This contribution relates to the discovery of unexpected sources concerning Pitt Rivers in North America while on military service during the Trent Affair of 1861. The sources are variously pictorial—Notman Studio portraits and Lady Filmer album images—and textual; the latter, a contemporary diary of a fellow soldier, John Wimburn Laurie. Aside from bringing to light the only known photographs of Pitt Rivers in uniform, it had not been previously known that he had travelled in the United States, which may have implications concerning the source of some of his collection materials. Finally, touching upon matters of distant travel and ‘leisure’ while in service, these sources reflect upon the character of the nineteenth-century military and the milieu in which Pitt Rivers eventually become such an accomplished archaeologist.