This rare sixth plate tintype image is of Lieutenants Isaac Brewer of Maryland (left) and James Dearing of Campbell City, Virginia (right) of Third Company, Washington Artillery, probably taken in Richmond, Virginia in 1861. Isaac Brewer, a lawyer working in New Orleans at the outbreak of the war, joined the Washington Artillery prior to the unit’s departure for Virginia in 1861. While camped with the unit outside Richmond he became a friend of James Dearing of Virginia. Dearing had recently resigned as a cadet of West Point to receive a commission in the Confederate Provisional Army and was assigned to the Washington Artillery as a valuable artillery instructor. Brewer would die at Rappahannock Station August 23, 1862, while his friend, then General Dearing, found the same fate three years later at High Bridge on April 6, 1865.Dearing would have the unfortunate honor of being the last Confederate general to die in the War Between the States.

James Dearing was born on April 25, 1840 in Virginia. He entered West Point Academy in 1858 and immediately displayed a rebellious attitude. A fellow cadet described him as “a reckless, handsome boy” who introduced the tune “Dixie” to the academy, earning him the reputation of secessionist and demerits from his superiors. Dearing resigned that institution on April 22, 1861, only three days short of his twenty-first birthday, and joined the Washington Artillery upon its arrival to Richmond in early July 1861 with fellow cadet and friend Thomas Rosser. Dearing stayed with the company for the first year of the war, but thereafter left the unit to steadily rise in rank to Brigadier General. He caught the admiration of General James Longstreet who noted his “conspicuous courage and energy.” By 1864 he had commanded both Pickett’s and W. H. F. Lee’s cavalries. Dearing holds the unfortunate honor of being the last Confederate general killed in the war. On April 6, 1865, while defending the Washington Artillery’s retreat to Appomattox, Dearing’s brigade encountered Federals at High Bridge over the Appomattox River. Dearing rode to the brigade’s front, where he became engaged in a pistol duel with Union Lt. Col. Theodore Read. Read died instantly in the exchange, but Dearing sustained a mortal wound, dying April 23rd, a full two weeks after Lee’s surrender. This image reveals a young Dearing with an eerie look of death. No details of his blue eyes can be seen due to his blinking during the photo-taking process. In hindsight, this ghostly effect to his eyes appears to reflect an ominous sign of Dearing’s fateful future.