Q&A: Gettysburg's new superintendent Kris Heister on big projects, rentals, volunteers, her Civil War ancestors and a place she'd like to see more visitors

Kris Heister, Little Round Top rehabilitation, Spangler Farm (NPS photos)

Kristina “Kris” Heister, the new superintendent at Gettysburg National Military Park and Eisenhower National Historic Site, comes from a family with deep roots in Pennsylvania. Her ancestors came over from Germany in about 1732 and produced congressmen and other political leaders in the state.

Heister, who has held numerous positions with the National Park Service over a 30-plus year, was deputy superintendent at Gettysburg before the promotion.

“I have been amazed by the dedication of my colleagues, our partners and our community,” she said in a news release earlier this month. “Their collective commitment to preserving and protecting these hallowed grounds inspires me every day. I look forward to continuing to work together and maintaining an open dialogue with our partners and our community to address both the challenges and opportunities the future holds for these exceptional places.”

The Picket asked Heister about her priorities and initiatives, current and future projects and her ancestors. Many fought in the Civil War and two were at Gettysburg. The favorite Heister family meal (Chicken Divan) is a recipe Julie and David Eisenhower served for Christmas one year.

Heister this week responded to my questions by email. A few have been edited for brevity.

Q. You have held leadership posts at the park for about four-five years. During this time, did you work on specific initiatives or projects that resonated with visitors?

A. An example of a specific initiative that I led in the last four years was the leasing of historic structures for Airbnb-style rentals. This program will create a new and immersive visitor experience as well as generate revenue for the preservation of park facilities. This year, we are initiating a pilot with two structures that witnessed the battle of Gettysburg - the Slyder farmhouse and Bushman farmhouse (NPS photo, left). Both are in close proximity to special places on the battlefield, including Devil's Den and Little Round Top. For the first time, park visitors will be able to stay at these homes for between 2 and 6 days at a time. If successful, we will expand the program to two additional battlefield homes in the next 3-5 years.

Q. As the new superintendent, do you have any early ideas on initiatives or programming?

A. Currently, I am focused on existing initiatives including the reopening of Little Round Top in spring/early summer 2024, rehabilitation of the reception center at Eisenhower National Historic Site, building the Spangler Trail connecting the museum and visitor center to the Spangler Farm (owned and operated by the Gettysburg Foundation), kicking off summer interpretive programming and preparing for battle anniversary on July 1-3, 2024. Upcoming initiatives include rehabilitation of the National Cemetery and historic structures on the battlefield.

A. The news release mentions your strength in employee development and community engagement. Are you able to pinpoint specifics from the past or possible in the future on these two areas?

Q. I see many possibilities for engagement with the Gettysburg community in the future and am excited to investigate our shared goals and how we can achieve them together. One I look forward to the most is reinvigorating our volunteer program. By this summer, we will have hired a permanent volunteer coordinator -- a new position at the park. My goal is to develop a vibrant, safe, inclusive volunteer program that promotes engagement with the community (locally and nationally) through meaningful service, is focused on needed work and contributes to creation of the next generation of public land stewards.

Q. What is your favorite part of the battlefield? Is there a spot you wish more visitors knew about?

A. There are so many beautiful areas of the battlefield. My favorite place is anywhere I can experience peace and tranquility (that) allows me to both renew my spirit and contemplate the meaning and significance of what happened here. I wish more visitors knew about Eisenhower National Historic Site (above, NPS photo), which is located directly adjacent to Gettysburg National Military Park and tells the story of our 34^th president as well as having significant connections between President Eisenhower and the Gettysburg battlefield.

Q. Gettysburg has seen a lot of wear from visitors, hence the projects at Little Round Top and Devil's Den. What do you believe to be the impact of those improvements and are there other such areas in the park you would like to address?

A. I believe the impacts of our improvements on Little Round Top and Devil’s Den relate to providing a high-quality visitor experience and resource protection to ensure those resources are available to future generations in good condition. For example, at Little Round Top heavily eroded trails have been stabilized, circulation patterns have been improved, individuals with mobility issues (whether considered handicapped or not) will now be able to visit the hill, breastworks have been rehabilitated, new wayside exhibits are being installed, some social trails have been removed and others have been formalized, providing access to areas of the hill and monuments that haven't been accessible in years, designated bus parking has been added and gathering spaces have been formalized to reduce off-trail use and facilitate the many groups that visit. Our next large scale rehabilitation effort will focus on the National Cemetery.

