Welcome, and How One Thing Led to Another!

I’m a 64 year old grandmother of 15, with 4 sons and have been married to my hubby for 41 years. This site is my attempt at sharing some images that have become the object of much research over the last 15 years since finding my first Gen. Meade image. One thing led to another…..

My interest in Gen. Meade began with an image inscribed in my great grandmother, Jacquelin Stanton Strickler Pearson’s photo album, as ‘Gen Meade U.S.A.’. It was passed down in my family to me and it belonged to her grandmother, Jane Harriet Lanphier Stanton originally. She was the wife of Frederick Perry Stanton. F.P. Stanton was a territorial governor of Kansas during the time known as ‘Bleeding Kansas’. He was also a 10 yr. congressman from TN who got his law degree from George Washington University in Washington, D.C. and lived in Alexandria, VA. He became an anti-slavery orator and a cousin told me there are reams of his speeches in the Library of Congress. As yet, I’ve only read one which he gave in N.Y. in 1858 at the Chinese Assembly Rooms called, ‘The Frauds in Kansas’.

I lived in Gaithersburg, Maryland during my high school years and we visited Gettysburg, PA on one of our field trips. I’ve always loved studying our nation’s history. Little did I know how much my own family’s history was intertwined with the Civil War and it’s roots in slavery.

There are many stories in my own family history relative to the photos in the Stanton album, but there are many more about the images I found in another album, which I purchased because it was inscribed as being from the ‘Meade Family’. This purchase also included a third album from the same family who had collected the albums in Pennsylvania. I hope to relate more stories and my research on the images in future blogs.

Many of the images were identified, and nearly all of the images were from Philadelphia photographers. In the last 15 years I’ve collected other images of Gen. Meade and have learned a great deal about him. Because there was also a wonderful image of his friend Gen. Reynolds in the ‘Meade Family’ album, I decided to create a website where the all images could be shared with everyone. I felt the responsibility to share my images because among them there are some images not published before. Any images I found along the way in my research that were of interest but housed in institutions, I have included here as well and credited them accordingly.

It’s my hope that these images can be used to widen our understanding of both of these great American leaders. If they can be enjoyed by students of American History and if the memory of these men is better perpetuated then I have been successful. There are several great books on both men, which I will recommend in a future blog! One I can mention here is a two volume set by Gen. Meade’s son, George Meade, Jr. , titled ‘The Life and Letters of General George Gordon Meade’. There is a recently published book about Meade by Tom Huntington titled, ‘Searching for George Gordon Meade’, another very interesting book about the Victor of Gettysburg.

I will add more stories and items of interest, photos, etc. here on my blog as time permits. Please don’t hesitate to send me your comments and/or questions. Because I’m no historian, I’ll leave all that to the experts, but I do believe that it’s true that a picture is worth a thousand words. The images here give us a glimpse into the character, courage and integrity seen in the faces of these two brilliant men, Gen. George Meade and Gen. John F. Reynolds. May their legacy of bravery and sacrifice not be forgotten!

Time to go, as I am hoping to launch my site today, the day before the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg, and the day in 1863, that Gen. John Fulton Reynolds uttered the words, “For God’s Sake Forward!” and was then shot and felled while on his horse. He died instantly.

There are many more things I’d like to share about the images and hope to do so in future blogging as time permits. Part of my story includes the various experts i’ve consulted about the early Images of both Gen. Meade and Gen. Reynolds. I’d like to thank all of you for your encouragemen and input. Everyone was so kind to take time to help me.

Enjoy the images and have a safe and Happy 4th of July!

~Linda Flowers

More on the Gen. John Fulton Reynolds image, by Silsbee & Case & Co., Boston

Continued from Reynold’s Gallery about the Silsbee & Case image….

…..We see him here with the deep side part and thick hair combed neatly from his face. There are too few photos of Reynolds, but the ones we do have all show this same hairstyle, whether long or short. He is wearing his beard in the groomed imperial style, popular in the 1850s. This could be a late 1850s cdv, or a cdv copied from a daguerreotype made a bit earlier by Silsbee & Case. He looks younger here than in the SLC Daguerrotype made in 1858-1859. See my facial recognition videos, linked in gallery. This is another image that was found in the album inscribed as from the “Meade Family”. From my collection.

More on Gen.(Captain) John F. Reynolds in tinted photo

Continued from Reynold’s gallery about the tinted (c.1860, Captain) photo…

The Woman who tinted this photo used blue eyes and auburn hair after studying Reynolds ancestry and studying photos of him. Because both of Reynold’s parents and at least one brother had blue eyes, together with his Irish ancestry she decided on the blue eyes. All the detailed images of his face show a great deal of contrast between his iris and his pupils. (see close up images in gallery). This was another reason she chose the blue eyes. Eyes that have a high contrast between dark pupils and lighter irises are usually either blue, green, or gray. With both parents blue she decided blue was most likely. I agree because all the detailed photos of him (gallery) show this high contrast. Its easy to see in all the detailed images of the general that there was indeed this high contrast, which couldn’t denote brown eyes.

More on J. Cremer image of Gen Meade….

During the Seven Days Battles Meade was struck in the arm, hip, and lung. Although Gen. Meade didn’t die directly from his war wounds they are thought to have contributed to his early death from pneumonia at just 57 years of age.

More on Detail of Captain George Meade TOPOGS photo, Wenderoth & Taylor

Continued from Gallery description of Detail of ‘Captain’ Meade TOPOGS photo…..

Gen. Meade was a man whose weight fluctuated throughout his life, during times of illness and later from war wounds sustained during the Civil War. There is a marked weight loss seen from this 1860 photo as Captain to his war time photos as Gen. Meade. This weight loss and recovery to a more robust constitution, happened several times in his life.

More about ‘Gen. Meade U.S.A’….

…..Continued from Gallery, More about ‘Gen. Meade U.S.A.’ c.1855….

….. We have the period inscription and the same facial features as in his war time photos.- (see facial recognition videos (linked in Meade Gallery) Facial hair type, forehead, eyes, ears, etc. don’t change. Weight, dress, hairstyle can and do. all we can know for certain is that this is an image of ‘Gen. Meade U.S.A.’, before the Civil War, with the period inscription, ‘Gen Meade U.S.A.’ Where exactly the original daguerreotype was taken might never be known, but it hope to add More info in future blogs about the Kimball’s, and their EAst Coast and Leavenworth, KS, studios. Thankfully my Great Grandmother took the time to id nearly all the CDVS in her Grandmother Stanton’s Photo album-including the Carte of Gen. Meade-one not easy to Identify without an inscription due to the virtual non-existence of any known Photos of Gen. Meade before 1860 and the fact that he appears more robust in it! Questions welcome through my contact page.