American Historical Ephemera & Photography

2 5/16 x 1 13/16 oval daguerreotype half portrait of James B. McPherson, featured wearing epaulettes and possible Corps of Engineers buttons. He sports a goatee and an otherwise fresh face. (Significant tarnishing along edge, some wiping/rubbing to left portion of image with areas of loss, some spotting; unsealed.) Housed in an oval velvet push-button case (separation to piece that holds image in place, significant wear and loss to velvet surface). While details of McPherson's buttons are largely indecipherable, the engineers' eagle and fort motif is plausible when viewed under magnification.

[With:] CDV bird's eye view of Chattanooga, showing the flag-draped building where General McPherson's body lay in state. [Chattanooga]: Cressey, Adams & Co., Headquarter Photographers, Army of Cumberland, ca July 1864. 2 3/16 x 3 5/8 in. CDV on cardstock mount (toning and few spots of green residue, with some surface imperfections to image; mount with clipped corners and some soiling). Photographer's stamp on verso along with pencil inscription incorrectly identifying the scene. Mount recto with penciled dates "1861-1865." 

After General McPherson was killed on 22 July 1864 at the Battle of Atlanta, his body was taken to the Kennedy-Nottingham House in Chattanooga, where McPherson remained lying in state from 23-25 July.

[Also with:] CDV vignetted bust portrait of James B. McPherson as major general. Corinth, MS: Armstead & Taylor, n.d. 2 3/16 x 3 7/16 in. CDV on cardstock mount (retains good contrast, some type of spotting or residue to central area of portrait, affecting subject, lower left corner of image clipped; mount with light soiling and minimal wear to edges/corners). Photographer's imprint on verso along with penciled identification. McPherson is featured here wearing his major general's straps and frock coat.

The able but ambitious General James. B. McPherson (1828-1864) attained corps command under his friend and mentor General William Tecumseh Sherman, and was given Sherman’s old Army of the Tennessee in the build-up to the Atlanta campaign. After 2 months of attempted attacks by McPherson and evasive maneuvering by Confederate forces under the leadership of General Joseph Johnston, CSA President Jefferson Davis replaced Johnston with McPherson's old West Point classmate, General John Bell Hood, who almost immediately launched an attack against Union forces on 22 July 1864. McPherson was caught by skirmishers who shot and killed him as he attempted to escape to Sherman's headquarters. 

McPherson's death was a major loss for the Union, provoking heartfelt responses not only from the Army's highest leadership including Generals Sherman and Grant, but even from his opponent, General Hood, who remembered him fondly as hi "classmate and boyhood friend." McPherson was the second highest ranking Union officer to be killed in action during the war, and he remained an enigma after his death, inspiring various commemorations and even alternate histories exploring what might have happened if he had not fallen.

We know of no other daguerreotype portraits of McPherson in existence.