Title: Peter S. Arndt Civil War Carte de Visite Collection
Inclusive Dates: 1861-1865

Creator:

• Arndt, Peter S.

Call Number: WVM Mss 954

Quantity: 0.2 linear ft. (1 carte de visite box and 1 folder).

Repository:

Wisconsin Veterans Museum
Have questions? Contact the Reference Archivist

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Veterans Museum (Map)

See the catalog entry for current shelf locations and additions.

Abstract:

Civil War carte de visite collection Collection consisting of 192 Civil War era photographs, roughly the size of a business card, of prominent Union and Confederate officers, politicians, and fourteen United States presidents. Prominent generals such as Ulysses S. Grant, William Sherman, Robert E. Lee, and Stonewall Jackson can be seen along with their lesser-known comrades-in-arms. Confederate president Jefferson Davis and Union politicians Salmon Chase and William Seward are found among the Civil War era politicians, along with presidents of the United States, from John Adams through Abraham Lincolinear The collection also includes a carte de visite and graphite sketch of Arndt, who served as a surgeon with both the 2nd and 31st Wisconsin Infantry Regiments during the Civil War. The photograph is signed “Dr. Arndt, Surgeon” and shows him in Union uniform with sword. The sketch depicts a young, mustached Arndt in a dark suit that could be an Army uniform.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.wvm-mss00954

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Peter S. Arndt lived in Kenosha, Wisconsin when the Civil War began. He joined the 2nd Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment as a 1st Assistant Surgeon on June 7, 1861. On December 8, 1863 he received a promotion to be the surgeon of the 31st Wisconsin Infantry Regiment. He served in that capacity for a little over a year, retiring on January 1, 1865.

This collection consists of 193 Civil War era carte de visite photographs and one graphite sketch, all collected by Dr. Peter S. Arndt. Carte de visite (CDV) photographs are roughly two and one-half inches by four inches, about the size of a business card, and were very popular around the time of the Civil War. Many soldiers had their picture taken before going off to serve in the war and sent CDVs to their family and friends.

Arndt's CDV represents this aspect of it. The photograph shows him standing in Union uniform with sword and is signed “Dr. Arndt, Surgeon” on the front. There is also a graphite sketch of Arndt from the neck up. While he is full-bearded in the CDV, the sketch shows him clean-shaven save for a mustache. A collar, barely visible, indicates a dark suit that may or may not be a Union uniform.

The remaining CDVs represent another aspect of CDVs, that of collecting. Photograph studios sold sets of photographs of prominent civil and military leaders, which proved to be very popular among returning soldiers such as Arndt. The majority of Arndt's CDVs came from E. & H.T. Anthony studio in New York and were developed from the negatives of famed Civil War photographer Matthew Brady. They show all the famous generals of the war from both sides of the conflict, including Ulysses S. Grant, William Sherman, George McClellan, Robert E. Lee, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, and James Longstreet as well as lesser known officers like John Farnsworth, James Wadsworth, Howell Cobb, and Sterling Price. Confederate president Jefferson Davis and several members of Union president Abraham Lincoln's cabinet, such as Salmon Chase and William Seward, can also be found in Arndt's collection. A final category within his collection features every United States president from John Adams through Abraham Lincoln, excluding John Tyler. The CDVs of the earlier presidents feature sketches of the men, but beginning with John Quincy Adams they show photographs.

This is a remarkable collection due to the large number of Union and Confederate officers as well as the presidents. Many of the CDVs are quite rare and they allow Civil War researchers to put faces to the names they see again and again in primary sources.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Lillian Baily, 1915.

Processing Information

Processed by Russell Horton in 2006.

