This is an original Civil War era ambrotype image. The ambrotype images are made by applying the emulsion onto the glass plate. This shows a young man with a very cool look about him. Around his waist he wear the 2-piece militia style belt buckle. The rest of his outfit doesn't appear to be military to me but I guess it could be. The image is in an original thermoplastic material that is better known as a "Gutta Percha" case. They are high quality cases that held the best images of the Civil War era. It will hold the tintype style image as well as an ambrotype or Daguerreotype. It still has the maker's marking from the LIttlefield & Parsons Company as well as the notation that it is a "UNION CASE". This one is the size known to collectors as the quarter plate image. This means that the image it is designed to hold measures 4-1/4th inches by 3-1/4th inches in size. On the sides of the case it has the design that is known as case #48, 'The Music Lesson,' design case in the wonderful 1988 copy-written book entitled Union Cases; A Collector's Guide to the Art of America's First Plastics by Krainik, Krainik, and Walvoord. They note that this case is "Scarce". This is a great looking image