Figure 1.-- Many American soldiers took cased photographs, mostly ambrotypes, to war with them to remind themselves of harth and home. One of the best knowm Ambros is an example of one of these portraits. It was found on the climatic Gettysburg battleground. An unknown soldier was found clutching an Ambrotype of his three children. He had been wounded and as he laid dieing was gazing upon his precious children (July 1, 1863). The portrait was the only clue to his identity. Newspapers launched a huge publicity campaign to identify the children and thus their family. His widow and children who had no idea of why they were no longer hearing from him were identified within a month in Portville, New York. He was Sergeant Amos Humiston of the 154th New York Volunteers. He was killed in the fierce fighting the first day of the battle during which out-gunned Federal soldiers prevented the advancing Confederates from seizing Culps Hill which became the keystone of the Federal defensive line. The portrait of the children was probably taken in 1861 or 62.

We still see a considerable number of Ambrotypes in the early-1860s. They now, however, had to compete with the new CDVs. It took the public a while to adjust from expensived cased images to the inexpensive CDV with better image quality. Before this time, however, we still see quite a number of Ambros. This occurred during the 1860s and was largely complete by 1864. This was just as America was descemnding into the hell of Civil War (1861-65). Many American soldiers took cased photographs, mostly ambrotypes, to war with them to remind themselves of harth and home. One of the best knowm Ambros is an example of one of these portraits. It was found on the climatic Gettysburg battleground. An unknown soldier was found clutching an Ambrotype of his three children. He had been wounded and as he laid dieing was gazing upon his precious children (July 1, 1863). The portrait was the only clue to his identity. Newspapers launched a huge publicity campaign to identify the children and thus their family. His widow and children who had no idea of why they were no longer hearing from him. Frank, Frederick, and Alice became known as the Battlefield Children. They were identified within a month in Portville, New York. He was Sergeant Amos Humiston of the 154th New York Volunteers. [Dunkelman] He was killed in the fierce fighting the first day of the battle during which out-gunned Federal soldiers prevented the advancing Confederates from seizing Culps Hill which became the keystone of the Federal defensive line. The portrait of the children was probably taken in 1861 or 62. The children became very famous and eventually large number of copies were made of the Ambrotype. But as Ambros could not be opied, the copies wee all CDVs. This was one of the advntages of the negative based CDV. Dating these early-1860s Ambros is difficult because so few are dated. Civil War props, however offer some clues. Clothong styles are less helpful as we are talking about such a short period of time between the Ambro appeared and then declined in popularity.

Sources

Dunkelman, Mark H. Gettysburg's Unknown Soldier: The Life, Death, and Celebrity of Amos Humiston.

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Created: 7:29 PM 5/29/2013
Last updated: 7:29 PM 5/29/2013