40th New York Monument is in a water-prone area.Photo Craig Swain, HMdb.org

Q. Some people have been concerned about beavers forming ponds/lakes along Crawford Avenue. The park in 2019 said they are native to Plum Run and it was monitoring potential impact on Devil's Den and Little Round Top. What is the current situation with that?

A. Beavers are not new to the park and have taken up residence off and on in the Plum Run area for many years - this is a natural process. The park is managing them in accordance with NPS policy and the Cultural Landscape Report for Little Round Top, which recommends that the Plum Run riparian corridor be managed to promote species diversity while ensuring vegetation does not block key historic views from Plum Run Valley to the face of Little Round Top. The NPS has identified all historic resources within this area as well as potential impacts to those resources from the presence of beavers. We are monitoring those potential impacts and taking action as appropriate to address them. In 2023, we installed devices called "beaver deceivers" to de-water a portion of the pond that had formed due to infringement on the 40^th New York Infantry Monument and the subsequent inability of park visitors to access the monument. We will continue to monitor and take action as necessary and appropriate.

Q. The press release says you had 18 ancestors who fought for the Union. Do you know from which states some of them hailed?

A. The majority were from Pennsylvania. I have just begun to research my family this far back but it appears my family touched many facets of the war. To date, I have identified two individuals – Cyrus Heister and Washington K. Hiester who fought at the Battle of Gettysburg -- both with the Pennsylvania infantry, 93^rd  and 151^st regiments respectively. (The superintendent notes the names Heister and Hiester were sometimes used interchangeably.)

William C. Hiester (131^st regiment, Pennsylvania infantry) died at Fredericksburg at age 19. At age 18, Daniel M. Heister mustered into the 101^st regiment just in time to be captured at Plymouth, N.C., and spend the rest of the war in Andersonville prison. One family member served in the Pennsylvania Senate during the war. One was designated a mustering officer, with the rank of major, by the governor in 1863, and mustered into service eight regiments of volunteers (they assembled at an encampment called Camp Hiester in Reading. One was a judge in Dauphin County who adjudicated claims associated with damages caused by Confederates during the war.

Lastly, Dr. Joseph Hiester treated Capt. Henry W. Freedley, who commanded the 3^rd United States Infantry at the Battle of Gettysburg. (Hiester's grave at right, photo courtesy of Findagrave contributor 47099775)

Freedley was severely wounded in the leg and Hiester arrived in Gettysburg shortly after the battle to tend to him on the floor of the David Wills House (now NPS property), where Abraham Lincoln later stayed on the night of November 18, 1863, and completed writing the Gettysburg Address. Cool stuff!

Postscript: I asked Superintendent Heister about Hiester’s daughter, Maria, whom Freedley had written before and after the battle. The officer called her a friend, but was there more to the relationship? “Maybe it was a long-distance romance between two people in their 30s, one a homemaker, one a soldier,  who had known each other since childhood and she waited for him as he travelled extensively with the military -- until he broke her heart and married someone nearly 20 years her junior.” Maria apparently never married and Henry was wed just a few months before his death in 1889.

Black veterans formed GAR posts to remember their service, do public good. The Lincoln Presidential Library is ensuring precious post documents endure

(Clockwise from top left) Delany post charter, Maj. Martin R. Delany, damaged charter from other post
(charter photos: ALPLM), Gustavus or Henry Booth with 5th Mass. Cavalry; same unit as Lewis Thompson
(Richard Carlile Collection as printed in Military Images; click all to enlarge)

Pvt. Enos Bond and the 17^th U.S. Colored Troops fought at the Battle of Nashville. Pvt. Lewis H. Thompson’s 5^th Massachusetts Cavalry took part in an assault on Confederates near Petersburg. And Sgt. Shederick Conaway of the famed 54^th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment survived the pitched fighting at Fort Wagner, the climactic scene in the film “Glory.”

Years later, these three men and seven other African-American veterans in Chicago founded Martin R. Delany Post #663 of the Grand Army of the Republic, a fraternal organization of Union Civil War veterans. (Delany, an influential abolitionist and author, was the first Black field officer in the U.S. Army. Photo below)

The Delany post met for at least a few years to socialize, discuss their war experiences and trauma, and support monuments, memory and charity – no doubt proud to have helped end slavery in the United States.

The charter of Post #663, which cemented the bond among Conaway and the others, recently underwent conservation at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Ill. Experts at ALPLM, which has 269 charters of GAR posts in its collection, have been cleaning, mending and rehousing scores of the documents.

