Hempstead County Rifles -- drummers and fifer

[33rdaladrummer]

This photo was posted on another thread.

http://www.geocities.com/genen81/hempsted.jpg

Figured some musician-types might find it interesting. Photos of confederate musicians are few and far between. I wish I could find a higher-resolution copy in a book or other source.

[markj]

Re: Hempstead County Rifles -- drummers and fifer

Greetings Will,

You might want to check in either the "silver" Time-Life series on the CW (probably in any volumes dealing with the Trans-Mississppi) or in Phil Katcher's "Civil War Sourcebook." I'm pretty sure this same image is shown in one or both of the aforementioned works and may have even been scanned from them in the first place.

Here's the web link that carries the pic you posted, which was, in fact apparently scanned from a 1996 issue of Blue & Gray magazine:

http://www.geocities.com/genen81/3rdDivPg.html

Regards,

Mark Jaeger

[fahtz]

Re: Hempstead County Rifles -- drummers and fifer

If you are near Springfield Missouri at any time I have seen this image many times int he Sweeny Collection that has been recently purchased by the Wilson's Creek National Battlefield. Drop them an e-mail and they may get you a better scan straight off the original. I will be heading down there again for a couple of weeks in August, if you haven't got anything by then I may be able to help you out.

[Tom Ezell]

Re: Hempstead County Rifles -- drummers and fifer

As Mitch said, the original ambrotype is in the Sweeney collection that was recently acquired by the NPS at Wilson's Creek. It's a quarter-plate image, and the various reproductions still don't do justice to the original.

The first time I'm aware of it being published was in the early 1990's when Bobby Roberts & Carl Moneyhon did their first collection of Civil War images, Portraits of Conflict. The reproduction in this book is pretty dark. Since then, the image has been republished a couple of times, in the Piston & Hatcher book on Wilson's Creek, and in a recent Osprey volume on Confederate militia uniforms from Arkansas and Virginia. This particular copy was scanned from the Osprey book.

The first references stated that this image was taken in Arkadelphia, but while researching impressions for the 2000 Wilson's Creek event and looking into the background of the wetplate artist, we strongly believe that it was taken in Washington, and is the "Hempstead Rifles," John Gratiot's company (H) of what became the 3rd Arkansas State Troops (NOT the same regiment that served in the ANV.) The 3rd State Troops served in the Lyon Campaign in north Arkansas and Missouri, and fought on Bloody Hill at Wilson's Creek. a 90-day regiment, it disbanded in September 1861 at Van Buren, AR. Gratiot returned home to Washington and did not serve again, many of the former troops enlisted or were conscripted back into the 17th and 19th Arkansas.

David Thomas used this image as a source for his painting/print of Wilson's Creek, "Don't Yield an Inch". Locally here in Little Rock, the Department of Heritage had it blown up to wall size... around 8x12 feet, for a display in the old Territorial Restoration, and the details really pop out.

I've spent a good bit of time going over this image with a magnifying glass, and learn something from it just about every time... one of the best images of the oys of '61 that I'm aware of.

[27thNCdrummer]

Re: Hempstead County Rifles -- drummers and fifer

This is a company sized organization, so it seems odd that they would have 2 snare drummers, a fifer, AND a bass drummer? I could see 2 snare drummers or a snare drummer and a fifer but I have never heard of this many musicians being in one company.

[Dignann]

Re: Hempstead County Rifles -- drummers and fifer

Will,

The photo does appear on page 26 of Bobby Roberts and Carl Moneyhon's Portraits of Conflict: A Photographic History of Arkansas in the Civil War (Fayetteville, Ark.: University of Arkansas Press, 1987). As already mentioned, as reproduced in this book, the image is dark, grainy and appears to be from a rather scratched plate. It is also credited to the Henderson State University Museum.

FYI. The University of Arkansas Press is currently holding a sale on all of their Civil War titles. This includes most volumes from their Portraits of Conflict Series, which are marked down to a very low $10 - $20. Unfortunately, the Arkansas volume does not appear to be part of the sale and remains $37.50 in wraps.

If Wilson's Creek NB does in fact own an original of this image, than they should be able to supply you with a high resolution copy. Being the NPS, anything in their collection is in the public domain, unless the photo came to them with restrictions. Give them a call and see what kind of response you get.

Eric