Civil War Battlefield That Changed Everything (Photos & Videos)

[Warph]

"A Burial Party, Cold Harbor, Virginia," photographed by John Reekie in 1865, depicts African American soldiers collecting corpses from the site of a massive battle which took place in May-June 1864.

                               

The Civil War Battlefield That Changed Everything

Alexander Gardner made these incredibly powerful images before newspapers could even print photographs.
By Heather Murphy|Posted Monday, Sept. 17, 2012, at 6:10 PM ET

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Antietam

When Alexander Gardner arrived on the bloody Antietam battlefield in 1862, with his cumbersome photography equipment, he set out to do something that no one had ever done. It was the first time a photographer attempted to document a battlefield before the dead had been cleared away. It was unclear exactly what would become of these incredibly detailed images soldiers burying the dead and bodies zig-zagging across dry fields. At that point in time, newspapers could not yet print photographs (only wood cuttings of images) and no such work had ever existed.

About one month later photographer Mathew Brady exhibited the work in his New York studio. Even all these years later the photos are still often referred to as the most powerful battlefield images of all time. It is hard to process what the experience of seeing them must been like for people who had rarely been exposed to any sorts of documentary-style photos, let alone images of war.

"Mr. Brady has done something to bring home to us the terrible reality and earnestness of war," a reporter for the New York Times wrote after a visit to Brady's studio. "If he has not brought bodies and laid them in our door-yards and along streets, he has done something very like it."

The images did not simply reveal the crumpled dead and deflated survivors in incredible detail; many of the images did so in 3-D. Gardner employed a new photographic technique at the time—the sterograph. Two lenses captured two photographs simultaneously, which provided a three-dimensional image when seen through a viewer. In parlors across America, people stood with their viewers and processed the reality of battle in unprecedented detail.

The following images were taken during Gardner's two trips to Antietam—the first two days after battle and the others later when he returned during President Lincoln's visit in October.


The burial crew at work.



A group of artillery officers on the Antietam battlefield. Two lenses captured simultaneous
photographs. When seen through a viewer, this image appears three-dimensional.



A makeshift field hospital.



A Federal soldier is buried, while a Confederate lays unburied. This level of realism in war
imagery was unheard of at the time.



The dead fill what would be known as Bloody Lane.



The dead are readied for burial.



In addition to photographing the dead, Gardner carefully documented the impact on the
landscape and architecture.



A signal tower overlooking the Antietam battlefield.



An ambulance drill in the field, likely taken later during Gardner's second visit to the battlefield.



A picnic party at Antietam bridge on Sept. 22.



President Lincoln with Gen. George B. McClellan and group of officers on Oct. 3, 1862.

                           

                   
September 17th was the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest battle in American history.
23,000 men were killed, wounded or went missing in a single day. Why was Antietam so deadly?

Technological advances, foolish tactics, and bad decision-making.

As in other Civil War battles, both the Union and Confederate forces arranged their infantries shoulder to shoulder in long parallel lines. This made sense when fighting with bayonets and muskets, which were accurate only at close range. But the Civil War ushered in rifling-- the use of helical grooves in the barrel of a weapon to stabilize a bullet— which enabled soldiers to make an aimed shot from a hundred or more yards away. Both armies also had infantry units backed by artillery batteries with 3 to 6 cannons that could be loaded with canisters filled with about 120 bullets. Which made them like early prototype machine guns.

At Antietam, Union forces outnumbered Confederate forces by 2 to 1, but Union General George McClellan blundered by sending weaker units to flank the enemy. And McClellan was stationed so far away he wasn't able to react to the flanking failures and send reinforcements. Meanwhile, Union General Ambrose Burnside sent a line of troops across a narrow bridge that led to steep hill where Confederate riflemen were dug in. Though outnumbered, these riflemen held off the Union advance for four hours.

Overall, the Confederates had more experience, better command, and a high proportion of artillery batteries to infantrymen, while the Union side had so many soldiers it could both absorb enormous losses and inflict huge casualties for hours and hours. All of which turned Antietam into the deadliest day in the deadliest war in American military history.

"The Battle Of Antietam 1862" Videos

[Janet Harrington]

I didn't look at the videos, but I did look at the photos. Wonderful pictures. Love the Abe Lincoln one.

[Warph]

More Civil War Photos

A tintype of a woman holding a pair of quarter-plate soldier portraits
-- images of men who might never return home from battle.

A surgeon for the Union Army, Dr. Reed Brockway used photography to document the wounds received by soldiers.  Sgt. Brazer Wilsey, Company D of the Fourth New York Volunteers.

Dr. Bontecou's pictures of war wounds and amputees were later used to teach medical students.

One of two images by Alexander Gardner of a fallen Confederate soldier, this one titled, "Sharpshooter's Last Sleep."

"Home of a Rebel Sharpshooter," also by Alexander Gardner, shows the same Confederate sharpshooter.  How did that happen? "Some Civil War historians suggest that the photographer, Gardner, and his assistant, O'Sullivan, found [the corpse] in the open field and moved it to this little nesty area," Rosenheim told CBS News' Martha Teichner. "Other people believe that the body was found and removed by a burial detail to [the other] location."

An image of a Confederate soldier by Alexander Gardner, taken on the Battlefield at Antietam, near Sharpsburg, Md., in September 1862.  Antietam was the bloodiest battle of our bloodiest war, with 23,000 dead and wounded.

Timothy H. O'Sullivan's photograph, titled, "Field Where General Reynolds Fell, Gettysburg," shows the remains of Union soldiers -- bloated, and looted of possessions and boots.  As powerful as these images of war dead are, they also show the limitations of Civil War-era photography: You could take pictures before the battle, and after the battle, but not during the battle, because of the long exposures required.

John Lincoln Clem ran away from home at age nine to join the Union forces in 1861. He tagged along with the 22nd Michigan, serving as their drummer boy, and received the title of Sergeant after shooting a Confederate colonel who demanded he surrender at the Battle of Chickamauga in September 1863.  By the time Clem retired from the Army in 1915 he had attained the rank of Brigadier General

From left: Benjamin, George, James and John Pattillo, of Henry County, Ga., are pictured holding a Bowie or side knife. They had joined Company K of the 22nd Regiment of the Georgia Volunteer Infantry. Benjamin Pattillo (who is also holding a hand grenade) died from a bullet wound suffered at the Second Battle of Bull Run. James was shot in the foot in the Battle of Second Deep Bottom, leading to the amputation of a toe. John was wounded at the Seven Days' battles near Richmond in 1862.

Tintype portrait of Lt. William O. Fontaine, Company I, Twentieth Texas Infantry, pictured 1862-1865

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[jacksonpollochjr]

Very interesting. Thanks Warph.