Manassas National Battlefield Park Photos May 2009

These images were recorded on May 29-30, 2009; for the most part in the company of fellow blogger Craig Swain.  Click on the thumbs for larger images.

 

Visitor’s Center (VC) displays of Francis Brownell’s musket and 11th NY uniform worn at the occupation of Alexandria; Capt. James B. Ricketts’s sword and sash worn at First Bull Run.

 

Francis Bartow monument on the Henry Hill Trail; trees marking the site of the base to an earlier monument to Bartow erected in September 1861; two images of the base.

The Henry House; Judith Henry grave; view north to Matthews Hill from the Henry House.

View south along Ricketts’ line toward VC; site of death of Lt. Ramsey of Ricketts’ Battery; two images of 7th GA marker near Ricketts’ guns; view north along Ricketts’ line toward Matthews Hill.

Two views of the monument at Signal Hill in Manassas, marking the position of E. P. Alexander’s signal station.  The earthworks to the rear of the monument are off limits.

Entry to the path leading to Mayfield Fort in Manassas, part of Beauregard’s system of defensive earthworks; Mayfield Fort.

Parking lot on north side of Blackburn’s Ford; three views from north to south side of ford, panning to west.

View west along Warrenton Pike (Lee Highway) toward Cub Run (new bridge is lighter pavement); view west to run; view east to run; view of run from the west.

View south from Reynolds’ RI Battery on Mattews Hill south to Henry Hill; view east along Reynolds’ line.

View east along Stone Bridge Trail toward the monument Private George T. Stovall of the 8th GA; two views of the marker.

Two views of the Carter Family Cemetery on the Stone Bridge Trail, both looking south.

Area marked as Farm Ford on Bull Run, where the brigades fo Sherman and Keyes crossed.  NPS Ranger Jim Burgess believes the actual ford lies about 200 yards upstream from here.

View north to Matthews Hill from Imboden’s position on Henry Hill, Reynolds’ guns in the distance; view northwest to Dogan’s Ridge from Imboden’s position, Dogan House in the distance.

Entrance to original Sudley Road trace near the VC, looking south with Sudley Rd to the right; the trace looking north to the VC; the trace looking south.

The Stone House at the intersection of the Sudley-Manassas Rd and the Warrenton Pike – view north from the Pike; view southwest from the rear of the house; two interior images.

Buck Hill to the north of the Stone House – view south to Henry Hill; view north to Matthews Hill; view east toward the Stone Bridge.

Chinn Ridge looking north – the area of the repulse of Col. O. O. Howard’s brigade.

The Thornberry House near Sudley Springs – Union soldiers took shelter in this house (much changed from the original) after the battle.

This is Just Weird

Page 30 of Mark Hughes’s The New Civil War Handbook juxtaposes two images of soldiers who died in the war.  The first photo is of North Carolina volunteer Jim Costner:

The second photo is John Kinsella of the 7th CT:

The reason this is freaky?  This guy:

That’s Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams.  At the end of the film, Costner’s character plays catch with his father.  Costner’s character’s name is Ray Kinsella.  The father’s?  John.

Check out Mark’s website here.  Thanks for the photos of the soldiers, Mark.

Photo of a Fire Zouave?

I received the following email early this morning, and reproduce it here very slightly edited with photos in place of links:

Dear Mr. Smeltzer,

I found your page doing some research on photograph that I recently acquired, and I am wondering if you can help me with it.

I believe, though I am by no means sure, that this is a portrait of a Fire Zouave. I will attach links to scans of the image, a sixth plate (2.5 x 3.5 inches) tintype:

1) The tintype, in its case:

2) A larger scan of the full plate, out of its frame, showing the horn:

3) A close-up of the fire horn and kepi:

4) A reversed scan of the lettering on the horn:

The evidence that he might be a Fire Zouave is as follows:

A) Dark (blue?) pants, which the 11th wore.

B) Red (tinted on the image) fireman’s shirt, with plastron. Also worn by the 11th.

C) The kepi with an oilcloth cover.

Most intriguing — and maddeningly so — is the lettering on the base of the horn. I can make out two S’s, with what looks like an I between them. After the second S, there looks to be either a T or an apostrophe followed by a letter. The I is possibly a numeral 1, in which case it might be “1st”. In any event, I can’t make out what the whole word would be. Probably either a town name or the name of his engine company.

My hypothesis is that this is a new recruit, displaying his two allegiances: to his firefighting unit and to his military unit.

Any help or hunches you might have would be greatly appreciated! As you can imagine, I am dying to get to the bottom on this image….

Thanks,

Gregory Fried

Professor and Chair, Philosophy Department

Suffolk University

 I’m undecided.  The fireman’s shirt this fellow is wearing is a little different from that of Francis Brownell, on display at MNBP – the belt is different too, but I think each fire company had their own:

It is true that after a few weeks in the field the 11th NY ditched their blue-gray Zouave togs for Union blue, but they kept the red shirts as part of their ensemble.  However, there were other regiments recruited from fire companies that may also have worn the shirts; it’s also possible this photo depicts a soldier in more casual dress.  The horn could be a fire horn, could belong to the subject, or may simply be a photographer’s prop.

I know there are some readers out there who specialize in zouves, and some in portraits and photography, and some in the 11th NY specifically.  What do you all think?

Wheat Photo

I received a packet from Mike Musick in the mail on Saturday with all sorts of neat info on the newly discovered photo of an individual who looks a lot like Rob Wheat of the 1st Special Louisiana Battalion (see here and here).  It included quite a few testimonials from big shots in the ACW field as to their opinions on the photo.  I’ll be posting more on this later.

