Sixth plate tintype. Full leatherette case.

Excellent sixth plate tintype photograph of a seated and armed Union soldier. Clad in the classic blue uniform of Yankee infantrymen, he cradles his three-band rifle musket between his arm and shoulder. While this young sitter’s identity is currently unknown, a clue is found tacked to the leather adjustment band of his forage cap. This particular soldier used small brass letters and numbers to spell out “Co. A 6 MD”, which places him in the 6th Maryland Infantry. His Company A was comprised primarily of volunteers from Carroll County. The 6th Maryland spent the first part of their service defending railroads in the western reaches of their home state before General Ulysses S. Grant came east, at which point they were quite active as a member of the famous VI Corps throughout the brutal fighting in Virginia in 1864 and 1865. A monument to their honor can be found along the Boydon Plank Road in Petersburg.

The image itself is wonderfully sharp and clear, if ever so slightly dark in contrast, and the brass letters on his cap can be seen with the naked eye. The plate is otherwise nearly flawless.

[Early Photography, Tintypes, Cased Images, Militaria] [Daguerreotype, Ambrotype, Tintype, CDV, Albumen, carte-de-visite, Salt print, Cabinet Card] [Civil War, Union, Confederate]