Carte de visite albumen photograph showing Brigadier General Joseph F. Knipe in full standing pose, photographed in uniform against a plain studio backdrop. Knipe is shown wearing a double-breasted Union officer’s frock coat with shoulder straps, wide officer’s belt, gloves, and a broad-brimmed hat, his left hand drawn to his chest in a formal military stance. The image is a full-length studio portrait typical of senior Union officers photographed during the middle years of the Civil War.

The verso bears the printed photographer’s imprint of A. S. Morse, Photographer, Dept. of the Cumberland, Branch of Hd Qrs., 25 Cedar Street, Nashville, Tenn., situating the photograph within the Union military photographic network operating in occupied Tennessee. A penciled notation at the top reads “No. Negative,” consistent with studio or headquarters record-keeping practices. The imprint firmly anchors the photograph to the Western Theater and to Knipe’s period of active service there.

Joseph F. Knipe was a prominent Union officer who raised the 46th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry in 1861 and served throughout the war in major campaigns. He was wounded at the First Battle of Winchester and again at Cedar Mountain, fought at Chancellorsville, and later participated in the Atlanta Campaign. In late 1864 he commanded a division of Union cavalry during John Bell Hood’s incursion into Tennessee and played a key role in the aftermath of the Battle of Nashville, where Union forces captured thousands of Confederate soldiers and multiple battle flags. This photograph represents Knipe at the height of his military career and is a strong example of a Western Theater general officer CDV with a clearly identified wartime imprint.