Civil War Battlefield That Changed Everything (Photos & Videos)

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A lone grave on the Antietam battlefield - Alexander Gardner/Library of Congress.

                                 

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.



Dead Soldiers in a ditch.



Prisoner Handcuffed and seated



President Lincoln with son Tad.


                             

                     
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