Historical Portrait
[Civil War veteran Private Orrin P. Richardson of Co. D, 8th Maine Infantry Regiment in Grand Army of the Republic uniform with badge]
![[Civil War veteran Private Orrin P. Richardson of Co. D, 8th Maine Infantry Regiment in Grand Army of the Republic uniform with badge], 1890 (Library of Congress)](/api/img/civil-war-veteran-private-orrin-p-richardson-of-co-d-8th-maine-infantry-regiment-c9sq3xRfNH3pOBuYnl5r.jpg)
Archive record
1 photograph : albumen print on card mount ; sheet, 140 x 103mm, mount 164 x 107 mm (cabinet card format) | Photograph shows portrait of Union veteran, who was wounded on May 16, 1864, at Drewry's Bluff, Virginia, and who was associated with W.S. Heath Post 14, Department of Maine, G.A.R.
About this photograph
Private Orrin P. Richardson of Co. D, 8th Maine Infantry Regiment appears here in the uniform and badge of the Grand Army of the Republic, photographed by Sebastian S. Vose in 1890. Richardson was wounded at Drewry's Bluff, Virginia, on May 16, 1864. He was associated with W.S. Heath Post 14, Department of Maine.
The Grand Army of the Republic was the fraternal organisation of Union veterans, founded in 1866. Its local posts ran reunions and memorial observances for decades after the war. Members wore a distinctive uniform and badge to encampments and parades, which explains why Richardson appears here in regalia rather than wartime dress.
The photograph is a cabinet card, a format common in the period. It shows an albumen print mounted on card measuring 164 by 107 millimeters. By 1890, twenty-six years had passed since Richardson's wounding, and such portraits of aging veterans in their organisational dress became a standard means of documenting service and maintaining connection to the war years.
Compiled from the catalogue record and reference notes on the formats and events involved. The archive record above is the primary source.
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