Watkins Banks wore this red jacket while in a Georgia militia unit. The excitement of impending war faded to gray, and he was one of three brothers killed in battle

Georgia Pvt. Watkins Banks' red jacket, his name written on interior lining (Courtesy Columbus Museum) and an ambrotype of him, at left, with first cousin Willis Butt, who also served (Courtesy John Sheftall)

Dashing young men from high society filled the ranks of volunteer militia companies across the South in the decades leading to the Civil War. They dressed smartly in stylish uniforms, rubbed elbows at social events and trained for whatever military purpose they could fulfill for their states.

The Columbus Guards in the west Georgia city by that name were considered among the best-drilled in the region. They formed in 1835 and provided more men for Confederate service than any other militia unit in the city. Its members participated in more than 30 battles as part of the Army of Northern Virginia. 

A Columbus Guards ”Red Jacket” worn by Watkins Banks at the beginning of the war is the only such jacket known to still exist. I admit to never tiring of gazing at it whenever I stop by the Columbus Museum on Wynnton Road, not far from where Banks grew up.

The bright red jacket features insignia, brass buttons and, as I noticed last week, small faux epaulets.

Banks was one of seven brothers who fought for the Confederacy and one of three to die, within months of each other, in 1864. 

There were no signs of the coming sacrifice when the Columbus Guards – who fired a small brass cannon for salutes -- traveled to Montgomery, Ala., in February 1861 for the inauguration of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

Banks wore this jacket in Montgomery and during the Guards’ departure from Columbus to join the Confederate army.

“It’s quite striking in the gallery, where it rotates with Confederate Col. Peyton Colquitt’s gray coat,” Rebecca Bush, curator of history and exhibitions manager at the museum, told me several years ago.

Banks identified his jacket by writing ‘Wat. Banks’ and ‘1861’ on the coat’s interior lining, notations which are still clearly visible.

Six original buttons remain, the rest were likely cut as mementos for the family after he was killed near Atlanta in 1864. New buttons were cast. They bear the initials “CG” and an eagle.

The buttons have drawn scholarly interest, as they have never been identified on any other militia or federal uniform, despite extensive research, according to the museum.

Bush told me this week the Banks jacket has been on view since late May and will remain out for about a year.

“Most of the jacket is made of Melton cloth (or Melton wool) with white cotton lining and, of course, the brass buttons,” she said in an email. “We do not have one known maker for the jackets. In December 1861, a notice appeared in the local newspapers that ‘the goods for the uniforms’ of the Guards had arrived at the store of Ellis & Livingston, with instructions that family members should pick up ‘the goods, have the suits made and returned for packing.’ I suppose it’s possible that a similar home manufacture model was used before the war as well.”

Watkins paid a substitue, but returned to service

John and Sarah Banks, both from Elbert County, Ga., came to Columbus in the 1830s. They built The Cedars in 1836.

John Banks was a successful businessman and lawyer who owned plantations in Georgia and Alabama and about 200 enslaved people.

Photo of The Cedars in Columbus by David Seibert, HMdb.org

Columbus attorney John Sheftall, who lives in the Banks family home called The Cedars, said the couple had nine sons and three daughters. One of them, Josephine, is his great-great grandmother. (Watkins Banks is his great-great-great uncle.) Sheftall said his children are the eighth generation to live at the stately home.

Only two of the Banks boys did not serve with the Confederacy (all nine are buried in the Banks family lot at Linwood Cemetery in Columbus.)

According to one history, Watkins Banks and about 135 others joined Company G of the 2nd Georgia Volunteer Infantry when the war broke out. The unit wore the red jacket for a few months before receiving their new issue of gray. The regiment, which served in Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, had its most famous moment at Antietam, where it held the heights above Burnside’s Bridge with the 20^th Georgia.

Sheftall said Banks fought in Virginia, returned home and at some point joined Nelson’s Rangers with a brother.

In 1863, the bachelor paid for a substitute, lived in Columbus and then returned to service during the Atlanta Campaign. The private was killed during a skirmish on Aug. 11, 1864, outside Atlanta. He was 31.

An obituary in the Columbus Sun newspaper (right) said Watkins had a “lofty sense of honor.”

