LES ZOUAVES EN DAGUEROTYPE TOUS CAMPS CONFONDUS

QUARTER PLATE TINTYPE OF UNIDENTIFIED 155TH PENNSYLVANIA ZOUAVE

wearing 1864 issue composite dark blue jacket with distinctive bright yellow applied tombeaux, lightly tinted in this photograph, complete white bound turban with long medium blue tassel and baggy blue trousers. Interestingly, this man appears to be the same wounded private pictured in McAfee (ca 1991: 82). The Keystone State men of the 155th were the last of the colorful Zouave-attired regiments, having traded in their worn army blue in the spring of 1864, which, according to period accounts, boosted moral considerably. The regiment’s élan was never in question, serving uninterrupted with the fighting 5th Corps from first organization through Appomattox and sustaining nearly 140 battle casualties with the Army of the Potomac.

Tintype of Tinted Zouave Private


unidentified early war Zouave private wearing collarless jacket trimmed on either side with ball buttons and elbow length cuffs lightly tinted red. He sports a chasseur style kepi without visible insignia or numerals and red waist sash, likely Pennsylvania. Portions of the studio backdrop delicately washed in red, green and blue.

Zouave Soldier

This is a 1/4 plate tintype of a rather young soldier posing in the picturesque uniform of the Zouaves.

Burnside Zouave

This is a portrait of a Burnside Zouave holding his rifle with the bayonet fixed.

ZOUAVES: TINTYPE partly tinted GREAT!

Exceptional Tintype, partly tinted, showing a fierce young Union soldier (probably a younger and less war-aged Frank Kochendoerfer; see previous lot) in a full-length studio pose wearing his flamboyant Zouave uniform. The braid of his jacket and the top of his fez are colored in red by hand, with gold for his ring and pin. In half of a formerly hinged case, overall ca. 4.6" x 3.75".

Un drôle de Zouave


Tinted Tintype, 4" x 2.5" of a Zouave

Portrait of a Union Zouave Soldier


with hand-tinted hat and shirt, in a black "Union and Constitution" and 'The Nesting Birds" (Krainik 110, 168) Union case, (scattered specks of oxidation).

Nice 1/6th plate tintype of a member of the famed 140th New York Zouave Regiment. This famous regiment was organized in western Monroe County in 1862 and were uniformed as Zouaves in 1863. They were part of the Zouave Brigade of the 5th Corps. Nice backdrop associated with many images of 5th Corps soldiers. This exact image appears in the 1992 regimental history by Bennett. This image is in an octagonal gutta percha case that has seen better days. Some repairs, chips and cracks - fine for housing an image, but certainly not up to the standards of a collector of fine gutta percha cases.

ZOUAVE Régiment inconnu

10th New York Zouave

Albany Zouave Ambrotype: 10th New York
Look at those buttons!!!! This 1/9th plate ambrotype has superb clarity and contrast which demonstrates real soul in this handsome lad's face. That little beard rims his chin and comes up the center like a modern beatnik! His cheeks have a light pink tint. The uniform is great! The thermoplastic Union case carries "Peck's Patent" 1854. In pencil is written: Albany Zouave and 10th N.Y. In fact, certain companies of the NY 10th Zouaves were mustered from Troy, NY. The case is good except for some nicks and a crack at one hinge, but opens & closes fine. The ambrotype (naturally on glass) is perfect, but the back plate of contrast glass (painted black) which is required to "show" an ambrotype, is flaking. The two glass sheets are joined by an old process with balsam glue. At some point, a professional photographic restorer should split the glue, repaint the backing, and reseal it. I'm not trying that. This is a lovely picture of a young Zou!!!!!



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a spectacular, previously unknown cased half-plate thought to be Lt. Colonel George A.G. Coppens (seated) with his younger brother Captain Marie Alfred Coppens (standing) of Coppens’ Louisiana Zouaves, the 1st Louisiana Zoauve Battalion, circa March 1861.

One of only two Confederate Zouaves units organized early in the war (the other being Wheat’s Battalion), the distinctive uniform of Coppens’ Zouaves is well-documented in period newspapers accounts and contemporary illustrations, although only three published albumen photographs of Coppens’ Zouaves have come to light (one, a cdv of Capt. H.H. Zacharie was in our November 2002 Sale). Coppens’ uniform was patterned, indeed grafted, from the famous French Zouaves whose exploits had captured the public’s imagination during the recent Crimea War. For a brief period of time, at least through the end of 1861, Coppens’ officers wore a trademark red chasseur-style kepi with wide sky-blue band and “gold lace quartering.” The black-blue frock coat was “single breasted, closely tailored to the torso, very full skirt to below mid-thigh, low collar with round edge, with rank being indicated by rows of gold lace in Hungarian knots that reached almost to the shoulder.”

