Largest amount of armed Confederates in a single photo?

OleMissCub

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Aug 30, 2021
Came across this image of the 9th Mississippi in another thread but thought discussion of it deserved its own separate thread. I did my very best to methodically zoom and count as many soldiers as I could (despite things getting cloudy on the far end) and I came to 220-250 on the front rank. So we're looking at 400-500 Rebs in this single photo. There are a good handful of photos of company sized groups of armed Confederates, but nothing approaching the battalion or regimental size like this. Obviously the Punch Bowl photos show the largest group of Confederates ever captured on camera, but I'm strictly talking about armed Confederates. Am I missing any others that could rival this amount?

confederate7.jpg
 
I would agree with you here. This photo is what I always personally consider to be the only photo of its kind as they say, extremely valuable with the Photo of the soldiers on the march in Frederick MD being just as valuable.

The entire collection of photos from camp in Florida that this photo comes from is a wonderful candid view of Confederate camp life that is otherwise non existent.

I would be interested to see the other handful of photos of company sized groups of armed Confederates you mention to see if any of these are unknown to me.
 
Came across this image of the 9th Mississippi in another thread but thought discussion of it deserved its own separate thread. I did my very best to methodically zoom and count as many soldiers as I could (despite things getting cloudy on the far end) and I came to 220-250 on the front rank. So we're looking at 400-500 Rebs in this single photo. There are a good handful of photos of company sized groups of armed Confederates, but nothing approaching the battalion or regimental size like this. Obviously the Punch Bowl photos show the largest group of Confederates ever captured on camera, but I'm strictly talking about armed Confederates. Am I missing any others that could rival this amount?

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Great pic...where did you find this? Is there a higher resolution image available online, like from the Library of Congress? It's hard to zoom in on this and pick out details.
 
Great pic...where did you find this? Is there a higher resolution image available online, like from the Library of Congress? It's hard to zoom in on this and pick out details.

Comes from this guy's website. I assure you that he has the highest resolution available for those images, so sadly I don't think it can get any higher. It's not on LOC unfortunately. He's really good about getting the highest res possible for posts on his blog.

https://chubachus.blogspot.com/2015/01/confederate-soldiers-of-9th-mississippi.html

This is the best zooming opportunity for those photos:

http://media.huntington.org/civilwa...rida, and environs, c. 1861.&name=Battlefront
 
What about the 2 or 3 photos of Confederate prisoners take at a train station in Chattanooga?
They are LOC photos and have been studied in detail on other threads.
 
What about the 2 or 3 photos of Confederate prisoners take at a train station in Chattanooga?
They are LOC photos and have been studied in detail on other threads.

Indeed, the photos of Confederate prisoners from Chattanooga and post-Spotsylvania have been scrutinized to death, but in this thread we are discussing armed Confederates.
 
Company F, Palmetto Battalion (SC) Light Artillery, ca. 1863
Very rare group picture of Rebs at mid-war.

I know you've done a good bit of research on this unit. What's the provenance of that photograph? They look so fresh and cohesively uniformed that it's hard to imagine this is 1863. They must have been serving as a coastal artillery unit when that photo was taken. They definitely don't look field worn! Terrific photograph.
 
I know you've done a good bit of research on this unit. What's the provenance of that photograph? They look so fresh and cohesively uniformed that it's hard to imagine this is 1863. They must have been serving as a coastal artillery unit when that photo was taken. They definitely don't look field worn! Terrific photograph.
There is some confusion about the photo but I hope this clears it up.

From Library of Congress-
Title: Confederate artillery near Charleston, S.C. in 1861 [i.e. 1863]
Contributor Names: Cook, George S. (George Smith), 1819-1902, photographer
Created / Published: [photographed 1863, printed between 1880 and 1889]
....
Caption log entry for no. 10358: Palmetto Battery, near Charleston, S.C. Photo by Cook.
https://www.loc.gov/item/2013651620/

There was a Palmetto Light Artillery or Battery but it was an independent company and served in Virginia. In the Photographic History of the Civil War (pub. 1911) the photo is identified as the Chesnut Light Artillery which is the same Company F (see guidon in photo) of the Palmetto Battalion.

Unit Information (9).jpg



Organized April 1862-

Unit Information (10).jpg
 
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There is some confusion about the photo but I hope this clears it up.

From Library of Congress-
Title: Confederate artillery near Charleston, S.C. in 1861 [i.e. 1863]
Contributor Names: Cook, George S. (George Smith), 1819-1902, photographer
Created / Published: [photographed 1863, printed between 1880 and 1889]
....
Caption log entry for no. 10358: Palmetto Battery, near Charleston, S.C. Photo by Cook.
https://www.loc.gov/item/2013651620/

There was a Palmetto Light Artillery or Battery but it was an independent company and served in Virginia. In the Photographic History of the Civil War (pub. 1911) the photo is identified as the Chesnut Light Artillery which is the same Company F (see guidon in photo) of the Palmetto Battalion.

Organized April 1862-

"1861 [i.e. 1863]"

Well in that case I'm going to split the difference and go with that photo likely being taken in 1862, haha. I'm guessing it was taken shortly after they were formed. There just isn't much about that photo that feels 1863. I know that is one hell of a presumption to make but nothing about that photo has the look of a unit that has been in existence for a year or more. They seem way too "uniformly uniformed", so to speak.
 
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