Vignetted bust-length albumen CDV studio portrait of a Confederate General identified as "Gen. Garnett." N.p., [ca. 1860s]. 

The identity of the subject is disputed. The image is alternately identified as either Robert Selden Garnett (1819-1861) or Richard Brooke Garnett (1817-1863). The two Garnetts were cousins from Virginia who both served as officers in the United States Army before resigning their commissions in favor of the Confederacy. Both cousins were killed in action.

Robert S. Garnett had an extensive career in the United States Army before the outbreak of the Civil War, serving in both the Mexican-American War and the Seminole Wars. Following his enlistment as a colonel and adjutant general in the Confederate Army in April 1861, he was promoted to brigadier general and placed in charge of forces in Western Virginia. Garnett was killed in July of the same year while leading his troops on a lengthy retreat following the Battle of Rich Mountain, thereby earning himself the attribution of first general killed during the Civil War. 

Richard B. Garnett commissioned as a Confederate major in May 1861. He quickly achieved the rank of brigadier general and led the Stonewall Brigade at Kernstown, where he ordered a retreat without consulting his commander and was subsequently court-martialed for neglect of duty. At South Mountain and Sharpsburg (Antietam), Garnett commanded a brigade in Pickett's division of Virginians. Garnett would be killed in action at Gettysburg on 3 July at the crescendo of Pickett's Charge, not twenty yards from the Federal battle line. His body was never recovered.

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