Piedmont Station

My friend David Langbart recently made a trip to Delaplane, VA, and snapped the below photos (he uses some kind of newfangled camera: the image is transferred to something called film, which is then developed into negatives, from which prints are made, whatever any of that means).  Situated about 25 miles southeast of Winchester, in 1861 Delaplane was known as Piedmont Station.  This is where elements of Joe Johnston’s Army of the Shenandoah boarded train cars bound for Manassas Junction, beginning on July 19th with the brigade of Thomas J. Jackson.

I’m not sure if any of the structures were there in 1861.  Here’s a link to some Piedmont Station/Delaplane markers courtesy of Historical Marker Database.

All views are east toward Manassas.

A “New” Photo of Rob Wheat

The December issue of Civil War Times is out, which has an article by Mike Musick on his discovery of a previously unpublished ambrotype (above left), the subject of which appears to be Chatham Roberdeau Wheat, commander of the 1st Special Louisiana Battalion at Bull Run (I wrote about him here).  Once the article is put up on the magazine’s website I’ll post a link to it here, but for now you might want to head to your newsstand and get the hard copy.

Above right is a picture that is generally accepted to be Wheat, taken around the time of the outbreak of the Civil War.   Musick’s ”new” image is thought to have been taken during Wheat’s earlier filibustering days.  Click the images above for larger images (you’ll get a super large image of the new photo if you click the first larger image a second time).   What do you think?  Same guy?

That shirt sure looks familiar.  Especially the sleeves.

Thanks to CWT for permission to post the new photo of Wheat.

See foloow up post here.

Manassas National Battlefield Park Photos April 2004

 

I shot these in April 2004 with a very cheap camera - cannons are representative (click on the thumbs for larger image):

One of Ricketts’ Guns – Henry House Hill

Battle Monument – Henry House Hill

Jackson’s Artillery Line – Henry House Hill

Jackson Monument – Henry House Hill

Jackson Monument II

Griffin’s Guns – Henry House Hill, 2nd Position

Original Sudley Road Trace South of Visitor’s Center

Stone Bridge over Bull Run

A View to a Hill

 

  

Reader Amy Lindenberger sent the following in reference to the photo above, which appears in this Bull Runnings gallery:

The image labeled “View of Field (Unknown)” (left photo above, click on thumbnail for larger image) is taken from a camera position some distance (not yet sure of exact distance, I’ll work on that the next time I can get back to VA) behind the Stone House, looking across the Warrenton Pike and towards the ruins of the Judith Henry house. The Henry house is that blob on the horizon, towards the right side of the image. If you study the image labeled “Henry House Ruins” (right photo above), and then look closely at the ruins on the right side of this image, you can see that they are the same, though reversed; the “unknown” image is just taken from the opposite side of the house and at a significant distance away. I am an artist specializing in works inspired by Civil War era Americans, and currently working on a piece based on the final days in the life of Judith Henry. A few months ago I ordered a very large, very detailed reprint of this image from Zazzle.com and in that version of the photo, the ruins are unmistakable.

Thanks Amy!  For another interpretation of the camera location, see this article co-authored by NPS ranger Jim Burgess; it suggests that the photo was taken facing west.

1862 Photos of Bull Run (Library of Congress)

Along Bull Run Near Sudley Church (George Barnard)

LOC Reproduction No.:  LC-DIG-cwpb-00960

Blackburn’s Ford – Ruins of RR Bridge (Unknown) 

LOC Reproduction No.: LC-DIG-cwpb-01546

Catharpin Run, Sudley Church, Remains of Sudley Sulphur Spring House (George Barnard)

LOC Reproduciton No.: LC-DIG-cwpb-00956

Cavalry at Sudley Ford (George Barnard)

LOC Reproduction No.:  LC-DIG-cwpb-00954

Cub Run Bridge (George Barnard)

LOC Reproduction No.:  LC-DIG-cwpb-00945

Henry House Ruins (George Barnard)

LOC Reproduction No.:  LC-DIG-cwpb-00972

Robinson House (George Barnard)

LOC Reproduction No.:  LC-DIG-cwpb-00967

Soldiers’ Graves (George Barnard)

LOC Reproduction No.: LC-DIG-cwpb-00974 

Stone Bridge Ruins (George Barnard)

LOC Reproduction No.: LC-DIG-cwpb-00950  

Stone Brige Ruins #2 (George Barnard)

LOC Reproduction No.:  LC-DIG-cwpb-00952

Stone Church at Centreville (George Barnard)

LOC Reproduction No.: LC-DIG-cwpb-00937

Stone House (George Barnard)

LOC Reproduction No.: LC-DIG-cwpb-00965

Sudley Church (George Barnard)

LOC Reproduciton No.: LC-DIG-cwpb-00959

Thornton’s (Thornberry’s) House on Route to Sudley Ford (George Barnard) 

LOC Reproduction No.: LC-DIG-cwpb-00963

View of Field (Unknown) – See aslo this post

LOC Reproduction No.: LC-DIG-cwpb-01314

View of Field #2

LOC Reproduction No.: LC-DIG-cwpb-01527

Kingsbury CDVs

 

New e-quaintance Scott Hann, collector extraordinaire of Antietam officer images, graciously granted permission to publish the below carte-de-visites (CDVs) of McDowell aide Henry Walter Kingsbury.  On the left is Kingsbury as 1st LT with the 5th US Artillery.  Center is a previously unpublished photo of cadet Kingsbury, made in his home state of Connecticut as seen on the obverse on the right.  Click on the thumbs for the full size image.

Thanks, Scott!