Confederate General Arthur Pendleton Bagby

Quarter plate studio ambrotype with hand tinting. Full thermoplastic case with Cupid and stag vignette. Provenance: Bill Turner Collection.

An important half-length seated portrait of Arthur Pendleton Bagby, Jr. (1833-1921) wearing his regulation Confederate field officer’s coat with two rows of 7 rimmed staff buttons, with the hint of original gilding. The three braids of the Austrian Knot rank insignia indicating his status as a field officer are clear and distinct. His beard obscures any collar insignia, which was likely a single star of a major, his rank when he mustered into Confederate service with the 7th Texas Cavalry. He is captured with closely cropped hair, a narrow beard, bright and piercing eyes, and delicately hand-tinted cheeks.

Bagby was the son of politician and plantation owner Arthur Pendleton Bagby (1794-1858), who notably served as the 10th Governor of Alabama (1837-1841) and U.S. Minister to Russia (1849). Bagby, Jr. received an appointment to West Point in 1847, receiving a brevet to second lieutenant in the 8th US Infantry in 1852 when he was only 19 years old. He was stationed at Fort Columbus, New York before seeing frontier duty at Fort Chadbourne in Coke County, Texas. He resigned his commission in September 1853, however, to pursue a career in law. After admittance to the Alabama bar in 1855, he practiced in Mobile before moving to and continuing his practice in Gonzales, Texas in 1858.

Sometime after the outbreak of hostilities, Bagby wrote to the commander of the Department of Texas in September 1861 that “circumstances of a private nature” had prevented him from joining the war effort, but he was now able to participate. He was duly appointed major of the 7th Texas Cavalry. The unit joined General Henry Hopkins Sibley’s New Mexico campaign in February 1862. There are conflicting reports on whether the unit was present at the Battles of Valverde (20-21 February) and Glorieta Pass (26-28 March) or detached on garrison duty in the north of the state. Regardless, Sibley was forced into retreat to Texas. Bagby was promoted to lieutenant colonel on 4 April 1862 but was shortly thereafter charged with drunkenness, after allegedly pulling a pistol on a fellow officer while drunk on duty on April 16th. A court martial, however, cleared Bagby and he was promoted to colonel on 14 August 1862. 1863 brought heavy action for Bagby and the 7th Texas Cavalry. He helped secure the recapture of Galveston on 1 January by leading his “Horse Marines” aboard an improvised gunboat to capture the USS Harriet Lane in the Second Battle of Galveston. In Spring, the regiment moved to western Louisiana to confront Union General Nathaniel P. Banks in the Bayou Teche campaign.

Bagby earned praise during the defense of Fort Bisland when he refused to leave the battlefield despite his wounds. He was given command of the brigade with the 4th, 5th, and 7th Texas cavalry regiments and the 13th Battalion, leading the brigade in the Red River Campaign and in pursuit of General Banks from Mansfield to Simmesport, Louisiana. General E. Kirby Smith had recommended Bagby for promotion, but without any response from senior officials. Despite Smith’s lack of authority, he assigned Bagby as a brigadier general on 13 April 1864. Bagby was given further command over a new brigade of three Texas cavalry regiments in the 2nd Cavalry Division, and permanent command of a cavalry division by early 1865. After the surrenders of Generals Lee and Johnston in the east, General Smith assigned Bagby to duty as a major general. The appointments by Kirby are indicative of Bagby’s talents and services. After the surrender of Smith at Galveston on 2 June 1865, Bagby returned to his law practice in Texas, where he became a prominent member of the legal community.

Condition: Excellent focus and clarity of the subject’s face, minor spotting and a few narrow rubs. Thermoplastic case is complete with mat, frame, glass, and red velvet pad.

[Civil War, Confederate, Union, Historic Photography, Cased Images, Daguerreotypes, Ambrotypes, Texas, Cavalry]