[Timothy H. O'Sullivan, photographer]. [Castle Murray, near Warrenton, Va.]. Oversize outdoor albumen photograph. [Warrenton, Virginia]: [Alexander Gardner], [November 1863]. Image approx. 7 x 9 in., cardstock mount 9 x 11 in. Period ink caption title to mount verso. 

An image taken of General Pleasonton's Headquarters near Warrenton, Virginia in the late fall of 1863. At the center foreground are four African Americans, 3 seated and another standing next to a white soldier wearing a shell jacket. Two of the seated men appear to be wearing kepis. The men were certainly contrabands, self-emancipated slaves who flocked to Union camps as a stepping stone to freedom. Behind them are several camp tents and a wagon with "Castle Murray" (alt. Melrose Castle) rising behind them. 

The negative was taken by Timothy O'Sullivan, an employee of Alexander Gardner and Mathew Brady, and published in Gardner's Sketch Book of the War,  Vol. I, no. 47. Here and in other examples, the image is titled "Castle Murray, Near Auburn, Virginia," whereas this copy's manuscript caption places it "near Warrenton." 

Pleasanton made Headquarters at this romantic spot after his heroics at the Battle of Gettysburg just a few months earlier and before he moved to the Trans-Mississippi Theater. 

[Civil War, Union, Confederate] [African Americana, African American History, Black History, Slavery, Enslavement, Abolition, Emancipation] [USCT, United States Colored Troops, Glory, 54th Massachusetts, Buffalo Soldiers, Black Soldiers] [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]