Photo Record
Images
Metadata
Object Name |
Ambrotype |
Title |
William Ferguson Slemons |
Catalog Number |
1995.028 |
Description |
Sixth-plate ambrotype with applied color; man seated, turned facing viewer's left; hair combed back, long hair cut around chin length; beard, moustache; wearing double-breasted civilian coat, buttoned to mid-chest; over vest, buttoned, shirt with downturned collar; necktie tied in horizontal bow; behind sitter to viewer's left is a curtain/drape; oval mat is embossed, preserver is stamped with foliate scroll design; case is thermoplastic union case with raised belt design on obverse and reverse exterior sections; interior obverse [cover] section is lined in red velvet embossed with scroll design; brass hinges and latch in tact; |
Medium |
Brass/Glass/Metal/Paint/Thermoplastic/Velvet |
Studio |
Unknown |
Photographer |
Unknown |
Owner Regiment |
2nd Arkansas Cavalry |
Provenance |
William Ferguson Slemons was born in Tennesse. The lawyer and politician spent much of the war hoping for the "big fight" that would end the war and allow him to return to his family in Monticello, Arkansas. Instead, Slemons spent three years on hard marches and small skirmishes in the Mississippi Valley. The one major campaign in which he participated was the invasion of Missouri in 1864. The invasion that ended in disaster for the Confederates and for Slemons, who was captured in eastern Kansas in October 1864 and spent the remainder of the war in Federal prison camps. Slemons survived the war and served three terms as a congressman from Arkansas. |
People |
Slemons, William Ferguson |
Search Terms |
Johnson's Island Military Prison Marais de Cygnes, Kansas Monticello, Arkansas Rock Island Prison, Illinois |
Subjects |
Ambrotypes Cased photographs civilians men Photographic studios Photographs POW's prisoners Prisoners of war |