Officers' trousers were red with a wide sky blue stripe. In fact, the ambrotype represents the definitive portrayal of the uniform from life conveying a true sense of the actual colors. While the French influence is unmistakable, the astute observer will note subtle, uniquely “American” differences versus French regulations of the period, the most obvious being the narrow cut of the red trousers instead of the French style balloon cut, the checkered shirt, and importantly the two-piece Louisiana Pelican sword belt plate illustrated on page 153 of Gavin’s “Accoutrement Plates.” The seated officer is either a Lieutenant Colonel or Major based on the triple rows of interwoven sleeve braid (no shoulder straps were worn) corresponding to rank set forth in the February 1861 Confederate Regulations. The casually standing officer wearing the red fez is a Captain indicated by two rows of gold braid. Unlike the French Zoauves and most Federal Zouave regiments, Coppens’ uniform did not utilize the familiar tombeaux quatrefoil on the front of the jacket.

Regarding weaponry, the saber on the left appears to be either an early British P1796 or Starr contract, possibly even a later Mexican War era imported saber--all three acceptable for ante-bellum militia and documented in other identified Louisiana Civil War period photographs. The holdover French Imperial inspired brass hilted saber with three branch guard and distinct ear is found in the “Medicus Collection of American Swords” as a two-branch militia specimen. Parenthetically, French infantry officers of the period carried the readily identifiable precursor of our M1850 Foot Officers sword from before the Crimea until after the Franco-Prussian War. The Coppens’ bibliography is relatively small, amounting to eight published references in two books and six sundry articles since 1962. The most recent book, Lee’s Tigers by Terry L. Jones published in 1987 and considered authoritative, does not contain a likeness of George Coppens.

Upon organization in March 1861, the battalion was authorized just two staff grade officers, a Lieutenant Colonel and Major, therefore, the seated officer must be either Lt. Colonel George A.G. Coppens himself, or alternatively Major Waldhemar Hylestad. George Coppens, descended from minor French nobility and born in Martinique, was 25 when he organized the battalion and had a “deep facial gash” suffered in a March 1859 duel. The candid familiarity of the two subjects suggest that the standing officer may be George Coppens' younger brother, Captain Marie Alfred Coppens who commanded Company F. upon organization and would eventually take over as Lt. Colonel when his brother was killed in action at Sharpsburg on September 17, 1862.

The colorful 1st Louisiana Zouave Battalion was organized under the direct sponsorship of President Jefferson Davis after Coppens had met personally with the President in Montgomery and authorized the battalion for the Provisional Army. Coppens enlisted his social peers including family members and the officers were largely French-born transplants, most with prior military experience in the Crimea and French North Africa, with commands given in French. The ranks were recruited among New Orleans’ working class (some prisoners, according to one account) and were composed of a rough, cosmopolitan mixture of native born, Cajuns, recent immigrants including many Swiss and Irish, some Spaniards, Mexicans and other expatriate Europeans drawn to the Crescent City. Numbering about 600 men organized into six companies, the battalion served briefly in Pensacola where it entered Confederate service before journeying to Virginia. Coppens’ Zouaves had acquired a raucous reputation as “Jeff Davis’ Pet Wolves” and along the way part of the battalion mutinied, disgruntled over lack of pay, with several being killed before order was restored.

Under Coppens, the battalion fought conspicuously during the summer of 1862, particularly at Seven Pines and Second Manassas where the Zouaves ran out of ammunition and resorted to throwing rocks. Severely reduced in numbers, Coppens’ Zouaves bled out at Sharpsburg where Coppens himself was killed along the Hagerstown Pike. In a twist of irony, the remnants of the battalion were later assigned as Provost Guard in the Department of Richmond. Unable to recruit, the skeletal battalion appears to have disbanded by December 1864 under a General Order consolidating chronically under strength units.

This historic half-plate is beautifully tinted and as far as we are able to determine the only cased image of Confederate Zoauves ever offered on the market. The consignor relates that the image was acquired from a consignment resale dealer in Los Angeles, California in June 2004. The dealer was unable to provide any substantive provenance other than an enticing handwritten note from the owner stating that “the picture is of a count in Spain and his son by the name of San Miguel.” The dealer related that the local owner had taken the image in lieu of a debt from an unidentified third party. If only images could talk!

Unidentified soldier of Company F, 34th Ohio Infantry Regiment or Piatt's Zouaves

Joe L. Weakley, Sr., in uniform, believed to be a Dunlap Zouave.

Civil War Photograph of Kady Brownell and Husband in uniform with their weapons. After serving their 3-month enlistment with the 1st RI, the Brownells enlisted in the 5th RI Battalion.

William Murray And Two Soldiers, 53rd Maryland Infantry, C.s.a.

Intéressant, il va falloir que l'on se mette d'accord sur quel type de rouge, de bleu, et de galonnage l'on décide de commander pour obtenir une ertaine uniformité. Je ne susi pas allé au marché de Pontoise, pas le temps (trop de corrections...) Je ne sais pas si sur Lyon vous avez un bon fournisseur de laine, sinon il y a abimelech Hainsworth que j'utilise pour les tenues napoléoniennes... Il faut compter dans les 6 mètres pour faire un pantalon de zouave, vu le prix vaut mieux pas se tromper... il y a aussi le problème du galonnage...

Il faut qu'on voit çà avec Lionel, je crois qu'il y a déjà deux, trois ans vous aviez commencé à vous mettre d'accord, soit sur le fournisseur anglais, soit sur le fournisseur de Roubaix, ......me semble t'il????