Matthew Brady image. A fit and trim US Colored Troops Yankee infantryman in a regulation 9-button frock coat is blindfolded and hanging dead from the gallows. An officer is tending to the corpse as an armed African American soldier looks on with his musket resting on his shoulder. Others look on from a distance including Black soldiers and what appear to be some contrabands (Ex slaves serving the Union Army as cooks and laborers). Some of the onlookers appear to be white. Label on the back states it is the execution of a deserter. Further research indicates it is likely an army sanctioned lynching of a Black Man who spoke with a white woman. Very clear, very striking, and very troubling. The Library of Congress resource page sheds the following light.

Execution of a deserter, Alexandria, Va. / Negative by Brady & Co., Washington.

Stereograph shows the hanging body of William Johnson of 23rd Regiment, U.S. Colored Troops, executed for the "attempt to outrage the person of a young lady at New-Kent Court-house" and desertion, near Petersburg, Virginia (location incorrectly given as Alexandria on the photograph). END OF L-O-C text.

Great piece of photo history. Along the lines of the Falling Man photo taken on September 11th. It's horribly troubling but you just have to keep looking. Orange mount. War for the Union series.

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Excellent