Battery L, 5th US Artillery portrait photo, Ilwaco, Washington. 1894.

[agate hunter]

This is a photo of Jefferson Ragland, a soldier in Battery L, 5th US Artillery, in 1894 likely, taken in Ilwaco, Washington, which is near Fort Canby, WA, a US Army coastal artillery fort at Cape Disappointment.
So far this is the only information on the 5th Artillery being at Fort Canby that I can find, from the US Army's History of the 5th Artillery:

"As the spring of 1890 approached, it became evident that another movement lay in store for the Fifth, and soon it could be found on "our western most frontier" garrisoning the posts in San Francisco Harbor, and Fort Canby, Wash., with headquarters at the Presidio of San Francisco,
Colonel Alexander Piper had assumed command of the regiment, August 10, 1887, but did not accompany it to the West, and retired not long after parting with it.
The railroad disturbances of 1894 took Battery B from Fort Canby for a time and it was engaged in guarding railroad property and in furnishing escorts for trains from Hope, Idaho, to Missoula, Montana and Sprague, Washington.
General Graham and staff with Batteries A, E, H, K and L proceeded to Sacramento, Cal., July 10, under orders from department headquarters, for the purpose of removing obstructions to the mails and to execute any orders of the U. S. Courts for the protection of property and to prevent interference of inter-state commerce.
Order having been satisfactorily restored, the batteries returned to their stations, Sept. 3, 1894. Here they now remain doing the round of garrison work under the orders of Bvt. Brigadier General William M. Graham, Colonel 5th Artillery, the intrepid commander of Battery K, 1st Artillery, at Antietam and of Horse-Battery K at Gettysburg."
http://www.history.army.mil/books/r&h/R&H-5Art.htm

From looking info up on Ragland, I found him listed as serving with L/5th Artillery at Alcatraz in 1893. So maybe he ended up at Fort Canby for a time after that.
He was born in Tennessee.

He lived from 1864-1939 and is buried east of San Francisco.

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=ragland&GSfn=jefferson&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSob=n&GRid=153342534&df=all

Very unfortunately, this cabinet photo got bent horizontally while being shipped to me, just above the neck. I'm thankful it wasn't broken in half though. I saved the photo shown from the listing. The seller said they had never had a problem after selling hundreds of cabinet photos. I think it was due to mishandling at the post office, as it was during the Christmas rush. Another package probably fell on it or something. It took two weeks to arrive to me too, just from across the country.

 

 

 

[agate hunter]

Here is the reverse of the photo.

[Eric Queen]

Very nice clear image. Hate to hear that it was damaged in transit. That type of thing drives me nuts because it is so preventable The Find A Grave site shows the same image. Do you think they pulled the image from the ebay listing as well or is there another original copy floating around out there?

[agate hunter]

I added the find a grave photo.

[agate hunter]

I just got a list of units that served at Fort Canby in the 19th century, and L/5th Artillery is listed as serving there from May 1890 to June 1892, so that is likely the time frame this photo was taken.