IMPRESSIVE HALF-PLATE TINTYPE OF CONFEDERATE BROTHERS WILLIAM AND RUFUS BEARDEN IN GEORGIA UNIFORMS WITH PRESENTATION NOTE TO THEIR SISTER

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Strong eye-appeal, historic interest, and provenance are combined in this striking half-plate tintype that descended in the family of William Morgan Bearden (1840-1925.) This is an impressive, large, very clear, cased, tintype dating late 1860 or early 1861 showing William standing next to his seated older brother Rufus (1837-1872.) Both are uniformed and armed, and the image comes with its original presentation note, with a later family notation as well, addressed to their sister “Lizzie.”

The tintype is a half-plate (4-1/4” by 5-1/2”) matted, glassed, framed, and cased in a brown leatherette case embossed with geometric and floral motifs, and with gilt blind-stamped edges. The hinge is broken and the surface of the case shows wear and some losses to the lower corners on the reverse, but is solid and has the floral embossed green velvet facing pad in place. The photograph’s gilt brass narrow frame and mat are both embossed with geometric and floral motifs. The image is very clear, with the background dark, throwing emphasis on the two brothers. There are some soft wipes to the upper right of the plate not affecting the figures.

At left is a standing infantrymen with shako and musket: William Morgan Bearden, wearing the same uniform in which he likely marched off to war. The shako is the 1851 pattern, but is fitted with a feather plume (perhaps for full dress,) white with light blue tinted top, and a cord with tassels, both tinted blue to match, as are his fringed epaulets, a round secession badge on his left breast, and plackets on the cuffs. The musket appears to be a percussion conversion. The shako clearly shows the letters “MG” of the “Macon Guard” in reverse and not gilded, though the artist did apply gold color to a small shako plate, buttons, false buttonholes on collar, and finger ring. His coat is triple breasted, with the buttons showing as domed and rimmed. The coat has a cutaway front with the bottom edge trimmed in light blue, as is a band or series of false buttonholes or placket with buttons running around cuff.

The Macon Guard was one of city’s more recent antebellum militia companies, organized in 1859, likely in the wake of the John Brown raid on Harper’s Ferry. We note the blue cockade worn by William. These seem to have originated in South Carolina, using the blue color of the state flag, as symbol of secession, and spread throughout the south in the wake of Lincoln’s election. According to a report published in the Macon Telegraph on Nov. 24, 1860, the officers and privates of the Macon Guard had met and passed several resolutions on November 22, including an offer of their services to the Governor, but also that, “We adopt the ‘Blue Cockade’ to be worn upon the left breast as an addition to our present uniform.” We note the use of the quotation marks in the original, making clear the meaning and conscious intent of the badge. Given its proud display, we can only suppose the image dates very soon after the badge’s formal adoption by the company.

The seated figure, Rufus Morgan Bearden, is equipped as cavalryman and wears a tall forage cap with the insignia at lower front gilded, as are his shoulder scales. He wears a short, triple-breasted jacket with the chest apparently a different color from the jacket, but untouched by the photographer, nor are his jacket or collar trim colored. His cuffs each have a diagonal line of tape with four buttons, running from the outside of the cuff at bottom, toward the inside of the arm farther up, and may border a cuff colored to match the front of the jacket. He holds a saber to his shoulder at the viewers left with the mouth of scabbard visible. His waist belt and shoulder belt are clearly black buff leather, and he has not reversed them for the photographer. His other hand holds the butt of a revolver thrust into his belt, a little indistinct, but perhaps a Colt Root. His saber belt plate is rectangular and caused some debate here, but seems clearly to show an arch at top of the face, indicating it is a Georgia state seal, perhaps Mullinax (1991) #223-224, or the even rarer #225.

His uniform is that of the Bibb County Cavalry, the second oldest militia company in Macon, dating back to 1834, and reorganized in 1857. We note that a ca. 1861 photo of Confederate blade maker W.J. McElroy of Macon, GA, published in Confederate Bowie Knives, p.128, (and elsewhere) shows him in the exact same jacket, but with a (full dress?) plumed shako, and incorrect caption calling the company the “Bibb County Guard” rather than the “Bibb County Cavalry.”

An original, old brown ink note dating to the taking of the image was in the back of the case and reads: “For Our Sister “Lizzie” / From her affectionate / Brothers Rufe & Willie.” To this was later added: “Beardan’s and Richards’ grandfather and great uncle. / Willie Beardan standing.” With a further pencil notation at bottom: “William Morgan Bearden” and double pointed arrow in pencil connecting the word “grandfather” with the bottom two lines, i.e. William Bearden.

Rufus, William and Elizabeth were all children of Marcus D’LaFayette Bearden (1799-1854) and his second wife, Sarah E. Morgan Bearden 1818-1847. The elder Bearden was a well-off merchant who was born and died in Knoxville, TN, and fathered an extensive family, all of whom seem to have been born in Knoxville as well. The 1850 census picks up William and Elizabeth at home, but 12-year-old Rufus, later credited with a sense of adventure, seems to have been working on a farm in Berkshire, County, Massachusetts, owned by the Catlin family. By 1860, William is working as a clerk in Macon, Georgia, and we cannot positively  identify Rufus in the census, but his 1872 obituary says he was residing in Macon when the war broke out and he was certainly in Macon to be photographed with William sometime after the August 1860 resolution of the Macon Guard to adopt the blue secession badge as part of their uniform, shown in the photograph, and likely before the departure of the company on April 16, 1861, for Tybee Island, near Savannah, where they did garrison duty until late May.

