This daguerreotype of John Sivil, Jr. was taken sometime taken after October 27, 1862, the day that he and his father, John Sivil, Sr. (c. 1807–1864), enlisted in the U. S. Army. A decade earlier the family had immigrated to this country as part of the British Emigrants’ Mutual Aid Society. Ultimately they settled in a community named Big Mound in what became known as the “English Colony” in Lee County, Iowa. Like his father, the younger Sivil was a boot and shoemaker.

It seems likely that John Sivil, Jr., like many Civil War soldiers, had his photograph taken as soon as he enlisted and received his uniform. They wanted to leave behind an image with their families and it was not uncommon that this was their first portrait. Similarly, the letters that Sivil wrote home were treasured and carefully preserved, as were the fifes that Sivil played in his role as a military musician.