Mark Thrash - Chickamauga, GA. 114 Years Old. Married Five Times. 29 Children. Outdoor full length portrait of Black GAR veteran. Real photo postcard. N.p., n.d. Titled in-negative. 

A standing outdoor portrait of Mark Thrash, a formerly enslaved African-American who was said to be aged more than 114 in the photo. Thrash carries a large walking stick and is seen wearing a military jacket that was said to have been gifted by General Ulysses S. Grant. Several GAR medals are displayed on his lapels and breast. Caption on the photo reads: "Mark Thrash - Chickamauga, GA / 114 years old / Married five times - 29 children". 

Mark Thrash was a legendary figure of the early veteran era. By the end of the 19th century, he worked as a laborer at the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, living in a small cabin near the site of General Rosercrans's headquarters on Dyer Field. Typically known as "Uncle Mark" by visitors to the park, where he would greet people, regale them with stories, and sell copies of his portraits. 

He claimed he was born on Christmas Day 1820, and was 41 years old when the War began, having spent 20 years as a slave in Virginia, and 21 years as a slave in Georgia, owned by Baptist preacher Christopher Thrash. In an interview with Roscoe E. Lewis (The Phylon Quarterly, Vol. 20, No. 4 (1959), he stated "I tended the horses but when the fighting started I would make myself mighty scarce. Didn't figger [sic] I had no parts in that war. I was captured and recaptured several times and I waited on General Lee and General Grant and shook hands with old Abe Lincoln." Thrash lived until December 1943, just days before his assumed 123rd birthday. 

[Civil War, Union, Confederate] [Photography, Early Photography] [African Americana, African American History, Black History, Slavery, Enslavement, Abolition, Emancipation]