This is a scarce, very clear tintype of a Vermont militia soldier, a member of a company seeing some very early war service. He is dressed in a light colored frock coat seated next to a table covered with a floral tablecloth on which sits his matching shako. The background is dark. The figure is very good, with sharp clear focus and slight tinting to the sitter’s cheeks. His coat has nine large buttons down the front, some hidden by his belts, but clearly large, rimmed, state seal types. He wears epaulets that are darker than his coat, as is his collar, which has a false buttonhole and trim. His cuffs have plackets of four buttons with embroidered false buttonholes. His trousers match his coat. His shoulder belt appears to be a shiny black patent leather, and there is no shoulder belt plate. His waist belt is black leather, carries an oval US belt plate, and a cap box is visible at his side.

The shako has a tall, dark pompom at center front, with a Union shield at the upper edge of the hat body. There is a dark band around the base of the cap. The sitter appears to have looped the chinstrap up over the rear of the cap. The shako plate on the front of the cap is a sunburst pattern with dark center. Under magnification the plate clearly reads “RUTLAND LIGHT GUARD / 1858” in raised letters around the dark center of the badge, which bears a large “1.”

This is matted, glassed, framed, and housed in thermoplastic case in excellent condition, bearing raised floral and geometric motifs front and back, with a deep purple facing pad that has an impressed foliate design that was likely gilt and now shows as a light green. The inside of the case has a very clear maker’s paper label reading:  Littlefield, Parsons & Co.,/ MANUFACTURERS OF / Daguerreotype Cases. / L., P. & Co., are the sole / Proprietors and only legal Manu-/ facturers of UNION CASES, with the / Embracing Riveted Hinge./ Patented October 14, 1856, / and April 21, 1857. The hinge, like the rest of the case, is in excellent shape.

The Rutland Light Guard was organized Nov. 30, 1858, with H.H. Baxter as its first Captain.  He became the state Adjutant and Inspector General and command then passed to  Capt. W.Y.W. Ripley. The uniform was described as gray, “trimmed with red and gilt.” As early as February 1861 52 of 53 members present (out of 74 total membership) company expressed willingness to enlist and fight to save the Union. Ripley was reportedly the first Vermonter to volunteer when the war began and in a speech at Rutland inspired the company to enlist as Company K of the 1^st Vermont. (He later served as Lt. Colonel of Berdan’s 1^st U.S.S.S.) A history of the unit along with its laws and regulations was published in the Spring 1980 Rutland Hist. Soc. Quarterly.  [sr][ph:L]

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