American Historical Ephemera & Photography

2 3/16 x 3 3/8 in. CDV on cardstock mount (print with areas of loss to lower edge and upper left corner, several pinholes and other abrasions; mount with soiling, few punctures, and edge/corner wear). Bowron's pictorial imprint and credit to Mitchell on verso. Ink inscription on mount recto identifies the men as "Col. O.W. Holmes Jr," "Col Horton," and "J.W. Lanergan."  The man identified as Holmes sits on the ground gazing slightly off-camera, as the other two men, believed to be actor James W. Lanergan and Colonel Charles Paine Horton (1836-1906), pose dramatizing a humorous interaction.

Consignor's research and correspondence indicates a tintype showing the same trio, taken around the same time, is curated by the Historical & Special Collections at Harvard Law School Library, though the individuals are not identified on the tintype. Additionally, Holmes' 1867 diary, curated by the same institution, includes an entry dated 16 May in which he wrote, "Off with C. Horton for land locked salmon." The men featured in this image could be dressed for the fishing trip referenced in the entry. 

An 1857 graduate of Harvard College, Captain Charles Paine Horton served as assistant adjutant general in Brigadier General George S. Greene's brigade after being promoted from lieutenant in July of 1862. During the Battle of Gettysburg, Horton was shot at by Confederate pickets as he returned to his command the evening of 2 July, and directed regiment rotations on Culp's Hill the following morning. He was breveted a lieutenant colonel by the end of the war, and thereafter became a wholesale coal merchant in Boston.