RARE CIVIL WAR SOLDIER TIN TYPE PHOTOGRAPH CASE WITH AMERICAN FLAGS, SHIP & CANNON - CIRCA 1862
Case measures approximately 3 5/8" by 3 1/8"
Fantastic case with the gilt exquisitely detailed pro-Union frame.
This case and frame was originally for Union soldier named Wm. G. Jaetl (spelling of the last name is difficult to decipher - see photos number 2 & 3). He was stationed at Camp Pierpont in Virginia and has dated the case Feb. 5th, 1862. He was Company A, 8th Regiment, with the Pennsylvania Reserve Volunteer Corps. This is also written in the case.
It appears to me that someone replaced his photograph with the photograph of the couple that now inhabits the frame. It's possible that the gentleman in the photo is, indeed, William Jaetl, later in life after he married and shows him with his wife. Difficult to say for certain.
About Camp Pierpoint:
During the fall of 1861, Brig. Gen.
George A. McCall’s division anchored the right wing of the Army of the Potomac
in Virginia. Federal commander George B. McClellan had sent McCall to
occupy Langley in early October. The village was located along the
Leesburg-Georgetown Turnpike only a few miles from the strategic crossing of
the Potomac River at Chain Bridge. The division established Camp Pierpont
on the land surrounding Langley, and McCall set up his headquarters at a local
ordinary.
Known as the Pennsylvania Reserve
Volunteer Corps, McCall’s division was composed entirely of recruits from the
Keystone State. The division got off the ground early in the war thanks to
the initiative of Pennsylvania’s governor, Andrew Curtin, who pushed the
legislature to authorize the reserve unit after the U.S. War Department turned
away volunteers in excess of the state’s quota. McCall, an 1822 graduate
of West Point, was placed in command of the new division. Following the
Union defeat at First Bull Run, the U.S. Government urgently called up the
Pennsylvania Reserves, and McCall headed to Washington with his men. The
division ultimately consisted of thirteen regiments of infantry, one regiment
of cavalry, and four batteries of artillery.