Great Federal Portrait

[NY Pvt]

One of best portraits that have came up on eBay in a long time. Unfortunately there is no ID.

Enjoy

http://cgi.ebay.com/GREAT-6th-Pl-SOLDIER-IN-MARCHING-ORDER-HAT-GUN-GEAR_W0QQitemZ230261926608QQihZ013QQcategoryZ36039QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[brown]

Re: Great Federal Portrait

The details, even in the fuzziness on Ebay, are amazing. You're right, an ID would be the icing on the cake.

Frying pan, cookpot, great view of the haversack, and that hat looks like it might have been issued that morning (haha).

[Matt Caldwell]

Re: Great Federal Portrait

One of best portraits that have came up on eBay in a long time. Unfortunately there is no ID.

Enjoy

http://cgi.ebay.com/GREAT-6th-Pl-SOL...QQcmdZViewItem

While not a personal ID, there is a unit:

"GREAT 6th Pl SOLDIER IN MARCHING ORDER, HAT, GUN, GEAR!"

Damn nice image.

[NY Pvt]

Re: Great Federal Portrait

Matt, the "6th Pl" stands for sixth plate, the size of the tintype.

[Benedict]

Re: Great Federal Portrait

Those are some short blouse sleeves.

[27thNCdrummer]

Re: Great Federal Portrait

Dane,
I've got one word to describe this image, "awesome." I bet this fella is a bummer. Possibly from Illinois or Indiana?

[NY Pvt]

Re: Great Federal Portrait

Andrew,
There is nothing (from what I can tell) that gives this photo any identification to any unit or state. If you see something, please share.

Preconceptions are ruining the hobby

[lambrew]

Re: Great Federal Portrait

Great find. This photo sums up the mental image I have for my impression. It realy is too bad their is no ID on this image. IMHO it could represent just about any western fed, lean and mean. Thank you for sharing.

Respectfully....
Sean Collicott

[27thNCdrummer]

Re: Great Federal Portrait

Dane,
Nothing on his uniform denotes his state. I was just conjecturing as to where he possibly could be from since he appears to be a bummer. Sorry for any confusion.

[Arch Campbell]

Re: Great Federal Portrait

Actually, given that he is completely clothed and equipped in U.S. Army fashion, it is rather unlikely that he is a "bummer." Though I can understand how a North Carolinian's mind would immediately go to "bummer" when spotting such a fine specimen of a midwestern soldier... :wink_smil
The University of Northern Iowa Museum has in its possession an image startlingly similar to this one (in fact so similar, I'm going to have to check into whether they still have it now!) The young man in that image is also in full marching order, holding a frying pan in his right hand and actually sort of extending it towards the camera-- as if to say, "Look, everybody, I'm in the army now! Army life is so strange and exotic- I actually have to cook my own food!!" The soldier in that image is in fact an Iowan, his name and regiment are known, though I have forgotten them now (I haven't seen the image in years, it's not on display, I got the chance to see it in storage when I took a Museum Studies course as an undergrad.) For some reason, it sticks in my head that he became a doctor after the war.

[27thNCdrummer]

Re: Great Federal Portrait

Arch,
It must be all those Bentonville Living Histories getting to me.:wink_smil

Actually most of the family on my mothers' side come from the Midwest (Ohio and Indiana). My direct ancestor on my mothers' side fought in the 11th Indiana made famous by Lew Wallace. Although not quite bummers they did fight at Vicksburg.:)

[Stonewall_Greyfox]

Re: Great Federal Portrait

Dane,
I've got one word to describe this image, "awesome." I bet this fella is a bummer. Possibly from Illinois or Indiana?

Dane,
Nothing on his uniform denotes his state. I was just conjecturing as to where he possibly could be from since he appears to be a bummer. Sorry for any confusion.

Arch,
It must be all those Bentonville Living Histories getting to me.:wink_smil

Actually most of the family on my mothers' side come from the Midwest (Ohio and Indiana). My direct ancestor on my mothers' side fought in the 11th Indiana made famous by Lew Wallace. Although not quite bummers they did fight at Vicksburg.:)

Andrew,

OK...I freely admit, that when it comes to the Blue...I'm pretty ignorant. But I would appreciate some details (of substance) as to why you feel so strongly that this guy is what you refer to as a "Bummer". Is it the frying pan, some uniform characteristic, his attitude...what?

