[Spanish American War] Pennsylvania Soldiers

Outdoor group albumen boudoir card portrait. Allegheny, Pennsylvania: Harriman(?). Photographer's faded imprint to verso.

Excellent Spanish American War-era cabinet card of a company of armed US soldiers posed on a hillside, likely within their camp. Men sitting in the front row are shown brandishing rifles, including one gentleman who seems to be aiming his gun directly at the photographer. The subjects wear fatigue coats and forage caps with insignia almost discernible. More research may definitively identify the soldiers.

The photographer's studio location of Allegheny, Pennsylvania suggests the company may have belonged to one of the regiments raised in the Pittsburgh area in response to the outbreak of the Spanish American War: 14th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, 18th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry (Duquesne Greys), and Battery B Pennsylvania Volunteer Artillery (Hampton's Battery). All three regiments reported to Camp Hastings at Mount Gretna, Pennsylvania, where this photo was possibly taken. While the 14th and 18th Infantries did not end up serving overseas, Battery B saw service in Puerto Rico. They were in place at Guayama, with artillery loaded in the chamber, just as the armistice was declared. Journalist Richard Harding Davis described their situation at the end of the war: "They were behind a gun pointed at the enemy...the shell was in the chamber, the gunner aimed the piece and had run backward, but before it spoke, Lieutenant MacLaughlin, of the Signal Corps, galloped upon the scene shrieking, 'Cease firing, peace has been declared!' Where at the men swore."

[Western Americana, Spanish American War, Early Photography, Historic Photography, CDV, Albumen, Carte de Visite, Carte-de-Visite, Cabinet Card, Boudoir Card, Militaria, Cavalry]