Striking and historic Civil War-era carte de visite featuring "The Castle" in Vicksburg, Mississippi, photographed around 1863. This architectural marvel, built in the early 1850s by Thomas Robbins, was truly one of a kind—complete with a moat and fortified by an Osage orange hedge. Prominently seen in the image is a Union encampment set up on the home's expansive lawn, capturing the complex narrative of wartime occupation.

The home was purchased in 1859 by Armistead Burwell, a rare outspoken Unionist in Confederate Mississippi. His Union loyalty made him a pariah in Vicksburg, and he once wrote that he dared not travel inland, fearing execution or imprisonment. Ironically, despite his pro-Union stance, Federal troops destroyed the Castle after the siege of Vicksburg, replacing it with an artillery emplacement appropriately dubbed Castle Battery.

While the reverse of the CDV bears the mistaken inscription in period ink—“Private Residence Near Huntsville Ala”—it serves as a compelling reminder that not all contemporary identifications were accurate. An important Civil War image with architectural and historical significance, unmarked on verso but loaded with narrative.