Edmund Ruffin, the Virginia secessionist and agricultural reformer credited with firing one of the first shots at Fort Sumter in April 1861, is depicted here in a full-length albumen print mounted on plain card stock. He sits in a turned-wood studio chair holding a long-barreled musket upright against his shoulder, wearing what appears to be a military kepi resting across his lap adorned with a wreath insignia, and a white cross-body sash over a dark frock coat and trousers. The photographer's imprint is partially legible at the lower margin of the image but not fully readable, and no studio credit appears on the reverse.

Ruffin's most distinctive physical features are well captured: his long white hair falling past his shoulders, sharp angular jaw, and direct, unflinching gaze slightly upward from the camera. The kepi on his lap bears a visible decorative badge, and leather accoutrements hang at his side consistent with a soldier's kit.

Ruffin, born 1794 in Prince George County, Virginia, was a passionate advocate for Southern secession and is historically associated with the Palmetto Guard at the bombardment of Fort Sumter. He died by suicide in June 1865, refusing to live under what he called Yankee rule, leaving behind an extensive published diary of the war years.

The reverse bears handwritten ink inscriptions reading "Great Grandpa / Edmund Ruffin" and "Edmund Ruffin / (Cameron Beckwith's [orphan] great, great, great grandfather)."