This carte de visite, a small mass-produced photograph format popular during the 1860s, depicts a young soldier in a dark wool uniform coat. Soldiers and their families frequently exchanged CDVs like this one as personal keepsakes before deployment or during long separations. The heavy creasing across this example suggests it was folded and carried close at hand, a poignant reminder of how photographs served as tangible connections between loved ones during the Civil War. Project: 218701