Three-quarter length portrait of John Warwick Daniel, the "Lame Lion of Lynchburg." Pencil-enhanced copy silver gelatin to cardstock mount. Washington, D.C.: Prince, 1910. Image approx. 3 1/2 x 4 7/8 in. 

Contemporary ink inscription to mount recto: "Jno. W. Daniel / Cadet Lynchburg Ady. / 1859-(?)". Period ink inscription to mount verso: "Jno. W. Daniel / Jany. 3. 1910."

A rare portrait of Virginia lawyer, author, and politician John Warwick Daniel (1842-1910) as a cadet at the short-lived Lynchburg Military Academy. The recto inscription dates the original photograph to 1859, when Daniel was a cadet at Lynchburg College. 

Lynchburg College, founded in Lynchburg in 1855 by Methodists, also offered military training alongside the traditional academic offerings. Students were "organized into a military company under the guidance of Professor Murfee. Military instruction was voluntary until the autumn of 1860. When the possibility of Civil War became very real, military training became a requirement for all students, age fourteen and over....It was claimed that military training was healthful exercise and that it promoted a 'manly carriage' and habits of 'precision and order.'" (Daniel, p. 458) Many Methodists disapproved of the military training program, however, which led to funding issues in the late 1850s. (Daniel, p. 468). Although the college began its sixth session in the fall of 1860, professors and students alike left campus to serve in Confederate regiments. 

After his early training at Lynchburg College, Daniel would go on to enlist in a Lynchburg cavalry troop at the outbreak of war and quickly secure a commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 27th Virginia Infantry, with whom he was wounded at First Manassas (Bull Run). While convalescing, he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 11th Virginia Infantry. In 1863, he was named assistant adjutant general for Major General Jubal Early with a promotion to Major. At the Battle of the Wilderness, he was grievously wounded by a minie ball to the thigh. The wound left him crippled, requiring the use of a crutch for the rest of his life, earning him the sobriquet, "The Lame Lion of Lynchburg." 

After the war, Daniel embarked on a legal and political career. He would serve in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly and both houses of the United States Congress, serving as a U.S. Senator from 1887 until his death. 

A very rare image. 

References

W. Harrison Daniel. "Old Lynchburg College, 1855-1869." The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. Vol. 88, No. 4 (October 1980), pp. 446-477. 

James Robbins Jewell. "Lynchburg's 'Lame Lion' in the Stonewall Brigade John W. Daniel." Blue & Gray Magazine, vol. XXX, no. 6, 2014.

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Significant cracks to mount. Short incision to image lower edge. Tape repair to mount verso.