Found in a bin: Pre-Bull Run 2nd Rhode Island soldier photos

2nd Rhode Island Corporal Francis Ronien (left) stands with brothers 
James and John Newell, who were privates in the regiment, in a camp in Virginia.
 (Providence, R.I., Public Library)

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Just days before the first major battle of the Civil War, soldiers of the 2nd Rhode Island posed outdoors for a photographer working for Mathew Brady. Within days, the lives of these young men would be forever changed on the fields of the Bull Run battlefield in Virginia on July 21, 1861. 

More than 150 years later, in 2014, a librarian at the Providence (R.I.) Public Library made an extraordinary discovery: six of these Rhode Island soldiers’ carte de visite images tucked away in a plastic bin among other donated items. It was a remarkable glimpse of faces captured in the final quiet moments before war transformed their lives.

In an image shot at the regiment's camp at Centreville, Va., Francis Ronien, the bayonet of the musket he held towering above him, stood next to brothers James and John Newell of Smithfield. (Read my Military Images magazine story on these photographs.)

At Bull Run, Corporal Ronien "was struck by a shell," according to another officer in the regiment, "which took off his leg between the knee & hip." He died a short time later, perhaps at a makeshift field hospital at Sudley Church or somewhere nearby. (Ronien was the only identified soldier in these images who died during the Civil War.)

"He was a promising soldier," a regimental history noted, "and fell with his captain bravely fighting." The 25-year-old machinist from Pawtucket left behind a wife named Mary and two sons, a 1-year-old named Francis and an infant, James Henry.

Wounded and captured at Bull Run, Private John Newell wouldn't be released from a Rebel prison until May 1862. For brother James, the war ended when he deserted at Harrison's Landing in Virginia on Aug. 8, 1862.

On the library's blog, Katie Wells wrote about the discovery.

"I came across a folder of photographs that piqued my interest," the librarian noted. "Sometimes when you work in an archive you find a little trove and then you're down the rabbit hole, so to speak. I just couldn't get the men in these images out of my head and so I decided to do some research."

Thankfully, someone wrote the last names of the soldiers in blue ink under each image. A note (below) found with the images included the date of the sessions for the photographs: July 17-18, 1861 — just days before the First Battle of Bull Run, near Manassas, Va. It was signed by R.H. Johnstone, perhaps the soldier in the fourth photo below.

The name of the donor of the photographs is lost to history. 

Note found with the images noted the photos were taken in Virginia on July 17-18, 1861, days before First Battle of Bull Run.

From left, George Wood, George Kidder and Theodore Jenks.

From left, Robert Robertson, Francis Osgood, Smith Salisbury, David Douglass.

Thomas Potter, John Manning, William Frazier and David Douglass.

Image includes Robert Johnstone, Joseph or Lewis Barnes, William Worger,
Peter Taylor, Samuel Newman and Albert L. Smith. The others were unidentified.

Charles Godfrey, Benjamin Hughes and Jonathan Davidson.

Writing from a conscript camp in Connecticut, Captain William Sears of the 2nd Rhode Island
noted how Francis Ronien died at Bull Run. (fold3.com via National Archives)