William’s company had been accepted for a year of state service on April 15. Georgia Governor Brown did his best to keep control of his state’s troops, but many companies then bypassed him by offering their service directly to the newly formed Confederate government and were accepted as part of a quota assigned to the state. The Macon Guards followed this route, were accepted by the central government on May 21, ordered to Richmond on May 24, headed by train to Macon on May 27, and then went on to Richmond. They arrived in Richmond on May 31 and were mustered into Confederate service “for the war” on June 2, eventually becoming Company C of the 8th Georgia Regiment under Colonel F.S. Bartow.

The regiment took part in Confederate operations at Harpers Ferry, Winchester, Bunker Hill and elsewhere in the Shenandoah before moving to Manassas on July 18, where they saw heavy action on July 21, receiving praise from Beauregard for their performance, but paying a stiff price in the fighting on Mathew and Henry House Hills with their Colonel, F.S. Bartow, killed in action while in brigade command, and the regiment losing 49 killed and 159 wounded. Bearden was among the latter, with the company losing 4 killed, 16 wounded, and 2 captured out of some 62 on the field. The regiment took part in the subsequent advance of the army to Fairfax Court House in early September, where they did picket duty until mid-October when the army pulled back Centreville.

William Bearden’s wound was reported as a flesh wound and it is unclear how long or whether he was out of action, but he was discharged for promotion as of November 30, 1861, having been elected as a lieutenant in Co. D of Lt. Col. Coleman’s Battalion of North Carolina troops. That unit was organized at Asheville, NC, with that company coming from Buncombe County and mustering in October 28, 1861. How Bearden made that connection is unclear, but was likely through family or business. There is no mistake that it is him, however: a pay document sworn to by him gives his post office as Macon.

His initial appointment seems to have been as 3rd Lieutenant in the company with a possible promotion to 2nd Lieutenant on April 12, 1862, but it was apparently not a satisfactory arrangement. When the battalion acquired additional companies and was reorganized as the 49th NC Regiment of State Troops in May 1862, he failed to be re-elected and, in his own words, “retired” on June 19, 1862. It is unclear if he served again, at least in the volunteer forces. There is some suggestion in the records that he may be the William Bearden or Beaden, whose only record is having enlisted as a private in the 1st Virginia Cavalry in August 1864, but this is far from certain. After the war he lived in Macon, running the Brantley and Bearden Shoe Store. After the death of his wife in 1898 he moved to Davidson, TN, where the 1900 census picks him up living in the household of a cousin. By 1920 he was living with a daughter in Pennsylvania. She died in September 1925 and he  passed away there three months later, survived by two other children, and was interred back in Macon.

As noted above, Rufus Bearden’s obituary states he was living in Macon when the war started. It also states, however, that he was a member of the Macon Guard, which clearly confuses his militia company with William’s: he did not go into the 8th Georgia with his brother and he is clearly equipped and uniformed as a member of the Bibb County Cavalry in the photograph. Perhaps because of its maintenance costs, cavalry was not heavily in demand, and the company was not immediately called up. They proposed to go into service as a “mounted patrol” in April, implying local duty, but Bearden was apparently anxious to get to the front and enlisted for 12 months as a private in Capt. R.A. Smith’s company of infantry, which became Co. B of the 2nd Independent Battalion of Georgia Infantry.

The unit was posted to the Norfolk, VA, area, service mentioned in his obituary though they get the company name wrong. A muster roll covering April 20 to June 30, 1861, lists him as sick and absent with leave at Norfolk, but present again on the July-August roll, and finally  absent on special duty by order of Gen. Huger from September through December, followed by discharge on March 22, 1862. Whatever his special duty had been, he either had returned to Tennessee or used some family connections first to get a commission in the 44th Tennessee as 3rd Lieutenant in Co. K (later Co. F,) followed by an appointment at the request of Col. H. M. Ashby as 1st Lieutenant and Adjutant of Ashby’s 2nd Tennessee Cavalry on July 2, 1862, with rank from June 1. Bearden served at the post for the rest of the war, though his obituary gives him the rank of Captain.

The regiment’s NPS service summary indicates it fought at Cumberland Gap, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, and was involved in the Atlanta Campaign, fighting in Alabama, the defense of Savannah, and the Campaign of the Carolinas. Bearden is mentioned in the Official Records in the context of a raid in Eastern Kentucky in July-August 1863 by J.S. Scott’s cavalry brigade, who thanks him, among other officers, “for most gallant conduct” and notes, “The casualties are great, but very small when considering the fact that several times both front and rear were engaged, the front fighting a force almost equal to our whole command, and the rear pressed by one vastly overwhelming. For five days and nights the fighting was incessant, not a half hour of rest at any time intervening. Nothing but the most indomitable bravery and perseverance, without food or rest, upon the part of a portion of the officers and men, saved the entire command.” The NPS summary also states few of the regiment were present at the surrender of the Army of Tennessee. Rufus Bearden apparently was, however, being paroled on April 26, 1865, as 1st Lieutenant and Acting Asst. Adjutant General & Inspector General of Hume’s Division (apparently commanded by Ashby at the time) in Wheeler’s Cavalry Corps.

Late in the war he had married a girl from Asheville, NC, and may have lived there or in Macon until 1866, when he returned to Knoxville and ran a wholesale grocery and liquor business until his death in 1872, leaving behind a widow and four children.

This is an impressive photograph of the two brothers displaying the exuberant martial fervor sweeping the south in anticipation of secession and dissolution of the Union.  [sr][ph:L]

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