DOUBLE-ARMED UNION SOLDIER WITH HAVERSACK AND CANTEEN: CASED 6th PLATE AMBROTYPE

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Item Code: 149-61

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This sixth-plate ambrotype shows a young soldier armed and equipped for service in the field. The soldier is shown full-standing with one hand resting on a narrow, round-topped waist-high table covered with an embroidered tablecloth. He wears a regulation infantry enlisted man’s frock coat and forage cap with the brim turned up so as not to shadow his face for the portrait. The branch of service piping is visible on his collar and cuffs. The photographer has put a small dab of gold paint on his brass buttons and belt plate, and lightly tinted his cheeks red. He is posed with his rifle musket at his side with fixed bayonet. His rifle sling is in place. From the placement of the sling swivels and shape of the bands and bayonet blade he is armed with a P1853 Enfield rifle musket, the most popular imported long-arm by both the north and south. He has turned his belt around to make his cap box appear on the correct side (compensating for the lateral reversal of the photographic process.) The photographer had to struggle a bit in gilding the upside-down US, leaving the U indistinct the S more of a Z, but we have seen far worse jobs. One of the strong points of the image, in addition to the bayonetted rifle musket with sling, is the soldier’s inclusion of his haversack and canteen in the image. The former is recognizable by its wide shoulder strap and the upper portion of its flap, both black and shining, indicate they are a recent issue. His canteen itself is hidden behind the haversack, but its narrower white cloth sling is plain, running across his chest just behind the haversack strap. There is no cartridge box sling visible, but he may well be wearing the box out of sight on his waist belt- for a time in 1861 the government was even issuing the boxes without slings. He makes up for it in warlike appearance, though, by sporting a percussion revolver tucked in his belt, likely borrowed from the photographer or another soldier or officer waiting in line to be photographed for the folks back home. The cylinder appears to have a short forward flute- our best guess is that it is a Marston.

The case is the embossed “leatherette” style with geomeotric and floral motifs with a cross-hatched ground and narrow gilt blindstamped borders inside and out. The floral embossed facing pad is in place. The image is matted, glassed and framed. The mat is gilt brass with impressed floral and geometric designs. The image has a few small spots off to the left and a narrow band of solarization around the perimeter with some rubs from the matt, but these do not touch or affect the figure except at the very bottom of his trouser cuffs and tops of his shoes, which are partially concealed by the mat. [sr][ph:L]

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