This quarter plate ambrotype has a wonderful identification right on the image. It reads: "William S. Pesnell Eastern Calhoun Boys” The Eastern Calhoun Boys became Company E, 22^nd Alabama Infantry. Private Pesnell is armed with a Model 1842 musket, and wears a double tongue waist belt carrying a huge D-Guard knife.

The 22^nd Alabama Infantry Regiment was organized at Montgomery, Alabama on October 6^th, 1861, and spent the first winter of the War in Mobile, Alabama. The men came from Calhoun, Cherokee, Choctaw, Clarke, Mobile, Montgomery, Pike, Randolph, and Walker counties.

The men of the 22^nd suffered severely at Shiloh, skirmished at Perryville and suffered 94 casualties at Murfreesboro. The 22^nd Alabama went into the Battle of Chickamauga with 371 men and lost 205, including 5 color bearers.[i]

They fought on Missionary Ridge and the 272 remaining men spent the winter in the Dalton, Georgia Winter Camps. During the Atlanta Campaign the following spring the regiment continued to be whittled down. They suffered heavily at Franklin; lost some at Nashville, Kinston and Bentonville, before surrendering the remnants with General Joe Johnston’s Army at Greensboro, North Carolina.

Pesnell was born in Lowndes County Alabama circa 1838, and died of disease at Corinth, Mississippi in 1864.[ii] His quarter plate ambrotype is housed in a leatherette case that is in good condition but has an old spine repair. The image is clear, except from the slight movement of his gun barrel during the photo session. His face is especially crisp and was nicely colored by the photographer. His buttons, wedding ring and the brass on his gun are gilded; all in all, it is a first class image.

Because of its quality, it was published in Military Images Magazine, Vol. 35, 2017.

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