The little-known ironclad Tecumseh was sunk by a mine 160 years ago Monday. Farragut then ordered 'Damn the torpedoes!' His ships rallied and took Mobile Bay

The Tecumseh buoy is off Fort Morgan; Dauphin Island is in background (Civil War Picket photo)

In mid-April, I traveled with my wife and mom to Gulf Shores, Ala., for a few days away from the hustle and bustle of metro Atlanta. We enjoyed views of Little Lagoon from our porch, nibbled on seafood and, of course, enjoyed the bright sand and blue-green sea.

We added a dollop of Civil War adventure one day, as my wife and I stopped by Fort Morgan on the west end of the peninsula before taking a ferry across Mobile Bay to a reenactment at Fort Gaines -- another Confederate fort -- on Dauphin Island.

From the Fort Morgan State Historic Site parking lot, we walked toward the narrow beach that on Aug. 5, 1864, was right in the middle of the Battle of Mobile Bay. Rebel guns thundered at a Union flotilla just a few hundred yards away. Adm. David Farragut was intent on disabling or sinking the CSS Tennessee and other ships, taking control of the bay and bringing an end to blockade running to and from the port.

USS Tecumseh hits a mine and sinks; Rebel ships are to the left (Library of Congress)

“Where is the USS Tecumseh wreck site?” we asked a park employee who was painting part of a large 32-pounder gun. He pointed toward the beach and signaled we should not expect to see much.

We passed a family that was fishing and eventually saw a multicolored buoy about 300 hundred yards offshore, between channel markers. Mobile Bay’s signature oil platforms and Dauphin Island were in the distance.

Is that the spot where 93 Tecumseh sailors and their commander perished when the ironclad monitor had the misfortune to hit a Confederate mine and sink within minutes, perhaps even 30 seconds?

There’s no sign or marker on the beach, but when I zoomed in with my iPhone camera, I saw a large white “T.”

USS Tecumseh model and Confederate mine replica at Fort Morgan museum (Picket photos)

As we stood there, and in the months since, I have thought about the incongruity of this grave and its recreational and commercial surroundings. It’s hard sometimes to put things into perspective.

I will be thinking Monday of the sacrifice of these men and the valor of the sailors on both sides who clashed near Fort Morgan 160 years ago on that day.

Although the state park has a few relics and a model of the USS Tecumseh in its visitor center, and a sign atop a west-facing parapet mentioning its loss, I wondered whether many folks know the story of the brave crew that led the Union charge.

Americans certainly are familiar with Farragut’s line, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.”

Less known and among Civil War historians and enthusiasts are the reported last words of Tecumseh Commander Tunis Craven (left, photo Library of Congress) moments before the monitor slipped beneath the waves (more on that later in the blog).

This week, I came across an Emerging Civil War blog post that summarized my thinking better than any words I can conjure.

Editor-in-chief Chris Mackowski wrote about the loneliness and constancy of the buoy, which is maintained by the U.S. Navy as a war grave. The site is protected by the Coast Guard.

He mentioned what a colleague wrote: There are no memorials at sea to Civil War sailors who died in combat.

“The buoy used to be farther offshore, but the shore itself has crept closer during the past 159 years,” Mackowski wrote in August 2023. “How can someone lost at sea ever get back to land when the land itself keeps moving?

“That lonely offshore buoy serves as a kind of exception to (the) rule. Something does mark the graves of those men lost at sea. But unless you know what that buoy is, you don’t know it’s a grave marker, a monument, a memorial. Thirty feet below, ninety-four men lay entombed in a capsized iron hulk.”

Why the Navy decided to sail into Mobile Bay

I asked Andy Hall, A Civil War naval expert and author, for his thoughts on the battle and the USS Tecumseh, which he says is shown on modern charts as an unnamed wreck.

“Mobile Bay is an interesting action, and it doesn't get as much notice as it warrants. (None of the naval stuff does.),” he replied in an email. “Mobile was the last port of significance in the Gulf of Mexico that was supplying the Confederates in the Western Theater. Galveston (Texas) remained accessible through the end of the war, but it was honestly too far removed to be of great consequence in the conduct of the war itself.”

