Bidspirit auction | (AMERICAN-JUDAICA). CARTE DE VISITE PHOTOGRAPH

(AMERICAN-JUDAICA). CARTE DE VISITE PHOTOGRAPH of Colonel Marcus M. Spiegel. Contemporary inscription and identification on verso. 1860’s MARCUS M. SPIEGEL (1829-64) WAS THE HIGHEST RANKING JEWISH OFFICER IN THE CIVIL WAR.     Marcus Spiegel was born near Worms in Germany, and with his parents and siblings was part of an early wave of German Jewish immigration to the United States around 1850. Like many others, he first subsisted as a peddler, then married a Quaker woman, Caroline Hamlin, who converted to Judaism and settled in Chicago. Spiegel volunteered for the Union Army after war broke out, and quickly rose through the ranks, being promoted to Colonel and commander of the 120th Ohio Volunteer infantry. He was wounded shortly after the Battle of Vicksburg in 1863, but recovered and rejoined the war. He was fatally wounded at Snaggy Point in Louisiana, during the Red River Campaign.     Spiegel was a prolific letter-writer, and sent nearly 150 letters to his wife Caroline. Thus, his experiences and thoughts are some of the most documented of all who fought in the Civil War. Many of these letters have been published, see: Your True Marcus: The Civil War Letters of a Jewish Colonel (Kent State University Press, 1985).