Scarce Civil War carte-de-visite photograph showing Farnhold’s House with the York River visible in the distance, taken during the Peninsula Campaign of 1862. The foreground depicts a small wooden structure identified as Farnhold’s House with several soldiers gathered nearby, while a large Union encampment spreads across the open fields behind it. Numerous tents fill the landscape, documenting the scale of military occupation during the campaign. The printed credit along the lower margin reads: “Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1862, by Barnard & Gibson.”

This photograph relates to Headquarters Lafayette—Headquarters of General Fitz John Porter, an important Union command position during operations along the York River in Virginia. Images from the Peninsula Campaign are historically significant as they represent some of the earliest extensive photographic documentation of an active military theater during the Civil War.

The reverse bears a printed descriptive label reading “Headquarters Lafayette—Headquarters Gen’l Porter. Farnhold’s House and York River in the Distance.” along with a warning regarding copyright protection. Photographs from this Barnard & Gibson Civil War series are widely collected for their historical documentation of Union camps, command headquarters, and battlefield landscapes during the early years of the war.