Ninth plate ambrotype portrait identified as Nathan A. Smith, W.P. Lane's [Texas] Rangers. Full thermoplastic case. 

Publications: Carl Moneyhon and Bobby Roberts. Portraits of Conflict: A Photographic History of Texas in the Civil War. 1998. p. 134. 

A rare ambrotype image of one of the soldiers whose portrait was published by W.W. Heartsill in his legendary regimental history Fourteen Hundred and 91 Days in the Confederate Army.  

Throughout his enlistment, Heartsill maintained a carefully kept journal that Jenkins describes as "one of the most vivid and intimate accounts of Civil War battle-life that has survived." (Basic Texas Books 89). Beginning in 1874, he began printing his journal a page at a time on a small Octavo Novelty Press. Notably, he included 61 albumen portraits, which he solicited from his comrades. Each is laid down on special sheets with typeset captions. Nathan A. Smith is illustrated between pages 158 & 159 in Heartsill's work by a post-war portrait, wearing a distinctive checkered waistcoat.

In the wartime view offered in this lot, Smith looks directly at the photographer's lens with piercing eyes while wearing his double-breasted officer's frock coat. This arresting portrait is published in the Texas volume of Portraits of Conflict. 

Enlisting at the very outbreak of war on 15 April 1861, Nathan A. Smith joined Company F of the 2nd Texas Cavalry as a private alongside Heartsill. After re-enlisting after their first year, Smith was elected 2nd Lieutenant (Heartsill, p. 79). He is mentioned regularly by Heartsill, including details of his command, scout patrols, and occasional anecdotes. 

Smith was captured, alongside Heartsill and the rest of their regiment, at Arkansas Post on 11 January 1863 and spent several months as a prisoner at Camp Butler, Illinois, before his exchange in April. He and his fellow exchanged soldiers were assigned to a makeshift infantry company in Bragg's army and fought at the Battle of Chickamauga. Disconsolate at being converted to infantry, Smith and several others abandoned their temporary unit and crossed several states in a 700-mile journey to rejoin the 2nd Texas Cavalry. He spent the remainder of the war in Arkansas and Texas. 

References: Harwell, In Tall Cotton 86; Howes H-380; Jenkins, Basic Texas Books 89; Lowman, Printing Arts in Texas; Moneyhon & Roberts, p. 134; Nevins I, p. 102. 

[Civil War, Union, Confederate] [Photography, Early Photography, Historic Photography, Daguerreotypes, Ambrotypes, Tintypes, Cased Images, Union Cases, Albumen Photographs, CDVs, Carte de Visites, Cartes de Visite, Carte-de-visite, Cartes-de-visite, CDV, Cabinet Cards, Stereoviews, Stereocards] [Texas, Republic of Texas, Sam Houston, Alamo, Texas Rangers]