Collector and Mentor: Seven decades after he began his Civil War journey, Karl Sundstrom continues to inspire

Introduction by Austin Sundstrom, with images from his Uncle Karl’s collection 

Some of my earliest memories of my uncle, Karl Sundstrom, revolve around visiting his house in the town just over from where I lived. Even as a small child, I understood the gravity of walking into what could be considered a museum. But it wasn’t until later in life, when I too began collecting Civil War photography, that I truly grasped the history laying before me.

Karl’s interest in the Civil War began when he was eight years old during a trip he and my grandfather took to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. They went to visit a family friend, who also had a young son named Karl. However, upon learning that his playmate was not home, Uncle Karl’s father gave him the book Gettysburg by MacKinley Kantor. He sat down and read it cover to cover twice, beginning an obsession that has lasted 70 years.

Along the way, he found out through his mother that he was related to a Union cavalryman in the 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry. The books about the Civil War began to multiply and trips to Civil War battlefields, often driven to by his father, occurred with more frequency. Karl eventually got into metal detecting which afforded him the unique opportunity of discovering bullets and other artifacts.

In college, my uncle rooted for the underdog, writing his thesis on the 11th Corps, feeling that it deserved not the condemnation that had been warranted, but the honorable recognition it had not yet received. While working to complete his scholastic work, he collected more and more books on the much-maligned 11th, and eventually collecting images of those “Flying Dutchmen.” As the years went by, the scope of his collection grew to include subjects ranging from historical cats to images of American poet and writer Joaquin Miller.

While expanding his interests and collection, my uncle also came to grow a circle of likeminded enthusiasts who became close friends—his most valuable collection. To name a few, because it would truly be impossible to name them all, I extend my gratitude to Henry Deeks, Jerry Everts, Roger Hunt, Gil Barret, Ron Vansickle, Mike Hogle, and everyone who supported each other, traded images, and collectively shared their love and passion for the hobby together.

As a collector myself, I am proud and grateful that my uncle has guided me throughout the past 18 years, helping to grow my own passion for the hobby. Without further ado, I humbly present representative images from the collection of my uncle and mentor, Karl Sundstrom.

The 337-strong California Battalion boarded the steamer Ocean Queen at San Francisco in March 1863 to fight in the war. About three weeks later, the men and officers arrived in Boston and joined the newly formed 2nd Massachusetts Cavalry. Their number included Sgt. Gilbert R. Merritt, A 27-year-old clerk born in New Jersey, he went West seeking a new life, and now returned to the East to fight for the Union. He never got the chance. Two weeks after his arrival, on April 30, while training at Camp Meigs at Readville, Mass., a horse kicked him, resulting in a compound fracture of the right leg and knee joint damage. According to one report, wild, inferior horses were to blame. The injury ended Merritt’s service, and he left the army with a discharge in early 1864. Merritt went on to a career in the oil refinery business in Canada, where he died in 1911 at age 75.

Two Sharpshooters, Smith and Vermett, posed for their likenesses at the end of their enlistment in the summer of 1865, as evidenced by their casual dress and broad-brimmed hats. Both men had much in common. Residents of Keeler, Mich., Ireland-born James Smith, seated, and Mason M. Vermett entered the service in 1861 with Company D of the Western Sharpshooters, a regiment composed of midwestern men eventually designated the 66th Illinois Infantry. Armed with Dimick and Henry rifles, the 66th fought in numerous engagements, from Fort Donelson and Shiloh to the Atlanta Campaign, where Smith and Vermett suffered wounds, and operations in the Carolinas during the war’s waning months. Vermett died in Rio Grande County, Colo., on July 4, 1913, at age 69. Smith passed in 1924 at South Haven, Mich. He was 79.

“As they appeared after reaching the Union lines” reads the caption below a photograph of these Empire State officers pictured in Daniel Avery Langworthy’s (1832-1919) book, Reminiscences of a Prisoner of War and His Escape. Langworthy, seated in the center, a captain in the 85th New York Infantry, fell into enemy hands after Confederates captured the garrison of Plymouth, N.C., in April 1864. Langworthy escaped from prison in Columbia, S.C., six months later. He’s pictured here with others who escaped with him. Two of his brother officers in the 85th are pictured to the left: 1st Lt. Josiah Edward Terwilliger (1836-1883) and Chauncey Soper Aldrich (1833-1909). On the right, 1st Lt. George Seymour Hastings (1836-1909) of the 24th New York Light Artillery, also captured at Plymouth, and Capt. George Hills Starr (1840-1916) of the 104th New York Infantry, captured at Gettysburg.

This war dog, uniformed in the collar connecting him to Company K of the 39th Infantry, holds the Stars and Stripes in his mouth and shoulders arms with his paw wrapped around a toy musket.

A popular officer in the 22nd New York State Militia, William J.A. McGrath reclines in the Baltimore studio of Daniel and David Bendann soon after he received a promotion to first lieutenant and regimental adjutant, as evidenced by his old coat with his now outdated second lieutenant’s straps. A Havelock cap and cigar complete the picture. McGrath inscribed the image back with “Camp Aspinwall, Bolivar Heights, near Harpers Ferry, Va.” He and his comrades were here as part of a three-month federal deployment from mid-to-late 1862. McGrath participated in a second call-up for a month during the 1863 Northern invasion by Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Confederates. McGrath resumed life in New York City and went on to become a lawyer prior to his death in 1886 from Bright’s Disease at about age 50.

