Today we’ll feature an outdoor image of a Union cavalryman as a part of our Civil War Portraits series.

The trooper shown above was a sergeant when he had his photo taken.  What’s rather unusual about this image is that most of the time cavalryman got off of their horses to have their pictures taken.  Long exposure times on 1860’s camera’s meant that any movement would cause the picture to blur, so relying on the horse to stay exactly still was a gamble.