Half-length albumen CDV portrait of Alfred Marshall. Lexington, Virginia: Boude & Miley, n.d. Photographer's backmark to verso with modern identification.

A rare carte de visite (CDV) portrait of VMI Cadet Alfred Marshall, a veteran of the Battle of New Market and founding member of the fraternity Alpha Tau Omega. Marshall is captured seated in civilian attire, holding his cadet kepi in his lap. A modern pencil inscription to the verso identifies the subject and is confirmed by comparison with other known period images of Marshall.

Alfred Marshall was born on 25 December 1845, in Richmond, Virginia. A member of the Virginia Military Institute Class of 1866, he served as a corporal in Company D of the VMI Cadet Battalion during the Battle of New Market on May 15, 1864, one of the most iconic moments of Confederate military history, where VMI cadets fought alongside seasoned troops under Gen. John C. Breckinridge.

In addition to his wartime service, Marshall holds historical significance as one of the founding members of the Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity, established in 1865 to help heal the divisions between North and South in the aftermath of the Civil War. He served briefly as an assistant professor of mathematics and tactics at VMI from 1866 to 1867 before pursuing a career in civil engineering. His work took him first to the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad and later to the Mobile and Texas Railroad in the postwar South.

Marshall died of "swamp fever" (likely malaria) on 22 September 1870, in Mobile, Alabama. His remains were returned to Richmond for burial at Hollywood Cemetery, a resting place for many of Virginia’s distinguished sons.

This CDV presents a rare opportunity to acquire an image of a known participant in the Battle of New Market. 

[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]