Young Civil War Soldier Tintype

[Civil War Geek]

I purchased this tintype the other day because I was captivated by how young this soldier was. He couldn't have been but 15 or 16 when he enlisted in the Union Army. I noticed he was wearing a shell jacket and was wondering how to tell if it was cavalry or artillery. Please feel free to post your thoughts.

 

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[cj74]

Hard to tell from the lack of color but weren't Union Artillery jackets Red and Calv were yellow? My guess it's a calv. Man he was young!

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Yes, at the time of the civil war, the color of the trim on a uniform indicated the branch of service:
Infantry = light blue
Cavalry = yellow
Artillery = red
Medical Corps = green

We know that your young soldier's light-colored pants were a light-to-medium blue. In the black-&-white photo, the jacket's sleeve trim seems to be the same shade as the pants.... while the lapel trim and collar stripes seem just a bit darker. So, the jacket could be for either Infantry or yellow for Cavalry. Red would be even darker in a black-&-white photo.

I must comment that there seems to be THREE collar-insignia stripes, which (IIRC) signifies the rank of Captain. Even during the civil war, it seems unlikely that anybody under 18 could achieve that rank, even by a battlefield promotion for extreme valor. If so, there surely would be some historical documentation of such an event and that amazing promotion.

 

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