Kicking back in a chair with his feet propped up on an end table, an unidentified second lieutenant poses with a book, perhaps a ledger connected to his company and regiment.

This portrait of bullet-ridden colors tells the story of the 31st Illinois Infantry at Fort Hill, part of the Confederate defenses of Vicksburg. An inscription on the back recounts that “five color bearers were shot down endeavoring to plant it on works near Fort Hill, day of general assault May 22d 1863. It is marked by over 200 rebel bullets.” Weeks later, on July 4, the 31st marched through Fort Hill following the surrender of the Vicksburg garrison.

Soon after the end of Stonewall Jackson’s 1862 Shenandoah Valley Campaign, Capt. Frederick “Fritz” Tiedemann escorted a party that included the wife of his superior officer, Maj. Gen. Carl Schurz, from Martinsburg to Middletown. Margarethe Schurz recalled the sight of dead horses, unharvested fields, and elderly farmers pleading with Tiedemann not to burn fences and destroy crops. “Fritz has no pity for rebels,” she wrote without elaboration. Tiedemann, 22, the son of German intellectuals who had fled their native land due to political unrest, started his military service in 1861 with the 19th and 75th Pennsylvania infantries before joining the staff of Schurz as an aide de camp, rising to assistant adjutant general of Schurz’s Division before his resignation in September 1863. Tiedermann went into business as a wool importer in Philadelphia and New York, where he died of peritonitis in 1887 at age 47. He left behind a wife, Mary, and five young children, including a boy named for Schurz.

The 1864 Republican ticket for St. Clair County, Ill., featured a veteran running for circuit clerk—Capt. Henry Adolph Kircher. Less than a year earlier in Georgia, he suffered three wounds in 30 minutes at the Battle of Ringgold Gap. The severity of his injuries resulted in the amputation of his right arm and left leg and ended his combat service that began with a three-month enlistment as a sergeant in the 9th Illinois Infantry and an officer in the 12th Missouri Infantry—regiments largely composed of immigrants like himself. His loss of limbs did not slow him down. He won the election as circuit clerk, one newspaper noting his success was a testament by Union citizens to his loyalty and bravery. Kircher went on to a successful career in the family hardware business and later rose to president of a bank in Belleville, his hometown and the St. Clair County seat. He death in 1908 at age 66 was widely mourned. He outlived his wife, Bertha, and was survived by three children. A book of his letters edited by Earl J. Hess, A German in the Yankee Fatherland, was published in 1983.

“It is better to die upon the field of battle than to show the white feather” was the motto of Lt. Col. George W. Arrowsmith of the 157th New York Infantry. The New Jersey native revealed his fascination with soldiers at age five, reading books about Napoleon and Washington. When the Civil War came, the Hamilton College educated lawyer organized a company that became part of the 26th New York Infantry. As company captain, he earned the nom de guerre “The Young Lion” and went on to serve as an aide to Brig. Gen. Zealous B. Tower before accepting the lieutenant colonelcy of the 157th in late 1862. Months later at Gettysburg, he led his 420-strong regiment into action on the first day. According to one report, “While he was at its head, the 157th seemed invincible. With his hat in one hand and his sword in the other, he cried: “Come, boys—follow me!” They were charging on a run. While thus crossing a public road, he received from a sharpshooter near by, a murderous ball, which struck him in the forehead. In the impetuosity of the advance, he pitched forward, fell upon his face, just turned, partly over, and was no more!” He lived and died his motto. Arrowsmith was 24 years old.

Pictured soon after his enlistment in the 19th Connecticut Infantry, Private Asa Pettis posed with his musket and other equipment against a studio backdrop. The realism of the camp scene is enhanced by positioning the painting flush against a dirt floor and adding brush. Pettis proved a reliable soldier, serving with his regiment for three years, during which time it was reorganized as the 2nd Connecticut Heavy Artillery and fought in the Overland, Shenandoah Valley, and Appomattox campaigns. Pettis survived it all. Upon his death in 1895 at age 66, an obituary in The Hartford Courant described him as a “highly respected citizen.”

William Henry Wright wears the Indian Mutiny Medal, a decoration awarded by the British government to soldiers who suppressed the Indian rebellion of 1857. England-born Wright came to America soon after he received the decoration in 1858. He also wears the uniform of a corporal in the 58th Massachusetts Infantry, which he joined in 1862. Advancing to sergeant, he suffered a wound at Spotsylvania in May 1864, and fell into enemy hands at the September 1864 Battle of Poplar Grove Church. Sent to the prisoner of war camp at Salisbury, N.C., Wright died there of disease in January 1865. He was about 29 years old. A wife and two children survived.

The target rifle and photographer’s backmark suggest this enlisted man may have served in row 1st Battalion New York Sharpshooters. The men wore uniforms of dark blue coats and trousers. They initially brought their own rifles, and, later, each company voted for which rifle to purchase.

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