Carte-de-visite (CDV) of 1st Lt. John “Julius Alston” 1st South Carolina Artillery taken by Quinby & Co., in Charleston, S.C.  Portrait shows Lt. Alson in full uniform with an overcoat on a column next to him. Front of the image's mount bears a period ink signature: “J. Julius Alston, 1st Lt. SC Arty.”  Verso bears a fantastic memorial inscription that reads: “Died 20 Aug. 1863 of fever contracted at Battery Wagner where he served with great distinction. Wounded in the head 10 July 1863 [ineligible] and Morris Island.  Every inch a man.” 

The 1st SC Artillery was organized in the fall of 1861, with most of the men and officers hailing from Charleston.  The regiment was assigned to the Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, fighting at Secessionville then being deployed to the forts and batteries around Charleston.  Fifty-five men were lost at Secessionville and another 18 killed, 50 wounded, and 52 missing during operations at Morris Island between July 10th and Sept. 6th, 1863.

John “Julius”  Pringle Alston (-1863) came from a prominent family and graduated from Harvard in 1857. Alston was an aid to Governor Pickens of South Carolina in 1861 at the onset of the war. Records indicate Alston served for a period of time on the staff of General Beauregard, and later commanded an artillery battery. He is noted in one profile as firing the shot “that killed Captain Rogers, a [Union] fleet-captain."

Accompanied by an obituary for Lt. Alston clipped from an unknown, period newspaper.

[Civil War, Union, Confederate] [19th Century Photography, Daguerreotype, Ambrotype, Tintype, CDV, carte-de-visite, albumen, cabinet card]