“During their active lives (as documents) the charters were very often displayed, framed or unframed and exposed to light and unfavorable storage conditions,” Christopher Schnell, ALPLM manuscripts manager, told the Picket in an email.

Schnell says the GAR charters, made official with signatures and foil seals, are a boon for researchers and historians, and that’s why restoration is crucial.

“By working on individual documents, or by taking the time to examine an individual set of records, we can raise up the stories of underrepresented members of our collective past,” Schnell wrote in an article about the GAR foundational documents.

Member of 54th Massachusetts survived Fort Wagner

We don’t know exactly how the 10 men who started the Delany post may have known each other. Two, Lewis McGowan and Moses McGowan, served in the 109^th USCT and may have been related. It’s also difficult to ascertain how many may have been born into slavery.

1850 census lists Robert Conaway and  his children, including Shederick

Conaway is believed to have been born free in New Bern, which on the eve of the war had one of the largest concentrations of free people of color in North Carolina, according to the Craven County visitors center. (One source says he was actually born in Newton, N.C.)

His family moved to Cleveland, where Conaway worked as a waiter before enlisting in the 54^th Massachusetts.

A look at fold3.com, military and pension records and genealogy indexing services show multiple variations of the soldier’s first name (Shad, Shadrack, Shedrick, Shederick, Shaderick, Shadrick) and last name (Conway, Conaway).

List of Delany post members, including Conaway. Click to enlarge (Chicago History Museum)

Conaway was 19 when he enlisted in a Boston neighborhood in April 1863. One history says he was wounded at Fort Wagner.

The 54^th Massachusetts saw action at Olustee in Florida (Conaway was in the hospital at the time) and on islands around the Charleston area of South Carolina.

Conaway participated with Company G in the Battle of Honey Hill west of Beaufort, S.C, in November 1864, according to Schnell.

The soldier, who was promoted twice, was mustered out in August 1865.

The soldiers home in Milwaukee, which still provides services today (Wikipedia)

“After the war he went back to work in Cleveland and Chicago restaurants and hotels, married, and had at least one child. Near the end of his life, he moved into the Soldiers Home hospital in Milwaukee suffering from ’asthma’ and ‘heart disease,’” Schnell told the Picket.

Conaway died in February 1894 at age 50. He’s buried at a national cemetery in Milwaukee. I have been unable to come up with a photo of Conaway or any of the other nine charter members.

GAR was widespread, powerful and integrated

The names of the Delany post’s charter members – Bond (a retired police officer), Conaway, the McGowans, Thompson, William Banks of 1^st Michigan Colored Infantry, William French of the 109^th USCT, Peter French of the 6^th U.S. Colored Cavalry, Walter E. Johnson of 14th Regiment, Rhode Island Heavy Artillery, and Alexander Jackson, 17^th USCT, were written into history through the September 1888 charter. (Schnell believes the post eventually had 26 members.)

The GAR got its start in Illinois in 1866 and posts spread across the United States, with a peak membership of 400,000 in 1890. The Delany charter was issued three years after the death of its namesake. Illinois had nearly 800 posts.

“It had a profound effect on late-19th century politics, with its membership providing the Republican Party, the party of Lincoln and Grant, with a solid voting bloc in Northern states,” according to ALPLM. “The organization used this political power to encourage the federal government to establish a robust veteran’s pension program.” (GAR medal left, courtesy of ALPLM)

By being a racially integrated public institution, the GAR was extremely unusual for its time. Illinois had about 48 integrated posts, while Chicago has at least two all-Black (including Delany #663) and 37 all-white posts.

Historian Barbara A. Gannon, in “The Won Cause: Black and White Comradeship in the Grand Army of the Republic” (UNC Press, 2011),” wrote that “although black veterans still suffered under the contemporary racial mores, the GAR honored its black members in many instances and ascribed them a greater equality than previous studies have shown.”

Gannon told the Picket that before her book, people often described the GAR as a segregated group under the assumption that the posts were segregated by direction of the organization. Instead, she says, black veterans asked the state GAR to charter their posts and they had reasons for doing so.

“For example, they named their post after a famous African-American in the Civil War as was their prerogative.” Gannon says. “They did so to remind white Americans of their Civil War experience.”

According to Schnell, black posts participated alongside white and integrated posts in traditional GAR  activities “to observe Memorial Day cemetery exercises and church services to honor the Civil War dead, to march together in patriotic parades, such as one held in Chicago to commemorate the Constitution centennial in 1887, and to attend annual meetings, like when the Martin R. Delany post joined the 7,000 member Illinois delegation to attend the national ‘encampment’ at Detroit in 1891.”

