An unidentified Iowa Civil War soldier is portrayed in this albumen CDV, produced during the 1860s and likely ordered during or shortly after active service. The format and decorative mount style are consistent with wartime and immediate postwar production. No photographer's imprint appears on the reverse.

The subject wears a dark Union sack coat with a double row of small buttons running down the front, a white shirt collar, and a black bow tie. His dark hair is parted and swept to the side, and his expression is composed and direct. The oval portrait vignette is set within an elaborately printed ornamental border featuring scrollwork, pendant tassels, and a pointed arch crown, a decorative mount style popular in the mid-1860s.

Iowa furnished over 76,000 men to the Union Army across more than fifty infantry regiments, along with cavalry and artillery units. The sack coat visible here was among the most common uniform garments issued to Union infantrymen throughout the war, worn by soldiers across all Iowa regiments.

The reverse bears no photographer's imprint, inscription, or identifying notation.

From the collection of James Lee Soffer