This impressive machine was named for General Herman Haupt, chief of construction and transportation for the U.S. Army's military railroads.
Note that the wood burning locomotive appears to have a full tender of firewood, and the tender bears the marking "U.S. Military R.R." The large structure in the background is the roundhouse of the Alexandria Station in Virginia.
This nicely composed photograph was taken by Alexander J. Russell, who had been a painter before joining the U.S. Army, where he became the first photographer ever employed by the U.S. military.
Russell continued taking photographs of trains after the Civil War and became the official photographer for the transcontinental railroad. Six years after taking this photo, Russell's camera would capture a famous scene when two locomotives were brought together at Promontory Point, Utah, for the driving of the "golden spike."
