[CIVIL WAR] 1st Texas Infantry in Camp

Outdoor half plate ambrotype of the 1st Texas Infantry. Full leatherette case.

Significant, large half plate ambrotype of members of the 1st Texas Infantry at ‘Splinterville,’ the regiment’s winter camp located in Dumfries, Virginia. Excitingly, this image is believed to have been made by another member of their regiment who worked as a photographer before enlisting in the Confederate Army. While the subjects’ identities are not yet known, it is certain from similar identified examples as well as uniform details that these men belonged to the unit’s Company L, also known as the “Star Rifles.” During the long winter of 1861-1862, a private named Solomon T. Blessing struck a very limited number of ambrotypes of his comrades in the 1st Texas. These incredible images depict various infantrymen from the “Ragged Old First” engaged in the drudgeries of camp life while posed in front of their log quarters. The humble structure in this particular likeness bears a hand-painted sign that reads “Beauregard Mess,” presumably a reference to the famous Confederate general, P.T.G. Beauregard. The six subjects in this ambrotype show off an impressive array of camp tools: shovels, brooms, an axe, and a frying pan. The soldier with the axe wears a cap with many brass characters pinned to the crown around a large star; under magnification these spell out "S R [‘Star Rifles’] 1 TEXAS".

Four of Blessing’s photographs made at Splinterville are known to have survived. Three reside in museum collections, making this the only known Blessing 1st Texas image still in private hands. The regiment remained in this camp until March of 1862 when they were moved to Fredericksburg for the Spring campaign. Mostly untested when this playful likeness was fixed, the men of the 1st Texas would go on to become one of the most storied units in General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, most famous for their fierce and costly performances at Antietam and Gettysburg. At Antietam, they lost 186 of 226 effectives while fighting in Miller’s Cornfield - an almost unfathomable 82% casualty rate. At the Battle of Gettysburg, they fought nearly all day on July 2nd, absorbing ghastly casualties while successfully capturing "Devil’s Den." By April 1865, only 149 men could call themselves soldiers of the 1st Texas Infantry.

Candid outdoor photographs that feature Confederate subjects are exceedingly scarce; most can be dated to very early in the Civil War when Southern photographers had the resources and freedom to travel to the various military camps in or near their cities. As the War progressed opportunities to take such pictures became virtually nonexistent due to dwindling resources and movement restricted by the sprawling conflict. Blessing would survive the War and go on to a successful career as a photographer. His most lasting works, however, are the handful of photographs he made of some of the most hard-fighting Texans to ever wear gray.

[Civil War, Confederate, Union, Texas, Texas Rangers, Texas Cavalry, Historic Photography, Early Photography, Daguerreotype, Ambrotype, Tintype, Cased Images, Union Cases]