He was wounded at the Battle of Fair Oaks, Va., and contracted typhoid fever, and died in 1862

Mathew Brady image

(1827-62) He was born in Gorham, Maine, but his family moved to the lumbering and saw mill center of Old Town, Maine when he was still a boy. Jameson became a successful lumberman, and in 1860 he was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention from Maine at Charleston, S.C., and supported Senator Stephen A. Douglas from Illinois for president. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, he was elected Colonel and commander of the 2nd Maine Infantry, the first Maine unit to leave the state for the front. He led his regiment into the First Battle of Bull Run, and was soon promoted to brigadier general. During the 1862 Virginia Peninsular campaign, Jameson commanded a brigade in the 3rd Corps, and as "General of the Trenches" on May 4, 1862, he was the first to discover that the Confederates had evacuated Yorktown, Va. During the battle of Seven Pines, also known as the Battle of Fair Oaks, Jameson's command got closer to Richmond than any other portion of General McClellan's army, and he was praised for conspicuous bravery by his corps commander General Samuel P. Heintzelman. He was wounded during the battle and contracted "typhoid fever" and was sent home to Maine to convalesce. He died in Old Town, Me., on November 6, 1862, and is buried at Riverside Cemetery in Stillwater, Maine. Some sources suggest that Jameson actually died on the steamship carrying him home to Maine. In either case, a promising, young 35 year old Union general, had his life cut short by war in 1862, and he never had the opportunity to live up to his full potential as a military commander.

Wet plate, albumen carte de visite photograph, mounted to 2 3/8 x 4 card. Standing view in uniform with rank of brigadier general. He poses with his arms folded across his chest. Brady, Washington imprint on the front mount. Excellent image. Rare.