Can I find out more about this photo?

[frogmarch]

I'm wondering if there's a way for me to identify the Union officers in this Civil War photo, or at least their units (or whatever the various divisions are called) by anything on their uniforms.



The photo is in Mathew Brady's Illustrated History of the Civil War. The caption says Group of Unknown Federal Officers - Who can recognize them?

My husband came across the photo in his copy of the book and showed it to me, without saying anything. When I saw the face of the officer standing on the far right, I said, "That's Jay!" Jay is our eldest son. My husband agreed that the resemblance was striking - which is why he'd shown me the photo in the first place. Since then, whenever I've shown the photo to family members, they've all said the same thing - that the soldier standing on the far right is the spitting image of Jay.

My great-grandfather was a first lieutenant in the 22nd NY Cavalry (Company G). I have no photos of him, but various documents in his military record list his height at between 5'9" and 5'10" which may be close to the height of the Jay-lookalike officer in the picture, if the taller officers were over 6' tall.

Any suggestions on how I might be able to find out more about the photo?

Thanks. :-)

[Spider Jerusalem]

1. Those are infantry officers, not cavalry.

Infantry officers wore a cap insignia of a horn stitched in gilt/silver thread on a black background (which is what these officers are wearing); the cavalry insignia was two crossed sabres. Even without that clue, there are others; Union Army officers wore shoulder straps faced in the colour of their branch of service--sky blue for infantry, yellow for cavalry, red for artillery--and yellow would show in a much lighter shade in a photograph. Also, the officer second from the right has an infantry sword, not a cavalry sabre.

[frogmarch]

2. Thanks!

I'd just learned about colors, etc., from a website pertaining to Civil War insignia, swords, and so forth. Interesting. Not sure if the officers in the photo are all from the same branch of service, but I suppose they probably are.

One thing I read about yellow that differs from what you report is that in some Civil War photos, the yellow field on Cavalry shoulder straps appears darker than the border. Speaking of shoulder straps, the standing officer appears to be a 2nd lieutenant because it doesn't look like there's a bar on his visible strap, unless it just doesn't show up.

Thanks very much for your insight. Mystery solved. :-)

[jwirr]

3. This is a well known photo and it would help if you could find out

when and where it was taken, the names of any of the people and which branch this group is from. Then you take a look at your ancestor and see if he was in the same area at the same time. That still doesn't give you names but it tells you if you are wasting your time.