American Battlefield Trust map provides overview of campaign

Farragut’s brazen assault was one half of a Union operation. Troops landed on Dauphin Island and laid siege to Fort Gaines, which had few ships to help in its defense. Confederate Col. Charles D. Anderson had half his infantry foe’s number. (Hall wrote about Anderson in his Dead Confederates blog.)

“He is something of a heel among the Confeds for surrendering, but it you read the detailed accounts he really had little choice, with disaffected and near-mutinous troops,” said Hall. “Anderson surrendered his sword to Farragut, who later had it returned to Anderson in respect for his defense of Gaines.”

Hall said the fall of the bay marked a jump in large-scale blockade running in Galveston, which is his focus.

We attended an April battle reenactment at Fort Gaines (Picket photo)

“Denbigh was one of the last runners out of Mobile in 1864, and was destroyed as one of the last two runners trying to get into Galveston in May 1865. I was part of the project that excavated that ship in 1997-2004.”

After the fall of Fort Gaines, Yankee troops moved on Fort Morgan across the bay, forcing its surrender on Aug. 23, 1864. (The state park had a 160th anniversary living history on Saturday, Aug. 3.)

Mobile was heavily fortified and the Union command moved on after securing the bay. The city surrendered in April 1865, three days after Appomattox.

Ironclad braved minefield to protect wooden ship

In its rather brief life, the Tecumseh first experienced Confederate mines and obstructions during operations in the James River in Virginia. Thomas E. Nank, in two articles for the American Battlefield Trust, provides copious details on the “Forgotten Monitor.”

The Union Navy was intent on neutralizing CSS Tennessee, shown after the war. (U.S. Navy)

Before Mobile Bay, Farragut asked for more monitors to challenge the Tennessee and other Confederate warships. The Tecumseh was sent south, and it needed engine work twice on way, including in Pensacola, Fla.

Between 16 and 18 Federal ships, in two lines, would storm past Fort Morgan, trying to get under the guns, enter the bay and take the fight to opposing ships. Craven, who had expressed some doubts about the effectiveness of monitors but agreed to serve, was first in line on Aug. 5.

The commander, as he entered a mine field, decided to make a turn so he could take on the CSS Tennessee and protect USS Brooklyn, a wooden vessel that had faltered amid gunfire from Fort Morgan and the Confederate ships nearby.

Sign on Fort Morgan parapet describes battle, loss of Tecumseh; buoy is beyond (Susan C. Gast)

While Confederate mines were often faulty, at 7:40 a.m. a torpedo (or mine) detonated on the starboard side, according to Nank. The ironclad rolled over to port as water rushed in and panic ensued.

Gunners mate Samuel Shinn, one of about 20 survivors, wrote, “It seemed as if we were lifted right out of the water. At the same time, a blinding flash like lightning came through the porthole. A large hole was stove in the vessel's side, and the men below commenced to cry that the vessel was sinking.”

'After you, pilot.' Chivalry amid disaster

Almost all men below deck on Tecumseh were doomed, but Craven and a few others who were in the turret, pilot house or elsewhere topside had a chance.

Alfred R. Waud's account of Craven's heroics (Library of Congress)

Civil War historian and author Ronald S. Coddington wrote two articles about the USS Tecumseh in his Military Images magazine. He and Hall make special note of what its commander said as the vessel was in its death throes.

Craven and civilian harbor pilot John Collins, in the conning tower or pilot house, stepped toward a ladder that would take them to safety. “After you pilot,” said Craven, who never made it out an drowned in the maelstrom. His act of chivalry is venerated in the annals of naval tradition.

In the March 2020 issue of Military Images, Coddington laid out other versions of what Craven said. He included excerpts of a poem that detailed the officer’s chivalry and sacrifice. (At right, Tecumseh paymaster George Work / Library of Congress)

Collins, quoted in the 1888 “Battles and Leaders of the Civil War,” said after he spoken with the skipper, “When I reached the upmost round of the ladder, the vessel seemed to drop under me.”

