Identified photo courtesy of O.J. Fargo, Army of the Southwest.
O.J. Fargo Army of the Southwest, Photo by the author
LEGACY
I've only known O.J. Fargo for a short time, about three years to be exact. We became acquainted when I joined the Army of the Southwest (ASW), which is a civil war reenactment group based in Iowa. We both got into civil war reenacting around the same time in the 1990's. O'J. was one of the founding members of the ASW, and, like myself, he is an avid researcher. At a recent event in Zearing Iowa, I saw O.J. had a laptop and folder with a cover that said something about locating peoples civil war ancestors, and he mentioned a project that he was working on to create a searchable database of Iowa civil war soldiers. He also mentioned something about legacy, I heard what he said, and I thought I knew exactly what he was talking about. I answered him in my own mind and didn't say it out loud, but in recent months I had been thinking the exact same thing. I didn't exactly understand the depth of what his project was about until he put out and additional email explaining what he had been working on. When I read his email, I sat up in my chair, because he went on to explain that he had compiled a database of approximately 2700 identified Cart de visit photos of civil war soldiers from Iowa units that served in the conflict. To the best of my knowledge, besides large, organized collections in various military museums and historical societies, this was quite the endeavor.
"I have just finished another lengthy project to supplement my Iowa Civil War soldiers searchable database. Tilting at windmills is my specialty. I have 2700+ CDVs (Carte de Visits)/pictures of Iowa soldiers with at least 2 from each regiment That doesn’t make a dent in the 72,000+ that served but it is a one-of-a-kind collection. I thought that might be of interest to you as a curiosity. I can call them up alphabetically or by regiment. Coupled with the database there could also be specialty searches e. g. everyone who was wounded in the 4th Iowa, those born in Denmark etc. All of the 2000+ photos are identified and matched to my searchable database. I can tell someone everything Civil War-ish about each person in the picture.
Attached are 3 pictures I just have handy. Two are labeled the third one is Amos Rawley of the 4th Cavalry. He is a relative of Mike Rowley who didn’t know he existed until I sent him the picture."
-O.J. Fargo
ASW
Amos Rawley of the 4th Cavalry
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