Identities were confused almost immediately. T. M. Schleier took the photograph in the event that Captured Freedom on Tuesday, January 2, 1865. The former escapees and their mountain guides left Knoxville the next day. They all heading home, some to never see each other ever again.
Photograph of nine Union officers and three mountain guides
taken in Knoxville, Tennessee on January 2, 1865.
Escapees identities first confused shortly after the end of the Civil War
In Spring 1866 noted historian Benson Lossing toured the south collecting stories and sketching the sites of major Civil War battles. On May 21, 1866, Lossing arrived in Knoxville. For several days he was the guest of Governor William G. “Parson” Brownlow and his son Colonel John Bell Brownlow. Photographer Theodore M. Schleier was friends with the Brownlows. Besides being a historian and writer, Lossing was also an artist and engraver. He produced engravings for the books he authored as well as for other publications.
They couldn’t reproduce photographs during this era, so engravings ruled. Publications such as Harper’s Weekly regularly used engravings adapted from the photographs during the Civil War. This included the works of Mathew Brady, Alexander Gardner, and many other photographers throughout the country. During Lossing’s trip through the south, it would have been very common for him to reach out to the area photographers such as Schleier and ask to see what photographs of interest to his project they might have. On this occasion, he would then acquire a copy of these photographs to later make into an engraving.
Engraving by historian Benson J. Lossing of the photo of Civil War Escapees
Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 3; p130; Published in 1868 (Click to enlarge)
Lossing meets Schleier and misidentifies the men
There is no specific record of Schleier meeting Lossing. Conversely, Lossing didn’t credit Schleier or any other photographer for the image he used to create the engraving in Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War, Volume 3. Lossing published the book in 1868. On page 130, Lossing would be the first to incorrectly identify the soldiers and their guides in the photograph that he adapted into an engraving. He called them “Union Refugees in East Tennessee”. Colonel Brownlow had introduced Lossing to photographer Theodore M.Schleier when they toured Knoxville. Schleier showed him something of interest: a photograph of twelve ragged men. Consequently, he included the following footnote to the engraving:
“This is a careful copy of a photograph presented to the author, at Knoxville, in which is delineated a group of returned refugees, at the time we are considering, They consisted, in large degree, of young men belonging to the best families in East Tennessee. Their sufferings had been dreadful. Their clothing, as the picture shows, was in tatters, and at times they had been nearly starved, Yet they held fast to hope, and resolved to save their country if possible.
Afterwards, one of the men pictured wrote, “In Lossing’s History of the Civil War, volume 3, page 130, is a copy of this picture, procured, no doubt from the photographer at Knoxville, Tenn.”
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