Carte de visite portrait of a young Union soldier posed in full uniform, seated before a dramatic painted studio backdrop featuring a Civil War camp scene. The carefully rendered background includes a line of tents, stacked rifles, a waving American flag, and a prominent cannon at left, evoking the atmosphere of a military encampment.

The soldier wears a forage cap and regulation sack coat with visible buttons and trim. His relaxed posture and direct gaze contrast with the elaborate martial setting behind him. Photographers frequently used backdrops like this to lend enlisted men the heroic visual context often reserved for officers. The contrast between the subject’s youth and the grand martial surroundings lends the image both charm and poignancy, making it a compelling artifact of wartime portrait culture.