Original Civil War CDV Confederate Lt. Washington Watkins, 8th Missouri Cavalry
Watkins of the 8th Missouri Cavalry. I believe this image was taken in April 1864. Saturday, April 23, 1864 - An artist from Philadelphia has been at work all day, in the casemates, photographing the faces of Confederate officers, and a few of the political prisoners.
Special permission was granted by Gen. Schoepf, who selected the photographer, and sent for him, himself. He seemed to enjoy the progress of the work; and as most of us appeared in our best attire, we were complimented by him, upon our improved appearance, which, of course, was attributed to our residence at the Fort, wrote Reverend Issac W.
Handy, political prisoner held at Fort Delaware. Considerable stir with our crowd preparing to have pictures taken.
Have mine taken, order 1/2 dozen. Gihon, Photographic Art Galleries, 1024 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pa. Ward, 9th Tennessee Cavalry, Morgan's Raiders.Sunday, April 24, 1864: I found the photograph man at the [confederate] officers' quarters, regularly fixed up for taking pictures. But this desecration of the Lord's Day is not at all uncommon, noted Reverend Handy.
Wednesday, April 27, 1864: Visited the barracks. Found the photographer still at work with his pictures, wrote Rev. The contrast on the image is light but details are still very clear and the image has great focus.
Not out of focus at all! Watkins is posed standing by a cloth covered table on which his slouch hat, with upturned brim, rests. This table cover matches exactly the one seen in many of photographed John L.
Gihon's images taken at Fort Delaware of other Confederate prisoners of war on April 29, 1864. I've included in this listing a scan of the group photo of Confederates photographed on that exact date. You can see the large blanket used as a background and the photographers table and stabilization neck brace. Other CDVs of confederate officers photographed at Fort Delaware also have the same sword.Likely property of one of the union officers there. The jacket appears to have a 9-button front and is close fitting around the waist. The belt has a rectangular plate but of what design it is impossible to tell.
Attached to his belt is a sword. The shape of the hilt is blocked by Watkins hand. There is a good bit of period writing on the face of this image. None of it touches the subject.
Across the top in ink is JULIE RUDOLPH while along the side of the subject in pencil is WASH L. The writing along the bottom of the mount is a little harder to make out. GREENE The rest is unreadable. Watkins is believed to have been born in 1840 at Jackson, Cape Girardeau, Missouri. When the Civil War started Watkins was a member of the Missouri State Guard. In May of 1862 he was captured but through the efforts of a family friend he was released. He then joined the 8th Missouri Cavalry where he served as Aide-de camp for Colonel, later General, and Colton Greene of the Trans-Mississippi Department. On November 22, 1863 Watkins was captured again. This time he was confined at Camp Chase, Ohio. In March 1864 he was moved to Fort Delaware where this photo was taken. The image was made Gihon who the only known photographer allowed to photograph on the island. It is widely documented that Gihon took images of Fort Delaware prisoners, and like stated above, all the props and setting match the other Gihon images with his photograph back mark. Other surviving examples of this image have the same writing along the side of the subject.It is possible that this is Lt. The item "Original Civil War CDV Confederate Lt. Washington Watkins, 8th Missouri Cavalry" is in sale since Thursday, June 01, 2017. This item is in the category "Collectibles\Militaria\Civil War (1861-65)\Original Period Items\Photographs". The seller is "mpdoughboy153" and is located in Wilmington, Delaware.
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