Half length seated studio albumen CDV portrait. Unmarked. Early 20th century pencil inscription to mount verso reads: "Lieut. John Henry Camper / Co.D. 11th Va. Reg't / Pickett's Division / Longstreets Brigade."

Original carte de visite (CDV) photograph of Lt. John Henry Camper of the 11th Virginia Infantry. Composed primarily of Lynchburg City and Campbell County volunteers, the 11th Virginia was part of Kemper's Brigade in General George E. Pickett’s Division in Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. Principally known for their participation in Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg, the 11th Virginia formed the next to last regiment on the right flank. Despite overwhelming odds, the men would make it less than 100 yards from the Union line before they were overwhelmed by musket fire. Out of 405 soldiers who began the charge, nearly 160 would become casualties.

John Henry Camper (1838-1922) was born and raised in Fincastle, a bustling small town near Roanoke. Just 23 when Confederate guns fired on Ft. Sumter, he left behind his peacetime job as a clerk and cast his lot with the Confederate Army. An intelligent young man, he received a commission to the rank of Lieutenant in the 11th Virginia Infantry. Camper proved to be a fighter, sustaining a wound during the Battle of Williamsburg. He was among the lucky few that survived Pickett’s Charge, and remained unscathed until the Battle of Saylor’s Creek at the very end of the War. Captured there, he was sent to Johnson’s Island prison camp where he remained for nearly two months. The war over, Camper swore an oath of allegiance and returned home to Fincastle.

Camper is pictured here in a seated pose and wears the distinctive double-breasted officer’s jacket common to the Confederate Army. A darker derby-style hat completes his look; he is the classic Rebel line officer. This carte is a fine record of a survivor of one of the most disastrous infantry maneuvers in American military history.

[Civil War, Union, Confederate, Early Photography, Historic Photography, Albumen, CDV, Carte-de-Visite, Carte de Visite, Tintypes, Cased Images]