Outdoor albumen photograph after an original ambrotype. [Dumfries, Virginia]: [Winter 1861-1862]. Period ink inscription to lower mount reads: "Wigfall Mess / Winter Quarters Texas Brigade near Dumfries Va / Winter 1861-1862". 8 1/2 x 6 1/2 in. 

Provenance: purchased from the estate of Pvt. D.W. Flaniken, Co. I, 5th Texas Infantry.

A fine outdoor portrait of five officers of the Texas Star Rifles, standing with their longarms outside a log cabin with a small sign reading "Wigfall Mess" on the door.

The Texas Star Rifles was the designation of Company D of the 1st Texas Infantry which served in Hood's Texas Brigade. A popular copy of an original ambrotype that was broken. No copy without cracks is known. This image is known to be used for current reproductions, as the original ambrotype is too fragile.

The image has been published several times, including in Portraits of Conflict (p. 73), North South Trader's Civil War, Vol. XXV, No.2 (p. 40), and referred to in Hood's Texas Brigade Sketchbook.

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