In another telling of the story, Coddington wrote, Craven yelled to Collins, “You first, sir.” 

An 1879 account of the encounter offers another version of events. It appeared in “A Sketch of the Battle of Mobile Bay” by William F. Hutchinson, assistant surgeon of the sloop Lackawanna.

“Captain Craven was already partly out, when the pilot grasped him by the leg, and cried ‘Let me get out first, Captain for God’s sake; I have five little children!’ The Captain drew back, saying ‘Go on, sir,’ gave him his place, and went down with the ship while the pilot was saved.”

Farragut's sailors regrouped and won the day

After the Tecumseh sank, amid "immense bubbles of steam, as large as cauldrons," Farragut realized his mix of wooden and iron vessels, now in disorder, had to plow ahead.

William H. Overend's 1883 painting of the USS Hartford at Mobile Bay (Wikipedia)

“The vision of Farragut lashed with rope to the rigging of his flagship Hartford is indelibly etched into the American memory,” wrote Coddington. “His stirring words, paraphrased as ‘Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead,’ are part of our national vocabulary.”

The Federal fleet went on to victory, capturing the Tennessee, while other Rebel ships slipped away, were captured or sank. Admiral Franklin Buchanan, commander of the Confederate fleet, was on the Tennessee and was gravely wounded and captured. (The conquest of Mobile Bay also gave a huge boost to President Abraham Lincoln's re-election bid.)

In a brief congratulatory order issued the next day, Farragut paid tribute to Craven, paymaster George Work and their crewmates, Military Images detailed in December 2014.

“It has never been his good fortune,” Farragut stated in the third person, “to see men do their duty with more courage and cheerfulness, for although they knew that the enemy was prepared with all devilish means for our destruction, and though they witnessed the almost instantaneous annihilation of our gallant companions in the Tecumseh by a torpedo, and the slaughter of their friends, messmates, and gunmates on our decks, still there were no evidences of hesitation in following their commander in chief through the line of torpedoes and obstructions.”

Gunner Charles Baker, serving on the USS Metacomet, helped save 10 Tecumseh crewmembers while under fire and later received the Medal of Honor (photo above, U.S. Navy)

Protection and dignity for a war grave

After the war, Tecumseh families railed against granted salvage rights, and the wreck was left undisturbed for a century. Heather Tassin, site manager at Fort Morgan, says the site is believed to be the largest maritime war grave in the continental United States.

A Smithsonian Institution expedition in the 1960s rediscovered the wreck, and surveys were later conducted, including one in 2018. There was talk of raising the Tecumseh, but it never happened. The Naval History and Heritage Command has about 65 artifacts from the wreck, according to an article. Items include ceramics, ship fittings and hull and deck plank samples.

The NHCC said a management plan continues protection and preservation of the site.

"It is a common misconception that anyone can dive on the Tecumseh," Tassin told the Picket in an email. "No one is permitted to dive on the Tecumseh. It is respected and protected as a war grave."

(Atlas of the Official Records, Plate LXIII, map 6)

A 1975 National Register of Historic Places form says most of the wreck (circled in green above) was covered in mud. "It was this coverage of silt which has given the ship and her contents protection against the ravages of underwater encrustation."

The federal government does periodic remote sensing to monitor the Tecumseh and ensure that it is still protected by anaerobic mud, said Tassin. Alabama officials monitor the work.

Any proposed research would require a permit from the Alabama Historical Commission and the Navy. “There would have to be a very compelling reason to conduct said research because of the Tecumseh’s status as a war grave and the fact that it has been investigated in an archaeological study in the past,” said Tassin.

In his Emerging Civil War article, Mackowski wrote about memorials to the USS Arizona (Hawaii), USS Indianapolis (Indiana) and USS Monitor (Virginia) – places where people can walk to, unlike the Tecumseh.

“But in those moments I stood at the mouth of Mobile Bay off the shore of Fort Morgan, I heard that lone buoy speak volumes. It reminded me of all the stories lost at sea, untold, unremembered. There are no monuments on the ocean.”

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.