Reproductions of the recruiting poster based on this photograph are also available. Professor John David Smith used a portion of the artist’s rendition of the photograph, the one used for the recruiting poster, on the dust jacket of his book, _Black Soldiers in Blue: African American Troops in the Civil War Era_ (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2002). His citation for the art work reads, “Recruitment poster, U.S. Colored Troops, ca. 1863-65 [P[ierre] S. Duval, ‘Come and Join Us Brothers,’ n.d., Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, Duke University].” Although both sides of the image used on Professor Smith’s dust jacket have been cropped to fit the book cover, thereby eliminating the Union officer and six of the black soldiers, there is no question as to their allegiance. The artist has brushed in a tent, trees, distant mountains, and a large United States flag behind the men. The artist has also added a little, black drummer boy in front of the men, opposite the Union officer.

Reproductions of this image are also available. William A. Gladstone used another broadside with this art work on the back cover of his book, _Men of Color_ (Gettysburg, PA: Thomas Publications, 1993). A black and white version of the same broadside appears in Gladstone’s earlier book on U.S. Colored Troops (Gettysburg, PA: Thomas Publications, 1990, page 18). The caption on the broadside reads, “United States Soldiers at Camp ‘William Penn’ Philadelphia, Pa.” Gladstone identifies it as a “Recruitment poster, circa 1863, circulated by the Supervisory Committee for Recruiting Colored Regiment, Philadelphia, Pa.”

I have no idea why the artist choose to make the greatcoats gray. Obviously, he was working from a black and white photograph, and as several contributors to this thread have noted, the light blue of the standard-issue Union greatcoat would look gray in a black and white photograph. But you would think that he would know better. Nevertheless, the greatcoats are gray, so there is still come mystery surrounding this image. But one thing seems right to me. These soldiers were stationed in Yankee land. If this photograph is of the Louisiana Native Guards during the first year of the war, a period during which they never left New Orleans, why did the state authorities issue GREATCOATS, greatcoats for southern Louisiana? It just didn’t make sense.

I hope that his helps, and I hope that the two images came through.

Jim Hollandsworth