“A brother, Lt. Eugene Banks, as noble hearted a young man as ever lived, was killed in May, at Resaca, another Capt. Willis Banks, fell at Atlanta the latter part of July – three brothers killed in three months – and all young men of the finest mould. Is it not folly to speak of reconstruction or affiliation with a hated foe who thus daily is robbing the South of her noblest sons?”

Eugene and Willis Banks – also unmarried -- served with the 39^th Alabama Infantry.

A funeral for the three siblings was held Aug. 14, 1864, at St. Luke Methodist Church in Columbus.

After the Battle of Columbus in April 1865, which saw the city fall to Union forces, a potion of occupying troops camped for a few days east of The Cedars, Sheftall wrote in an email this week.

"There was one particular marauding party of soldiers who came to the house, took away lots of supplies, food, and livestock, ransacked things inside to some extent, stole some silver, and insulted John Banks, who was by that time partially paralyzed and sitting on the front porch while all of this was going on.

"(None of the sons were there, four already being dead, only John and Sarah and their three daughters, plus the slaves.) When one soldier insulted John Banks and knocked his hat off, daughter Lucy blessed them out and they left.  Subsequently, her mother, Sarah Watkins Banks, paid a call on the commanding officer at the nearby camp, and he agreed to post a guard at The Cedars, which resolved things until the Union forces left and moved east toward Macon."

The end of the war brought an end to slavery and that was keenly felt by John Banks, who wrote about his losses in an autobiography. (HMdb.org photo, left; click to enlarge)

Sheftall said about 27 enslaved people had been at The Cedars. Others worked at a plantation south of Columbus on the Chattahoochee River and at three locations in Russell and Macon counties in Alabama.

Some of the formerly enslaved stayed on with the family as laborers.

Family papers are at the University of Georgia

The Columbus Museum acquired the red jacket from Sheftall through a partial gift and purchase in 2012.

The letters CG are part of the brass buttons on the Watkins Banks' jacket (Courtesy Columbus Museum)

“After acquisition, the Museum sent the jacket to the Williamstown Art Conservation Center in Massachusetts for stabilization and restoration. This process included the insertion of a red cotton interlayer to disguise losses in the original red wool, as well as the casting of replacement buttons,” says a page about the garment.

The University of Georgia Libraries has a John Banks papers collection, including his autobiography, at the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library in Athens, Ga. The collection includes letters from Watkins during the Civil War.

Sheftall has an ambrotype (top of this post) showing Watkins Banks on the left with his first cousin, Willis Banks Butt.

“He was the son of Moses Butt and Priscilla Banks, sister to John Banks, said Sheftall. “Willis survived the Civil War, married Julia Treutlen of Eufaula, and settled there.They both lived a reasonably long life but had no children.”

Willis Butt died in 1899 at age 59.

Dedicated surgeons at a Manassas field hospital were unable to save a teen soldier in 1862. A rubber comb found in a limb pit with his remains will be buried with him soon at Arlington National Cemetery. Here's why

This hard rubber comb will be buried with the soldier at Arlington National Cemetery (NPS photo)

(Updated Oct. 16) -- Under horrifying circumstances, Union surgeons covered up to their elbows in blood worked feverishly to save lives at a makeshift field hospital on the Second Manassas battlefield.

The ground had been won by the Confederates in August 1862, but the surgeons had been granted permission to treat the Federal wounded, many of whom had been without care, food and water for days in the sweltering heat..

Hard choices on who to treat had to be made, according to a study written after the 2015 excavation at Manassas National Battlefield Park of two bodies and several limbs placed in a surgeon’s pit. Numerous amputations were conducted to save lives.

“They rendered aid as they were able until surgeons became uncertain whether operations could be tolerated by men already so weakened from their ordeal,” the paper says. “The medical party found itself impaired from continued disorganization and Confederate control that led to the continued lack of ambulances, supplies, and food.”

One of the recovered New York State buttons (NPS photo)

There was a third man buried in the pit, but his remains were not discovered and recovered until 2024. Officials this year announced he will be buried in the fall at Arlington National Cemetery, where the other two soldiers rest. No date for the burial has been announced.

The teen will be placed in a coffin with a hard rubber pocket comb found under his left femur. A report asserts the comb likely had been in his back pocket.

The soldier was apparently buried in a New York infantry jacket. Archaeologists found six brass New York State Excelsior jacket buttons and seven brass cuff buttons with the soldier, who was between 16 and 19 years old.

