CDV OF ALBERT STRATTON, 147th NEW YORK, WOUNDED AT PETERSBURG

$225.00 ON HOLD

Quantity Available: 1

Item Code: 160-638

To Civil War photography collectors and students, Albert Stratton is a familiar face of that century’s lost generation. Born in 1844 or 1845, he enlisted at Ellicott, NY, in August 1863 at age 18, mustering into Co. G, 147th NY as a private on August 19, 1863. The regiment was then serving in the 1st Corps Army of the Potomac and in March 1864 became part of the 5th Corps. He had enlisted as a substitute for a drafted man. There was likely some payment involved by the man he replaced or an agent involved in such things, but it could hardly have made up for the price he would pay, being severely wounded by an artillery round at Petersburg on June 18, 1864, a wound requiring the amputation of both arms. He was officially discharged for wounds on Sept. 27, 1864, and applied for and received a pension for disability soon after. Some images show him wearing sergeant’s chevrons. The NYAG roster does not list that promotion. It may simply have been unrecorded or was possibly a later gesture of consolation by the state, perhaps increasing his pension. In any case, he is also said to have become a minister and likely received some money from the sale of his photograph, though pirated images abound and we note this one has no photographer’s imprint, though it carries a tax stamp indicating sale between Aug/Sept 1864 and Aug/Sept 1866.

Several different views are known. This one shows him seated in front of a studio painted backdrop, with the empty sleeves of his military jacket pinned up, with what appears to be a handkerchief stuffed in his lapel and wearing a small 5th Corps badge on his chest, consisting of a scrolling top bar and openwork Maltese Cross in a circle, along with his regimental numerals “147” pinned to his low, standing collar. He reportedly married in Brooklyn in 1865, but made his home thereafter in Washington, interrupted by a three-month stay in 1872 at a veteran’s home in Milwaukee, before returning to Washington, where he died in June 1874. He had at least three children. It was an extra bit of cruel irony that his occupation at enlistment was listed as “blacksmith.”

This is a telling photograph that likely reminded civilians of the war’s cost, arousing some sympathy while satisfying a bit of morbid curiosity at the same time.  [sr][ph:L]

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