http://americanart.si.edu/education/pdf/civil_war_photo.pdf
Historical Background:
The Civil War, the so-called first modern war, was also the first to be thoroughly photographed. Some 1500 photographers produced thousands of images in urban studios as well as in temporary locations in the field. Aside from the photographic portraits affordable to even the poorest soldier, the public could purchase group portraits of important officers, scenes of camp life, and pictures showing the marvels of military engineering such as bridges and fortifications. Battlefield photographs taken shortly after military action form a much smaller category. Photographers carrying cumbersome equipment kept their distance from the fighting, so almost no images exist that depict the action of battle. Though ironically the most often published, photographs of bodies rarelywere taken. The ravage of war is more often seen in photographs of a natural landscape decimated by the firestorm of battle. (from Merry A. Foresta. American Photographs: The First Century. Washington, D.C.: National Museum of American Art & Smithsonian Institution Press, 1996.)
In examining seven Civil War era photographs and the accompanying text, participants should be able to link the photograph to its historical context. Teaching the Civil War through images is a powerful way to provoke discussion and provide a richer understanding of the landscape and the period.
New York 7th Regiment Officers
Egbert Guy Fowx
about 1863 salted paper print mounted on paperboard 5 5/8 x 7 1/2 in. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase from the Charles Isaacs Collection made possible in part by the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment
THE SEVENTH REGIMENT STEUBEN VOLUNTEERS. This regiment, which is composed altogether of Germans, was first organized on the 8th of last January by experienced officers who saw some hard service in Poland, Hungary, Schleswig-Holstein and Greece. The regiment is now full, and mustered in the United States service. From the organization of the regiment up to the time it was admitted into the United States service, the men have been liberally supported by their officers. The uniforms of the men will be after the model of the United States Rifles, and they will be armed with Enfield’s Minie muskets. All of them are young able bodied fellows, and they drill admirably according to Hardee’s tactics. Both officers and men are extremely anxious to get en route, and are now only detained in consequence of having to wait for their equipments from the State. Several of the privates have left their families in very indigent circumstances, and the officers are doing their best to try and alleviate their distress.
7th Regiment New York Civil War Newspaper Clippings. Retrieved May 25, 2006, from New York State Division of Military and Naval Affairs: Military History Web Site:
http://www.dmna.state.ny.us/historic/reghist/civil/infantry/7thInf/7thInfCWN.htm
Major H. A. Barnum, Recovery after a Penetrating Gunshot Wound of the Abdomen with Perforation of the Left Ilium,
from the Photographic Catalogue of the Surgical Section
William Bell 1865
albumen print on paper mounted on paperboard 8 1/2 x 6 5/8 in. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase from the Charles Isaacs Collection made possible in part by the Luisita L. and Franz H.
Denghausen Endowment
As head of the photographic department of the Army Medical Museum established in Washington, D.C., after the Civil War, William Bell took pictures of veterans who had been severely wounded in battle. His work provides a visual archive of destruction quite different from the better-known albums of Alexander Gardner and George Bernard. Linking medical science with artistic formality, Bell’s stark portraits of the wounded were compiled in a seven-volume publication entitled Photographic Catalogue of the Surgical Section of the Army Medical Museum. Accompanying each photograph was a detailed description of the injury to the body and the appropriate medical procedure.
Foresta, Merry A. American Photographs: The First Century. Smithsonian American Art Museum (online exhibition). Retrieved on December 12, 2006 from http://americanart.si.edu/collections/exhibits/helios/amerphotos.html
Bivouac of the 45th Illinois near the Shirley House, Vicksburg, Mississippi
O. D. Finch
1863 salted paper print mounted on paperboard 6 1/2 x 8 1/2 in. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase from the Charles Isaacs Collection made possible in part by the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment
During the siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi, the Shirley House, residence of Unionist “Judge” James Shirley and his family, was caught in the crossfire of Union troops led by Ulysses S. Grant and Confederate troops under John C. Pemberton. Surrendering to Union forces, the family was removed from their home to protect them from cannon fire and housed in a manmade cave, like the ones (called sheebangs) in this photograph. The siege ended after six weeks when Pemberton, who was responsible for the city’s residents and more than 200,000 Confederate soldiers (many ill with disease and starvation), surrendered Vicksburg to the Union Army. The Union thereby gained complete control of the Mississippi River. The Shirleys retained their estate until 1902, when it was given to the National Park Service and became the Vicksburg National Military Park.
