Carte de visite studio portrait depicting Confederate Brigadier General Henry A. Wise of Virginia, shown standing full-length against a plain studio backdrop. Wise wears a civilian-style suit with a large military overcoat or cape draped over his shoulders and holds a matching slouch-style felt hat at his waist. The photographic image is an albumen print mounted on a standard CDV card. The verso bears the printed imprint of C. R. Rees & Bro., Scientific & Artistic Photographers, Corner 8th & Main Streets, opposite Spotswood Hotel, Richmond, Virginia, along with a revenue stamp and period manuscript notations. The format and tax stamp indicate a Civil War era production.

Henry A. Wise was a prominent Virginia politician and one of the most outspoken secessionists in the South prior to the outbreak of the Civil War, having served as Governor of Virginia from 1856 to 1860. At the start of the conflict, he was commissioned a brigadier general in the Confederate Army. His early military career was controversial, most notably following the Battle of Carnifex Ferry in western Virginia, where fellow Confederate general John B. Floyd accused Wise of failing to provide support. The Confederate defeat and subsequent recriminations led President Jefferson Davis to remove Wise from his initial command in Virginia.

Wise was reassigned to command the District of Roanoke Island, where Confederate forces were defeated and the island fell to Union control in early 1862. Although Wise was widely blamed for the loss, he commanded significantly outnumbered and under-equipped troops. He later returned to active field service, commanding a brigade during the Seven Days Battles and holding various commands in Virginia and North Carolina through 1862 and 1863. In 1864, Wise led a brigade in the Department of North Carolina and Southern Virginia and played a significant role in the defense of Petersburg, where his command was credited with helping prevent the city’s immediate capture during the First Battle of Petersburg.

During the final collapse of Confederate defenses in 1865, Wise commanded a brigade in the Army of Northern Virginia and was present at Appomattox Court House. Contemporary accounts credit him with urging General Robert E. Lee to consider surrender when further resistance became untenable. This portrait, taken in Richmond during the war years, presents Wise not in uniform but in civilian and outerwear associated with senior Confederate officers, offering a restrained and sober likeness of one of the Confederacy’s most politically prominent and contentious generals.

The card’s Richmond imprint firmly places the photograph within the Confederate capital and underscores its wartime origin, making it a scarce studio image of a high-profile Confederate general photographed during the conflict rather than after its conclusion.