Civil War sutler store
National Archives
Union soldiers who were fortunate enough to serve behind the lines might have enjoyed some of the comforts of home. In the center of this photographed Virginia scene from 1864 or 1865, several dozen soldiers can be seen shopping in sutlers’ stores in a covered marketplace. Another group at center-left is engaged in conversation, while 10 men in blue knowingly pose for the photographer. At left, enclosed by a decorative white fence, is a modest whitewashed church, while the building at right carries the sign “Ambrotype and Photographic Gallery.” On the hill in the background are some of the best field quarters to be found anywhere during the war; the semi-permanent huts show front doors and windows that opened and closed. Some even have chimneys. But the one 19th-century indignity no soldier could avoid were soggy roads ankle-deep in mud, which they would have here in abundance.
Bob Zeller is president of the nonprofit Center for Civil War Photography, which is devoted to collecting, preserving, and digitizing Civil War images.
