Sixth plate hand-gilt ambrotype portrait. Camp Moore, Louisiana: [Mrs. E Beachabard], 3 August 1861. Soldier information inscribed directly to plate: "A.V. Going / Camp Moore La. Aug 3d 1861 / Independent Ranger."

An exceedingly scarce portrait of an armed Civil War soldier, captured by pioneer female photographer Elizabeth Beachbard (also recorded as “Beachabard”). Few portraits from the nascent era of photography can be definitively attributed to female photographers, making this a significant example of early American photographic artistry and wartime portraiture. Given that surviving examples of Elizabeth’s work are limited due to her untimely death in 1861, this represents an especially rare acquisition opportunity.

In this portrait, Elizabeth captured Amara V. Goings (alternatively recorded as Amasa), identified on the plate as “A.V. Going.” Goings enlisted with the 12th Louisiana Infantry, organized at Camp Moore on 13 August 1861. He is shown posing confidently in uniform and full kit, holding his rifle with a bowie knife visibly tucked into his belt. Notably, Goings wears a rare belt plate featuring a pelican, the emblem of Louisiana. Unlike so many other soldier portraits taken during the Civil War, the gold-gilt highlight was applied carefully so as to not obscure the plate’s design.

Elizabeth Beachbard was born in Estill County, Kentucky, between 1822 and 1828. In 1840, she  married a man named William Warner. By 1855, records indicate the two had separated, at which point Elizabeth relocated to New Orleans. Sometime after her move, she met Barnabas H. Beachbard, a roofer and entrepreneur. The two married were married on 29 October 1859.

It is unclear what spurred her interest or when Elizabeth became trained as an ambrotypist, but by the mid-19th century, photography was flourishing in New Orleans. In 1850, at least 30 photographic businesses were operating in the city, which then had a population of around 150,000. In 1860, Elizabeth's studio is listed in city directories as being located at 203 Rampart Street, where her husband also ran a composition roofing firm. Evidently, her business prospered, as she soon moved to a more prominent location at 173 Rampart Street.

At the start of 1861, Louisiana seceded from the Union, and New Orleans, like much of the South, was swept up in patriotic fervor. The demand for soldier portraits soared as young men enlisted in droves. Camp Moore, located 75 miles north of New Orleans in Tangipahoa Parish, became a lucrative destination for enterprising photographers.

By at least May 1861, Elizabeth had relocated to Camp Moore. Her husband, Barnabas, had enlisted as a Confederate soldier and may have helped arrange for Elizabeth to operate there as both a sutler and ambrotypist. Contemporary accounts describe a single “photograph saloon” and a “shanty of an enterprising ambrotype artist” at the camp (New Orleans Daily Crescent, 28 August 1861; New Orleans Bee, 31 May 1861).

The ambrotypes Elizabeth produced at Camp Moore are distinctive for their inscriptions, made in the photograph’s emulsion, which usually include the soldier’s name, “Camp Moore,” and a date (either of enlistment or when the photograph was taken). The example offered here perfectly illustrates her unique style of marking her work.

Life at Camp Moore was harsh, and disease was rampant. Elizabeth died there just months after her arrival on 22 November 1861. She is buried in Tangipahoa under the name “Mrs. E. Beachbard.”

Dr. Pippa Oldfield has conducted a detailed study of Elizabeth Beachbard and her contributions to photography. She highlights the difficulty in tracing Beachbard’s history, noting that “the photographic history of the American Civil War is, by and large, assumed to be an exclusively masculine affair,” and that “the very notion of women’s photographic entrepreneurship in wartime seems radical” (pp. 4 & 6). These challenges are compounded, Oldfield argues, “by her short life, by her migration from the Midwest to the South, by her status as a woman in the Confederacy, and not least by her triple identity: as Miss Elizabeth Brinegar, as Mrs. Warner, and as Mrs. Beachbard” (p. 14).

References: 

Pippa Oldfield. Women's Photography and the American Civil War: The Case of Elizabeth Beachbard, Ambrotypist. (2021). 

Palmquist & Kailborn. Directory of Photographers from the Mississippi to the Continental Divide. (2005). 

Roberts & Moneyhon. Portraits of Conflict: A Photographic History of Louisiana in the Civil War. (1990). 

Smith & Tucker. Photography in New Orleans: The Early Years, 1840-1865. (1982).