Foresta, Merry A. American Photographs: The First Century. Washington, D.C.: National Museum of
American Art with the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1996.
The Sick Soldier
studio of Mathew B. Brady
about 1863 albumen print on paper mounted on paperboard 5 5/8 x 7 7/8 in. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase from the Charles Isaacs Collection made possible in part by the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment
When the Civil War began, photographer Mathew Brady obtained permission for himself and his staff to travel with the troops. All photographs taken by Brady or any of his staff were published under the name Brady and Co. Like most photographers during the war, Brady and his staff rarely photographed actual battles. Cumbersome camera equipment and slow exposure times made it difficult to capture action. Instead, they focused on the aftermath of battle, military portraits, and scenes of camp life. Brady’s expertise as a studio photographer may have suggested the posed drama of The Sick Soldier. His picture of a Northern soldier being aided by another played to the collective trauma of mid- nineteenth-century households, most of whom had suffered the loss of a relative or friend.
Foresta, Merry A. American Photographs: The First Century. Washington, D.C.: National Museum of
American Art with the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1996.
Ruins of Gaines’ Mill, Virginia, from Gardner’s Sketchbook of the Civil War
John Reekie 1865/published 1865 Printer:
Alexander Gardner
albumen print on paper mounted on paperboard 7 x 9 in. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase from the Charles Isaacs Collection made possible in part by the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment
“Gaines’ Mill” is the place from which the battle of June 27th 1862, takes its name. Situated near the center of our line, it was the scene of severe fighting, and at the close of that bloody day, the building was used as a hospital. All of the structure that would burn, was destroyed in one of the raids around Richmond, leaving only the brick superstructure, above which, scorched by the fire, the dead trees spread their blackened branches. In front, the partially exposed skeleton illustrates the hasty manner of the soldier’s burial, it being by no means uncommon for the rains to wash away the shallow covering, and bring to view the remains of the dead. The owner of the mill did not have a creditable reputation in the army.... If this is true, he suffered no more than his deserts, in the destruction of his property.
Gardner, Alexander. Gardner’s Photographic Sketchbook of the Civil War. New York: Dover Publications, 1959.
Quarters of Men in Fort Sedgwick, Known as Fort Hell
Timothy H. O'Sullivan
1865 albumen print on paper 7 5/8 x 10 in. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase from the Charles Isaacs Collection made possible in part by the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment
This view exhibits the bomb-proof quarters occupied by both officers and men in Fort Sedgwick. Excavations were made in the ground and covered first with heavy pieces of timber, over which a layer of earth, of several feet in thickness, is thrown, sufficient to resist the penetration and explosion of any shell that might fall upon them.... Fort Sedgwick is one of the most advanced points of the United States lines, standing boldly forward, and constantly inviting attack. The work is a very irregular one and is thrown across the Jerusalem Plank Road, one of the most important thoroughfares leading out of Petersburg [Virginia]. ... Scarcely a day passed without witnessing a heavy artillery duel, and each hour of those many long and weary months, as two brave armies lay opposite to each other, could be heard the shrill, sharp report of some leaded messenger of death. It was here, as elsewhere, that only the reckless would dare expose the slightest part of the person even for a second, and well does this noted spot deserve the not very euphonious name to ears polite, as given by the soldiers, of “Fort Hell.”
