Original carte-de-visite (CDV) photograph of Henry Marshal Ashby, a Confederate Colonel who raised and commanded the 2nd Tennessee Cavalry during the Civil War. Ashby and his men compiled a fighting record, and were involved in many of the major battles fought in the war’s Western Theater. Ashby was wounded at least once during a raid, and cultivated a reputation as a fierce combatant. After the war, he found himself in a dispute with a former Union officer named E.C. Camp, who accused Ashby of mistreating Union prisoners in 1862. Ashby was eventually arrested and charged with treason, but escaped prosecution by removing to Atlanta. When Ashby returned to Knoxville in 1868, he was again confronted by Camp, who shot him dead. Camp escaped prosecution by claiming self-defense, although accounts call into question his version of events.

In this portrait, Ashby is clad in his colonel’s uniform and gazes slightly off-camera. A period ink inscription below the image notes that the sitter is “General Turner [sic] Ashby.”

Exceedingly rare view.

[Civil War, Union, Confederate] [19th Century Photography, Daguerreotype, Ambrotype, Tintype, CDV, carte-de-visite, albumen, cabinet card]