CDV Photograph of Civil War Soldier or Cadet. Sing Sing, NY, CS? kepi,

Description: I'm confused by this photograph. It is an original, made by a photographer in Sing Sing NY who was named "Smith". The soldier is wearing a double-breasted jacket with two rows of buttons, which usually indicated an officer. Given the soldier's youth, he might have been a Military Academy cadet at the time of this photo. The soldier's kepi has the letters C-S-something.... the highly-stylized Gothic script makes the 3rd letter tough to identify. Comparison with known Confederate hat badges show that the "C" and the "S" are the correct style for Confederate States insignia, (see photo of reproduction kepi patch - compare the 'C' and 'S'). I cannot fathom how or why a Union soldier would don a Confederate kepi for a studio portrait, nor can I guess how a soldier of the Confederate States would be in downstate NY getting his photograph taken. The village of "Sing Sing" is/was located about 30 miles north of New York City; they changed the village name to "Ossining" around 1890 in an attempt to dissociate themselves from the famous SING SING Prison. During the Civil War, the name of the village was still "Sing Sing", hence the photographer's location. It seems more likely to me that this apparently young soldier is actually a cadet of one of the local Military Schools located near Sing Sing NY. Perhaps the 'C' stands for 'Cortland', 'Croton', or 'Columbia'. So the 'CS_' probably did not stand for 'Confederate States', but more likely for a local academy. That's my guess. If this was a member of the Confederate army living in NY at the start of the war, that would be truly bizarre and unique. Uniform consistency was not a common occurrence during the Civil War, especially early on, but I'm going with the Cadet theory. I'm frequently wrong and ready to admit it!

Price: 49.95 USD

Location: Ballston Lake, New York

End Time: 2024-10-17T01:00:01.000Z

Shipping Cost: 1 USD