 15, one 16. Would give around a million bucks to have a photo of either but if we did, guessing the images would be close.

May be just a very slight build, and a teenaged kid enlisted underage. His eyes seem awfully old, no?
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Maybe? It's terribly hard to tell. Noticed so many drummers photographed with the drum, seems odd this boy would not have been.

I don't know. Tons of veritable boys in that war, kids who look so young you wonder how they slid by enlistments even with faux papers stating they were of age. Two of my grgrgrandfathers joined under age, one 15, one 16. Would give around a million bucks to have a photo of either but if we did, guessing the images would be close.

May be just a very slight build, and a teenaged kid enlisted underage. His eyes seem awfully old, no?
View attachment 242420
JPK What were the names of your GGG's ? Last year I reunited a family with their fathers WW2 letters and another family with a cadet sword from their father who is still alive from the the 1930's. I would like to see a forum on Seeking information on : Example John Doe
 
Agree, there's no way to tell if he was a musician just from this picture. No instruments or musician's frock, not that they all wore them, but that would have been a give away. And he doesn't look that young by CW standards. This was a war fought by what we would call teenagers and young adults in the ranks. Most musicians weren't little drummer boys, either.
 
I'll chime in to observe that whatever coat he's wearing it isn't a "normal" regulation one - it's neither a four-button sack or fatigue coat nor a nine-button frock coat. The brass buttons make it look military and it very probably is, just not the common variety.
 
Are you sure he was even in the military? I have seen lots of mid-19th century photos where someone was wearing something that vaguely looked like a military jacket.... too bad they did not have color photography in the 1860s.
 
The Wykes' of Grand Rapids are extended family for me. I became aware of the Wykes studio in researching family history.

Anyway I'm not actually seeing anything in particular that indicates a military affiliation for the boy. A sack coat is a sack coat, and brass buttons (if that's what we're seeing) could be used on civilian coats. If this photo was intended to portray someone in the service they more likely would have included a military prop of some sort. This is also to mention that town marching bands had uniforms, and it's as likely to be that rather than a soldier.
 
I had a look for the stamp and discovered that these were tax stamps - i.e. not postage - showing that taxes had been paid on certain commodities. From what I could find it appears that the type on the photo was issued from 1862 - 1871 so it could be a war-time image or post-war. That's all I can add but at least it narrows the dates down a bit.
 
I had a look for the stamp and discovered that these were tax stamps - i.e. not postage - showing that taxes had been paid on certain commodities. From what I could find it appears that the type on the photo was issued from 1862 - 1871 so it could be a war-time image or post-war. That's all I can add but at least it narrows the dates down a bit.
Thanks John , I know that they are tax stamps but I have a lot CDV 's from that period that have no stamps . I have more to learn about the tax stamps.
 
Are you sure he was even in the military? I have seen lots of mid-19th century photos where someone was wearing something that vaguely looked like a military jacket.... too bad they did not have color photography in the 1860s.
… I'm not actually seeing anything in particular that indicates a military affiliation for the boy. A sack coat is a sack coat, and brass buttons (if that's what we're seeing) could be used on civilian coats. If this photo was intended to portray someone in the service they more likely would have included a military prop of some sort. This is also to mention that town marching bands had uniforms, and it's as likely to be that rather than a soldier.
So many old photos had no info marked on them. It is a real shame that they are lost in time. Known only to God

I've posted this fellow before in a separate thread: https://civilwartalk.com/threads/pvt-louis-b-lacount-co-a-5th-wisconsin-vol-inf.138371/#post-1644247 but will use him as the perfect example to address these concerns. I've seen MANY wartime photos of soldiers just like this, very casual with absolutely NO props at all. You should remember these young fellows and all their family members KNEW they were soldiers - there was no further need to advertise the fact! It's only US poor collectors and enthusiasts who have to puzzle out things like this. Fortunately, in this particular case I recognized what I thought to be a four-button sack coat and military-style vest - largely by its brass buttons - so was able to purchase it for only $2 from a stack of civilian CDV's. Even better, some thoughtful soul had written the name Louis LaCount in pencil on the front; for the story of Pvt. LaCount just follow the link.

