I'm not sure how widespread the practice, but occasionally one will come across a reenactor who has selected a specific, once-living person upon which to base his or her impression. After studying various aspects of Civil War era photography, I thought it might be interesting to do something similar by introducing myself as "Mr. so-and-so, photographer."James Gardner and his more famous elder brother Alexander (in the photo shown here), were among the dozens of photographers employed by Matthew Brady, probably the most well-known of Civil War shutterbugs. The Gardner brothers were immigrants from Scotland who were in the proverbial right place at the right time when photography exploded on the scene.
By the middle of the War, Alexander, and possibly James as well, left Brady's employ. Alexander's life is reasonably well documented - his eulogy is in the Library of Congress - but it is not precisely known what happened to James. Interestingly, the 1880 Census does list a James Gardner, fifty-one years of age, of Scottish birth, widowed, living in California, and working as a herder. Could this be our fellow?
I chose to base my impression on James Gardner because his brother Alexander looks a lot like my brother Kirk, and because the relative lack of documentation about his life and exploits does not definitively rule out his possible presence at the Battles of Valverde and Glorieta, does it?
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