The National Park Service this week released photos of many of those artifacts, which include wooden buttons and a metal clothing hook (left).

Only the comb will be interred with the soldier, NPS officials on Oct. 16 said. That's because it was a personal object. "The other artifacts are government property, having been issued as part of a uniform. The future use of these artifacts has not yet been determined," a spokesperson said.

An associated NPS document says the comb was mass-produced, machine made and undecorated. “It does not represent a distinctive type, material, or method of construction/manufacture. The artifact has been subjected to high-resolution 3D scanning, physical replication, and photography, and that information will be stored by the NPS and made available for research and interpretation. The potential for extracting additional information from the object is low.”

The field hospital was established at the John Dogan farm, not far from the Deep Cut section of the battlefield. The property was known as Rosefield at the time. The pit was dug between Sept. 1 and Sept. 6, 1862.

Union soldiers occupied this property on Aug. 29, 1862, first using it as an artillery placement site, and later as a hospital after surgeons “took control of the house” for the remainder of the three-day battle, the NPS said.

Excelsior jacket buttons, comb, metal clothing hook and wooden buttons (NPS photo, click to enlarge)

The Excelsior Brigade, made up of several New York regiments and a veteran of multiple campaigns, fought near the Dogan farm and Deep Cut. The soldier may or may not have been in the Excelsior Brigade or wounded near Deep Cut.

It's possible he was wounded the evening of Aug. 29 in the fight at Groveton. He apparently suffered a neck wound.

There’s no way to know what treatment he may have received at the field hospital, but he showed no signs of amputation.

Park officials say they have not been able to identify the soldier or his New York unit. 

An archaeologist uses a brush for fine work in 2024 at Manassas National Battlefield Park (NPS)

Soil conditions, historic plowing and backhoe excavation during the water line project led to his remains being in poor condition, according to the NPS.

Roughly 40% of the remains were intact, and “no complete long bones were present. Historic plowing of the area crushed and relocated the skull (minus an occipital bone) and right arm” documents show. “The knees may also have been affected by the backhoe during waterline excavation. Fragments of assorted bones and teeth were found in soil within the excavated area. Little of the pelvis remained.”

The Picket reached out Oct. 10 to Arlington National Cemetery, which is managed by the U.S. Army, for details about the upcoming interment. A media official on Oct, 16 said details of the event will be released in the coming week.

New York Excelsior jacket button found at Manassas in 2024 (NPS photo)

The 2023 article, written before the third soldier was found, said Second Manassas “marked an inflection point for combat military medicine by highlighting the urgent need for improved systematic recovery and treatment of the wounded.”

The authors say the work of the skilled surgeons is rarely known or acknowledged today. That dedication is worthy of remembrance, the study suggests.

“Events at Second Manassas should be fully acknowledged as part of the essential transformation that propelled American battlefield medical care toward the creation and implementation of an effective triage protocol and emergency-transport or ambulance system.”

He was called 'Old Reliable': To mark William J. Hardee's birthday, we asked experts to weigh in on legacy of noted corps commander, author of infantry tactics manual

Confederate Lt. Gen. William J. Hardee, an accomplished corps commander nicknamed “Old Reliable” by his troops, was born in coastal Georgia on this day (Oct. 12) in 1815.

Before the Civil War, Hardee fought in the Mexican-American War and served four years as commandant at West Point. He is known for writing a popular infantry manual used by officers in both the Northern and Southern armies in the Civil War.

To mark Hardee’s birthday, the Picket asked historians, battlefield experts and other Civil War experts to weigh in on his legacy.

Some remarks have been edited, and context added to more fully detail their points.

Keith Bohannon, history professor at the University of West Georgia

You should mention the superb biography of Hardee done by the late historian Nathaniel Hughes Jr. of Chattanooga. Nat was one of the finest historians who have ever written about the Western Theater of the Civil War.

(The Abraham Lincoln Book Shop in Chicago says “General William J. Hardee: Old Reliable,” published in 1965, is the definitive biography. “Often in consideration for army command, Hardee never quite gained Jefferson Davis’ trust, for many reasons that Hughes relates,” the shop says.

“The author finds Hardee an example of conservative military leadership that could not adapt itself to the practices of modern war. To the end he was a professional soldier of the classical school, fighting and even thinking in Napoleonic terms.”)

