Alfred H. Sully, career Army officer and Civil War brevet major general, sits for this albumen carte-de-visite in Union uniform. The carte-de-visite format dominated 1860s portrait photography, and the sitter's plain frock coat and frontal pose are typical of studio conventions from that decade. No photographer's imprint appears on the mount.

Sully wears a double-breasted dark frock coat with two rows of large brass buttons, shoulder straps denoting general officer rank, and a waist belt fastened with a circular eagle-motif plate. A long, full beard and side-parted hair frame his composed, direct gaze. His hands rest loosely across his lap against a plain, light studio ground.

Sully rose to brevet major general of volunteers after commanding brigades at the Seven Days, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville, then led the Northwestern Indian Expeditions against the Sioux in Dakota Territory from 1863 to 1865. His campaigns included the battles of Whitestone Hill and Killdeer Mountain, and he later commanded the District of Iowa, which then included Dakota Territory.

The reverse bears a period pencil inscription identifying the sitter as "Brevet Maj. Gen. Alfred H. Sully."

From the collection of James Lee Soffer