





It is difficult from these observations to determine whether he served as a soldier or as a servant to a Union officer—or both. It is however a near certainty that these images were meant to be viewed together to commemorate a transition from slavery to emancipation or from slave to soldier. Moreover, that the more ornate (and expensive) frame used for the flag portrait indicates it was the more important of the two. These are familiar storylines to millions of men and women of color living in the war-torn South and the Union officers who encountered slaves and freedmen of all circumstances.
The provenance of the photographs is the estate of a prominent field officer who was killed in action during Grant’s Overland Campaign. Surviving family have requested his identity be kept private. This connection suggests that the teen was an escaped slave, or contraband, employed by the officer as a servant. But it sheds no additional light on whether this teen posed with the national flag to celebrate his freedom or his enlistment in the Union army.



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