What a great Picture!!!!  This is an old framed photograph of what appear to be 20 young cadets holding Trapdoor Springfield rifles with their Officer from Sumter, South Carolina.  I just found this in the little town of Thompson, GA near Augusta where it was hanging on the wall inside  a small antique shop. There is a note on the back of the frame which mentions the photograph was taken in 1890 in Sumter, SC by a man named James H. Winburn.  Judging from the uniforms and spats covering their boots, our estimation is this was taken around the time of the Spanish American war in the late 1890's to early 1900's.  The cadets hats bear a 4 letter insignia which I can only partially make out but under magnification should definitely identify the unit.  Each cadet is wearing a "US marked Mills cartridge belt with bayonet & scabbard.  There are a total of 19 Springfield trapdoor rifles in this photo. I wonder if any of those trapdoors are marked "SC" on the buttplate as they turn up from time to time in this region with these South Carolina markings.  Personally, I prefer the even rarer Georgia marked trapdoors which have a "GA" stamped in the wood.  The photograph is 9.5" L x 7.5" W mounted inside of a 11.5" x 9.75" Wooden frame with glass front. The photograph is supported by a wooden backing secured by nails that have a great patina.  The glass is very old with a wavy surface marked with tiny occlusions caused by impurities associated with 19th century glass-making.  We will guarantee this photograph to be original and still in its original frame.

We recently saw an original photograph of an unarmed Georgia National Guardsmen from this period in an antique shop for $500.00. The reason these prices are so high is that 19th century photographs of Southern National Guard and Cadet units are extremely difficult to find. Given the poverty throughout this region which made photography fairly scarce and of course the deep resentment of the U.S. Gov't following the Civil War, there weren't many military units.  Hey, to put this into perspective,Vietnam Vets still resent Ms. Fonda after 35 years probably as much as Confederate Veterans must have resented Uncle Sam back around 1898.  Many Southerners lost everything following the Civil War and were under Martial law and occupation through the late 1870's.  Did you know that parts of the 7th Cavalry during the early 1870's were sent to South Carolina before they headed out West to join Custer? Most Southerners didn't celebrate the 4th of July until after we won the Spanish American War so you can see why these photos depicting U.S. Gov't equipped Southern units of any kind are hard to come by. This photograph was taken right about the time things were finally beginning to change.

Item# 0238

$175.00