Lot 608: Mississippi Civil War Ambrotype, Dr. Bisland Shields with Saber and Hat

Large half plate Civil War Ambrotype photograph of Dr. Bisland Shields of Natchez, Mississippi, CSA, seated and holding his sword and hat. Decorative oval metal mat. Housed under glass in an antique oval giltwood frame. Sight: 5"H x 3 1/2"W, Frame: 9 3/4" H x 8 3/4"W. Inscription en verso identifies the subject as Dr. Bisland Shields of Stewart's Cavalry. He also is believed to have served in the Jeff Davis Legion Cavalry. Shields was born in 1838 in Terrebonne Parrish, Louisiana, to Thomas Rodney Shields Sr. and Martha Jane Lenora Shields; his older brother was Thomas R. Shields, Jr. (whose photograph is also in this auction). Bisland Shields enlisted in the Confederate army shortly after graduating with a degree in medicine from Tulane University. He was captured and spent the rest of the war at Point Lookout Prison in Maryland. He married Laura Jane Payne in 1863 and they had two children, one of whom was named for his cousin Joseph Dunbar Shields, who did not survive the Civil War (and whose photograph is also for sale in this auction). After the war, Bisland Sheilds became a prominent doctor in Natchez. He died in 1911 and is buried in Jefferson County, Mississippi.

PROVENANCE: By descent in the family of the sitter.

CONDITION: Overall good condition with some dark oxidation around edges of photograph and spots of oxidation to mat. Several areas of wear, cracking and losses to oval gilt frame. Not examined out of frame.