Union Soldier with Spencer - unidentified - but, a great photo just the same!

[Two Flints]

[sharps50/70]

Based on the colors on the uniform and the boots, he looks to be in the cavalry.  But no pistol holster.  Can you identify the belt buckle?

Rich

[Two Flints]

Hi Sharps 50/70,

Sorry, but I can't enlarge the buckle large enough to get a good look at it; once it gets to large you lose all sharpness and identification is impossible.

Two Flints

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[Sgt Scott]

I'm curious... How did you get color in a black and white photo?  Is this a modern day photo tricked up to look older than it is, or is it a true civil war soldier with color added. The stripes could have been artillery as well...

Sgt Scott

[Two Flints]

Sgt Scott,

"Tinting an image was popular early on in the history of antique images, especially in the early 1860s. The most common type of tinting was a pinking of the cheeks to give the face a little healthy color. You will see pink cheeks on ambrotypes, cdvs, and tintypes.

Yet some photographers expanded their range and use of color beyond a bit of pink. Some photographers highlighted buttons, jewelry, or military medals with a bold gold. It was especially popular to gild a buckle or some buttons on a soldier's uniform, or decoration on a kepi, in the many Civil War ambros or tintypes.  Others tinted a lady's dress in a bold blue or green or red, or perhaps chose one aspect of her outfit to decorate with a hue. A feather on a hat might be picked out  or a scarf or bow. A child's dress might receive a wash of color  with perhaps a blond glow to the hair.

Some photographers used color quite subtly. But others headed in the direction of recreating a painting. Bold colors in various tints were applied all over the image- yellow hair, blue eyes, green background, even a white shirt painted on to a naked baby!

Some photographers combined colorful tinting with gilding

By the late 1860s, tinting became less common and gradually disappeared from images into the 1870s, although some photographers clung to the process for a while".

Two Flints

[Major 2]

Very interesting studio albumen print.
I noted the 12 button Round Jacket , may even be a Frock coat with the skirt remove.
Not sure I agree, with the no Holster, It's hard to tell , he does have a Cap box an something is there perhaps a pistol box
or it could be his holster for the 1860 Army. I lean toward the Box though....
His saber appears to be an 1860 light cavalry model, the Saber Knot does not appear to be the leather issue.
As stated, the buckle is to tough to call, I think it is the 51 eagle plate with a poor guilt job.

here is a similar pose on a ferrotype

[Deadeye Don]

Interesting that if they did have holsters in either picture, that the photographer told them to take out the pistol and stick it in the belt or shirt for more "visual effect".

[Major 2]

Perhaps...

  Trooper two,  has a pistol in his visible holster as well as the 1860 in the shell jacket....

[Bead Swinger]

Hmmm... I noticed that the image is reversed - the saber should be on the left. The box he's wearing might be a Spencer box - it's not long enough to be a carbine box, and it looks a little too big to be a pistol box, although it looks too thin to be a Spencer box.

I'd agree - the coat looks more like a cut-off frock than a cav jacket.  But let's assume the coloring is correct, and the fellow was a cavalry NCO. Whoever did the colors probably knew something about who they were coloring.

OK - Now the interesting question: Which union cavalry units carried Spencers Rifles? Lots carried carbines, but not that many were issued rifles.  And then (I thought) most, if not all of those were withdrawn and re-issued to infantry units in late '63- early '64.  That being the case, this photo would be probably dated during summer-fall 1863.

Is there anything else about the photo that would date or place it? Two Flints - How did you come by the image?

Thanks for the image!

[wildersbgd]

Might be a mounted infantryman. The 12 button shell jacket without trim might point to that as wilders brigade was Issued cavalry jackets and stripped the tape off of them. But who knows a bunch of cavalry units were issued Rifles too. 

[Hobie]

Noting the question regarding units using Spencers.  I'm reading a book about bushwackers in eastern TN/western NC and it seems that the Federal units/forces there used Spencers quite a bit.  The writer seems to say they were all carbines though he says even the rifle was shorter and handier than the issue muskets (true). 

[Steel-eye Steve]

Interesting that if they did have holsters in either picture, that the photographer told them to take out the pistol and stick it in the belt or shirt for more "visual effect".

Actually that was pretty much norm, for studio photography, at the time. You'll almost always see a pistol stuck in the belt or other prominent place rather then the holster.