Civil War era photos

[maint1517]

 

[RecoilRob]

This is an important point. Ask most Americans when the Civil War ended and they will respond with Lee’s surrender to Grant at Appomattox, on April 9, 1865. But Lee commanded only the Army of Northern Virginia. Other Confederate units continued to fight. The last to surrender was the Confederate ship Shenandoah in November, 1865, but the Texas Insurrection continued. It was not until August 20,1866, nearly a year and a half after Appomattox, that the war was proclaimed over by President Johnson.

Details here:

https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2015/spring/cw-surrenders.html

A few years ago I was down in Georgia visiting a buddy and we went to his favorite gunshop. Big bearded fellow behind the counter was introduced as 'Tim' and me as being from Pennsylvania. Tim squinted his eyes and gave me a stink-eye look....until I said that even though I'm from PA the War of Northern Aggression was one where I side with the South. Tim came out from behind the counter and gave me a big bear hug! The War is still simmering in lots of people down South, and I can't say that I blame them and often wonder how things would be if they'd have made peace without totally destroying the South?

 

[maint1517]

FYI, If you like collecting Civil War Photo's you can download the Civil War series on Netflix which is full of old Photo's and then just pause and then use snipping tool to capture the photo. I just did this one of Wyatt Earp from Youtube and saved to Imgur and easy to post.

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Jeb, wasnt that Val Kilmer as Doc Holiday?

 

[Snidely70431]

I can sit for hours on google images, just scrolling through old photos/ tin types from the civil war era. Figured I would start this thread where we could post our favorite images from that era where the participants are showing C&B revolvers. Ill start with a few of my favorites.
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These are a couple of images cribbed from a Confederate Railroad youtube video:

 

[AlexanderA]

Last picture includes a pepper box and what appears to be a Colt 1849 .31 or one of its near copies. It is also interesting that the two guys in the foreground are playing with cav sabers though the NCO appears to have an foot NCO straight sword on his far side (you can see the grip and guard) yet the soldiers in the back ground have infantry long guns. I did not say rifles because the one turned so we can see it best seems to have no rear sights, so may well be a smooth bore musket. Looks like all four soldiers are wearing slightly different jackets as well and one seems to be wearing gaiters while the others do not. The guy with the pepper box seems to be wearing a different belt buckle (much like a Union Officer's) than the others as well.

That's a strange picture, for sure. It almost looks like a bunch of reenactors clowning around, in an artificially aged photo. (Some guys in my former reenactment unit used to do this.) But I think it's original.

The M1840 NCO sword on the far side belongs to the guy in the background, who is carrying it on a baldric, next to his bayonet scabbard. It's all regulation, although I don't see his sergeant's stripes. He's armed with an M1842 smoothbore musket.

The two guys in the foreground are not sparring with cavalry sabers. The one on the left has an M1850 Foot Officer's sword, and the one on the right has another M1840 NCO sword. Each of them has the proper carrying rig -- a belt with an officer's belt plate (on the left) and an NCO baldric (on the right). Therefore, it appears that the guy on the left is an officer, while the two guys on the right are NCO's.

I don't see any rank insignia (the corporal's stripes on the guy on the right don't count, because they appear to be hand drawn by the photographer). It was not unknown for all ranks to wear 4-button blouses without rank insignia -- even General Grant was known to do that at times. (When that was done, you could sometimes tell the rank by the stripes on the pants.)

 

[jdavis123]

This is a photo of my great, great, grandfather whom I am named after. I am told that he worked in the Armory in Fayetteville, N.C. during the war. My mother always said that I must have inherited my love of firearms and tinkering from him.

 

[milemaker13]

What I like about these photos... why I like looking at them... is because these are not actors. No matter how good your prop & costume guys are... they will never capture the details of these photos. And remember, these were special moments for most of the guys pictured... wasn't everyday you got you picture taken... not like today, lol, that's for sure!

 

[AlexanderA]

You have to approach these period photographs with caution. A lot of what you see is not what it appears to be on the surface. First, there is the problem of modern fakery. Then, there is the problem of period fakery. (For example, photographers like Matthew Brady were not above supplying prop weapons, rearranging dead bodies on the battlefield, or even having live soldiers pretend to be dead bodies.) Add to that the technical limitations of the medium, such as reversed images, long exposures, and non-sensitivity of the emulsions to certain colors (for example, red or yellow would show as black, while blue would appear as white).