Forrest General Forrest Picture

[Barrycdog]

Confederate Veteran Magazine Volume: v.2(1894)

This is an older picture of him I have not seen.

 

[ole]

Confederate Veteran Magazine Volume: v.2(1894)

View attachment 49092

This is an older picture of him I have not seen.

I haven't either, but it looks more like a painting than a photo.

 

[donna]

Nice find.

 

[Patrick H]

I agree that it's a very nice picture. I think it might be a photograph of a high quality drawing, or perhaps a heavily touched up photo. That doesn't diminish it in any way. I have some very old family portraits that were heavily retouched by the photographers. As the photo emulsion fades (and the retouching doesn't) these old photos often take on the look of a drawing.

 

[diane]

This is a nice photo, one of the best taken of Forrest and it's too bad it's been touched up so much. Forrest never wore the Confederate uniform until he died - when he was buried in it. There's a couple of Robert E Lee like that, too, with him in a uniform he never wore again at all. It was a popular thing then to paint on a Confederate uniform over a civilian suit!

This is the original, thought to have been taken around 1868:

 

[AUG]

Its a newspaper engraving, based off the photo Diane posted above.

Throughout much of the 19th century the technology to publish photographs in newspapers did not exist yet, not until the 1890s. Publishers employed artists to draw and engrave photos and sketches. A drawing of a photograph or sketch would be copied in reverse onto an engraving plate made of wood or copper. A wooden plate could be used to print thousands of images.

 

[James N.]

I don't think it's a retouch of the photo Diane posted, but rather another different exposure taken at the same time. It was common while "sitting" to have several exposures made, often from slightly different angles; often the "best" one might then be used for enlarged portraits, etc.

 

[diane]

This is the photo in the uniformed one - taken at the same session. Usually more than one photo was taken in case something went wrong with one of them. This one has been altered - as AUG351 notes, for press purposes.

I think the other photo was considered too over-lighted to be of use for publications, as I think this is why Forrest had these photos taken. He was considering a run for public office, perhaps Congress, but nothing at all came of it beyond might do that!

 

[diane]

I don't think it's a retouch of the photo Diane posted, but rather another different exposure taken at the same time. It was common while "sitting" to have several exposures made, often from slightly different angles; often the "best" one might then be used for enlarged portraits, etc.

Yes, that's exactly it. There are about three of this well known photo:

Expired Image Removed

The top one is clearly the best! These were taken in Memphis after Shiloh.

 

[diane]

By the way, in that one with him in the suit and with white hair...do you think he has some Vulcan ancestry? Definitely not the way his ear was originally shaped!

 

[Billy Yank]

The earlier pictures of Gen. Forrest have a harshness that seems to have diminished over time in the later ones.

 

[War Horse]

Very nice photo's! While looking for how many horses were killed while ridden by George Pickett I found that Forest had 29 shot out from under him. Thats a lot of horses!

 

[TerryB]

You see those style engravings in Tennessee regimental histories. I'm sure we're not the only state that included them. Also pretty sure the engravings were done from photos in one way or another.

 

[diane]

You see those style engravings in Tennessee regimental histories. I'm sure we're not the only state that included them. Also pretty sure the engravings were done from photos in one way or another.

Didn't they sometimes put them on the reunion ribbons? Seems I saw a picture somewhere of a ribbon from one of Forrest's reunions with a picture of him on it, rather like the OP.

 

[TerryB]

Didn't they sometimes put them on the reunion ribbons? Seems I saw a picture somewhere of a ribbon from one of Forrest's reunions with a picture of him on it, rather like the OP.

Not sure about that, but I did have something from a 1909 reunion of an N.B. Forrest Camp of one of the Daughters organizations. It opened like one of those makeup compacts and had what was left of a broken mirror in it. Probably made out of cellulose. I gave it to a distant cousin who does genealogy and is a member of UDC. I never figured out who would have gone to the reunion or where it was held. Prob Memphis.

 

[bankerpapaw]

He still had that fire in his eyes, didn't he?