William Frassanito's books are a goldmine of information. A.M. Aiken had pledged not to aid the Confederates but on July 5, 1864 a Union detachment found he had been supplying hay and grain to the Confederates and also assisted 5 soldiers to escape capture. He was arrested and described as a "great rascal". These soldiers were part of General Butlers army. He was a great champion of African American soldiers.

I have to comment on this picture. I have seen few images here at Shorpy.com that were so inspiring to me as this one. The image of African American men who have been wounded in battle fighting for their freedom moves me deeply.

Here's a better view from Bing Maps.

Bird HOUSE? Bird BARRACKS is more like it.

That is certainly a purple martin house. According to this page:

http://purplemartin.org/main/history.html

Purple martins are domesticated, in the sense that they require human-built nests. This happened before the Europeans arrived, when the native Americans put up collections of gourds for them to inhabit. Apparently the communal bird house of the type pictured here has been around for quite a while.

A fine example of Army Signal Corp barracks for pigeon-toed recruits.

And to the left of Aiken's house is a condo for 72 homing pigeons, or what?

What a grand birdhouse!

The house is still apparently standing in Varina, a little southeast of Richmond.

If I saw that birdhouse today, I would assume it was for purple martins. Were they popular back then? Were they trying to keep down the insect population?