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Finding Aid: January/February 1989

The complete issue

Vol. X, No. 4
(32 pages)

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Inside

Cover image
A sixth-plate tintype from the collection of James Tassile Carden pictures a group of Union soldiers faking a meal for the photographer.

Editor’s Desk (p. 1)
“Sex sells!” exclaims the editor by way of introducing a feature gallery of daring images of scantily clad women from the Bill Gladstone collection. Also mentioned is a request to donate to the Association for the Preservation of Civil War Sites, Inc. (APCWS)

Mail Call (pp. 2-3)
The letters to the editor includes several clarifications and/or corrections, a plea for images of Civil and Revolutionary War generals, and a lengthy note about Orr’s Rifles by Ron Field.

Passing in Review (pp. 4-5)
The issue features reviews of 10 publications, including Civil War Dictionary (David McKay Co.) by Mar M. Boatner; George B. McClellan, the Young Napoleon (Ticknor & Fields) by Stephen W. Sears; Come Retribution: The Confederate Secret Service and the Assassination of Lincoln (University Press of Mississippi) by William A. Tidwell with James O. Hall and David Winfrey Gaddy; Make Me a Map of the Valley (SMU Press) by Jediah Hotchkiss; Distant Thunder: A Photographic Essay on the American Civil War (Thomasson-Grant) by Sam Abdell and Brian Pohanka; Centennial Campaign: The Sioux War of 1876 (University of Oklahoma Press) by John S. Gray; If It Takes All Summer: The Battle of Spotsylvania (University of North Carolina Press) by William D. Matter; The Siege of Savannah (print by Freedom Hill Press) by Charles Jones; Gaines’ Mills to Appomattox (Texian Press) by Harold B. Simpson; The Brothers’ War: Civil War Letters to Their Loved Ones from the Blue and Gray (Times Books) by Annette Tapert.

Risque Business (pp. 6-7)
A group of seven photographs of lithographs are illustrations of women in various compromising situations. “The cartes reproduced here from the collection of William Gladstone seem naively modest to the jaded modern eye. To the simple soldier of the Victorian era they must have seemed incredibly daring.”

All for the Union: Tales of Ten Federal Soldiers by Orton Begner, Richard Rattenbury, Tom McDonald, Richard Betterly, James Zupan, Brian Pohanka, Barry I. Mickey, Wendell W. Lang Jr. and Seward R. Osborne (pp. 8-13)
Soldier vignettes include Sgt. Seth Plumb of the 8th Connecticut Infantry, Sgt. John V. Richards of the 31st Wisconsin Infantry, the Whiting brothers (Capt. Whiting S. and 1st lt. James W. of the 1st Maine Artillery and 1st lt. Charles A. of the 6th Maine Infantry), Capt. George Bissell of the 5th Wisconsin Infantry, Pvt. William H. Webster of the 96th Ohio Infantry, Pvt. George Wannemacher of the 5th New York Infantry (Duryée Zouaves), Pvt. Henry Williamson of the 1st Vermont Infantry and 7th Squadron Rhode Island Cavalry, Capt. Edward Hall of the 8th Vermont Infantry and Capt. Ambrose N. Baldwin of the 20th New York State Militia.

An Incident at Sangster’s Station by Richard Carlile (pp. 14-15)
The life and death of Lt. Henry Hidden of the 1st New York Cavalry, who suffered fatal wound in action and died on March 9, 1862—the same day as the famed encounter between the Monitor and the Virginia. Hidden is believed to be the first cavalry officer in the Army of the Potomac to die in battle. The text is illustrated by four cartes de visite, two variations on a well-known portrait by Mathew Brady, another Brady image and a photo of Hidden in civilian clothes.

Buddies: Pals in the Great War, from the Collection of Robert Norland (pp. 16-22)
A total of 27 images of groups of Doughboys are pictured in a variety of poses, situations and locations. Identified soldiers that are known to be pictured include Albert Erickson of the 163rd Infantry, 41st Division; Farriers Bothalman, Bellard, Johnson, Sgt. Gipp, James, Mible and Aische of Company A, 107th Engineers; Maj. Samuel M. Johnson and Capt. John H. Pleasants, Company D, 140th Infantry, 35th Division;

The Walking Artillery by Timothy Brookes (p. 23)
A brief history of the 140th Pennsylvania Infantry, illustrated with a carte de visite of Pvt. David Whitehill of Company H. Taken prisoner in the Wheatfield during the Battle of Gettysburg, Whitehill was eventually exchanged and rejoined his regiment. He was killed in action in 1864 during the Battle of Hatcher’s Run.

A Secret Hero & A Secret Weapon: Two vignettes of the Boxer Rebellion by John M. Carroll (pp. 24-25)
Lt. Herbert Goldsmith Squiers, a veteran of 14 years on the western frontier, found himself at the American Embassy in Pekin, China, during the Boxer Rebellion. Serving officially as first secretary, he assumed a leadership role of the defenses of the embassies when the Boxers launched attacks against the fabled city. Key to the defenses was an old muzzle-loading cannon, known affectionately as The Old International. One of the men who worked the weapon, Gunner’s Mate Joseph Mitchell, would receive the Medal of Honor for his bravery in servicing the piece under fire. Images of Squiers, his wife, and several views of the cannon are included.

Stragglers (pp. 26-31)
Solo photos of the unusual, the unidentified & the humorous features images that span the antebellum era through the early 1900s. Included is four ambrotypes of pre-Civil War soldiers, a carte de visite of soldiers of the 71st New York State Militia at mess, the summer encampment of the Lincoln Light Infantry, Nebraska National Guard, and an albumen of a courier wearing a havelock preparing to deliver a message from the officer of the day.

Sutler’s Row (p. 32)

Back cover
A sixth-plate daguerreotype from the collection of Steven Lister is a portrait of a militia sergeant, circa 1846-1850, dressed in a huge bell-crowned shako and equipped with a Model 1842 Springfield musket.

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