Vignetted studio bust portrait albumen CDV of Captain George W. Soult, Company H, 149th Pennsylvania Infantry. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: D.C. Burnite & Co., circa 1863. INSCRIBED BY SOULT to recto: “Truly yours / Geo. W. Soult / Capt. 149 P.V.” With photographer’s imprint and canceled blue two-cent stamp to mount verso. Period inscription to verso reads: “Lewistown, Pa.” Notation of “Co H” in modern pencil to mount verso. 

A portrait of Capt. George W. Soult of Company H, 149th Pennsylvania Infantry. He enlisted as a first lieutenant in Lewistown, Pennsylvania, whence this CDV was sent, and mustered in on 30 August 1862. He was promoted to captain at the beginning of 1863. As part of the 149th, Soult fought in the Battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, the latter at which he was wounded in action with a gunshot to the left leg. It is unclear if and when Soult healed and returned to active duty, but he was eventually discharged on 24 June 1865.

The 149th Pennsylvania fought along Chambersburg Pike the first day of Gettysburg, suffering from heavy Confederate artillery. To draw fire away from the regiment, Lt. Col. Walton Dwight sent the color party 50 yards north, leading the Confederates away; however, the color party was not retrieved when the Union line retreated, resulting in the mortal wounds of its sergeant, Henry Brehm. Of the entire regiment of 450 soldiers, 66 were killed or mortally wounded, 159 were wounded, and 336 were captured or missing. 

[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] 

Some aging.