Outdoor albumen portrait of General Simon Barstow in uniform on horseback. N.p., ca. 1861–1865. Framer’s imprint on the verso of the frame. Inscriptions on the frame verso. Ink embellishment drawn onto the photograph. Image 4 x 5 1/4 in., mounted and framed to 9 1/2 x 11 in.

Top inscription reads: “Simon [F] Barstow / presented to / Mrs N F Barstow / 152 Charles Street.”

Bottom inscription reads: “Brig Gen. Simon F. Barstow [U.S.A.] / on General Meade’s Staff for Many / Years. Presented by him to his mother / Mrs N.F. Barstow. My grand mother / Gideon Barstow [Condir?] / Presented W 1st St. [Co...] Packer / Mead grandson of Mrs. N. F. Barstow.”

A framed photograph of Bvt. Brig. Gen. Simon F. Barstow, presented by him to his mother, Nancy Forrester Barstow.

Barstow was born on 16 December 1817 in Salem, Massachusetts, to Gideon Barstow, a former U.S. congressman. He was named for mother's father, Simon Forrester, a noted sea captain. Barstow attended Harvard University, graduating from its law school in 1841, and established a legal practice in Boston before entering Union service.

Enlisting as a captain, Barstow first served as aide-de-camp to Brig. Gen. Frederick W. Lander and later as assistant adjutant general to such officers as Major Generals Irvin McDowell and George G. Meade. By the close of the war, he had been brevetted brigadier general. He remained in military service afterward and honorably retired as a captain in 1879. He died three years later in Oakland, Maryland.

References: 

"Forgotten Union General rests in Greenway Cemetery" in The Morgan Messanger. 28 October 2025. 

[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]

Water stain to image. Some of backing has peeled.