Identified & Signed Rees Ambrotype – Private Richard T. Mattocks, 8th Virginia Infantry, Wounded & Captured at Gettysburg
This exceptional 1/6th plate ambrotype is a crystal-clear, identified portrait of Private Richard T. Mattocks, Company C, 8th Virginia Infantry. The image is boldly signed “Rees” (Charles R. Rees of Richmond) directly under Mattocks’ right arm — a highly desirable mark from one of the most celebrated Confederate photographers of the war. Mattocks is seated in a relaxed yet dignified pose, wearing an open-breasted Confederate shell jacket and holding his hat in his hand. The clarity is outstanding, with strong tonal range and excellent detail typical of Rees studio work.
Service Record:
33-year-old farmer at enlistment
Enlisted May 8, 1861, at Haymarket, Virginia, as a Private
Mustered into Company C, 8th Virginia Infantry
Wounded in the foot and captured July 3, 1863, at Gettysburg
Confined at Point Lookout, Maryland (October 1863)
Exchanged March 16, 1864
Retired from service due to wounds, June 15, 1864
Paroled April 26, 1865, at Fairfax Court House, Virginia
Described at enlistment: 5'9", blue eyes, light hair
Gettysburg History – “The Bloody Eighth”
On July 3, 1863, the 8th Virginia Infantry — part of Garnett’s Brigade in Pickett’s Division — took part in the legendary Pickett-Pettigrew-Trimble Charge (Pickett’s Charge) against Cemetery Ridge. Advancing across three-quarters of a mile of open ground under devastating artillery and musket fire, the regiment charged directly toward the stone wall. Nicknamed “The Bloody Eighth,” the regiment suffered catastrophic losses. Contemporary accounts and regimental reports indicate that approximately 243 men went into the charge; only about 75 answered roll call afterward — a staggering loss rate approaching 70–90% depending on exact strength figures. The 8th Virginia was virtually shattered in those thirty minutes of fighting, with most of its officers and men killed, wounded, or captured. Mattocks was one of those struck in the foot during the assault, taken prisoner on the field, and sent to Point Lookout prison camp. This ambrotype, taken earlier in the war, captures a soldier who survived one of the most iconic and bloodiest moments of the entire Civil War.
A remarkable regimental history anecdote describes Mattocks’ actions that day:
“Men of the 8th Regiment were ordered to lie down when the precharge artillery barrage started around 1:00 P.M. However, there is always some restless spirit to defy danger. Dick (Richard) Mattocks of Company C was one of those. During the barrage Dick took several canteens to fill from a neighboring pump... After partaking of what food he could find, he emerged wearing a new straw hat, leaving his old vermin-infested cap in its place. Dick may have been the only man who went into the charge that afternoon wearing a straw hat.” Mattocks was wounded in the foot during the assault and captured on the field.
The following is excepted from an article published in the Manassas Joumal newspaper of July 26th 1906. At the beginning of the following, I am just setting the stage so that you know what they were facing at the time of the HAT incident.
Memories of Gettysburg, July 3rd 1863
On that eventful moming, reveille sounded at half past three, being the third successive morning that we had been called up at that hour......
We ate our breakfast and were moved some two or three miles to our position in line, passing over the dead of the day before to reach the position. We were placed on the Easter slope of a hill, in full view of the enemy's line, nearly a mile away, a little after sunnse......Soon after that our line was advanced to the valley in front of us, where we walted in suspense for some time. A mighty quiet seemed to have taken possession of the boys.
There was no guying of each other; no joking, no laughter; orders were given in a subdued tone; the officer's horses tossed their heads in an uneasy kind of way. We were posted immediately behind Deering's battalion of artillery, and it was a positive relief when the first brazen throat belched forth, followed in quick succession by another and another, until the whole three hundred were answering back at each other, I hardly think that anyone who lay under the shelling can have forgotten it. The scorching July sun, the shells, screaming and bursting around. Major Deering galloping from battery to battery, reminding one of a storm bird, reveling in the storm, old Hunton quietly pacing backwards and forwards in front of his line. "Keep cool, boys."
"Colonel, how Is a man to keep cool in such a place as this?
"O, well, I mean dont get excited."
Old Dick Mattocks went with a tum of canteens to a neighboring pump and came back without any water and with a very nice looking straw hat on
"Dick, where is the water, where did you get that hat?"
"Just as I got to the pump a cannon ball took off the handle. I went into the house; nobody there; saw this hat hanging in the hall, and traded my cap for it."
After what seemed an age the artillery firing slackened, Col. Hunton
said.
"Orders are to move forward in common time until you get close enough to see the whites of enemy's eyes, then rush on them and give them the bayonet; Forward, dress to the left."
Then commenced the march "into the jaws of death, into the mouth of
Hell,".
This image was originally brought to market by Adam Fleshier of Fleischer Auctions. It was housed in a small wooden frame bearing a pencil inscription reading “Richard Mattock”. For protection, the ambrotype has been professionally transferred into a period case.
This is an extremely rare, fully identified Confederate ambrotype by the premier Richmond photographer Charles R. Rees, showing a Gettysburg casualty from one of the hardest-hit regiments in Pickett’s Charge. Pieces like this — with clear photographer signature, battle provenance, and direct family connection — are among the most desirable in the entire Confederate image market.
