A FATHER AND SON SERVING TOGETHER IN THE UNION INFANTRY ?

$450.00 SOLD

Quantity Available: None

Item Code: 2021-778

This quarterplate tintype shows two Union infantrymen wearing field uniforms, sitting in folding camp chairs in front of a simple painted backdrop. One is considerably old than the other, barely more than a boy, and there is a facial similarity, especially in the nose. It is not a stretch to think they are father and son.

In the first two years of the war especially, infantry companies recruited locally and included not only friends and acquaintances, but brothers, cousins, and fathers and sons. The minimum age was 18 and the maximum, 44, but even without deception parental permission could lower the one age requirement considerably, and judicious application of hair coloring or a straight-face could raise the other.

Both soldiers lean back in their chairs, with legs out toward the camera, producing a somewhat soft focus, but they are plainly in campaign dress matching the primitive studio set up that points to a photographer’s tent in the field. A few details of the painted background are visible, indicating it shows, a bit ironically, an army camp. The older man, on the left, wears a frock coat and has arranged his cartridge box to appear as if correctly positioned on his right side. He has also pulled his canteen forward, a no less essential piece of equipment. (Its wide, woven strap may be one of the many colored cotton web straps used by the Philadelphia Depot.)

On the right, the young soldier wears a four-button fatigue blouse and has followed his elder’s lead in changing his cartridge box sling, but has left his bayonet in place on his waist belt, the scabbard slanting down over the edge of the chair. Both are dressed for campaigning. The photographer has gilded their belt and box plates, and lightly tinted both their pants light blue. On the right, the boy has crossed his legs, raising up on pant leg and showing he is wearing a very practical pair of boots, better adapted to the mud of camps and roads than the army shoe.

The image is matted, glassed, framed, and housed in thermoplastic case with geometrically arranged raised floral scrolls and raffles. The presentation is good and the content is thought provoking.   [sr] [ph:m]

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