Washington, DC

Location: This photograph was taken at a studio in Washington, D.C.

People: The sitter is Private Aquila France from Menasha, Wisconsin.

Activity: Private France was first mustered for service in Company C of the 10th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry on September 3, 1861. Taken prisoner at Murfreesboro, Tennessee and contracting Typhoid Fever, he was released in a prisoner exchange and discharged with a disability on July 20, 1862. He re-enlisted in Company B of the 37th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry on March 31, 1864 and was discharged on July 27, 1865. Given that the 37th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry served in the Virginia theatre of war, it is likely that this photograph was taken in 1864, near the beginning of his second term of service. After his discharge, he returned to Wisconsin working as a farmer and a carpenter, eventually homesteading with his family on a farm in Wall Lake Township, Wright County, Iowa.