In today’s world of mass image collecting and “selfies,” it is hard to imagine a world in which some sort of image capturing didn’t exist. Photography wasn’t invented until the 1830s, and even then, it was still in its infant stages.
The first cameras couldn’t capture movement, but one particular way that photographers of the 19th century used their skill and equipment was to document the events, people, and the aftermath of conflicts and wars of the age through still portraits and landscapes. The American Civil War was the first major conflict on American soil after the invention of photography, and the fifth war that was documented in photographs.
Photographers captured both the Union and Confederate experiences of everyday life: soldiers in uniform posing for professional photographs, manning their stations, attending mass or reading in their downtime in between battles. The photographs also showed the devastation that soldiers of the Civil War saw every day: the aftermath of the battles and shocking images of unburied dead soldiers. Photographers knew the limitations of their equipment, so they used the tools that were available to them.
Many soldiers posed for photographs that were recreations of the battles they just fought, often posing for several hours. Photographers would rearrange and pose the bodies of dead soldiers on the battlefield to give the public a visual representation of what the aftermath of battle looked like. Civil War photographs could be bought and shared by the public, creating the first example of public consciousness of the realities of war.
Picture Gallery Photographs. Hundreds of Photographers Provided Field Photo Services During the Civil War. Unknown Photographer. 1860s. https://images.metmuseum.org/CRDImages/ph/original/DP265115.jpg.Confederate Dead. Photographed by Timothy H. O’Sullivan, 1861. Library of Congress.Fifteen Officers on Deck of a Union Monitor Warship. Unknown photographer. Photographed between 1861-1865. Library of Congress.Deserted Camp. Photographed by Mathew Brady, ca. 1860-1865. National Archives and Records Administration. Wikimedia Commons.A Harvest of Death. Gettysburg, July 1863.Battlefield of Gettysburg. Dead Confederate Sharpshooter at Foot of Little Round Top. Photographed by Alexander Gardner, July 1863. Library of Congress.Photograph of the field at Antietam, American Civil War. Confederate dead by a fence at the Hagerstown Turnpike, looking north; the Turnpike is to the right of the fence, the dirt lane on the left leads to the farm of David Miller. Photographed by Alexander Gardner, September 1862. Wikimedia Commons.Abraham Lincoln and George B. McClellan in the general’s tent at Antietam, Maryland, October 3, 1862. Photographed by Alexander Gardner. Wikimedia Commons.Battle of Antietam. Confederate dead at Bloody Lane, looking northeast from the south bank; the Union soldiers looking on were likely members of the 130th Pennsylvania, who were assigned burial detail. Photographed by Alexander Gardner, 1862. Wikimedia Commons.Signal station on Elk Mountain, overlooking battle-field of Antietam. Unknown photographer, photographed October 1862. Wikimedia Commons.A lone grave on the Battlefield of Antietam. Photographed by Alexander Gardner, 1862. Library of Congress. Pinterest.Savage Station, Va. Field hospital after the battle of June 27. Photograph from the main eastern theater of war, the Peninsular Campaign, May-August 1862. Photographed by James F. Gibson, June 30, 1862. Wikimedia Commons.Union soldiers entrenched along the west bank of the Rappahannock River at Fredericksburg, Virginia. between 29 April 1863 and 2 May 1863. Photographed by Andrew J. Russell. Wikimedia Commons.Sunday morning mass in camp of 69th N.Y.S.M. Photograph shows Father Thomas H. Mooney, Chaplain of the 69th Infantry Regiment of the New York State Militia and Irish American soldiers at a Catholic Mass at Fort Cocoran, Arlington Heights, Virginia on June 1, 1861. Library of Congress. Wikimedia Commons.Battery, No. 4–near Yorktown, mounting 10 13-inch mortars, each weighing 20,000 pounds. Artillery Placements Outside Yorktown, Virginia. Photographed by James G. Gibson, ca. 1862. Library of Congress. Wikimedia Commons.Confederate fortifications, Yorktown, Virginia. 8 men at sand-bagged cannon emplacement; man in mid-ground seated on wreckage of cannon. Unknown photographer, unknown date. Library of Congress.“Ruins in Richmond” Damage to Richmond, Virginia from the American Civil War. Photographed by Andrew J. Russell, April 1865. Library of Congress. Wikimedia Commons.Cold Harbor, Va. African Americans collecting bones of soldiers killed in the battle. Photographed by John Reekie, April 1865. Library of Congress. Wikimedia Commons.Ruins of Stone Bridge, Bull Run. Photographed by George N. Barnard, March 1862. Wikimedia Commons.Dead Confederate Soldier at Fort Mahone, Petersburg, Virginia. Photographed by Mathew Brady, 1864. Wikimedia Commons.
