Figure016

Citation

Unknown Photographer Photographer. “Union infantryman.” circa 1863. Greg French Collection. Mirror of Race, 11 Feb. 2021, mirrorofrace.bc.edu/items/show/247. Accessed 30 Apr. 2024.

Title

Union infantryman

Subject

unknown

Creator

Unknown Photographer Photographer

Date

circa 1863

Type

studio portrait, military occupational

Identifier

Figure016

Rights Holder

Greg French Collection

Original Format

ambrotype

Physical Dimensions

Quarter Plate (3.25 x 4.25 inches)

Factual Commentary

This ambrotype portrays a Union soldier armed with a musket and pistol. Black soldiers were able to enter the Federal army starting in 1863. Research into this image, comparing the studio setting to other known photographs, has shown that this is probably a soldier who enlisted in the 54th or 55th Massachusetts Infantry and posed for his portrait at Camp Meigs, the training base for these regiments in Readville, Massachusetts. The 54th became famous as the first Black regiment organized in the North, and it proved that soldiers of African descent could fight courageously when it made a valiant assault on Fort Wagner, South Carolina, on July 18, 1863. This led the way to nearly 200,000 Black soldiers being able to join the Union army.

Interpretive Commentary

The story of Black soldiers making the Civil War a fight for their freedom is a decisive one in American history. Rarely does a people have the opportunity to make such a concerted decision to determine its fate. African Americans seized this one to prove their dedication to the cause of ending slavery, whatever other Americans thought the war was about, enlisting in military in their hundreds of thousands, despite unequal pay, discrimination, and mistreatment.

The Mirror of Race has published one essay, by Erina Duganne, on "Black Civil War Portraiture in Context." We hope to publish more essays on this topic in the future.

Alternative Title

Collection

Mirror of Race