An original albumen carte-de-visite full-length studio portrait of an enlisted trooper standing before a painted landscape backdrop. He wears a standard four-button fatigue blouse, matching trousers, a civilian bowtie, and a forage cap, leaning both hands confidently over the pommel of his cavalry saber. The mount features gently rounded edges from period handling. The reverse features a sharp circular stamp for Wolfe's Gallery, 10 Royal St., Alexandria, Va. A prominent period or early ink inscription fills the upper half, reading: "David Rhodes / 1st Maine / Cavalry Killed / at White House / Landing, / [1?] st cousin once / removed."

This poignant portrait captures Private David Rhodes of Company H, 1st Maine Volunteer Cavalry, a regiment that sustained the highest combat fatalities of any federal cavalry unit during the entire Civil War. The inscription on the reverse anchors the photograph to the chaotic and bloody Overland Campaign in the summer of 1864. Following General Grant's grinding advance through the Wilderness and Spotsylvania, the 1st Maine Cavalry was heavily engaged in screening the army's movements and protecting its sprawling supply bases along the Virginia rivers.

On 21 June 1864, General Fitzhugh Lee's Confederate cavalry launched a fierce, determined assault against the vital Union supply depot at White House Landing on the Pamunkey River. The 1st Maine Cavalry was rushed to the front of the defensive perimeter to break the southern advance. During the hot, close-quarters engagement that followed, Private Rhodes was killed in action on the field alongside several of his comrades. The Alexandria, Virginia studio backmark suggests this image was captured earlier in the war when elements of the regiment were positioned near the defenses of Washington. The tender notation documenting his death and his familial relationship to a surviving relative transforms this card from a standard military record into a deeply personal monument to a frontline casualty.

[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, Stereographs] [Civil War, Union, Confederate]

Very good. The albumen print retains pleasing clarity, with only nominal, uniform age-toning across the surface. The mount is structurally sound with standard corner rounding consistent with its age.