Item No. 6056094

This CDV image by New Orleans photographer B. Moses features two Union officers. On the left is Colonel Nicholas W. Day of the 131st New York Infantry, while on the right and holding a cigar is Lieutenant Colonel Frederick A. Boardman of the 4th Wisconsin Cavalry. The image would have been made some time between November 1862 and Boardman's death in May 1864. Measures about 2 3/8" x 4". The Moses imprint appears on the verso.

A copy of this image appears in Roger D. Hunt, Colonels in Blue—Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin (McFarland, 2017), p. 227.

Nicholas W. Day had previously served in 1861 with the 71st New York and had been a captain in the 96th New York prior to becoming major of the 131st in September 1862. By January 1863 he was the regiment's colonel, and led his men through the 1863 and 1864 campaigns in Louisiana and Virginia, including the battles of Port Hudson and Cedar Creek. He was in command when the 131st was mustered out in July 1865.

Frederick A. Boardman was a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and had been a midshipman during Commodore Perry's expedition to Japan. He later settled in Wisconsin and, after the war broke out, quickly rose to the rank of major in the 4th Wisconsin Infantry. In early 1862 he led two companies in the assault against Fort St. Philip, one of two forts guarding the Mississippi River approaches to New Orleans. The 4th later fought at Vicksburg before returning to New Orleans, where they were converted to cavalry and pursued bushwhackers through early 1864. On May 3, 1864, at Olive Branch Creek, Colonel Boardman was shot through the head by a sharpshooter. His body was returned to Milwaukee for burial.