Description
If your looking for the best of the best here it is.. Lieutenant Thomas A. Moreland stands here for his photograph while imprisoned at Fort Delaware. Initially Moreland was commissioned as a first lieutenant in company G of the 1st Kentucky Infantry on June 1 of 1861 serving with that unit until mid May of 1862. He soon joined with General John Hunt Morgan’s Cavalry Division and served on the general’s personal staff as an Aide-de-camp. Taking part in Morgan’s Great Raid throughout Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky during the summer of 1863 he would soon find himself in enemy hands. Sent to Fort Delaware he posed for this photograph while in captivity on May 3rd, 1864. The image is dated on the reverse in period ink and identified as being taken at Fort Delaware. Signed in Moreland’s own hand the image was formally part of the personal cdv album of fellow Morgan Raider and Fort Delaware prison inmate Captain Hart Gibson who was also captured during Morgan’s Great Raid. Moreland was eventually released and found his way into the Second Kentucky Cavalry serving as a second lieutenant under Morgan’s brother-in-law Brigadier General Basil W. Duke. A number of loyal Kentucky cavalry veterans along with Moreland and General Duke himself volunteered to serve as Jefferson Davis’ personal bodyguard. Following the collapse of the Confederate Government they attempted to escort President Davis through southern lines in an effort to escape capture. Federal troops eventually caught up with Moreland and on May 9th, 1865 he once again fell into enemy hands at Washington, Georgia. Ten days later he would take the oath of allegiance thus ending his military career. To say this is an extremely rare view would be an understatement. Exquisite carte view from one of the south’s most prominent and daring cavalry regiments of the war. Absolutely superb!!
