Faces of War - Visualizations: Rank at muster out

	Rank at muster out About half of the of the 200 soldiers that have appeared in "Faces of War," Faces of the Civil War and Faces of the Confederacy left the army as a line officer with the rank of lieutenant or captain. About one-third were privates or noncommissioned officers. These numbers are way out of proportion with the actual numbers of soldiers who served in the Union and Confederate armies. Several factors may explain the difference. As explained in Faces of the Civil War: "A large percentage of the identified images in my collection are lieutenants and captains, and they are the subjects in many cartes de visite on the market. The reason for this imbalance may be that their photographs were simply in greater demand by the rank and file, in addition to fellow staff officers and friends and family. Lieutenants and captains were likely to be formal and informal leaders in the towns and villages from which their regiments were formed and were closely acquainted with the privates and noncommissioned officers who served in their companies. Another explanation may be that officers were of a higher social and economic class, and card photographs may have been more important to this group of Americans."