Hello Everyone,
I have a cdv with New Orleans backmark probably ca. 64'65. Identified in period script as "Robert Claiborne, Pointe Coupee La." After checking the census I was able to find him living in Pointe Coupee near Morganza on his father's plantation. All his brothers are well documented in the Confederate Army, but maybe because he was born in ca. 1848-49' he was too young for regular service, however, in the cdv he is pictured in a full Confederate gray shell jacket trimmed with some sort of tape or piping, military buttons, etc. His brother Louis B. served in the Pointe Coupee Artillery as a private. I have been told he may have been with the unit as a powder monkey or something since he was underage. His father was very influential in the area and was Col. Ferdinand L. Claiborne. They owned Poydras Hall on the Lower Chenal of the False River. Ferdinand was chosen to lead a unit of free-blacks for the Confederacy, but upon their organization they chose Louis Trudeau as their captain. I don't know how Ferdinand gained the title of Col., but thats what he became affectionatly known by.

Anyway, I have looked in everywhere for a Robert Claiborne in a Louisiana unit, but to no avail. Thank you for any help.

Erik McBroom