Need ID on Uniform in Antique Photo ...Country? Branch of Service?

[vaseltzer]

[stlcoin]

No expert here...It looks to be Civil War - Major General - U.S 3rd Horse Calvary Regiment. I would imagine photo is of the Regiment Commander in Dress Uniform.

[vaseltzer]

Thanks for the info...I never would have guessed Civil War.

[pohsteeng-eyedee]

A couple of months later and I finally unpacked some of my reference books, that I wish I had access to when this thread started. Probably too late to matter, but what the hey . . .

The cap looks to be a 1902-pattern cap. That shape did not appear in the 1895-pattern cap, nor the 1872. However, the eagle badge does not look like those used during the period or earlier.

The cavalry cords across the chest might be 1887-pattern or later.

A major general is too senior to command a regiment; that would go to a colonel.

This is all based on Regular Army, so it may not apply to this fellow.

[vaseltzer]

Thanks so much for the extra information...so this is a guy who served in the Civil War in his dress uniform 30 years later?

[pohsteeng-eyedee]

. . .  and another month goes by . . .

Sorry!

This picture is still a real puzzler to me. A lot of my speculation is predicated on the cap being the 1902 model, in use until replaced by the 1912 model, which looks much more similar to the peaked caps used today. If the cap is something else, well then, none of this is pertinent.

If he is a major general anywhere, it doesn't look like it would be with the US Army. Just abitrarily picking the dates 1903 to 1910, there were about 30 major generals active in the army, and they were in their 50s and 60s:

List_of_major_generals_in_the_United_States_Regular_Army_before_1_July_1920

And he looks too young to have been in the Civil War if the photo is post-1902. For instance, William McKinley was the last Civil War veteran to be elected President. At the end of the war he was a 22-year-old brevet Major. Thirty-odd years later he looked like this:

Another possibility is a veteran's organization. The cap badge and medals do not look like anything from the GAR, however.

Hopefully, someone with more knowledge than I will come by and set us straight!