A TINTED PORTRAIT OF

COLONEL JOHN ALEXANDER MARTIN

Ernst F. Tonsing, Ph.D.

Thousand Oaks, California
26 July 2010

A picture of Colonel John Alexander Martin hanging in the Atchison County

Historical Society Museum, Atchison, Kansas, is from a photograph by C. E. Hamill of
Monmouth, Illinois. Hamill, no doubt, was one of the many photographers following the
camps of the Union troops during the Civil War. The picture was printed on cardboard
stock, hand-tinted and placed within an oval frame. I photographed the image without
flash, and using a computer program, erased the scratches and blemishes to the picture,
and restored the corners to make a rectangular portrait.

Martin is shown seated three-quarters to the right, a serious, pensive young man
in his mid-twenties. Against a gray background and seated in a red-upholstered chair,
Martin is in his Union, military, dress uniform, with white shirt and starched collar, a
smallish, black bow-tie, a vest with watch chain hanging down to the right, and a jacket.
The latter has the insignia of his rank, an eagle with open wings against a blue
background, surrounded by a rectangular gold frame (the blue background in the patch
indicates his branch of service—blue for infantry—where yellow was for cavalry, and red
for artillery).

Seven button appear on either side of the open coat (the bottom right one is
restored). Obscured in the photograph, the brass buttons would have displayed an eagle
with open wings, head facing its right, and one talon holding an olive branch and the
other clutching arrows. On the breast of the eagle would have been a shield containing
the letter, “I,” indicating infantry.

Such a formal portrait would have marked a special occasion, perhaps the
promotion of Martin to the rank of colonel. Martin became Lieutenant Colonel
September 2, 1861, and would have worn a rectangular shoulder insignia containing two,
gold oak leaves. The insignia here is that of an eagle, and, thus, this portrait was made
after the date Martin was commissioned as Colonel of the Regiment on November 1,
1862. He was then a little over twenty-two and one-half years old. On that date,
however, Martin was engaged in moving his troops from Crab Orchard to Bowling
Green, Kentucky, from Bowling Green to Nashville, Tennessee, on December 7, and out
the Franklin Pike on December 9, with skirmishes all the way. Most likely, the
photograph was made after Martin became Provost Marshal of Nashville on December
20, 1862, and before June 9, 1863, when his regiment was relieved and brought to the
front. Later, Martin was brevetted Brigadier General of the United States Volunteers on
March 13, 1865, for “Faithful and meritorious service during the war.”

-Ernst F. Tonsing, Ph.D.