Capt. Harry Doolittle, 2d Iowa Inf. / W. P. Egbert, photograph & ambrotype artist, Davenport, Iowa.

There are not many details distinguishing the Confederates from the Union soldiers in many of portrait photographs - they really were from the same country, the same culture. One of the differences that you do find is the less uniform appearance of Confederates: they are much less standard, often wearing bits and pieces of cast-off Union Army uniforms and often, even weaponry. One thing that’s specific to the Confederates is huge Bowie knives, humorously called ‘Arkansas toothpicks,’ often made by local blacksmiths.

The single best source for Civil War photographs is the U.S. Library of Congress, which holds the core collections of original Civil War documentary ... The majority of the ambrotypes and tintypes are portraits by unidentified photographers of Civil War soldiers, primarily Union soldiers.