A group of two (2) carte de visite portraits taken of Union Captains during the occupation of Texas. Views include: 

1. Bust-length oval vignetted albumen CDV studio portrait of Captain Jason W. Hall. San Antonio, Texas: Engle & Doerr, [1865]. Signed by Hall to recto: "Respectfully Yours, J.W. Hall. Capt. 13th Wis. V.V.I.". Photographer's imprint and modern pencil identification to verso.

Jason W. Hall enlisted as a 1st Sergeant on 9 September 1861 and was mustered into Company B of the 13th Wisconsin Infantry. He was promoted to Sergeant Major (1 September 1863) and again to Captain at the start of 1865. 

2. Bust-length oval vignetted albumen CDV studio portrait of Samuel R. Howard. Houston, Texas: Blessing & Patrick, n.d. Signed by Howard to recto: "S.R. Howard Capt Co I 97 Ills." Photographer's imprint to verso; pencil identification to recto.

Samuel R. Howard of Alton, Illinois, enlisted as a 1st Lieutenant and commissioned into Company I of the 97th Illinois Infantry. He was promoted to Captain on 9 March 1865. 

Both regiments fought in the Western Theater and were transferred to Texas at the end of the war. In April 1865, the majority of the Confederate Army of the Trans-Mississippi, commanded by General Edmund Kirby Smith, was garrisoned in Texas. As news of Lee, Johnston, and Taylor's surrenders made their way west, morale deteriorated, desertion and plundering became frequent, and the army was disintegrated by the end of May. Kirby formally surrendered on June 2nd.

The 97th Illinois Infantry fought at the Battle of Fort Blakely, the last major engagement of the war, capturing Mobile, Alabama. With the rest of the XIII Corps, they moved to Galveston, where General Gordon Granger delivered Galveston General Orders Nos. 3 & 4 on 19 June 1865 informing all Texans that "in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves were free." The events became the basis for Juneteenth. Howard was discharged on 18 May 1865, before the regiment reached Galveston; however, the portrait does bear a Houston photographer's imprint. 

The 13th Wisconsin arrived in Indianola, Texas, on July 12th and was on duty at Green Lake and San Antonio until November. Hall had this handsome portrait taken by a San Antonio photographer while in the city. 

A fine pair of Texas CDVs of Union officers. 

[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]