Sixth-plate sized tintype photograph of Col. (then Lt.) Julian E. Bryant, nephew of abolitionist poet William Cullen Bryant, strident supporter of African American equality, and one of the first United States Army officers to arm former slaves to fight.

In early 1861, Bryant raised a company of teachers and students from the Illinois Normal College and was commissioned a Lieutenant in the 33rd Illinois Infantry. He spent nearly two years leading Company E of that regiment as they battled bushwackers in Missouri before shipping off to the deep south. During this time, Bryant entered the roll of history during an incident at Pilot Knob. Having discovered a clandestine Confederate recruiting station on a plantation there, Bryant and his detachment armed about 20 slaves and drove the Rebels from their post – the first known incident where the Army enlisted the help of armed black men.
By the fall of 1864, Bryant’s advocacy for the freedman earned him a promotion to Lt. Colonel of a new regiment of United States Colored Troops from Mississippi. Having successfully led his men in a nasty fight with Texas troops at Milliken’s Bend, he was promoted again to full Colonel of the 46th USCT. Under his command, the 46th USCT, comprised solely of free and escaped slaves from the Arkansas region, served throughout the deep south. They travelled from Memphis to New Orleans and finally Clarksville, Texas, along the Gulf of Mexico. It was here that Bryant drowned in an accident that occurred the day after the final battle of the Civil War at nearby Palmito Ranch.

The tintype itself pictures Bryant from the knees up, clad in his dark blue officer’s uniform with his sword resting on hip. A sash tied around his waist was tinted a beautiful red, and one can just see the “33” inside the hunting horn insignia on his cap. A note affixed to the rear of the plate reads, “Lt. Col. Julian Bryant 33 Regt. I.V. 1862. He drowned in Gulf of Mexico in the last year of the war.” A second inscription inside the case itself reads, “Nephew of William Cullen Bryant, Princeton Illinois.”

This is a wonderful photograph of a young officer who believed deeply in equality and ultimately gave his life for that cause. Much more can be read about Bryant online

[Antique Photography, Daguerreotype, Ambrotype, Albumen, carte-de-visite, CDV, Tintype] [African American History, Black Americana, Slavery, Slave, Abolition, Abolitionist, Emancipation Proclamation, 13th Amendment] [John Brown, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Ulysses S. Grant, US Grant] [Civil War, Union, Confederate]