Andrew Jackson Riddle papers, W.0162

Abstract: Papers and photographs by Civil War photographer Andrew Jackson Riddle.Scope and Content Note: The letters and papers of Andrew Jackson Riddle (probably best known for his photographs of the Andersonville Prison Camp) in this collection includes several lists of chemicals and papers needed to produce the photographic copies of maps for the Confederate Army. There is also a letter from Assistant Engineer A. H. Buchanan to Lieutenant J. W. Glenn requesting more copies of a particular set of maps of the Atlanta, Georgia, area. On the back of this letter is a note from Lieutenant Glenn to Captain Wrenshall to have the correct negative sent to the photographers "for execution of the within order." In a photocopied document, Riddle makes a case for leniency while a prisoner of war. As he was captured three times while transporting photographic supplies, it appears this statement was made during his second internment.The photographs are primarily cartes-de-visite made in his Macon, Georgia, studio. There are two larger cabinet cards made while he was in Columbus, Georgia. Of the cartes-de-visite, four of which are of Confederate officers, one is a composite picture of General Robert E. Lee surrounded by other Confederate officers. The other three include the following: John C. Wrenshall, Captain Engineers, C.S.A.; E. J. McGehu (McGehee?), Co. D. Twenty-first Mississippi Volunteers, Longstreet's Corps, Army of Northern Virginia; and Henry Farrow (rank and unit unknown). The remainder of the cartes-de-visite and the two cabinet cards are mainly of young women and children. Various fabrics in four of the pictures are tinted with a vibrant pink and one child's dress is a pale blue with dark blue trim.The collection also includes a single issue of Confederate Veteran (v. XX, no. 2, August 1912) and the reprinted article "Scientist of the Confederate Nitre and Mining Bureau" by Ralph W. Donnelly from Civil War History, vol. II, no. 4, December, 1956. The reprint is inscribed by the author and dated December 8, 1963.Biographical/Historical Note: Andrew Jackson Riddle was born on February 28, 1828, in Baltimore, Maryland. In the early 1850s, Riddle moved to Columbus, Georgia, and established a Daguerreian studio. On November 12, 1856, he married Annie P. Hunley; the couple had three children who lived to adulthood: John, George A., and Susie.Riddle enlisted in the Confederate army at the outbreak of the Civil War and served three years. He was captured three times; he even spent eight months in the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, DC. During the war, he worked with the engineers making photographic reproductions of the maps needed by the Army. In fact, two of the times he was captured, he was carrying photographic supplies from New York to Virginia through enemy lines.After the war he reestablished his photography studio in Macon, Georgia. He also spent a few years in Eufaula, Alabama, and moved from there to Columbus, where he resided until his death. Riddle died on March 21, 1897. He is buried in the Rose Hill Cemetery in Macon