The Only Known Photograph Of An African American Union Soldier With His Family. Circa 1864. Made around 1864, it is the kind of image that turns a date in a history book into something you can actually see.
Nearly 180,000 Black soldiers served in the Union Army during the American Civil War, most in the United States Colored Troops. Photographs of these men were made in the thousands, but images showing a soldier together with his family are exceptionally rare, which is why this portrait is so often reproduced in histories of the war.
Moments like this one were captured by photographers who often had a single chance to get the shot — no second takes, no digital preview. That is part of why these frames carry such weight: each one is a split second of real history, fixed for good.
