Showcase. Interpret. Preserve.
“During the Civil War, Union and Confederate troops both adopted exotic dress in the transgressive guise of the Zouave uniform,” observes historian Timothy Marr. He goes on to explore the cultural phenomenon that excited and energized Americans before and during the war.
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They fell in the thousands during three brutal days of carnage in a crossroads community in southeast Pennsylvania. The ground hallowed by their blood—Little Round Top and Culp’s Hill and The Wheatfield—are forever part of our American memory. A small yet significant group of the men who were killed, wounded or captured are remembered here in portraits and personal stories. Introduced by Harold Holzer.
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Rare tintypes of the Confederate president and commander-in-chief and his first lady hidden away since the end of the Civil War come to light in the Spring 2016 issue of Military Images magazine.
Believed to have been taken during the months leading up to the war, the unique images were acquired in 1980 by John O’Brien. He has kept the images private since acquiring them 36 years ago. In an exclusive article for Military Images, he tells the story of the Davis tintypes.
Essays by William C. Davis, professor of history at Virginia Tech and Director of Programs at the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies, and Joan E. Cashin, a professor of history at Ohio State University and the author of “First Lady of the Confederacy: Varina Davis’s Civil War,” reflect on the power and importance of the Davis tintypes.
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By 1865, the bullets had stopped flying and many of the soldiers in blue and gray marched home. But the residual effects of the war would continue for many years. Although Union veteran John Quincy Dickinson had escaped death on the battlefield, he faced new threats in his assignment to the Freedman’s Bureau in Jackson County, Fla., where he found himself in the crosshairs of the politically charged violence of the reconstruction effort.
The full story appears in the Winter 2016 issue of Military Images magazine.
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25 years after a unique photo of a soldier holding an impossible large wood sword and seated astride an oversize “horse” made of timber made the rounds in books and film, Robert L. Kotchian discovered its origins and connections to Old World punishments.
The full story appears in the Winter 2016 issue of Military Images magazine.
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“When we attempt to understand history, we often find that empirical truths unfold alongside significant symbolic moments,” writes historian J. Matthew Gallman in this reflection on a portrait of Pvt. Booth of the 5th Massachusetts Cavalry. Gallman adds, “And, to make things even more complicated, it is not at all unusual that our collective memory of events (both real and symbolic) differs from how participants understood what they were living through.” The image of this black trooper speaks to emerging themes of democracy, equality and the individualism of the American soldier.
Gallman’s thoughts appear in the Winter 2016 issue of Military Images magazine.
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Two court-martial cases that arose at the end of the Civil War—one in Albany, N.Y., and the other in Springfield, Ill.—reveal how some litigants relied on more than the spoken word to determine identity. The cases of Simon Burke and William Gemmill, both tried in September 1865, used photographs as a key method to identify suspected deserters.
To learn more, access “Mistaken Identity? Early Use of Photographic Evidence in Two Court-Martial Case for Desertion” by Elena Colón-Marrero in the Autumn 2015 issue of Military Images magazine.
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Dan Schwab appreciates the connection that old photos make to long lost volunteers in blue and gray. “When I hold an image in my hand, I know that the soldier in the image unquestionably at one time held that very piece of tin or glass in his hand as well. He most likely took great care of it so that it could be sent home to his parents, siblings, wife or a sweetheart.”
Representative examples of his collection are featured in the Summer 2015 issue of Military Images.
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Veteran and registered nurse Chris Foard first became interested in the Civil War about 28 years ago, when he started his search for artifacts related to the men and women who cared for sick, wounded and dying soldiers. “A part of collecting I find most enjoyable is locating photographs of nurses then learning about the person behind the image,” Foard notes. “What still drives me to collect these rare images is putting a face with a name and learning more about their struggles, hardships, obstacles and how they coped.”
Representative examples of his collection are featured in the Spring 2015 issue of Military Images.
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Brian Boeve purchased a photograph of an identified Union soldier about 25 years ago. The individual, Boeve learned, was a volunteer in the 2nd Iowa Infantry who suffered a mortal wound at the Battle of Shiloh. As it turned out, he was also the brother of a founder of Boeve’s hometown, Holland, Mich. The discoveries hooked Boeve on Civil War photography. Since then, he has focused on collecting citizen soldier likenesses. “To look into the eyes of these noble men and honor their sacrifice is the fuel that drives my passion to collect Civil War images,” he observes. Representative examples of his collection are featured in the Winter 2015 issue of Military Images.