James Lewis Henry (right, ALPLM photo), a veteran in the John Brown post in Chicago, was a statewide leader in the organization and helped organize suc activities. A free black man, Lewis fought in Federal cavalry units and later became a lawyer.

The Delany post, like others, maintained a small charity account for members in need, but other than holding meetings, “we don’t know about the inner workings of the group,” said Schnell.

The Chicago History Museum has a roster book and minute book for the Delany GAR post.

While the surviving charter at ALPLM is from 1888, the CHM roster book is marked 1879-1890. It’s possible the post’s first charter had to be replaced.

CHM reference librarian Maggie Cusick says the minute book is more narrative and contains about 60 pages of content.

One of the pages about the post’s activity is written by acting adjutant Bushrod Washington.

A soldier by that name served in the 26^th USCT, according to the National Park Service. Washington, a Virginian, died in Chicago in 1890, just a month after making the entry.

One of the Delany post volumes at the Chicago History Museum (Courtesy of CHM)

Mending these important documents follows a formula

When GAR posts ceased operating (the date for the Martin R. Delany post is unclear), records were turned to headquarters and folded several times. Charters often were 17 inches by 22 inches. The Illinois State Historical Society for many years held them once the GAR became inactive. The ALPLM eventually took charge of the documents.

“When retrieving post records for researchers, ALPLM staff would occasionally find charters, or the remains of them, that had to be placed on hold for conservation before they could be viewed or imaged,” says Schnell.

In 2019, conservators Bonnie Parr and Ginny Lee began the exacting work of carefully “relaxing,” or unfolding long-folded documents, cleaning, mending, removing acid and rehousing them (Mylar sleeves and oversize folders stored in flat drawers).

While the Delany charter needed just basic cleaning and mending, other documents are in pieces, officials say. About 40 GAR charters in the most serious condition are yet to be treated. (At left, a Delany post record with names of members. Courtesy ALPLM, click to enlarge)

“There have been a few charters with notes to the effect that they are replacements for originals destroyed by fire (and even one destroyed by a tornado). I’ve wondered about those incidents and how they affected the GAR members of those posts,” says Parr.

As an example of her work, Parr sent a photo of the much-folder, yellowed and brittle charter for Post #468 in Downers Grove. She believes some of its wear is due to long-term light exposure while in a GAR hall.

Parr recently completed work on a charter for the Gov. Richard Yates Post #687, an African American chapter, in Jacksonville, Ill. She put the document in a humidity chamber – made up of a rack in a sink, with damp towels nearby. The sink was covered with plastic. During the day, she gradually unfolded the paper as it “relaxed” from high humidity. The paper was dried and flattened between blotters.

“My satisfaction comes from taking the folded paper – which can’t be handled without damage – through conservation treatments that unfold and stabilize the fragile paper so that it can be read and be accessible for research,” says Parr.

Post #687 charter before unfolding, treatment area and the dried document (Courtesy ALPLM)

Parr uses specific tools during the process of lining – which involves a support system for the document while undergoing the final stages of conservation.

“I use a sheet of acid-free Japanese tissue for the lining and wheat starch paste to attach the GAR document to the tissue. I let it air dry for several days,” she says.

"Then, I use a metal spatula to carefully lift the tissue/charter off the lining surface, trim the excess tissue from the edges, deacidify the document, place it in a polyester film (a chemically inert plastic) sleeve, and send it back to the Manuscripts Department (where it ‘lives’).”

The #687 charter during the lining process and the final product (Courtesy ALPLM)

Schnell tells the Picket the GAR charters are among the most heavily used manuscripts at the library.

“People interested in family history use the records to search for their veteran forebearer. Local historians seek information about the veterans (and their activities) who lived in their communities in the past,” he says.

Museums have asked for reproductions of the documents for purposes of exhibit. The charter conservation project was started because a county historical society asked for a scan of their local post charter and it needed repair before digital scanning.

“With restored charters as a starting point, we can continue the GAR’s work of honoring the sacrifices of Civil War veterans by going beyond the ink and paper to recover the stories of the people who once fought to restore the Union and end slavery,” Schnell wrote in his blog post.

Book about underage Civil War soldiers -- and how they were unsuited and unprepared -- wins prestigious Lincoln prize

Co-authors of a book about underage soldiers in the Civil War and a 19^th-century society little concerned about their mental wellbeing have received the 2024 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize.

