Photograph From a Bird's-Eye Drawing of Andersonvil

Photograph From a Bird's-Eye Drawing of Andersonville Prison, sepia-colored photomechanical print on 9" x 5.25" grey mount with inked Copyright by May 17, 1886 By Finch, Miller & Teats beneath rendering. Verso with lengthy printed history of the notorious Andersonville having artist's initials F. M.T. /No 28 inked at bottom with the Andersonville Picture Company, Central City, Colorado inquiry address. A Professor J.A. Finch is credited with the original post-war 3' x 4' crayon drawing based on firsthand details supplied by Corporal John R. Miller, Co. D, 26th OVI and Pvt. Silas R. Teats, Co. G, 22nd Michigan Infantry, both captured at Chickamauga and confined at Andersonville in 1864. Both inmates were ultimately exchanged while the unfortunate Miller was later killed in the explosion of the Sultana. Over 12,000 prisoners died in the hellhole known as Andersonville. The 19th-century copy extols the accuracy of the portrait, i.e. This picture is pronounced by all who have served at any time in the prison to be a perfect representation.... By the 1880s, the collective consciousness of the nation bequeathed honor to a generation of prosperous Civil War veterans then in their 40s and 50s. Surviving Andersonville was understood to be both horrific and a badge of honor.