Found on NPR. Good article.

Unknown No More: Identifying A Civil War Soldier[/ur

Someone on a blog pointed out that the carved initials are actually A.T., not A.T., because of the tintype reversal, so the mystery may remain unsolved.

Its true. Here is what it looks like flipped, meaning NOT backwards.



AT no TA

From the comment thread on the NPR piece, it looks like there'll be a follow up on who A.T. might have been:

NPR STAFF:
Ramona Martinez (rmartinez90) wrote:
Hey, guys! Just want to re-direct you again to the comment I posted yesterday, which is now in the margin on the left side of the page. We are in fact looking into the initials, and probably a week or so we'll have information on who the 'A.T.' soldier would be, how the mistake was made in the first place (and a little more about tintypes and their orientation) and answers to more of your historical questions that didn't make it in the piece due to its length. Stay tuned! In the meantime, do me a favor and remind people we're working on it in case this gets eaten by the comments board! - Ramona

I have no idea how all the "experts" could have looked at this and not noticed that if it were not backwards it would make the musket left handed. Something that didnt exist. When ever I look at period images with muskets in them I picture in my mind picking it up and shooting it. Just something Ive always done.