Frances M. Clarke and Rebecca Jo Plant will be honored April 4 at the Harvard Club in New York City for “Of Age: Boy Soldiers and Military Power in the Civil War Era” (Oxford University Press).

The Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize is awarded annually for the finest scholarly work in English on Abraham Lincoln, the American Civil War soldier or the Civil War era. The award includes a $50,000 prize and bronze replicas of Augustus Saint-Gaudens’s life-sized bust, “Lincoln the Man.”

Clarke and Plant “determined that at least 10 percent of Union troops were under the legal age of 21 (later 18 with an act of Congress) -- far higher than the 1.6 percent estimated by previous historians,” wrote Dave Kindy in an article last year at History.net about the topic. Confederate troops had a similar proportion.

The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and Gettysburg College recently announced the award.

James G. Basker, president of the institute, said the book "is not only breakthrough history, it is a compelling and moving read, full of the stories of children, some as young as 11 or 12, serving in the Civil War, and the struggles of parents to reclaim or liberate their underage sons from armies into which they had enlisted.

The authors also found African American youths discovered that both Union and Confederate officers ignored their evident age when using them as conscripts or military laborers. 

Kindy wrote the work is “filled with accounts of teens on both sides who heroically answered the call of duty and the tragedy of so many who met their fate on the battlefield or succumbed to the rigors of a military life that was wholly unsuited to young minds and bodies.”

Clarke is an associate professor of history at the University of Sydney, Australia. Plant is a professor of history and an Academic Senate Distinguished Teacher at the University of California, San Diego.

Lost (stolen), found and sold: 48 portraits from Herb Peck's prized collection, plundered in 1978 Nashville burglary, have new homes after auction

Florida soldier with carbine; siblings with 3rd Tennessee (Fleischer's Auctions)

Forty-eight photographs, mostly of young Southern men toting rifles, Bowie knives, revolvers and fierce gazes, sold for $259,000 (excluding buyer’s premium) at a weekend auction, pleasing the widow and son of an esteemed collector who curated the images before they were stolen in 1978.

The family of Herb Peck Jr. enlisted the help of law enforcement, other collectors and Military Images magazine in their hunt for 117 images taken during a burglary at their Nashville home.

Peck  began collecting in the 1950s ahead of the Civil War centennial, amassing one of the “premier collections of Civil War portrait photography at a time when the genre’s importance was only first being realized,” said Fleischer’s Auctions.

Peck died at age 67 in 2004 before any of the photographs were recovered. One was located in 2006, 39 were seized during a 2020 raid and eight more were returned in the past year.

Herb Peck Jr. with some of his photos in the 1970s. (Fleischer's Auctions)

Fleischer’s Auctions said representatives of the family attended the three-hour Saturday sale in Columbus, Ohio.

“It’s been an emotional process for everyone involved,” the company said in an email to The Civil War Picket.

Adam Fleischer, in a social media post after the sale, said high interest in the photographs reflected Peck’s eye for quality. “The Peck family's decision to share Herb’s captivating images with the public, following decades of uncertainty, resonated deeply with collectors and history enthusiasts alike.”

The top seller Saturday was lot 45, entitled “Confederate with Colt Revolving Rifle.” It went for $32,200 with the buyer’s premium. The subject wears an outdated cap topped by a havelock and holds a Model 1855 Colt revolving rifle. It’s possible he was from Virginia, according to Fleischer’s.

“This is a masterpiece of Southern photography and I chose it for the cover (left) that featured the story about Herb's collection,” Ronald S. Coddington, editor and publisher of Military Images, told the Picket. (Fleischer’s Auctions is an advertiser with the magazine)

Behind that was lot 34, entitled “Masterful Character Study,” which realized $24,300 with the buyer’s premium. The portrait depicts James and Calvin Walker of the 3^rd Tennessee Infantry. Calvin was killed in action in Georgia in 1864, with an eyewitness noting that nothing was left of his head after he was hit by artillery shrapnel but “"...[a] chin and rather long whiskers.”

Images going for high prices included a Tennessee infantryman, Florida soldier with carbine and a Confederate private armed with a Model 1842 musket, Bowie knife, and pair of large Colt Navy revolvers.

Coddington said he found lot 28, a photograph of a Confederate first sergeant, to be particularly compelling (right, courtesy Fleischer's Auctions).

He cites “the focal clarity of the image, the look of the soldier, the way he holds his saber and the unusual paper mat that was likely used as a substitute for brass mats that were unavailable in the South due to the blockade and loss of territory.”

