[Civil War veterans of the 57th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment with Confederate General William Mahone at the crater caused by Union soldiers exploding a mine at Petersburg, Virginia]

Archive record

1 photograph : albumen print ; sheet 20 x 25 cm, mount 28 x 36 cm.

About this photograph

The archive record describes an 1887 albumen print by William H. Tipton showing veterans of the 57th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment posed with Confederate General William Mahone at the Petersburg crater. The photograph was taken twenty-two years after the battle.

The crater itself was the result of a Union mine exploded beneath Confederate lines at Petersburg, Virginia, during the Civil War. The record identifies the site and notes the presence of both Union veterans and a former Confederate general, an arrangement that would have been unthinkable during the conflict itself.

By 1887, such reunions between former enemies had become more common. Veterans from both sides sometimes returned to battlefields together, particularly to sites of notable actions like the Petersburg mine assault. The photograph captures one of these gatherings.

The image is a studio albumen print mounted on board, a standard format for formal group portraits of the period. Tipton created the photograph more than two decades after the events at Petersburg, when the veterans were middle-aged or elderly men looking back at their wartime service.

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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