Confederate Portraits
A Confederate trooper wearing a hat with A star attached to the brim is armed to the teeth. He grasps an 1840-style Dragoon saber and a double-barrel shotgun. The revolvers
Category: 2020 Winter
Why Photo Sleuths Do—and Don’t—Share With the Community
By Kurt Luther In these columns, I frequently emphasize the importance of community in Civil War photo sleuthing. Most of us benefit from the resources freely shared by other members
Connecting a New Generation With Civil War History
Jason Lynn Pate, a Civil War photography collector and subscriber to MI, teaches history to seventh and eighth graders at Lake Road Elementary School in Union City, Tenn. A few
Entered According to Act of Congress: Copyright and photography in 19th Century America
By Jason Lee Guthrie The pioneering work of historians such as Robert Taft, William Welling and Bill Frassanito has contributed to more than just the history of photography as a
The Benefactress: Reformer Ellen Cheney Johnson in war and peace
By Elizabeth Topping Immense throngs of New Englanders packed the halls of the weeklong Boston Sanitary Fair in December 1863. Generous crowds filled fundraising coffers with an impressive amount of
Confederates in Paris
By John O’Brien Parisians in the French capital glimpsed these portraits of Confederate leaders in 1864—a crucial time in the history of the Southern nation, with the chances for diplomatic
Gum Blankets and Ammunition Boxes at Bermuda Hundred
An unnamed aide to a Union general observed the favorable position occupied by federals along one section of the front line at Bermuda Hundred, Va., on May 18, 1864. At
1851 Regs
The deeply lined face of this regular army captain, and his shock of white hair, indicate he is a veteran of life and military service. Details of his dress uniform
The Seamstress
A scissor-wielding seamstress prepares to cut a length of string attached to a pair of trousers. A second pair of scissors lay open on the base of her dress. A
The Man Behind “The Tree”: Photographer William T. Seeley of Elmira, N.Y.
By Kyle M. Stetz For every soldier that gazed into a camera lens during the American Civil War, a photographer stared back. Some photographers gained celebrity status—Brady, Gardner and O’Sullivan—to