Ahead of the sale, Fleischer’s Auctions said the collection was once thought lost forever.

Coddington, in a Military Images article about Peck, said photographs from the collection were published in “The Civil War” by Ken Burns and in more than 50 books, magazines and articles, including Time-Life’s “The Civil War” series, the “Confederate Faces” series and “Civil War Times.”

Burglars hit the Peck home in September 1978, making away with 117 images, cameras and more than a dozen weapons.

Law enforcement agencies in Tennessee and the FBI worked on the case as several photographs appeared for sale on online sites. The FBI office in Indianapolis netted one image in 2006.

Peck’s son asked Military Images to revive the case in 2016 and he created a poster showing many of the photographs. The FBI and police in Ethridge, Tenn., recovered 39 images in an October 2020 raid. Eight more turned up later. (Southern musicians with fife and drum, left)

About 70 photographs are still to be recovered, according to Coddington. The publisher says the family is committed to their return. “Due to the active nature of the investigation and concerns from the family about jeopardizing the investigation, this is all I am able to state at this time.”

Saturday’s auction must have brought some satisfaction to Peck’s family.

Peck’s widow, Felicity, previously told Military Images: “I remember how distressed the collectors were at the time of the burglary. It has always been a comfort to me that others care about the importance of these images as historical, visible and tangible evidence of this country.”

Photo collector David Vaughan pens essays that detail the rich stories of Georgia soldiers. Still, the vast majority of Civil War images are unidentified

David W. Vaughan at 2023 Phoenix flies (Picket photo) and images of Georgia soldiers 
William Raines, Randolph Spalding and Alfred Cantrell, described below (David Wynn Vaughan Collection)

David Wynn Vaughan enjoys the thrill of the hunt.

The longtime collector of photographs depicting Confederate soldiers -- many from Georgia -- has a seasoned eye for ones that stand out. “I love (subjects) that are heavily armed,” he says. “I love tinted photographs. It crosses over to artwork to me.”

Vaughan’s pursuit doesn’t end at a purchase. He becomes that soldier’s storyteller, researching and writing a modest biography that highlights service, combat and the subject’s personal attributes – heroic and perhaps less so.

Vaughan will talk about his passion Wednesday evening in Atlanta and show pictures of a dozen or more soldiers and give an overview of their wartime lives.

I attended Vaughan’s captivating talk last year at the Atlanta Preservation Center, the same site for this week’s “Southern Photography in the American Civil War.”

The program is part of the center’s annual Phoenix Flies. Participants over several weeks can attend the “preservation celebration” at scores of sites across the Atlanta area.

The collector told me he is going to add some new material and speak about research discoveries since March 2023.

The internet has been a huge boost since Vaughan began collecting some 40 years ago. “It has totally changed my collecting habit. I look at history as much as the photo,” he tells the Picket. (Photo at left courtesy David Wynn Vaughan Collection)

Vaughan, an Atlanta Realtor, is well-known in Civil War photography circles for his premier collection of hundreds of images and his precise research.

About 50 of his photos and biographies have been published in Georgia Backroads magazine, with 8-12 hours of work going into each profile.

“David Vaughan is a terrific resource for Georgia history,” says Dan Roper, editor and publisher of Georgia Backroads. “His Civil War photograph collection is superb and he does a great job finding and writing backstories.”

Vaughan’s efforts garnered some national attention some 15 years ago in an article in Garden & Gun, a copy of which sits in a framed case at home (below). His photographs have also appeared in Military Images, including one depicting a fighting minister.

(Courtesy of David Wynn Vaughan)

“Every time I buy a new portrait, I’m off on a new tangent,” Vaughan told Garden & Gun. “I research each one, so I get to learn and grow. I chase down their history, their letters, their thoughts. It’s enriching. And it’s surprising.”

During his presentations, Vaughan weaves anecdotes about how he came to acquire some of the images – being strung along by sellers or learning fascinating details about a soldier from descendants.

He has about 100 photographs of Georgia soldiers. “You can literally put a book together on some of these guys.” Among the men he has researched for Georgia Backroads:

-- Pvt. Alfred Webb Cantrell of Cobb’s Legion cavalry (right): Cantrell was one of three brothers to join up. His unit fought at Brandy Station and skirmishes leading up to Gettysburg, and later Petersburg. Cantrell took part in every engagement except when in Georgia in 1864 to help procure horses. After the war, Cantrell took his family to Warrensburg, Mo., where he died in 1917 at age 75. Cantrell poses in the ambrotype with a revolver and cavalry saber. He wears a nine-button shell jacket and an oval Georgia state seal buckle, upside down for some reason.

