Sixth plate studio portrait daguerreotype. [New York, NY]: Abraham Bogardus, ca spring to early summer 1861. Embossed leather miniature case with a deep emerald-green embossed velvet pad stamped with the gallery hallmark of Bogardus. 

A major rarity in Civil War photography: a seated studio daguerreotype of a youthful volunteer wearing the ephemeral, first-pattern uniform of the 9th New York Volunteer Infantry, famously known as "Hawkins’ Zouaves."

The young infantryman sits attentively in a waist-up pose, wearing the distinctive first-issue Hawkins ensemble. His dark blue Zouave open jacket is bordered with light piping and worn open over a pleated shirt, accented by a decorative cord strung across the breast. Below, he wears the distinctive broad, light-colored cloth waist sash over voluminous dark Zouave trousers, and the very distinctive "flaming bomb" belt plate. On his head sits the regiment’s early dark forage cap, worn prior to the universal adoption of the tasseled crimson fez.

Uniform historian Dan Miller and Military Images editor Ron Coddington confirm that this plate documents the elusive 1st-pattern service dress worn by Hawkins' Zouaves when they mobilized and marched south through New York to Washington, D.C., in May 1861. Constructed from lighter, non-standard contract fabric, this initial uniform proved impractical for rough campaign life and was rapidly replaced in the field by the durable, dark navy-and-crimson trimmed Zouave uniform that became the regiment's legendary trademark at Roanoke Island, South Mountain, and the horrific charge at Antietam's Rohrbach Bridge.

The presence of the Abraham Bogardus hallmark on the green velvet pad places the sitting directly in Bogardus’s renowned Manhattan gallery at 229 Broadway. Daguerreotypes of Civil War soldiers are inherently scarce, as the collodion ambrotype and tintype largely supplanted the Daguerreian process by 1861. Original photographs depicting identified elite volunteer units in short-lived initial-issue kit are among the most difficult to acquire in 19th-century military portraiture under any circumstances; this may be the only surviving example depicting a Hawkins' Zouave. 

[Civil War, Daguerreotype, Sixth Plate, Zouave, Hawkins' Zouaves, 9th New York Infantry, 9th NYVI, First Uniform, Chasseur Cap, Abraham Bogardus, New York City, Cased Image, 1861 Photography, Militaria]

Very good condition. The plate retains impressive tone and sharpness. A natural band of deep peacock-blue tarnish frames the upper perimeter.