In 2014, at the Ohio Civil War Show in Mansfield, after several friends told me that a dealer had a "loaded" cdv album full of U.S. Sharpshooters cdv's I was dubious to say the least. Full albums are rare enough as it is for any branch of service....civilians sure, but infantry, cavalry, artillery...those albums areContinue reading "Sexton W. Williams"

An early war Neff’s melainotype of Charles P. Shepard, Company E (NH) 1st U.S. Sharpshooters. Shepard was a student at Boscawen Academy when he enlisted in August 1861. At the battle of Malvern Hill, VA in July 1862 he was grievously wounded in the lower abdomen, the bullet passing straight through his body “letting theContinue reading "Charles P. Shepard"

One of my favorite images in the collection is this remarkable quarter plate tintype of an unidentified private belonging to the 2nd U.S. Sharpshooters. The same painted back drop and at least one variant appear in a large number of circa-early 1864 tintypes taken in the field; most subjects belonged to the Second Corps ofContinue reading "Unidentified Private, 2nd U.S.S.S."

For the past few weeks at my workshop we've been enjoying a few episodes a day of a show called "Gold Rush: Mine Rescue with Freddy & Juan." It's interesting if not too formulaic; struggling miners in the wilderness, having spent nearly all of their savings, desperately work the tailings or new paydirt from theContinue reading "Albert Bills"

It seemed fitting to follow up the previous post about my first U.S.S.S. photo with the "second" one that rekindled and refocused my interest in collecting; a plain old undated, unsigned cdv that I found at a Red Lion, PA antique store sometime in the late 2000's. I recognized him from an alternate uniformed cdvContinue reading "Edward Dow"

A duplicate of the very first sharpshooter image I found in the wild (eBay) back in the late 90's right after I graduated high school. That first carte de visite was unsigned but I recognized Churchill from an identical image published in "The Civil War Diary of Wyman S. White," which to this day isContinue reading "William H. Churchill"

Perhaps two of the most nationally famous volunteer regiments of the war, the 1st and 2nd United States Sharpshooters were, for the time, two very unique organizations. In the spring of 1861 wealthy inventor and skilled target shooter Hiram Berdan set into motion the recruiting of a regiment of dedicated marksman for the U.S. Army.Continue reading "A History of Berdan’s Sharpshooters"