Manipulation of these images to ready them for etching has been multifaceted. The final goal was to create cohesive illustrative images suitable for etching onto the massive polished black granite monument that will be erected in the Vicksburg National Military Park. The monument itself will be located in Louisiana at the canal site, where the soldiers toiled... (Geographically, the Vicksburg National Park crosses the state line and includes land in both Louisiana and Mississippi. The park is typically identified as being located in Mississippi.)

Keeping in mind that the goal was to create illustrative images with sufficient detail for etching, (not for portraiture or finished montage work), the final images are not as polished as they would be if the goal had been for print quality artwork. Hundreds of hours have been invested in the development of these images. To raise each image to finished print-quality would require many many more hours...

Most of our original images were deteriorated and needed some restoration work to bring back enough detail for Stacy Mathieu, the etching artist, to work onto the granite. This was the first step for most of the portrait images.

Some portraits were from old publications and detail had been lost due to photo-copying, enlargement and half-toning; (some began as mere thumbnail-sized images). Some were photographs or illustrations taken after the men had aged or had changed military rank.

For images with very little detail, we overlaid photos of men with similar facial features to provide much needed depth and expression to some of our soldier's faces.

Details extracted from photographs taken at modern Civil War re-enactments, along with other images, were merged with the original images to apply historically accurate badges on sleeves, shoulder boards, buttons and kepis (hats). With some images, military uniforms had to be substituted for civilian clothing before the appropriate military insignias could be added.

For the bottom montage panels, numerous images were combined to create scenes to reflect the various duties and hardships of the men as they served. Most of these images were taken at local Civil War re-enactments but some were taken at the actual Vicksburg site. Other images were posed and photographed to supply a necessary detail or scene.

In addition to typical issues related to merging multiple images taken in dramatically different locations, (different perspectives, resolutions, lighting & shadows, etc...), care was taken to create historically accurate images. As with the soldier's portraits, many uniforms were adjusted in the group images to reflect ranks as they would have been assigned in their labors.

Tom Callinan worked diligently to research, verify and double-check the historical accuracy of the images. More on Tom, his recordings and the history of the 9th can be found here...

The Ninth Regimental Seal posed its own set of challenges. Plans were made to have the actual flag bearing the regimental seal taken out of the display cabinet in the Hall of Flags at the State Capitol in Hartford, CT for the specific purpose of creating accurate reference images. When the date arrived for the photo session, the flag was found to be too fragile to handle and the session was cancelled.

Our primary reference photo for the Ninth Regiment Seal was taken after the flag had already suffered some of the ravages of time. Some of the lettering, shamrocks weaving through and over the harp, the number of harp strings, along with other details, were also either missing or barely visible on the original reference photos. Though we tried to stay true to the original image by enhancing what was visible, it was necessary to create some of the details of the emblem by digitally painting on our reference image, after the typical image restoration adjustments. As with the portrait and composite images, our goal was to make the seal as historically accurate as possible.