Gen Meade U.S.A.

This image was found in an album with many Philadelphians including a signed cdv of Lt. Col. Oliver Hopkinson in civilian attire. See included here. Oliver was a son of Joseph Hopkinson, grandson of Francis Hopkinson a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Joseph Hopkinson was a very close friend of Joseph Bonaparte. Joseph lived in Philadelphia for a time before moving to Bordentown, NJ. This photo was placed in an album among Civil War military generals-Meade, Reynolds, and several others. Specifically he was on a page with two slots, this one and one of Gen John Fulton Reynolds. On the opposite page were two photos of Gen George Meade. The album was inscribed in rear as belonging to simply the ‘Meade Family’. At some point the album was owned with other Bonaparte family items by a reputable collector in Pennsylvania. His collection was later sold at auction.

Original photo of this was probably a daguerreotype and was obviously ‘cut and pasted’ (or the equivalent in early photography) then photographed as a paper cdv copy by W.L. Germon’s of Philadelphia.

Because if it’s album connections and it’s similarities to later photos of Prince Napolean-Jerome, son of Napoleons youngest brother Jerome this is probably a photo of Prince Napoleon nicknamed Plon-Plon. If he is about 30 (b. 1822) in the original daguerreotype wouid have been taken around 1852. There’s another photo in a book of Mathew Brady daguerreotypes by Michael Horan that includes a dag by Brady inscribed as Joseph Bonaparte. The author believes it must have meant Prince Napolean Joseph since birth and death dates of Joseph Bonaparte make that identification impossible. If it was inscribed as such by Brady we can infer he likely meant Napoleon Joseph, the nephew, and definitely a Bonaparte! See that image from book added in this section at bottom. Looks very alike this image as well as many others of Plon-Plon later in his life. He died in 1891.