	Series: Civil War photographs
Box   1 Folder   1	Arndt, Peter S.
PhOv   61 Folder   1	Arndt, graphite sketch
	Subseries: Confederate officers	⇧
Box   1 Folder   2	Archer, James J.
Box   1 Folder   3	Beauregard, Pierre G. T.
Box   1 Folder   4	Bragg, Braxton
Box   1 Folder   5	Breckinridge, John C.
Box   1 Folder   6	Buckner, Simon B.
Box   1 Folder   7	Cheatham, Benjamin F.
Box   1 Folder   8	Cobb, Howell
Box   1 Folder   9	Ewell, Richard S.
Box   1 Folder   10	Floyd, John B.
Box   1 Folder   11	Hampton, Wade
Box   1 Folder   12	Hill, A.P. (Ambrose Powell)
Box   1 Folder   13	Hilliard, Henry W.
Box   1 Folder   14	Hindman, Thomas C.
Box   1 Folder   15	Hoke, Robert F.
Box   1 Folder   16	Hood, John B.
Box   1 Folder   17	Jackson, Thomas J. “Stonewall”
Box   1 Folder   18	Johnson, Bradley T.
Box   1 Folder   19	Johnston, Albert S.
Box   1 Folder   20	Johnston, Joseph E.
Box   1 Folder   21	Lee, Fitzhugh
Box   1 Folder   22	Lee, G.W.C. (George Washington Custis)
Box   1 Folder   23	Lee, Robert E.
Box   1 Folder   24	Lee, Stephen D.
Box   1 Folder   25	Longstreet, James
Box   1 Folder   26	Marshall, Humphrey
Box   1 Folder   27	McCulloch, Benjamin
Box   1 Folder   28	McLaws, Lafayette
Box   1 Folder   29	Morgan, John Hunt
Box   1 Folder   30	Pemberton, John C.
Box   1 Folder   31	Pickett, George E.
Box   1 Folder   32	Polk, Leonidas
Box   1 Folder   33	Price, Sterling
Box   1 Folder   34	Pryor, Roger A.
Box   1 Folder   35	Quantrill, William C.
Box   1 Folder   36	Smith, Edmund Kirby
Box   1 Folder   37	Smith, Gustavus W.
Box   1 Folder   38	Smith, William “Extra Billy”
Box   1 Folder   39	Stuart, James Ewell Brown “Jeb”
Box   1 Folder   40	Toombs, Robert A.
Box   1 Folder   41	Twiggs, David E.
Box   1 Folder   42	Wigfall, Louis T.
Box   1 Folder   43	Wise, Henry A.
	Subseries: Confederate politicians	⇧
Box   1 Folder   44	Davis, Jefferson (President)
Box   1 Folder   45	Davis, Varina Howell (wife of Jefferson)
	Subseries: Union officers	⇧
Box   1 Folder   46	Arney (?)
Box   1 Folder   47	Asboth, Alexander S.
Box   1 Folder   48	Auger, Christopher C.
Box   1 Folder   49	Averell, William W.
Box   1 Folder   50	Banks, Nathaniel P.
Box   1 Folder   51	Barry, William F.
Box   1 Folder   52	Berry, Hiram
Box   1 Folder   53	Bickley (?)
Box   1 Folder   54	Birney, David
Box   1 Folder   55	Blenker, Louis (Ludwig)
Box   1 Folder   56	Bohlen, Henry
Box   1 Folder   57	Buell, Don Carols
Box   1 Folder   58	Buford, John
Box   1 Folder   59	Burns, John (Gettysburg)
Box   1 Folder   60	Burnside, Ambrose E.
Box   1 Folder   61	Butler, Benjamin F.
Box   1 Folder   62	Butterfield, Daniel
Box   1 Folder   63	Carr, Eugene A.
Box   1 Folder   64	Carson, Kit
Box   1 Folder   65	Casey, Silas
Box   1 Folder   66	Corcoran, Michael
Box   1 Folder   67	Couch, Darius
Box   1 Folder   68	Cox, Jacob
Box   1 Folder   69	Crittenden, Thomas L.
Box   1 Folder   70	Curtis, Samuel
Box   1 Folder   71	Custer, George Armstrong
Box   1 Folder   72	Cutler, Lysander
Box   1 Folder   73	Dahlgren, John A.
Box   1 Folder   74	Davis, Jefferson C.
Box   1 Folder   75	Dix, John
Box   1 Folder   76	Doubleday, Abner
Box   1 Folder   77	Du Pont, Samuel F.
Box   1 Folder   78	Duryée, Abram
Box   1 Folder   79	Fairchild, Lucius
Box   1 Folder   80	Farnsworth, John F.
Box   1 Folder   81	Farragut, David G.
Box   1 Folder   82	Foster, John Gray
Box   1 Folder   83	Franklin, William B.
Box   1 Folder   84	Frémont, John C.
Box   1 Folder   85	French, William H.
Box   1 Folder   86	Garfield, James A.
Box   1 Folder   87	Gibbon, John
Box   1 Folder   88	Gillmore, Quincy
Box   1 Folder   89	Granger, Gordon
Box   1 Folder   90	Granger, Robert S.
Box   1 Folder   91	Grant, Ulysses S.
Box   1 Folder   92	Gregg, David M.
Box   1 Folder   93	Halleck, Henry
Box   1 Folder   94	Hamilton, Schuyler
Box   1 Folder   95	Hancock, Winfield Scott
Box   1 Folder   96	Hartsuff, George
Box   1 Folder   97	Heintzelman, Samuel