Although the forum has tended to drift away from this over the years...I believe it's still generally expected that you use some basis for your conjecture, assumptions, and statements here on the forum.


Thanks,

Paul B.

[AZReenactor]

Keep in mind that in period parlance "bummer" meant a beggar, loafer, idler, or one who sponges off his acquaintances. It was largely popularized during the Gold Rush of the far West and predates the war. Its origins were likely from the German word "bummler" which meant "loafer" or may have come an old English word for one who sells fish on the edge of the market. During the war it was applied to the camp followers and semi-deserters on the fringes of the Federal Army well before being legitimized and made into an institution by Uncle Billy.

I will explain here and make a few remarks about shirks, bummers, sneaks and thieves, all called camp followers. The first is a man that when the army comes up, and is expecting that every man will do his duty, now we are ready to meet the enemy, he looks around to see if any of his comrades are watching him, and DROPS to the rear— deserts his comrades in time of danger. He then becomes a bummer, and prowls around, and will do anything to keep himself away from danger in the ranks. He then becomes a sneak, and tries to get an ambulance to drive, or " SIGH." After that he becomes the thief, and will steal from friend and foe alike, and is devoid of all principle. Reader, look around you, and see if there is such men in your midst. Shun them as you would & viper, and show to them that they are despised in private life by their neighbors, as .they were in the army by their comrades. It is such men as these that cry for an equalization of bounties.

Four Years Campaigning in the Army of the Potomac by Daniel G. Crotty (1874)

A novel feature of Sherman's command was his ' bummers" They were not mere stragglers and self-constituted foragers, as many suppose, but were organized for a very useful purpose from the adventurous spirits which are always found in the ranks. They served as the '"feelers" who kept in advance of the main columns, spied out the land, discovered the well-filled granaries and tempting barn-yards on either flank of the main columns. They were indispensable in supplying the troops, all of whom were compelled to live off the country, and in destroying the enemy's means of transportation and communication. The bummer was in fact a regular institution.

Life and Reminiscences of General Wm. T. Sherman By Thomas Clement Fletcher (1891)

Handy-book of literary curiosities (1892)
Dictionary of Americanisms (1877)
A dictionary of slang, jargon & cant embracing English, American, and Anglo-Indian slang, pidgin English, tinker's jargon and other irregular phraseology. (1889)
A dictionary of English synonymes and synonymous or parallel expressions, designed as a practical guide to aptness and variety of phraseology (1871)

[27thNCdrummer]

Re: Great Federal Portrait

All right. What makes me think "bummer" is the un-adorned Hardee Hat and the fact that he is in full marching order. That may just be a stereotype of mine but that's usually what a "bummer" appears like.

Check the photos and the Federal Uniform Regulations on the "Bummers" Event website. They basically match this fellow.

P.S. Why would someone be naming an event after these fellows if they had no documentation for calling them that?

[Arch Campbell]

Re: Great Federal Portrait

Andrew, I don't want to pile on you, but the wearing of an unadorned Hardee hat was the average choice of haberdashery for all the (mostly) midwestern soldiers who visited your fair state in 1865, not just the bummers.
The term "bummers" originally connotated men who were absent from the ranks (either temporarily or actaul deserters) in order to operate just beyond the army's reach during the March to the Sea and (especially) the Carolinas Campaign. These men took advantage of the stated aim of the campaign to steal and compel from the citizenry whatever they wished. The army of course sent out regular foraging parties which compelled foodstuffs from the citizenry, but the bummers were outside the chain of command and took all sorts of personal items and valuables as well. No doubt there were instances of individuals in the ranks who stole, but the worst depredations (such as they were) were committed by the bummers.
In the immediate aftermath of the fighting, as tales of the Great March spread across the country all of the men who made that march with Uncle Billy were (affectionately) called Bummers.
As far as a "uniform" for bummers, most stories of the worst of them indicate that they took especial delight in stealing women's (and badly out of date men's) clothing and appearing before the army clad in them. This was probably a lark, though, and I doubt they continued to wear these as their regular garments.
Andrew, I realize you did not mean to give offense ( and I am not offended in the least, by the way) but just to help you understand, calling a western-looking soldier a bummer is not too different than referring to a rebel soldier as a bushwacker.
That being said, lets back off Andrew. He admitted he came into this thread with little knowledge of Federal stuff and was not trying to mislead anyone. There's nothing wrong with having a theory.