Wearing “barrel shirts” or “wooden overcoats,” four soldiers under armed guard are paraded through Camp Lookout, Md. In this common form of army punishment by humiliation, the signs on the barrels identify their offenses: a thief and three vagabonds, likely chronic stragglers or shirkers of duty. According to William C. Davis’ The Image of War series, the photographer was Stanley J. Morrow, who served in the 7th Wisconsin Infantry and Veteran Reserve Corps at Point Lookout. Morrow (1843-1921) later became a noted photographer of Dakota Territory.
In the Mississippi Section of the McGavock Confederate Cemetery in Franklin, Tenn., rest the remains of Napoleon Bonaparte Ruff. Alabama-born and Mississippi-raised, Ruff left his family’s Attala County farm in 1861 and joined the Pettus Rebels, which became Company E of the 5th Mississippi Infantry. He served stints on detached duty as a teamster for his regiment and brigade. The 5th fought in major Western Theater actions, including Shiloh, Stones River, Chickamauga, and the Atlanta Campaign. Ruff’s journey ended at Franklin. He was about 21. The regiment’s remnants consolidated with other depleted units and surrendered with Gen. Joseph Johnston’s army in April 1865.
Standing against a backdrop featuring popular patriotic imagery is an infantryman in the U.S. Colored Troops. This portrait surfaced in a large cache of images in Ontario, Canada, perhaps offering a clue to his identity—his parents may have been fugitive slaves who fled there. Another clue is the backdrop. Though its elements are ubiquitous, their arrangement and style are distinctive.
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