Box   1 Folder   98	Herron, Francis
Box   1 Folder   99	Hooker, Joseph
Box   1 Folder   100	Humphreys, Andrew
Box   1 Folder   101	Hunter, David
Box   1 Folder   102	Hurlbut, Stephen
Box   1 Folder   103	Kearny, Philip
Box   1 Folder   104	Keyes, Erasmus
Box   1 Folder   105	Kilpatrick, Hugh Judson
Box   1 Folder   106	Lyon, Nathaniel
Box   1 Folder   107	Mansfield, Joseph
Box   1 Folder   108	Marcy, Randolph
Box   1 Folder   109	McCall, George A.
Box   1 Folder   110	McClellan, George B.
Box   1 Folder   111	McClernand, John
Box   1 Folder   112	McCook, Alexander
Box   1 Folder   113	McDowell, Irvin
Box   1 Folder   114	McPherson, James
Box   1 Folder   115	Meade, George
Box   1 Folder   116	Meredith, Solomon
Box   1 Folder   117	Milroy, Robert
Box   1 Folder   118	Mitchell, Ormsby
Box   1 Folder   119	Morgan, George W.
Box   1 Folder   120	Mulligan, James A.
Box   1 Folder   121	Nelson, William
Box   1 Folder   122	Newton, John
Box   1 Folder   123	Osterhaus, Peter J.
Box   1 Folder   124	Patrick, Marsena
Box   1 Folder   125	Pleasonton, Alfred
Box   1 Folder   126	Pope, John
Box   1 Folder   127	Porter, David D.
Box   1 Folder   128	Porter, Fitz John
Box   1 Folder   129	Rawlins, John A.
Box   1 Folder   130	Reynolds, John F.
Box   1 Folder   131	Richardson, Israel
Box   1 Folder   132	Ricketts, James
Box   1 Folder   133	Rosecrans, William
Box   1 Folder   134	Rosseau, Lovell
Box   1 Folder   135	Schenck, Robert
Box   1 Folder   136	Schofield, John A.
Box   1 Folder   137	Schurz, Carl
Box   1 Folder   138	Scott, Winfield
Box   1 Folder   139	Scott and staff
Box   1 Folder   140	Sedgwick, John
Box   1 Folder   141	Sedgwick, Thomas D.
Box   1 Folder   142	Sheridan, Philip H.
Box   1 Folder   143	Sherman, Thomas W.
Box   1 Folder   144	Sherman, William T.
Box   1 Folder   145	Shields, James
Box   1 Folder   146	Sickles, Daniel
Box   1 Folder   147	Sigel, Franz
Box   1 Folder   148	Slocum, Henry
Box   1 Folder   149	Smith, Andrew J.
Box   1 Folder   150	Smith, William F. “Baldy”
Box   1 Folder   151	Stahel, Julius
Box   1 Folder   152	Stanley, David
Box   1 Folder   153	Starkweather, John
Box   1 Folder   154	Stevens, Isaac
Box   1 Folder   155	Stoneman, George
Box   1 Folder   156	Sumner, Edwin
Box   1 Folder   157	Sykes, George
Box   1 Folder   158	Thomas, George H.
Box   1 Folder   159	Tyler, Robert O.
Box   1 Folder   160	Wadsworth, James
Box   1 Folder   161	Wallace, Lewis “Lew”
Box   1 Folder   162	Warren, Gouverneur
Box   1 Folder   163	Webster, Joseph D.
Box   1 Folder   164	Weitzel, Godfrey
Box   1 Folder   165	Whipple, William
Box   1 Folder   166	Willcox, Orlando
Box   1 Folder   167	Wool, John
Box   1 Folder   168	Worth, William
Box   1 Folder   169	Wright, Horatio
Box   1 Folder   170	Wyman, John
	Subseries: Union politicians	⇧
Box   1 Folder   171	Blair, Montgomery (Postmaster General)
Box   1 Folder   172	Chase, Salmon P. (Secretary of the Treasury)
Box   1 Folder   173	Clay, Cassius M. (Minister to Russia)
Box   1 Folder   174	Douglas, Stephen (Illinois Senator)
Box   1 Folder   175	Seward, William H. (Secretary of State)
Box   1 Folder   176	Smith, Caleb B. (Secretary of the Interior)
Box   1 Folder   177	Stanton, Edwin M. (Secretary of War)
Box   1 Folder   178	Welles, Gideon (Secretary of the Navy)
Box   1 Folder   179	Union victory flyer
	Subseries: United States presidents (in chronological order)	⇧
Box   1 Folder   180	Adams, John
Box   1 Folder   181	Jefferson, Thomas
Box   1 Folder   182	Madison, James
Box   1 Folder   183	Monroe, James
Box   1 Folder   184	Adams, John Quincy
Box   1 Folder   185	Jackson, Andrew
Box   1 Folder   186	Van Buren, Martin
Box   1 Folder   187	Harrison, William Henry
Box   1 Folder   188	Polk, James
Box   1 Folder   189	Taylor, Zachary
Box   1 Folder   190	Fillmore, Millard
Box   1 Folder   191	Pierce, Franklin
Box   1 Folder   192	Buchanan, James
Box   1 Folder   193	Lincoln, Abraham