William Brosius Company J 187thPennsylvania Vol. Infantry

For my birthday my friend Sam gave me a framed picture of what appears to be an old man giving you the finger with an American Flag behind him. Turns out it is a photo of William Brosius of Co. J 187th Regiment Pennsylvania Vol. Infantry. He was wounded July 30th 1864 in the left hand on Plank Road in Petersburg Virginia. With the photo came a copy of a Civil War Award giving by G.A.R. Post No. 17 saying that he was indeed wounded in the left hand at Petersburg Virginia . The G.A.R post was located in Harrisburg Pennsylvania; I assume he lived in or around Harrisburg.

The photo has William sitting in front of a 48 star flag (Arizona entered the Union Feb. 12th 1912), William looks to be about 70 years old in the photo. I believe the photo is of William on the 50th anniversary of being wounded, holding his war scared hand up to the camera.

The weird thing about the photo is that it is laminated on the glass and it almost looks like a negative, but when you hold it up to the light it has color in it, in fact the American Flag is RED, White and Blue. I think it may be a glass panel for a lantern light from the turn of the century.

Whatever reason it was made for, I don’t care. IT’S VERY COOL! I think eventually I will mount it in a frame that has a 2” deep reveal on the back side so I can put a light behind it and turn the color on and off.