Bob Jenkins, executive director, Blue and Gray Education Society

1. His instruction book: “Rifle and Light Infantry Tactics” Biographer Nathaniel Hughes Jr. wrote, “It might be said that every officer of the war went into battle with a sword in one hand and a copy of Hardee’s manual in the other.”

2. I believe that the was the only officer at the corps and/or army commander level to have served in the Confederate Army of Tennessee (in all of its iterations) from start to end of the war: Shiloh to Bentonville.

3. His nickname was “Old Reliable.” In some ways. when considering his consistency and general competency and reliability in terms of not being absent from his post, and in following orders, this may be considered true. In other ways, he was not brilliant. He undermined Bragg with subordinates and did not take initiative well.

First on the Picket: Newly released photos of 2024 excavation of Civil War soldier's remains at Manassas battlefield. The teen will be buried soon at Arlington

National Park Service archaeologists with human remains at Manassas in March 2024 (NPS)

Sometime in the coming weeks, an unknown Civil War soldier whose remains were found in a surgeon’s burial and limb pit at the Second Manassas battlefield will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

The National Park Service in August announced the March 2024 discovery of the young man, saying he was apparently buried in a New York infantry jacket after his August 1862 death in Northern Virginia.

The Picket has been checking in since then with the agency regarding plans for burial and photographs of the excavation.

“The National Park Service is coordinating with the U.S. Army for the dignified burial of an unknown Civil War soldier later this fall. The date and time of the service are not being released at this time,” the agency said in response Thursday. 

National Park Service staff check in on the Manassas work in March 2024 (NPS))

The Picket on Friday received access to an NPS photo gallery; this post may be the first time the images have been published. Officials said they have only recently been made available to the media.

The limb pit was discovered in 2014 during excavations associated with water pipe maintenance at Manassas National Battlefield Park. Two bodies and seven (possibly eight) amputated limbs were removed in 2015. The burial occurred near the site of a field hospital.

The entire pit was not excavated at the time, apparently because of time and funding limitations. While archaeologists believed there were more partial remains, they did not expect a whole set to be found when they returned in 2024.

An archaeologist uses a brush for fine work in 2024 at Manassas National Battlefield Park (NPS)

Archaeologists found six brass New York State Excelsior coat buttons and seven brass cuff buttons with the soldier, who was between 16 and 19 years old.

NPS documents studied by the Picket indicate the excavation also yielded four new surgically amputated limbs. “Found in direct association with this soldier's interment was a rubber pocket comb,” the agency said. The Army has requested personal effects, including the comb, for burial.

In total, three sets of human remains and 16 amputated limbs were excavated and removed from the property in 2015 and 2024. The remains of the first two unknown soldiers were buried in a new section of Arlington National Cemetery in September 2018 

Marker at the battlefield includes sketch showing Dogan house, where wounded were treated (Devry Jones, HMdb.org)

The field hospital was established at the John Dogan farm, not far from the Deep Cut section of the battlefield. The property was known as Rosefield at the time.

Union soldiers occupied this property on Aug. 29, 1862, first using it as an artillery placement site, and later as a hospital after surgeons “took control of the house” for the remainder of the three-day battle, the NPS said.

Park officials say they have not been able to identify the soldier or his New York unit or exactly where on the battlefield he fought. He apparently suffered a neck wound.

Soil conditions, historic plowing and backhoe excavation during the water line project led to his remains being in poor condition, according to the NPS.

An archaeologist excavates human remains at Manassas National Battlefield Park (NPS)

Roughly 40% of the remains were intact, and “no complete long bones were present. Historic plowing of the area crushed and relocated the skull (minus an occipital bone) and right arm” documents show. “The knees may also have been affected by the backhoe during waterline excavation. Fragments of assorted bones and teeth were found in soil within the excavated area. Little of the pelvis remained.”

Asked by the Civil War Picket whether there has been an attempt to identify the soldier via DNA, the NPS in August said extensive archaeological and osteological analysis was done.

"Professional archaeological evaluations concluded that additional analysis was unlikely to yield significant new information. Throughout this process, our focus has remained on treating the soldier with dignity and respect while following professional standards and applicable preservation laws."

The Picket reached out Saturday to Arlington National Cemetery, which is managed by the U.S. Army, for details about the upcoming interment.

