Original Civil War Albumen, 1st Delaware Heavy Artillery & Pittsburgh Heavy Arty

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Original Civil War Albumen, 1st Delaware Heavy Artillery & Pittsburgh Heavy Arty:
$1999.99

Saturday, April 30, 1864: \"General inspection to-day. All the companies out; the soldiers in their best attire; fine music; the paroles signed; and with the fine weather, the island has worn a holiday appearance. The photographer has been the great man of the day. After the inspection, Capt. Mulotowski had his company paraded in squads, for their pictures. He appears to be on very familiar terms with his soldiers; and it was amusing to see him fixing the men, and adjusting their arms, caps, etc., to give them a graceful appearance...\" - Reverend Isaac W.K. Handy, Fort Delaware political prisoner.

Note: Capt. Stanislaus Mlotkowski was an artillery officer and supervised the guards / sentinel posts on the island. He commanded a battery at the fort, being stationed there during the entire war.

You are offerding on an original Civil War Albumen (larger than CDV or carte de visite) photograph of 10 identified army soldiers from the Captain George W. Ahl\'s 1st Delaware Heavy Artillery and Captain John Jay Young\'s Independent Battery G, Pittsburgh Heavy Artillery.

The subjects in this image are in focus and the image scans very well. Great piece for a collector who likes being able to see uniform details. Back of the image has the imprint from the wooden backing of the frame it was in for 150 years, but is in nice shape.

This large albumen photograph was taken inside Fort Delaware near the stairway to the ramparts by 25-year-old Philadelphia photographer John L. Gihon of 1024 Chestnut Street.

This image was likely taken April 30 based on the rank of the individuals, photograph matte style, and diaries of Union soldiers and Confederate POWs who documented Gihon at Ft. Delaware taking photographs.

This image was the property of \"Marg Fleming of New Brighton, PA\" as indicated in the back.

This image was purchased by me in an oval frame, which is also included in this sale. I removed the original image from the frame and placed it in acid free archival storage. I copied the image and placed a copy in the original frame and had the copy and original frame paired with museum glass and acid free backing.

This way, if you want to remount the original image, It\'s already ready with UV museum glass and acid free backing. All you\'d need to do is remove the copy and put the original back inside. The winning buyer will get the original image, original frame, and a copy of the original image.

The soldiers in front row are:

1. Private Morgan Jenkins (seated far left) who lived 1841-1915 (Served in Battery G).

2. Private Joseph Boyd, 1839-1921 (Battery G).

3. 1st Lt. Abraham G. Wolf (seated center). During the Civil War, Wolf served as a sergeant and was promoted to lieutenant in late 1863 to serve in Capt. George W. Ahl\'s 1st Delaware Heavy Artillery at Fort Delaware. After the Civil War, he was the lighthouse keeper at the Absecon Lighthouse in Absecon, New Jersey, with the USLHS, United States Lighthouse Service. He died in 1912.

4. Private George Fleming who likely gifted this image to his wife, Marg. Fleming (Battery G).

5. Corporal John H. Newland who died in 1917 and had previously served in Company F of the 12th Indiana Infantry Regiment (Battery G).

6. Private John Fitzsimmons (seated far right) who died in 1919 (Battery G).

In the back row:

7. Private William Calhoun (Battery G),

8. Private William Hardwick who died in 1907 and also had previously served in the 12th Indiana Infantry Regiment (Battery G).

9. Corporal Emanuel M. Cockley (Battery G).

10. Private Hampden M. McCreary who lived from 1842-1918 (Battery G).

Information about the units:

Independent Battery G, Pittsburgh Heavy Artillery, served at Fort Delaware from August 1862 until June 1865. The unit came from the area around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Ahl\'s Independent Company, Heavy Artillery (officially known as the 1st Delaware Heavy Artillery) was a heavy artillery battery that was mainly composed of former Confederate prisoners of war who had sworn allegiance to the Union (over 200 so-called \"galvanized Yankees\").

The company (Delaware\'s only heavy artillery company during the war) was organized at Fort Delaware on July 27, 1863, not long after the Battle of Gettysburg. The company was assigned to garrison and guard duty at Fort Delaware during their entire period of service. Its commander was Capt. George W. Ahl, and nearly all the officers had come to the fort with Independent Battery G, Pittsburgh Heavy Artillery. The company mustered out on July 25, 1865.