"Barely" post war photo of saddles from Southern town

[Ken Knopp]

My friend Chris Stewart brought this photo to my attention and was kind enough to send me the book so I could scan and include it here (sorry it took so long Chris!).
It is an 1867 photo from downtown Huntsville Ala. from the book HISTORIC PHOTOS OF HUNTSVILLE" By Jacquelyn Proctor Reeves. The original photo is housed at the Huntsville Public Library. I scanned and cropped it from the book but could not do it much justice as to the clarity. Perhaps someone who lives near there could contact the library to see if they might allow us a downloaded or an email version of the original with more detail. Anyone?
Anyway, its value is that it shows typical saddles of the immediate post war period in the west including what appears to be a military Jenifer, a Spanish pattern and a McClellan. Are they CS, Federal or ?
Its a rather typical, un-contrived pastoral scene. Take a look and see what kind of detail you guys come up with as to the horse equipment.
Comments?

* I include two scans of the same photo.


Ken R Knopp

https://www.confederatesaddles.com

[csabugler]

Re: "Barely" post war photo of saddles from Southern town

Awesome!. Maybe one of these photoshop guru's will clean them up some.
Look at all the black/dark solid colored horses!!

[Mark Choate]

Re: "Barely" post war photo of saddles from Southern town

Pete,

I agree that hopefully someone well versed in photo enhancement can improve upon this. Or maybe, as Ken said, a better scan of the original could be obtained. I can make out a couple of Jennifers, but would like to have some clarity.

As far as the solid colored horses, I looked and looked for an App or a spotted saddle horse..........quite disappointing, ha.

Mark Choate
7th TN. Cav. Co. D.

[Dignann]

Re: "Barely" post war photo of saddles from Southern town

Shoot the library an e-mail. They may be willing to send you a high-res scan. It's worth asking.

http://hpl.lib.al.us/

Eric

[Ronnie Tucker]

Re: "Barely" post war photo of saddles from Southern town

as far as the horse colors go there could be sorrels or bays white marking would show up but ever thing else would appear black ronnie tucker 7th tn

[Ronnie Tucker]

Re: "Barely" post war photo of saddles from Southern town

i am still wishing some computer wiz can make this picture more plain .the first two are horses and the next three appear to be mules. i like to look at old pictures. ronnie tucker 7th tn

[Danny]

Re: "Barely" post war photo of saddles from Southern town

i am still wishing some computer wiz can make this picture more plain .the first two are horses and the next three appear to be mules. i like to look at old pictures. ronnie tucker 7th tn

Ronnie -

Not too much to work with, there are tricks at the scanning stage that would have best effect, but here's a crack at working with what we have... I see some saddled mules, some packed.

Dan Wykes
Fat Neck Mess

[Ronnie Tucker]

Re: "Barely" post war photo of saddles from Southern town

danny thanks for your efforts. ronnie tucker 7th tn

[KyCavalier]

Re: "Barely" post war photo of saddles from Southern town

The third from the left does look like a mule.
Nice. Now we know why saddles are so hard to find. They used them well after the war for daily usage. Two years after the fact and they still look in great shape for what we can see. Good for them...bad for us. But, still nice photo.

Tony Downs
6th Ky Cavalry CSA

[Chris Stewart]

Re: "Barely" post war photo of saddles from Southern town

Ken,
Thanks for posting the image ! I can't think of any other photo showing such a wide range of types of saddlery in one image.
I will try to get to the Huntsville library next week to view the original.

Chris Stewart
Walton's Bat.
7 TN Cav

[Ronnie Tucker]

Re: "Barely" post war photo of saddles from Southern town

Now you're catching on. Especially in the south, everything was used from bridles to uniforms. Times were hard and money was scarce, and that's the reason there is so little surviving war materials. If it was of practical use, it was used until not needed or worn out. Then it was discarded. Ronnie Tucker 7 th Tn

[David Fox]

Re: "Barely" post war photo of saddles from Southern town

...stuff no longer needed or worn out here in the south wasn't discarded. It was placed carefully on the front porch next to grandma's worn-out Kenmore washing machine.

[ButtermilkRanger]

Re: "Barely" post war photo of saddles from Southern town

I don't know how I missed this thread when it was first posted several years ago. It's an amazing image and one of the best I've seen posted here. There are at least three long earred equines in this pic, all grouped together, and my guess is that the most obvious, the third from the left, is actually a large donkey rather than a mule. The two next to him appear to be mules. Outstanding variety of saddles!