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I had a look for the stamp and discovered that these were tax stamps - i.e. not postage - showing that taxes had been paid on certain commodities. From what I could find it appears that the type on the photo was issued from 1862 - 1871 so it could be a war-time image or post-war. That's all I can add but at least it narrows the dates down a bit.
Thanks John , I know that they are tax stamps but I have a lot CDV 's from that period that have no stamps . I have more to learn about the tax stamps.
The tax this stamp paid was authorized to begin in 1864 and was repealed following the "official" end of The War of the Rebellion in 1866; that DEFINITELY identifies the very short span of time for photos so marked as 1864-66. I'll also add that regular hard images like tintypes were also subject to this tax, whose stamps can sometimes also be found inside the cases they are usually found in.
 
The tax this stamp paid was authorized to begin in 1864 and was repealed following the "official" end of The War of the Rebellion in 1866; that DEFINITELY identifies the very short span of time for photos so marked as 1864-66. I'll also add that regular hard images like tintypes were also subject to this tax, whose stamps can sometimes also be found inside the cases they are usually found in.

I just used the info I found on a couple of stamp collector sites; don't know the source for their statement that such stamps were used 1862-1871. One site said that the color changed from the orange/yellow to blue in 1871. I doesn't know nothin' 'bout no tax stamps; just passing on what those who seemed to know said.:unsure:
 
I've posted this fellow before in a separate thread: https://civilwartalk.com/threads/pvt-louis-b-lacount-co-a-5th-wisconsin-vol-inf.138371/#post-1644247 but will use him as the perfect example to address these concerns. I've seen MANY wartime photos of soldiers just like this, very casual with absolutely NO props at all. You should remember these young fellows and all their family members KNEW they were soldiers - there was no further need to advertise the fact! It's only US poor collectors and enthusiasts who have to puzzle out things like this. Fortunately, in this particular case I recognized what I thought to be a four-button sack coat and military-style vest - largely by its brass buttons - so was able to purchase it for only $2 from a stack of civilian CDV's. Even better, some thoughtful soul had written the name Louis LaCount in pencil on the front; for the story of Pvt. LaCount just follow the link.

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Congrats on this ! Being identified you brought his photo back to life . I always wonder what the people in these photo's would think of us examining their likeness . If the photo could only talk .
 
The tax this stamp paid was authorized to begin in 1864 and was repealed following the "official" end of The War of the Rebellion in 1866; that DEFINITELY identifies the very short span of time for photos so marked as 1864-66. I'll also add that regular hard images like tintypes were also subject to this tax, whose stamps can sometimes also be found inside the cases they are usually found in.
Thank you , Greg
 
I just used the info I found on a couple of stamp collector sites; don't know the source for their statement that such stamps were used 1862-1871. One site said that the color changed from the orange/yellow to blue in 1871. I doesn't know nothin' 'bout no tax stamps; just passing on what those who seemed to know said.:unsure:
It *may* be that they were talking about tax stamps in general, perhaps for other things. Like with most other things in life, everything I know about them is based on what I've read about its application in the Civil War - and there it was talking strictly about photographs!

Edit: the only things I remember ever actually seeing tax stamps on were liquor bottles, cigarette packages, and decks of playing cards!
 
...I've seen MANY wartime photos of soldiers just like this, very casual with absolutely NO props at all. You should remember these young fellows and all their family members KNEW they were soldiers - there was no further need to advertise the fact...

And yet there are MANY wartime photos of soldiers with military props. That family members knew they were soldiers isn't indicative of anything either way -- that's far too presumptive. You should remember that, aside from technical requirements, there was no prescribed way for young fellows and all their family members to have their photo taken, military visages or not.
 
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