African-American Soldiers in the Civil War

Innovations in photography and cheaper methods allowed Civil War troops to carry images of their loved ones into battle and families to keep pictures of their soldiers who went off to war. Here, an African-American Union solider poses in uniform with his family around 1863. The quarter-plate ambrotype is roughly the size of a sheet of paper, making it likely it was displayed in the home.

• Faces of the Civil War