Colorized Photographs of 48th Pennsylvania Soldiers

Colorized Image of Major Joseph Gilmour
48th PA

Last night, a number of my friends in the Civil War world shared on their social media accounts photographs of historical figures from the Civil War Era that were animated, or "brought to life," via technology by My Heritage

Most were of generals; some of civilians. Some of these animated photographs were rather compelling; others were, well. . .

In addition to animating historic photographs, My Heritage also colorizes images from the past. For several years now, adding color to old black-and-white or sepia-toned Civil War CDVs or tintypes has become increasingly ever more popular. While the verdict on this technology seems evenly split between those who like it and those who do not, I thought I would create an account and upload some photographs of 48th Pennsylvania soldiers from my collection to better see what these soldiers may have looked like in person. I also uploaded a photograph of Nicholas "Nick" Biddle of Pottsville, who, when marching off to war with the First Defenders in April 1861, shed some of the first blood of the American Civil War. 

When done well, colorizing historic photographs can be a powerful teaching tool in that it can better humanize, if you will, people from the past. There are many who simply cannot envision past events in anything other than black-and-white or sepia tones. When not done well, however,. . .they are simply not done well. 

I uploaded many images of 48th Pennsylvania soldiers; not all of them "worked" in the colorization process. But some did. The colorized images below I found compelling, especially the ones of Gilmour, Maidenfort, and Biddle. The stories of several of these soldiers can be found by clicking on their names. 

Anyway, here they are for your perusal. . . 

What are your thoughts on these? 

(The historic images are either from the Library of Congress or my personal collection; the colorized images were colorized by www.myheritage.com) 

Brigadier General James Nagle
Organizer and First Commander, 48th PA

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Unidentified Private
Company G 

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Corporal Samuel Stichter
Company D 

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Private Charles Lindenmuth 
Company I

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Commissioned Officers
Company G 

(Captain Oliver Bosbyshell, seated; Lt. Curtis Pollock, standing left;
Lt. Henry Clay Jackson, standing right)

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Unidentified Corporal
Company G

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Lieutenant Joseph Edwards
Company I 

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Major Joseph Gilmour
48th Pennsylvania 

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Captain Daniel Kauffman
Company A

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Private Henry Maidenfort
Company I

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Private Amos Rumbel
Company I 

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Unidentified Private
Likely Company A

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Captain Thomas Williams 
Company B 

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Nicholas "Nick" Biddle

(Post War Photograph)
First Defender 
One of the First Men to Shed Blood in the Civil War