(NPS)

A Union officer lost family photos to Rebels near Manassas. A relic hunter found one in the 1970s. No one knew who she was until a man stopped by a Gettysburg shop. He remembered seeing a different image of the girl with the same broach

Image of Sarah McAllister (L) was found by relic hunter; 2 others of her at right (Manassas NBP/Rutgers University Libraries)

Years ago, Civil War memorabilia collector Ken Johns stopped by a shop in Gettysburg, Pa., that was an unlikely combination of Christian bookstore and provider of metal detectors.

Among the items on display was an aged photograph (above, left) known as an ambrotype. It depicted a young woman staring blankly at the photographer, a round broach or pendant affixed to her collar.

Store owner Donald Hinks – having bought the image around 1975 from a relic collector -- had no idea who she was. But Johns, of East Stroudsburg, Pa., did. He was familiar with a book of letters by Robert McAllister, who served in the 1^st and 11^th New Jersey Infantry.

The girl, he told Hinks, was Robert’s daughter Sarah, who was 18 years old when her father lost some of his baggage – and photographs of his wife, Ellen, and two daughters -- to Confederate troops in Centreville, Va., during the Battle of First Manassas in late July 1861. McAllister wrote home, lamenting the incident.

“It was instant,” Johns, now 85, told the Picket about recognizing the teen. “I remember it in total detail.”

That’s because East Stroudsburg (located in the Pocono Mountains) is near New Jersey and Johns had read “The Civil War Letters of General Robert McAllister,” edited by noted historian James I. Robertson and published in 1965 by Rutgers University Press.

The book includes photos of Robert, Ellen, daughter Henrietta and a different one of Sarah, taken a year or two after Manassas. She is wearing what appears to be the same broach. Johns recalled that item when we stopped by Gettysburg that day.

Hinks, now 94, kept the ambrotype for years at the business for years. “Of all the things I have had in the store, it certainly was the most unique,” he told the Picket.

Hinks decided after he and his late wife retired in 2017 to donate Sarah’s photograph to Manassas National Battlefield Park and he reached out to officials there. The handover occurred about a year ago.

“Instead of selling, I thought it best it end up in the museum,” said Hinks.  

Park museum specialist Jim Burgess said, but for Johns’ visit to Hinks’ shop, the image believed to show a young Sarah McAllister would likely have stayed in a private collection.

“The chance of ever identifying the ambrotype was probably less than 1,000.”

Donald and Joan Hinks at their electronics and book stores (Courtesy the Gettysburg Times)

Some called him 'Mother' McAllister, with affection

Sarah was born in Juniata County, Pa., in January 1843. (Her father also was from that area.)

The dust jacket for his book of letters home describes Robert McAllister as former railroad construction engineer who became a successful Union officer.

“Soft of voice, calm of temperament, religious and averse to the use of liquor, he became the epitome of the Scotch Presbyterian warrior -- an officer so concerned for the welfare of his men that he came to be known as 'Mother' McAllister, yet so dedicated to the winning of the war that he was fearless in leading his men.”

McAllister was a lieutenant colonel with the 1^st New Jersey at the time of Manassas. His troops were part of Brig. Gen. Theodore Runyon's reserve division at the time and only got as far as Centreville when retreating Union troops from the battlefield overtook them, said Burgess.

In a letter to Ellen on July 26, 1861, McAllister (photo below, Rutgers University Libraries) wrote:

“I have lost some of my baggage, which is now in the hands of the enemy. The articles are about as follows: my fine large shawl, India rubber blanket, woolen blanket, a new pair of gauntlets never worn, two pair of gloves, several shirts, Henrietta’s portfolio with letters and papers, military books, army regulations, Hardee’s ‘Tactics,’ my large printed Bible with a whole lot of countersigns – and what is more than all, your ambrotype and Henny and Sarah’s dagguerrotypes.

“The reason I took them along was because as I was leaving Vienna, I thought I would get wounded or sick. I would then long to see you, and it would be a comfort to see all your likenesses if I could not see you in person. So now, dear, you will be gazed upon by those notorious Rebels. I want you all to get them taken over again and send them to see as soon as you conveniently can.”

“It is better to lose my bagged than to lose my head. My first campaign has been of use to me.”

Officer fought with valor in several campaigns

McAllister transferred to the 11^th New Jersey in August 1862, and fought at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. He was severely wounded at Gettysburg. The regiment brought 275 men into that battle. Over half that number were killed or wounded.

