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Oval civil war picture possibly Union Cavalry or Artillery


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I don't know Civil war items but found this at an estate sale. Family is from Florida but unkown how far back. It's Marked Geo. W. Davis age 16 civil war. Any civil war guys able to tell how i can research this? it's way out of my normal stuff

post-65446-0-22502700-1443207408.jpg

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Cavalry or Artillery-- he is wearing a mounted shell jacket.

 

I just checked on HDS and there are 852 "George Davis" listed!

 

Scott

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Thought the "W" might narrow it down, but 200+ listed (HDS).

 

None are listed as 16 years old, but several listed as 17 years old. MANY do not have an age listed.

 

One of the 17 year olds was listed in the 3 AR Cav. But that doesn't mean he can't be one of the others listed without an age or without an initial.

 

Pretty tough research ahead if you want to ATTEMPT to ID.

 

Scott

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Historical Data Systems.

 

It is an online data base of Civil War soldiers.

 

Based on sheer numbers you will be hard pressed to pin down the guy.

 

Also, just to clarify-- your guy is UNION.

 

Scott

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The jacket itself is a standard UNION enlisted Shell jacket for mounted troops. The SAME jacket was worn by both Artillery and Cavalry soldiers.

 

The only difference in the jackets is the trim-- red for artillery and yellow for cavalry. In these era black and white images it is very hard to tell the trim color. Sometimes the images will be tinted making the determination much easier.

 

Scott

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To address Cavdoc83's question, the distinction between regulars and volunteer units (or militia) based on the number of rows of piping on the collar seems to have made its way into some collector discussions, but is a false distinction. I think it came about because the mounted jacket as described in the regulations has two false button holes on either side of the collar- each consisting of one small button between two rows of piping (actually one that starts at the front edge of the collar, runs back around the button and goes back out to the collar edge.) Calling this the "regulation pattern" then got layered onto discussions of regular versus volunteer cavalry. The sheer number of volunteer cavalrymen will mean that the majority of variant jackets will show up on them, but it does not mean they did not wear "regulation" jackets as well and the regulars might not show up in variants.

You could argue the variants only show up with the onset of the war and the recruitment of volunteer regiments, but the cause is more the increased number of manufacturers than than any intended distinction between regulars and volunteers. Some also argue the regulars would be under stricter discipline to adhere to regulation uniforms and gear, but there are also lots of references to how oddball even regular army troops appear when on campaign.

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