Description

This image came out of a family in Navarro County, Texas with a verbal provenance that it depicted John A. Strobel.   Strobel served as a private in Company F of Griffin’s Texas Infantry Battalion.  Griffin’s Infantry Battalion was assembled during the early summer of 1862 with six companies.  The unit served in the Trans-Mississippi Department along the Texas coast and at Galveston.   In the spring of 1864 it was merged, along with the 11th Texas Cavalry and Infantry Battalion, into the 21st Texas Infantry Regiment.  Although technically a legion because it included cavalry and infantry, the regiment never officially received that designation.  Col. Ashley W. Spaight commanded the regiment with field officers Lt. Col. William H. Griffin and Maj. Felix C. McReynolds.  In the spring of 1864 the regiment was on duty at Galveston and was stationed along the Texas coast throughout that year and served at Sabine Pass and Matagorda Island.  In Texas the men of the regiment saw no combat; they served primarily as scouts and performed garrison duty.  After a short assignment at Marshall, Texas, during the winter of 1864–65 the regiment moved to Shreveport, Louisiana. The regiment served there until April 1865 without any combat. The Twenty-first Infantry then returned to Texas and disbanded in May 1865 shortly before the surrender of the Trans-Mississippi Department in June 1865.

The image has exceptional content, as Strobel is wielding both a large D-Guard Bowie knife and what looks like a Colt Model 1851 Navy revolver.  He is wearing a belt with a Model 1851 eagle belt plate, and his uniform has a decidedly Texas look to it.  Except for a couple of scratches on the soldier, the image is in excellent condition and is housed in a nice thermoplastic case.  D-Guard Confederate images are highly desirable, and this one would be a fine addition to any Confederate image collection.