The pressing need for volunteers to fill the depleted ranks of the Union army had not waned by the summer of 1864. In Milwaukee, recruiters organized Wisconsin’s 43rd infantry regiment for service in the war-torn South. One of the volunteers pictured here, New York-born Charles W. “Charlie” Ford of Company K, stands in front of a patriotic backdrop emblazoned with the regimental number and “Union Forever.” Ford and his comrades spent their yearlong enlistment in Tennessee on guard duty and breaking up guerrilla bands. Ford mustered out in June 1865 and settled in South Dakota in 1885. He died in 1909 at about age 82.
The soldier’s simple fare and spartan table setting is revealed in this portrait of a Union volunteer. His jacket with cloth epaulettes and pocket indicates he served in a New York unit. The simple table covered in cloth suggests the photographer took this image in camp.
Had the Civil War been avoided, Howard F. Hale of Collinsville, Conn., might have followed his father David into journalism. But in November 1861, the 17-year-old left his job as a printer’s apprentice and joined his home state’s 12th Infantry. Dispatched to Louisiana, Pvt. Hale and his regiment participated in various expeditions. In April 1863, the 12th fought at Fort Bisland, part of operations in the Bayou Teche region. Casualties among the Connecticut boys included Hale, who suffered a mortal gunshot wound in the abdomen. Though his final resting place is unknown, Hale’s name is one of 39 listed on a memorial in Collinsville Cemetery. This portrait memorializes the sacrifice of “The Patriot Printer Boy.”
A coatless Union cavalryman shows off his weapons of war. Tucked into his belt is a pair of revolvers, a Colt Model 1849 (left) and a Remington Beals, and hanging from it is a sword or saber bayonet, possibly a rare Cosmopolitan make. He holds a Model 1855 Joslyn carbine. The U.S. Ordnance Department contracted for 860 of these carbines in 1861. Delivered in 1862, the government distributed them mostly to Ohio units, which may be a clue to this trooper’s identity. Another pointer to Ohio is the bayonet: Cosmopolitans were manufactured in Hamilton, Ohio.
— Senior Editor Phil Spaugy.
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