Rare CDV of Arkansas Colonel Thomas Jefferson Reid with New Orleans Backmark

This rare original carte de visite (CDV) depicts Confederate Colonel Thomas Jefferson Reid, photographed by Anderson's Photographic Gallery at 61 Camp Street in New Orleans, Louisiana, as evidenced by the fully legible backmark. The portrait presents Reid in a full-length standing pose, wearing a regulation Confederate frock coat with clearly visible colonel’s rank stars on the collar with his officer’s sword at his side. The image retains strong contrast and sharp detail in the uniform braid, buttons, and facial features.
 
The CDV is in good overall condition, showing only minor edge and corner wear consistent with its age. Light, scattered foxing appears primarily in the margins and backdrop area but does not significantly affect the central portrait. There are no major creases, tears, bends, or heavy soiling. Contemporary pencil inscription on the reverse reads “Col. Reid,” and the accompanying album page (included with the photograph) bears a matching handwritten identification, providing strong period provenance for the attribution.
 
Thomas Jefferson Reid (January 6, 1838–October 30, 1907) was born in Caswell County, North Carolina, into a family with Revolutionary War lineage, and relocated with his parents to Tulip, Dallas County, Arkansas, in the mid-1850s. After beginning medical studies at the University of Pennsylvania Medical College, he completed his training and graduated from Richmond Medical College in Virginia. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he entered Confederate service as a major in the 12th Arkansas Infantry in July 1861, later transferring to cavalry and rising to the rank of colonel, with associations to the reorganized Second Arkansas Cavalry and related units. He narrowly avoided capture at Island No. 10 in 1862 while on recruiting duty in Arkansas, was taken prisoner at the surrender of Port Hudson on July 9, 1863, and subsequently escaped from confinement in New Orleans before making his way back to Confederate lines via Mobile, Alabama. Reid received commendation for gallantry and for providing medical care under heavy fire at the Battle of Chickamauga in September 1863. In January 1864 he submitted a detailed proposal to President Jefferson Davis for the recapture of New Orleans, drawing on intelligence gathered during his captivity; though cautiously endorsed by General Leonidas Polk, the plan was deemed impracticable by General Braxton Bragg and never executed. Reid continued to serve in the Trans-Mississippi Department until the war’s end.
 
After the war, Reid practiced medicine in Hot Springs, Garland County, Arkansas, and was appointed postmaster in 1874. Economic difficulties, including the impoverishment of his father (who died in 1880), led him to relocate to Illinois around that time, where he resumed his medical practice and resided until his death in Niles, Illinois. Contemporaries remembered him as a “gallant soldier” whose wartime record was exemplary and unblemished, always dutiful and present at his post, as noted in accounts published in Confederate Veteran and elsewhere.
 
This well-documented CDV, with its New Orleans backmark tying directly to Reid’s 1863 captivity and escape, represents a scarce surviving likeness of an Arkansas-connected Confederate colonel who combined combat leadership, battlefield medical service, a successful prison escape, and strategic initiative. It would be a significant addition to collections focused on Confederate officers, Arkansas Civil War units, the Trans-Mississippi theater, Confederate medical personnel, or notable escape narratives.