Captian Bush 186th NY:


E.V Rowe NY:


Unidentified Oficer, Philadelphia 1862 backmark:


Unidentified Officer Rock Island Illinois backmark 1864:


L.G. Tripp 8th NY Heavies:


Unidientified Officer backmark Davenport Iowa 1864:

I wonder if L. G. Tripp survived a certain ill-fated charge.

Let me say this about the Officer photo's. Most of them, including the guy from NY were taken from e-bay. The photo's were from a collection of Federal Officer POW's and I can't for the life of me remember where the prison camp was he listed they were from. That being said, a good guess would be yes, he survived Cold Harbor.

Great photos.

It looks like the officer photographed in Philadelphia in 1862 is wearing enlisted trousers.

I also loved the photo of the private taken by W.A. Cooke. I don't feel so bad about my low hanging waist belt now! It looks like he's doing a major gut sucking job while his photo is taken. I can relate to his pain!    

From what I've read, officers wearing enlisted clothing was very, very common, especially after the Pensular Campaign. A couple of good reasons:

The more you looked like your men, the less likely you were to be picked out as a target.

Enlisted clothing was much less expensive then the Officers gear they had to purchase. Wearing out enlisted gear on campaign was much cheaper. You could always break out your good stuff when you went into camp for extended periods.

Spiros, Jame Owens and others have many photo's of Officers wearing enlisted sack coats and no rank at all besides their swords. I think there's a great article in the new CRRC. Or, maybe it's on the columbia Rifles website regurading officers kits. It's first rate. Written by John Tobey, it contains loads of research and first person accounts reguarding what officers were actually wearing. Pistols in holsters? Almost never.

Tripp's image was struck in Baltimore, from the info posted on Ebay. Since the 8th NYHA was in MD for a while, at least that makes some sense. Several nice NY images in that collection, too.

Grumpy,

Same holds true for Confederate Officers, in spades! As the War went on, it became almost impossible for Confererate Officers to obtain uniforms. It became an issue for even high ranking folks. I've read that Officers rented apartments in Petersburg, where they kept their dress uniforms for the occasional trip to Richmond.

The thing I found interesting about the Philadelphia Officer was that this was a formal studio portrait.

It's my opinion that Officers usually wore their pistols on a separate belt, not on their sword belts.

Quote :

GrumpyDave wrote : From what I've read, officers wearing enlisted clothing was very, very common, especially after the Pensular Campaign. A couple of good reasons: The more you looked like your men, the less likely you were to be picked out as a target. Enlisted clothing was much less expensive then the Officers gear they had to purchase. Wearing out enlisted gear on campaign was much cheaper. You could always break out your good stuff when you went into camp for extended periods. Spiros, Jame Owens and others have many photo's of Officers wearing enlisted sack coats and no rank at all besides their swords. I think there's a great article in the new CRRC. Or, maybe it's on the columbia Rifles website regurading officers kits. It's first rate. Written by John Tobey, it contains loads of research and first person accounts reguarding what officers were actually wearing. Pistols in holsters? Almost never.

Don't forget that Grant Apologized to Lee for appearing in a private's fatigue coat when the surrender was signed in Appomattox.

Is his gum blanket really as thin as it apears to be?
Is his canteen UNDER his waist belt?
Is his cartridge box sling wider than most you've seen?

Nice ceegars. Freinds, brothers or just splitting the cost of the photo?
Is that a 2nd Corps badge I spy?

 

--Last edited by grumpydave on 2007-03-30 07:23:58 --

Quote :

GrumpyDave wrote : Is his gum blanket really as thin as it apears to be? Is his canteen UNDER his waist belt? Is his cartridge box sling wider than most you've seen?

Does he have a chain in front of his cartridge box?  Like a watch chain or is it just a mark on the photo.

About the "chain", it's hard to tell with the resolution of the scan, but it doesn't seem to attach to the cartridge box which leads me to believe it is simply a mark on the photo. Also with the way he appears to be wearing his kit I woulder if much of that may have simply been studio props (super thin gum, canteen under the belt et al)

Studio props would be my guess.  I have often wondered if some of the subjects in CDV's or pics were actually soldiers or soldier wanna be's?I imagine photographers would take an image of anyone with money.

Quote :

Ken Cornett wrote : Studio props would be my guess.  I have often wondered if some of the subjects in CDV's or pics were actually soldiers or soldier wanna be's?I imagine photographers would take an image of anyone with money.

The regulations say that a soldier on furlough is to leave his weapon and accoutrements with the company.  So at most soldiers on furlough would have their bedroll or knapsack, haversack and canteen.

So that might push many of the photos towards a prop usage.

More Confederate Shoulder Straps:

Portrait of Emanuel Rudasill, Company M, 16th North Carolina Regiment, C.S.A.].