-- Col. Randolph Spalding, 29^th Georgia: Spalding was a member of a prominent family on the Georgia coast. His unit was stationed in Savannah and South Carolina, and he was reported by a sergeant to be “shamefully drunk” before battle at Fort Walker. An officer in another unit said Spalding attached himself as a private to a South Carolina regiment and fought throughout the day. He resigned for unknown reasons in December 1861 and died of pneumonia at age 39 in Savannah.  A newspaper said “a more generous and kind-hearted man never lived.” The ambrotype of Spalding depicts him in a double-breasted jacket, with three stars on his collar. He strikes a Napoleonic pose, with hand in jacket.

(Photos courtesy David Wynn Vaughan Collection)

-- Pattillo brothers: Left to right in the portrait above are Benjamin, George, James and John Pattillo, who served in Company K of the 22^nd Georgia Infantry from Henry County. The regiment took part in “prolonged, arduous campaigns” from Seven Pines, Gettysburg and Cold Harbor to the Petersburg trenches and surrender at Appomattox. Benjamin died at Second Manassas and James and John were wounded during the war. The 1861 ambrotype features Corsican cap covers over their kepis. The brothers hold Bowie knives and George’s shell jacket has red tape trim on either side of the buttons.

-- Sgt. William Green Gaither Raines, 9^th Georgia Infantry: The Walton County, Ga., man and his regiment fought in Virginia at first. It suffered brutal casualty numbers at Gettysburg and Raines was wounded a few days later. He died on Nov. 18, 1863, during a skirmish around Knoxville, Tenn. He was about 29. His brother, Littleton, died a few weeks later during an assault on Fort Sanders in Knoxville. In an ambrotype, Raines wears a seven-button jacket and the image is housed in a handmade case with a rare black embossed paper mat. “There was a shortage of photographic supplies in the South because of the Union naval blockade,” Vaughan wrote in Georgia Backroads, and photographers improvised by making their own cases

-- Col. John Hart, 6^th Georgia Cavalry (right): “Although a man of the cloth, he loved hard liquor and single women,” Vaughan wrote in Georgia Backroads. Hart used his hot temper and Rebel yell to lead charges. He was wounded in July 1864 near Atlanta and got into a row a month later with another officer, leading to talk of a duel. His regiment chased the Union army all the way to Durham, N.C. The officer returned to Floyd County, where he died in 1878 at age 52. In his portrait, Hart wears a seven-button, double-breasted frock coat, and the stars on his collar and gold braid denote has rank as colonel.

Ode to just a boy: 'Not knowing your real enemy'

Roper of Georgia Backroads says Vaughan’s “photos are terrific and have drawn a lot of interest from readers.”

Vaughan, as a freelancer, provided a photograph of a Union soldier for the spring 2011 issue of Georgia Backroads. Pvt. Rasho Crane, a musician with the 7^th Wisconsin Infantry, was captured at the Wilderness and died at Andersonville prison in Georgia. His grave marker gives his last name as Cram.

Crane was only 15 when he died, just a few months after enlistment. The magazine says it chose Crane for the cover as representative of the huge human loss at Camp Sumter (Andersonville).

The publication of Crane’s photo inspired writer Emma Cottrell, then in her 80s, to drive to Andersonville, find Crane’s grave, lay two roses on it and then write a poem about the photo and his story, says Roper. 

Cottrell’s poem reads, in part:

“I stand before your grave, Rasho Crane,
far from Wisconsin and the waters of Lake Michigan:
the green fields of Kenosha.
I saw your photograph in a magazine;
a Union boy, a stranger, someone’s son.
Pathos struck my heart and I could not choose
but follow you to this place. In the strange
silence growing round me, I close my eyes
and see you again; young, hot-blooded,
impatient -- lured from home to fight,
not knowing your real enemy was Fate.

-- Emma Cottrell and Georgia Backroads

Who is this man whose photo was put in Macon time capsule?

Civil War-era photos of identified soldiers, of course, are a premium for collectors and that’s who Vaughan generally acquires.

“You can find out so many nuances of the images, based on the identity of the soldier,” Vaughan told me. “You can find where it was made, when it was made. It could be a first- or second-issue uniform.”

He does occasionally buy unidentified images and has been able to learn their names in about a half dozen cases. But it’s tough.

