'Most valuable' Gettysburg relic: Image found on fallen Rebel

This photo, reproduced in the 14th Connecticut regimental history, was found with 
the body of a Confederate at Gettysburg.

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After the Battle of Gettysburg, a fallen 154th New York sergeant was discovered with an ambrotype of his three small children and no identification. Weeks later, Amos Humiston's name surfaced after his wife read about his death in a religious publication. 

During my visit to the Cold Harbor battlefield several years ago, a longtime area resident told me of the discovery by his friend, a fellow relic hunter, of a daguerreotype of a woman among the hand bones of a soldier's skeleton unearthed in a trench. Poignant stories of dead or dying Civil War soldiers found with images of loved ones have been told many times over the years. While reading my original copy of the 14th Connecticut regimental history, I came across another one — a story only briefly mentioned in books about Gettysburg.

      Glenn probably found the image of the woman in the field beyond this stone wall.

On July 3, 1863, Sergeant Russell Glenn of the 14th Connecticut defended Cemetery Ridge during Pickett's Charge. The next day, he ventured beyond his lines to survey the awful scene. Perhaps he also aimed to grab a war trophy, a common activity of soldiers on both sides. In his own words, here's Glenn's story:

"It was on the battle-field of Gettysburg where I secured this picture [shown above] and I prize it as the most valuable relic of my war experience. It was on the morning of July 4th, 1863, that I went among the Confederate dead who fell during the previous day's fight. I, with others, was searching for the sick and wounded who were being conveyed to the rear for treatment. I had hardly entered that terrible valley of death when I beheld a handsome, noble looking youth, lying prone upon his back; his eyes side open and staring towards heaven. His countenance wore the most beseeching expression that I ever beheld. At first I thought the youth was alive and was about to speak to him when I observed that he held something in his hand that lay upon his left breast. 

I stooped over him and discovered that he had been shot through the heart and probably did not live more than thirty seconds after the fatal bullet hit him. In his hand was a daguerreotype of the above profile, the case of which had been shattered by the deadly ball, but, marvelously as it may seem, the profile remained uninjured. It is certain that the poor fellow lived but an instant after being hit, but in that short space of time his thought was of the picture -- probably the face of his sweetheart -- and, taking it from his breastpocket, he saw the shattered case, but was permitted to gaze on the features of a loved one as his soul took its immortal flight. I took the picture from the rigid grasp of the dead soldier, and taking the skirt of his coat, wiped off the blood from the glass and carefully placed it in my pocket, intending, if possible, to find the original, but as yet have not been successful."

                 PANORAMA:  Cemetery Ridge stone wall defended by 14th Connecticut. 
                                      (Click at upper right for full-screen experience.)

Glenn survived a slight wound at Gettysburg, a severe wound in the breast at Petersburg, and two other war wounds. After the Civil War, he became a police officer in Bridgeport, Conn., where he died at age 75 in 1919. What happened to the image of the young woman, "the most valuable relic" of his war experience, is apparently lost to history.

For much more on this photo, read "Who Were They?" in the latest 2022 issue of America's Civil War magazine.

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