DALTON — Through their sharp contrast, the photos of Hubbard Pryor tell a remarkable story about resilience.
In the first, he is seated, dressed in possibly the same tattered clothes he wore during his escape from enslavement in North Georgia. In the second, he is standing at attention, smartly dressed in a Union Army uniform and shouldering a rifle.
Shot in the spring of 1864, the pictures reveal a man who risked everything to fight for the freedom of others still in bondage.
Pryor’s impassive expressions in both photos do not betray his feelings, though he must have been relieved to have survived his escape. He also could have been filled with pride wearing his blue uniform. Many Black men fought in the same uniform with distinction. By the end of the war, 26 African Americans earned the Medal of Honor for valor.
When he posed for his photos, Pryor might also have been dreading what was ahead. Nearly a quarter of the roughly 200,000 Black men who served in the federal military during the Civil War died, including about 10,000 in battle and 30,000 from diseases and infections. Some were massacred by Confederates after they were overwhelmed and sought to surrender.