Officials hope to verify the identity of this man (Historic Macon Foundation)

The Cannonball House in Macon, Ga., reached out to Vaughan for help identifying a man whose ambrotype or tintype image was in a time capsule placed under the base of a Confederate monument in 1878. (The monument was moved in 2022 and the weathered time capsule was opened.)

The man likely was a Civil War veteran, given the monument was topped by a marble Confederate soldier holding a rifle, and he appears to wear a uniform. Are the crutches he holds the result of a battle injury or did the need to use them rise after war’s end?

Vaughan says the crutches stand out and raise many questions. He believes the man is possibly wearing a Confederate jacket, but it’s tough to tell whether it has military buttons. There is no insignia, but Vaughan believes it may be a navy-use coat.

“He was probably lucky to be alive. He was convalescing. It could have been made in a studio or could have been in a camp. It is important for him to be photographed with crutches.”

Research leads enthusiasts down many rabbit holes as they seek an identity. “We don’t know who he is. More times than not you are so far off-base,” says Vaughan.

Cheryl Aultman, executive director of the Cannonball House, confirmed on March 17 the man remains unidentified.

Tough battle to identify the unknown photo subjects

Ronald S. Coddington, editor and publisher of Military Images, explains why so many Civil War photographs pose identification challenges.

“Hard-plate photos, including daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, and tintypes, tend to be less identified because it was not easy to do so. The most common practice was to tuck a note, and maybe a lock of hair, poem, or other items, into the case behind the image,” Coddington wrote in an email.

“Less common is writing on the back of the image plate, or scratching a name into the surface emulsion. Paper photographs, including cartes de visite and other albumen prints, were much easier to identify because identifying information could be written directly on the print surface, or, more commonly, the mount. I estimate maybe 5 percent of hard plates and 20 percent of paper photos are identified, though not all are airtight.”

Ron Coddington at the Chickamauga Civil War Show in 2018 (Picket photo)

Cartes de visite (CDVs) were easier and cheaper to produce and were given out in larger numbers.

Internet sites, notably Civil War Faces on Facebook and Civil War Photo Sleuth, are a boon to professional collectors and amateurs wanting to put a name to a face.

Civilwarphotosleuth.com has made it possible to use face recognition in combination with classic photo sleuthing techniques to identify soldiers and sailors, says Coddington, who recommended I upload the Macon image there.

I did so in November 2022, asking others to weigh in. I compared his face to possible matches, but have had no luck thus far in identifying him.

David W. Vaughan at last spring's Phoenix Flies talk (Civil War Picket)

A Georgia photo collector uploaded the photograph on Civil War Faces. An inventory of the 1878 time capsule lists H.C. Tindall of Macon as the donor of the photograph and a miniature Confederate flag worn by a soldier. Another source gives his name as M.C. Tillman.

That post did not yield any concrete answers, and it’s not certain whether the subject is a Tindall or Tillman – or someone else.

Another contributing factor to the high number of unidentified portraits is they were never intended for public consumption.

“These were personal, family artifacts to be cherished. In many cases, names were not required because the recipient knew the sitter,” Coddington writes.

Concerns about loss of context and provenance

Those who want to get into serious collecting can expect to spend significant money.

Vaughan tells the Picket he rarely discuss prices “because it opens up a Pandora's box of possibilities.” Many factors determine value and it can be difficult for the beginning collector or dealer to grasp because every image is an original and the price is greatly determined from the subject matter, he says.

“Some of the first images I purchased over 30 years ago were in the hundreds of dollars. Quality Confederate and Union images have continued to climb in value. Expect to pay several thousand dollars for a clear, armed and identified image.”

Part of a very big collection (Courtesy of David Wynn Vaughan)

Coddington points out that collectible items can lose their context – and perhaps identity -- over time.

“As images became separated from families and moved into the marketplace they often became separated from diaries, letters, uniforms, weapons and equipment. Breaking up these personal items resulted in more money for the sellers, who could find more buyers for single items rather than a single buyer willing to spend a lot of money to buy an entire intact collection. As a result, many single artifacts made their way into collections of those who really appreciated them, but at the cost of destroying the provenance and context.”

Vaughan says he wants his collection to be kept together, wherever it ends up. “It would be hard to put it back together again” if they were sold off individually, he says.

The collector acknowledges he is in essence a custodian of the photographs. “I only own them for a while.”

Vaughan’s talk Wednesday at the Atlanta Preservation Center, 327 St. Paul Avenue SE, Atlanta, Ga. 30312, begins at 7 p.m. You can register for free admission here. Event capacity is limited.