After months of convalescing, McAllister took command of a brigade. Subsequent combat included the Wilderness, Spotsylvania and Petersburg.

“His regiment distinguished itself at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg; his brigade was the first to pierce the Confederate line as Spotsylvania's 'Bloody Angle' and saved an entire wing of the army at the Boydton Plank Road and again at Hatcher's Run,” according to the book summary.

McAllister ended the war as a brevet major general and he returned to the business world. He died in 1891 at age 77, and is buried in Belvidere, N.J.

Interestingly, his brother, Thompson, served as a Confederate officer in Virginia during much of the Civil War.

Robert McAllister rides Charley in January 1862 (Rutgers University Libraries)

Relic hunter made quite the find in the mid-'70s

In 1975, a Gettysburg self-employed truck driver who enjoyed metal detecting for Civil War relics made a stop in Centreville, about four miles east of the Manassas battlefield. He often made the trek to Florida to pick up citrus and watermelons, according to Burgess.

Burgess said he was told the relic hunter combed an area in Centreville not far off Route 29 (the old Warrenton Turnpike) with a metal detector and came upon McAllister's lost photograph of daughter Sarah.

“Its case had crumbled over time but the glass, brass frame and image were remarkably well preserved,” said the National Park Service employee.

The enthusiast had no idea who she was. (The man died in 2019.) Hinks, Johns and Burgess do not know exactly where he found the item, how deep it was or other details.

The relic hunter sold the artifact to Hinks (right), who put it on display.

Neither Hinks nor Johns can recall when the latter stopped by and noticed the photo. It could have been in the 1970s to 1990s.

Hinks said until Johns stopped by all he remembered was the image had been found in Centreville.

He kept it in storage much of the time before deciding to donate it to Manassas.

Sisters attended female seminary, later had families

Johns (photo, below) is familiar with where the McAllisters lived and has studied another famous soldier in the 11^th New Jersey, John Schoonover.

Sarah and Henrietta attended Moravian Female Seminary in Bethlehem, Pa., from 1854-57. According to a register, they were ages 9 and 11 when they entered.

"Back then, the seminary offered K-12 education and in 1863, it began offering college level courses for older girls," said Cory Dieterly of Moravian University's Reeves Library. About 260 students attended the seminary while they were students.

One sibling later lived in Pittsburgh while the other had a family in Philadelphia.

 “He always loved his grandchildren,” Johns said of their father, the general.

He says Sarah and Henrietta (photo right, Rutgers University Libraries) sat for a portrait after First Manassas so there father would have them close by.

Sarah Elizabeth McAllister married Wilson Lloyd in August 1863 in Warren, N.J. They had five children, including one named for her father. Robert McAllister Lloyd was born in 1864.

Sarah lived a long life, dying in Mifflintown (Juniata County), Pa., at age 92 on Oct. 9, 1935. She is buried in a Presbyterian cemetery. Henrietta died in the same community in 1924 at age 79.

An obituary in the Philadelphia Inquirer said Sarah's ancestors were among the early Pennsylvania settlers.

She was a member of the Colonial Dames of America and left two living children, 10 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren.

Jessica Guyer, curator at the Tuscarora Academy Museum in Mifflin, said its collection includes a cradle quilt used for Sarah and Henrietta when they were infants, a pocket Bible that belonged to Sarah and a cane that belonged to Gen. McAllister. 

(At left, photo of Sarah's grave; click to enlarge.)

“Sarah's grave is actually just behind my house,” said Guyer, who is president of the Juniata County Historical Society.

“I often take walks in that cemetery because it's the only peacefully quiet place in town.”

Why the image won't be displayed, for now

As I looked closely at the ambrotype donated to the park (full image, right), I discerned what I consider slight disparities between the face of the young lady and the two other images of Sarah.

Could it be someone else?

Johns and Burgess believe they are one and the same: Sarah Elizabeth McAllister Lloyd..

“Our photo is certainly close to the photo in the book (with broach). In football terms, there is not enough evidence to overrule the ruling on the field that our image is Sarah,” said Burgess. “I'm still convinced we have Sarah's image.”

Will this photograph ever come back to life, and be seen?

“The photograph is so small, it would need to be displayed where visitors can get up close to it and then only on a temporary basis to mitigate light damage,” said Burgess. “We may also need to get it properly treated and housed by a conservator first. This is all possible, but won't happen any time soon.”