Hand-Tinted Identified Albumen Portrait 

Description

Hand-Tinted Albumen Portrait 

Stephen Hathaway Portrait – 170th New York Infantry

An exceptional and highly personal wartime portrait of Corporal Stephen Hathaway, Company B, 170th New York Volunteer Infantry, depicting the young soldier in his distinctive New York state uniform with full accoutrements. The artist captured Hathaway standing confidently beside a table bearing his forage cap, while his cartridge box, cap pouch, bayonet, and other equipment remain carefully rendered—a striking testament to the pride of a volunteer soldier early in his service.

Hathaway enlisted in New York City on September 29, 1862, at just 20 years of age, and mustered into Company B on October 7, 1862. He earned promotion to Corporal on April 1, 1863, before being reduced to the ranks on August 31, 1863, only to regain his non-commissioned officer’s stripes with another promotion to Corporal on January 1, 1864. Such a restoration suggests that his officers continued to recognize his value and leadership despite his earlier reduction.

The 170th New York served in some of the Civil War’s most grueling campaigns with the Army of the James. On June 16, 1864, during the opening assaults against Petersburg, Virginia, Hathaway was wounded in action as Union forces launched costly attacks against heavily fortified Confederate defenses. The Petersburg Campaign would continue for nearly ten months and become one of the longest and bloodiest operations of the war.

Hathaway’s military career ended not because his enlistment expired, but because the hardships of war had taken their toll. He was honorably discharged for disability on February 20, 1865, a direct reminder of the lasting physical consequences endured by countless Civil War soldiers who survived the battlefield.

Beautifully preserved and identified, this portrait is far more than a likeness—it is the visual record of a young Union corporal whose service carried him from enlistment in New York City to the trenches of Petersburg, where he shed blood for the Union before his wounds ultimately forced him from the army only months before the war’s end. It represents an outstanding combination of portraiture, documented military history, and the personal story of sacrifice that defined the Civil War generation.

Inventory Number: ALB 331