Gardner, Alexander. Gardner’s Photographic Sketchbook of the Civil War. New York: Dover Publications, 1959.
Burnside Bridge, Across Antietam Creek, Maryland, from Gardner’s Sketchbook of the Civil War
Alexander Gardner
1862/published 1865
albumen print on paper mounted on paperboard
7 x 9 in.
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase from the Charles Isaacs
Collection made possible in part by the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment
One mile below Sharpsburg [Maryland] on Antietam Creek, a stone structure, known as the “Burnside Bridge,” crosses the stream. ....
It was at this point that some of the most desperate fighting of the battle of Antietam occurred. The right of the Federal line was several miles above, and with the center hotly engaged, the Confederates slowly forcing them back, while General Burnside, commanding the Ninth Corps, was ordered to carry this point and turn the enemy’s right. As is partially shown by the photograph, the banks of the stream were very steep, and well defended by rifle pits which were covered by the guns of the Confederates on the ridge in the background. The assaulting column suffered heavily as it approached the bridge, and, in crossing, was exposed to a murderous fire, through which it rapidly pressed, breaking over the lines of the enemy like a resistless wave, and sweeping him from the hillside. Here our troops again formed under a heavy artillery fire, and pushed forward into the standing corn, out of which a second line of Confederates suddenly arose and renewed the contest, which lasted for many hours, finally resulting in our victory. At the close of the fight the dead and wounded on the field here presented seemed countless. The Confederates were buried where they fell, and our own dead carefully interred in groups, which were enclosed with the material of fences overthrown in the struggle. The stone wall extending from the bridge still bears evidence of the battle, and is the only monument of many gallant men who sleep in the meadow at its side.
Gardner, Alexander. Gardner’s Photographic Sketchbook of the Civil War. New York: Dover Publications, 1959.
Additional resources
http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/7milVol/
Gardner’s
Photographic Sketch Book of the War (Washington: Philp & Solomons,
1865–66)
was published in two editions, one in 1865 and the other
in 1866, both editions consisting of two volumes of fifty albumen print
photographs, each with a descriptive caption, generally believed to have
been written by Gardner himself. The Cornell University copy is from the
first edition, containing one hundred unnumbered plates.
Historians estimate
that no more than 200 copies of the Sketch Book were produced.
The small print run is due primarily to the difficulty of mass-producing
photographically illustrated books in the 1860s, before the advent of
simple, reliable photomechanical processes. The original photographic
prints were pasted onto boards, which were then bound together with letterpress-printed
text. The set of two volumes sold for $150, a price that reflects the
laborious production methods necessary for this work. 200 sets were ultimately
published, but many did not sell. The high price most likely accounts
for the project’s financial failure.
“The
Blank Horror”: War and its Victims
Gardner’s photographers
did not whitewash the gruesome reality of the battlefield. Following the
army’s movements closely, they sometimes set up cameras while combat
was still underway. Frequently, they arrived at battle scenes before casualties
had been buried, as some of the following images demonstrate.
Casualties were
not only human: photographers captured the skeletal remains of the city
of Richmond after Lee’s army retreated from the Southern capital
in April, 1865. Fleeing troops had set fire to munitions warehouses; the
explosions triggered fires that destroyed much of the business section
of the city and over 1,000 buildings.
“Devastated
by the Armies”: The Changed Landscape
Warfare had a dramatic
impact on the landscape. Massive engineering projects displaced earth,
removed timber for building material, and erected large structures, all
of which altered familiar terrain. Fort Sedgwick (right) on the Petersburg,
Virginia, front, was a notable example of defenses carved out of the earth;
it was designed by Major Washington Roebling. Battles brought tent cities,
while artillery destroyed trees and rocks. In short, war changed the topography—a
reality seen especially well through the eye of Timothy O’Sullivan.
