This 2-piece lot of CDVs features a spectacular pairing of original "California Hundred" pioneer volunteers photographed at the exact same San Francisco studio before sailing east to the theater of war. The lot includes:

1. Trooper Henry H. Fillebrown: Full-length standing studio portrait albumen CDV. San Francisco, CA: Higgins & Johnston, [ca. December 1862]. A premium, armed study capturing Fillebrown leaning on his drawn model 1860 light cavalry sabre, wearing a standard nine-button cavalry shell jacket and a forage cap bearing brass company insignia. The lower front mount features a period ink inscription reading "H. W. [sic] Fillebrown." The reverse bears a sharp backmark for Higgins & Johnston, No. 659, Clay St., cor. Kearny, San Francisco, Cal. An early ink inscription notes "California Hundred" at the top of the verso. A 21-year-old Boston clerk who answered the call in San Francisco to become an original 1862 "California Hundred" pioneer, Fillebrown survived years of relentless counter-guerrilla actions against Mosby’s Rangers and the fierce cavalry clashes of Sheridan's 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign.

2. Unidentified "California Hundred" Trooper ("Davis Album" Provenance): Full-length standing studio portrait albumen CDV. San Francisco, CA: [Higgins & Johnston], [ca. December 1862]. Features a dashing, goatee-wearing trooper standing in the identical Higgins & Johnston studio setting, flanked by a heavy, floor-length vertical backdrop curtain drape. He poses in a matching armed stance, leaning on his drawn cavalry sabre with his scabbard suspended from his belt. The reverse is blank save for historic modern tracking notes reading: "Removed from album / Name of 'Davis' / All S.F. Cal. backmarks."

This lot leverages an extraordinary and highly coveted regional "hook" for Civil War photographic collectors: rare San Francisco, California home-front backmarks. In December 1862, the original 100 volunteers who comprised the "California Hundred" gathered in San Francisco to organize before taking a steamer via Panama to Massachusetts. During this brief mobilization window, members of the vanguard marched into the Kearny Street studio of Higgins & Johnston to capture their brand-new, regulation cavalry uniforms and sidearms. While Eastern theater studio marks are common, authentic sittings taken on the Pacific Coast explicitly documenting these men prior to their departure are incredibly scarce. Finding two separate troopers framed against the exact same West Coast studio backdrop offers an uncommonly rich, ready-made display for advanced archives.

[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]

Both images are in very good condition with strong contrast and sharp internal uniform details. The mounts remain structurally sound, displaying only minor, age-appropriate light toning and nominal handling wear on the reverse. The top corners of the "Fillebrown" mount are slightly trimmed.