Confederate "Immortal 600" NC Officer Ambrotype
The subject of this sixth-plate cased ambrotype is First Lieutenant John T. Bullock, Co. "E," 23rd NC Infantry. This portrait would have been taken after September 25, 1862 when Bullock was promoted from second lieutenant. His gray frock coat carries the two horizontal collar bars and the requisite quatrefoil sleeve braid specified for a Confederate first lieutenant. A double row of federal eagle staff buttons completes the uniform. The metallic elements in this image image are gilt per the custom of most Civil War portrait photographers. Bullock's war record was exemplary in every respect. He was wounded at Sharpsburg and at Gettysburg before being captured at Spotsylvania Court House in May of 1864. As a POW, Lt. Bullock was one of 600 Confederate officers forced to provide a human shield around Yankee artillery positions on Morris Island near Charleston, SC. Bullock and his comrades were penned up in an open-air corral covering only an acre and a half. Here they endured a withering "friendly" bombardment for 45 days before being returned to more conventional captivity. The survivors of the "Immortal 600" rightly became instant heroes across the South. Lt. Bullock returned to his native Granville County, NC after the war and lived until 1900. Included is a postwar ninth-plate tintype of a civilian Bullock and a partially printed 1862 receipt from a Richmond tailor for "military coat & pants."



Estate of the late Eugene Grissom Moss and the late Maria Frances Bullock, Granville County, North Carolina.

Some abrasions to the emulsion along the right edge; light blue peripheral haloing; typically, the case lid is detached; overall the photograph's tonal qualities are good and the likeness is free from distracting marks.