Faithful
Servants: the Administration of War
Gardner’s photographic
studio in Washington, D.C., brought him into close contact with many important
government officials. Allan Pinkerton was a personal friend of Gardner’s,
and first hired the photographer as an agent of the Union Army’s
Secret Service. Gardner began by making photographic reproductions of
secret documents, later documenting battles through photographs. All the
while, he maintained a thriving commercial trade in photography. He took
thirty-seven portrait photographs of President Lincoln—more than
any other photographer. Thus Gardner had a special knowledge of and appreciation
for the Union’s “faithful servants” who worked quietly,
but effectively alongside soldiers.
“The
Very Life of Camp”
Many
of the photographs Gardner chose to include in his Sketch Book depict
mundane moments of the soldier’s life. The detailed examination
of the unglamorous aspects of life in military encampments testifies to
the familiarity that Gardner and his photographers enjoyed inside the
camps. Cities of tents, post offices, blacksmiths—all became subjects
for the camera. The images also bring insight into the leisure time spent
by soldiers, both through David Knox’s image of a cock fight, and
through Gardner’s verbal description of sports, games and regimental
pets. Finally, James Gardner’s Breaking Camp (detail, right)
offers a view of a camp dismantled, its text, written after the war, is
a nostalgic ode to a way of life gone by.
Advantageous
Auxiliaries:
Warfare & Technology
New technologies
developed in the mid-nineteenth century had a dramatic impact on military
engagements during the Civil War. Samuel F. B. Morse’s telegraph,
operating in the U. S. since 1844, proved to be a powerful means of communication.
Gardner’s captions provide fascinating detail about the construction
and use of the telegraph in the field. The figure standing to the left
of the field telegraph wagon in David Knox’s photograph, plate 73,
Field Telegraph Battery Wagon (right), is James Gardner, brother
of Alexander Gardner, and contributing photographer (see plate 63, Breaking
Camp). Ironically, signaling—an ancient form of communication—proved
itself just as crucial to military operations as the humming telegraph
wires, as the text accompanying Plate 22, Signal Tower. Elk Mountain,
Overlooking Battle-field of Antietam, demonstrates.
The wet collodion,
glass plate negatives used to take these photographs required long exposures
of 20 seconds to five minutes. Split-second movements could not be captured,
which accounts for the many ghost images of subjects who had moved during
the exposure. The long exposure time needed partly accounts for the presence
of only one active combat scene in the Sketch Book: Plate 31, Battery
D, 2nd U. S. Artillery in Action.
“To
the Memory of the Patriots”
Gardner’s
essential project was to recount the history of the Civil War through
images. Gardner planned the Sketch Book as a form of documentation, but
was capable of stretching the truth for the sake of storytelling. He was
also aware of how crucial a role he, his photographer colleagues, and
other professionals had played in the telling of history throughout the
war. The New York Herald, for instance, assembled its own army
of correspondents to follow the movements of the Army of the Potomac.
Photographers and journalists worked together to memorialize events and
sites of the war, their images and words serving as monuments alongside
the obelisk at Bull Run (right).
Gettysburg
The photographers
Alexander Gardner, Timothy O’Sullivan and James Gibson set off for
Gettysburg on July 3, 1863, hours after telegraphs had relayed the news
that the battle had begun. Gardner was briefly captured by J. E. B. Stuart
and his retreating troops in Emmitsburg, Maryland, while en route to Gettysburg,
but was released after a few hours’ detention. When the photographers
arrived in Gettysburg, they found battlefields strewn with corpses, and
set up their cameras to record the scenes. The two most famous images
of the Sketch Book were taken at Gettysburg: Harvest of Death, by O’Sullivan,
and Home of the Rebel Sharpshooter, by Gardner. Both images depict the
human cost of warfare in very stark terms, directly confronting a few
of the many corpses the photographers encountered. It has been determined
that Gardner added a rifle from his collection of props, and moved the
body of the sharpshooter to construct a more artistic composition for
his own photograph. His accompanying text, written three years later,
is likewise a heavily fictionalized account of the sharpshooter’s
demise.
