Hi Jim, thanks for sharing this great photograph with us, sure would like the link to your website if possible.
AM Mason of Co E had this ‘degerotype taken’ at Camp Trousdale Tn 19th July 1861 and Capt Womack of Co E had a daguereotype taken in Lynchburg Va in December 1861, I guess that there were more chances than are documented, a photograph of Sgt Potter seems to be late war.
The whole regiment was given new uniforms (shirts, shoes, trousers, jackets and overcoats) 27th Oct 1861; I guess at this one issue, they would have been of uniform make, colour and pattern, (jackets and trouser would have matched).
The whole regiment was armed with Enfields on the 14th August 1862 (usual practice was to supply accoutrements as well), my take is that before that most of the regiment was armed with a mix of weapons, mostly almost flintlocks (extensive evidence for this) and with battlefield pickups from Cheat Mountain (48 members of the 16th Ohio were captured with arms and accouterments – in total enough to arm at least a company).
I am no expert, but this is my take on the photograph, based on my information of the 16th. It is an early war photograph with photographic props (pistol and rifle), my guess is Camp Trousdale. Striped trousers are seen in quite a few early war photographs (61-62), with troops from various states. There are photographs of other soldiers from Tennessee units with similar trousers, that were either at Camp Trousdale or were in the Cheat Mountain campaign. The jacket looks like a sackcoat to me. The 16th joined the AOT at Corinth and from 1862 onwards the AOT would have been uniformedby the CS Government (OK with various jackets and trouser styles and colours from different depots), but they would have been very military, this does not look military enough for anything after 1861. If you are going to have your photograph taken for the ‘folks back home’, then wouldn’t you like to look as military as possible? I am more than willing to be proved wrong on all my guess, but the facts are the facts.