CAMP DOUGLAS, CHICAGO, CDV PORTRAIT OF A UNION GUARD AT THE CONFEDERATE PRISON CAMP

Albumen print on mount, D. F. Brandon, Photographer, Camp Douglas, Ill. imprint on verso, ca. 1863–65.

A seated three-quarter-length portrait of what is likely a Union enlisted man who served as a guard at Camp Douglas, the Federal prison camp established on Chicago’s South Side to hold captured Confederate soldiers. The sitter wears a sack coat over military waistcoat and trousers, hands folded on his knee, facing the camera with a steady gaze- an uncommon view of the rank-and-file who policed one of the war’s largest and most notorious POW installations.

D.F. Brandon maintained a studio inside or adjacent to the camp, which firmly situates the image within that milieu; photographs with his imprint provide valuable primary documentation of Camp Douglas.

While prisoner portraits from major Civil War camps surface with some frequency, views of guards by Brandon are notably scarcer. This is a strong, documentary image for collections focused on Civil War prisons, Illinois regiments, and the Northern home front.

[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]