By Warren “H” Shindle
Since the earliest days of photography, practitioners created non-continuous sweeping outdoor views with multiple exposures. These separate, patch-worked together images documented city landscapes, such as a well-known 1851 daguerreian view of San Francisco.
While continuous panoramic scenes produced by specialized cameras were more than four decades into the future, these cartes de visite are representative of 1860’s technology.
Though these cartes may not be considered especially unusual from a technical standpoint, they do capture details that might not have been readily apparent during their initial exposures. The view here, when placed end-to-end, is an early rare Southern Virginia landscape. In its foreground is the packet boat Marshall, which carried the remains of Confederate Maj. Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson home to The Virginia Military Institute (VMI) and his final resting place in May 1863.
The carte on the left, examples of which are also available in the stereoview format, was published as early as 1936. Front and center sits the Marshall, named after the first James River & Kanawha Canal Director John Marshall, at Jordan’s Point in Lexington, Va., the furthest terminus of the James River & Kanawha Canal from the Confederate capital of Richmond along the North River, now known as the Maury River. This canal represented part of President George Washington’s vision of a grand water transportation route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River. The Lexington section was completed in 1852. The first mule-drawn packet arrived in November 1860, with travel between Richmond and Lexington taking less than 33 hours over the 147-mile route.
Christened in 1861, the Marshall measured 92 feet in length. It included staterooms, a dining room and sleeping compartments that could accommodate 60 passengers. It also included quarters for the captain and crew, with additional space for a mule team. Various period accounts refer to the Marshall as the “most luxurious mode of travel for those days,” “the finest boat at the time” and “The Queen of James River & Kanawha Fleet.”
Also pictured in the carte on the left, on a ridge above and to the right, are the ruins of VMI. Union Maj. Gen. David Hunter destroyed the campus during a cavalry raid in June 1864, in retribution for the participation of its cadets a month earlier at the nearby Battle of New Market. The cadets and regular Confederate forces soundly defeated federals commanded by Maj. Gen. Franz Sigel on May 15.
Hunter also sacked Lexington and Jordan’s Point. Below VMI, one can see Jordan’s Point and its canal storage warehouses, wharf, gristmill and cotton mill. An 1873 map of Jordan’s Point was used to identify the buildings.
Col. John Jordan, a veteran of the War of 1812, and his extended family owned and operated much of Jordan’s Point. He also ran local iron smelting operations where his father had produced cannonballs for patriots during the American Revolution. The ruins of Jordan’s mansion, originally known as “Jordan’s Point” and now as “Stono,” sit to the left of VMI. Built in 1818 in the Greek Revival style with Federal attributes, the residence features a full height entry portico with associated columns.
The previously unknown carte on the right shows the reconstructed bridge that replaced a covered bridge that Lexington citizens torched as a deterrent to Hunter’s raid. The dam that powered the grist, saw and cotton mills at Jordan’s Point is also evident. Faintly looming in the distance is “House” Mountain, familiar to every present-day VMI cadet. The canal basin rock wall that rings Jordan’s Point matches both cartes, and helps align this combined view.