The complete issue
Vol. XXVI, No. 4
(40 pages)
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Inside
Cover image
A carte de visite from the Chris Nelson collection pictures G.N. Metcalf of the 6th Massachusetts Infantry holding a regulation copper bugle, the most common of all Civil War bugles.
Table of Contents (p. 1)
Editor’s Desk and Mail Call (pp. 2-3)
The editor wishes everyone a Happy New Year and introduces longtime contributing editor Chris Nelson’s collection. Representative images from his holdings compose the six-part feature photo essay in this issue. Also, a new department, The Confederate Soldier, makes it debut. A letter to the editor by Dale Nieson is an announcement that the 1865 negative index book of Nashville, Tenn., photographer Charles C. Giers has surfaced. “If you have in your archive or collection any photographs taken by this photographer in 1865 and the negative number is present on the reverse side, our helpful site visitor has agreed to look up the name of the soldier listed for that number.” Negative numbers range from 3,652 through 6,376.
Passing in Review (pp. 4-5)
Two books are reviewed. The Bowie Knife: Unsheathing an American Legend (Andrew Mowbray Incorporated Publishers) by Norm Flayderman and Brothers One and All, Esprit de Corps in a Civil War Regiment (Louisiana State University Press) by Mark H. Dunkelman.
U.S. Military Bugles and Buglers, A Photo Survey: Part One, The Civil War 1861-1865 by Chris Nelson (pp. 7-15)
A total of 21 images are grouped into three subsections. A group of 13 wartime images show various buglers. Identified portraits include Charles Eastman of the 74th Illinois Infantry and Veteran Reserve Corps, West Point bandsman Louis Bentz, Philip Konkle of the 113th Ohio Infantry and John Washington Payne of the Confederate 2nd Kentucky Infantry. A second group is two are well-known poses of the same bugler published by the U.S. Quartermaster Department. The third group includes six photographs of Grand Army of the Republic buglers.
U.S. Military Bugles and Buglers, A Photo Survey: Part Two, 1866-1897 by Chris Nelson (pp. 16-17)
A total of seven images illustrate the post war and Indian Wars period, which include an albumen photograph of a Rhode Island militia artilleryman, a Utah National Guard cavalryman, Vermont Cadet Corp. Alden Shaw and a group of buglers “taken in front of Bugle Corps headquarters” on Aug. 20, 1887.
U.S. Military Bugles and Buglers, A Photo Survey: Part Three, Spanish–American War 1898 by Chris Nelson (pp. 18-22)
A total of 16 images illustrate this relatively brief conflict. Subjects include the buglers of the 4th Wisconsin Infantry, Carl Cadman of the same regiment with his 1892 field trumpet, Matt B. Pilam of the 4th Tennessee Infantry, James T. Brown of the 1st U.S. Cavalry, a group of soldiers from Company K of the 5th Massachusetts Infantry, New York National Guard buglers and 8th Massachusetts Infantry buglers.
U.S. Military Bugles and Buglers, A Photo Survey: Part Four, 1902-1914 by Chris Nelson (pp. 23-24)
Six photos and a 1905 tobacco card show buglers at rest and in action with their instruments, including one musician at an encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic and groups at Fort Michie and also the Philippines.
U.S. Military Bugles and Buglers, A Photo Survey: Part Five, World War I by Chris Nelson (pp. 25-28)
A total of 15 images include Pvt. Kellus Buchanan with his 1894 model bugle, Fred G. Brown showing off his Model 1892, a Marine bugler, a navy bugler, and early distaff Navy bugler with her Model 1892, buglers in attendance at a double funeral somewhere in France, and a bugler with a giant megaphone at Camp Zachary Taylor in Louisville, Ky., in 1917.
U.S. Military Bugles and Buglers, A Photo Survey: Part Six, World War II by Chris Nelson (p. 29)
Two images include a 1944 Marine Corps file photo of PFC Betty Blue of the Woman’s Reserve and a WAAC bugler at Des Moines, Iowa, with her Model 1892 and giant megaphone.
The Great Scout Outfit Mystery by Jack Ringwalt (pp. 30-36)
The uniform worn by an unidentified cavalryman that appeared in the “Who are these guys” section of the September/October 2003 issue of Military Images happened to be an exact match to one purchased by the author in 1992. This begins the story of how the trooper came to be identified as Pvt. Robert Crispin of the 5th U.S. Cavalry.
Uniforms & History by Michael J. McAfee (p. 37)
In “Seventh Independent Battery, New York Light Artillery, 1861-1865,” McAfee explores the importance of buglers in light artillery batteries. The text is supported by a carte de visite of two buglers tentatively identified to the 7th.
The Confederate Soldier (p. 38)
A sixth-plate ambrotype from the Roy Mantle collection is a portrait of an infantryman dressed in a pleated battle shirt and a Southern-made kepi adorned with a tassel.
Sutler’s Row (p. 39)
The Last Shot (p. 40)
A tintype from the Paul Unangst collection pictures a mid-1870s portrait of a bugler posed with a canine friend.
