An original albumen carte-de-visite double studio portrait depicting two prominent Union cavalry officers in a unique candid pose. Both men are shown full-length, casually sporting cigars in their mouths. The officer on the left leans against a large studio column wearing white summer trousers and a double-breasted frock coat, holding his slouch hat. The officer on the right stands beside him with his hand on his hip, wearing matching officer's outerwear and darker mounted trousers with structural piping. The reverse features a spectacular ornate graphic cartouche backmark for Jno. Holyland, Metropolitan Gallery, 250 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington, D.C., as well as a collector's notes indicating their identities. 

This remarkable photograph breaks away from rigid mid-19th-century photographic conventions to capture a genuine, unvarnished moment of camaraderie between two high-ranking field officers of the federal cavalry. The subjects are Lt. Col. Samuel Baldwin Marks Young of the 4th Pennsylvania Cavalry and Maj. William Fry of the 16th Pennsylvania Cavalry.

Both the 4th and 16th Pennsylvania Cavalry regiments performed outstanding, high-casualty service in the Eastern Theater, fighting extensively through the epic mounted clashes at Brandy Station, Gettysburg and the grueling Appomattox Campaign. Young was a legendary figure in American military history; entering the war as a private, he rose rapidly due to extreme gallantry under fire, receiving multiple wounds and leading his regiment through the final actions at Sailor's Creek. Following his decorated Civil War tenure, Young entered the Regular Army cavalry, becoming a celebrated Indian Wars commander, a close friend of Theodore Roosevelt during the Spanish-American War and ultimately serving as the very first formal Chief of Staff of the United States Army in 1903. 

While Young went on to achieve post-war immortality as the first Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, Fry boasts an equally formidable combat pedigree. Serving as a premier field officer in the hard-riding 16th Pennsylvania Cavalry, Fry repeatedly assumed command of the regiment during the grueling campaigns of 1864. He led his troopers through the desperate, close-quarters cavalry fighting at Haw's Shop and the historic mounted clash at Trevilian Station, navigating the extreme attrition that hollowed out the Army of the Potomac's officer corps during the Siege of Petersburg.

[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]

Fine. The print exhibits marvelous clarity, exceptional deep tonal contrast and outstanding definition down to the burned ends of the cigars. The mount is structurally crisp, square and unclipped, showing only a very nominal, uniform age-toning along the margins.