Item No. 1723215

Large 15" x 9 3/4" albumen image affixed to original 17 1/2" x 12 3/4" mount, featuring the camp of the 82nd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. The men are drawn up in column of companies on the left side of the image. Other soldiers and officers are visible throughout the camp.

Another image of this regiment's camp appears in the collection of the Library of Congress (last two photos listed here, but available for download from https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2012648400/). It is taken from the opposite side—note the wagons and wall tents visible in both images. The small redan visible in the background of the LoC image suggests the regiment's camp was within the defenses of Washington, DC.

The mount includes an inscription that reads, "Brady's Incidents of the War / (Head Quarters, Genl. Graham's Brigade) / Camp 31st Regt. Penn. Vol." The regiment was originally numbered as the 31st and, as part of General Lawrence P. Graham's brigade of the 4th Corps, served under that designation until after the Battle of Seven Pines in 1862. At that time the 82 designation was adopted to avoid confusion with the 2nd Pennsylvania Reserves, which was considered the 31st regiment. The 82nd went on to serve in the 6th Army Corps at battles including Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Spotsylvania Court House, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Winchester, and Cedar Creek.

In the summer of 1861, Mathew Brady began releasing oversize albumen prints on individually titled paper mats, thus making them the first truly collectible series of photographs produced. This image may be one of the first to have been produced.

Light staining to mat, otherwise very good.