Unidentified African American soldier in Union uniform with wife and two daughters
between 1863 and 1865
- Classification
- Photograph
- Museum
- Wikimedia Commons
- Credit line
- This image is available from the United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID ppmsca.36454. This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still…
- Rights
- Public domain, as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
About this work
Photograph showing soldier in uniform, wife in dress and hat, and two daughters wearing matching coats and hats. In May 1863, U.S. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton issued General Order No. 143 creating the Bureau of U. S. Colored Troops. This image was found in Cecil County, Maryland, making it likely that this soldier belonged to one of the seven U.S.C.T. regiments raised in Maryland. (Source: Matthew R. Gross and Elizabeth T. Lewin, 2010) This is the only known photograph of an African American Union soldier with his family. Identified as Sgt. Samuel Smith of the 119th USCT, with his wife Mollie, and his daughters Mary and Maggie.
