2-832-342 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

This carte-de-visite has a photographic print depicting Sergeant Jacob Johns seated, facing the viewer with his gloved hands resting on his lap. His right elbow is resting on a small, circular side table, while it appears he is holding his left arm up without support. Johns is wearing an oversized four-button sack coat with an outside slash pocket. His uniform includes sergeant bars sewn onto the sleeves of his coat, pants with a dark stripe down the outer side of each leg, a belt with a rectangular metal belt plate, gloves, a sword and sash, and a medal pinned to his proper left chest. Johns wears a goatee. The carte-de-visite is inscribed and signed in ink along the bottom of the mount, reading "Your Obt. Servt, / Jacob Johns". The reverse of the mount is blank. Sgt. Jacob Johns died in service with the U.S. Colored Troops, one of nearly 180,000 black soldiers who fought for the Union during the Civil War. They were not allowed to join until the Second Confiscation and Militia Act in 1862.