top 20 great us civil war photographs

8/14/2019 Top 20 Great US Civil WarPhotographs

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Top 20 Great US Civil

War Photographs


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This picture looks like it could be just an ordinary touristy snapshot. But it actually shows General

Grant (left) and five officers on Lookout Mountain, near Chattanooga, Tennessee, after Grant

whipped the Confederates in November 1863. Sticking out of Grants mouth is one of his ever-

present cigars (which would eventually give him the throat cancer that killed him).

20 General Grant and Officers- Lookout Mountain


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A quartet of black children

wearing Army hats (at least

they look like children) sit in

the ruins of Circular Church

on Meeting Street in

Charleston, birthplace of

secession.

Ruins of Charleston

1865


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If the dating of this photo is

correct, then it was taken

during the Battle of Nashville,

Dec. 15-16, 1864. It shows the

outer edge of the Union lines.

Battle of Nashville

1864


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Men and noncoms of Company E, 4th U.S. Colored Infantry, at Fort Lincoln, Washington D.C.

The bottom rail is on top, as these soldiers were among the 180,000 black men who served in

the Union army during the warand helped deliver ultimate victory.

Black soldiers


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It looks like a scene from World War I, but this photograph

shows dead Confederates in the trenches at Petersburg, Va.,

1865.


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Fugitive slaves crossing the

Rappahannock River toward the North,

August 1862.

Freedom dash


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This photograph shows what happens when an ammunition train goes BOOM! George Bernard saw the

results when he photographed the remains of CSA General Hoods 28-car ammunition train, which

Hoods retreating army burned after loosing Atlanta to Sherman, September 1864.

Burned train

1864


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This was the late Shelby Footes

favorite photograph because it

shows three Confederate soldiers

who were captured at Gettysburg,

You can see exactly how the

Confederate soldier was dressed.

And one of them has his arms up

like thisas if he knows hes having

his picture taken but hes

determined to remain the individualthat he is. Theres just something

about that photograph that strikes

me as an image of the war. (This

remark appears during the episode

on Gettysburg in Ken Burns The

Civil War.)


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At first, it seems like something of a happy scene, with many people standing around and what looks like garland

decorating the tent. But thats a surgeons saw the man at center is holding, and the original caption says thephoto is showing an amputation.

Amputation being

performed

Gettysburg, July 1863


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Alexander Gardener photographed Lincoln and General McClellan on the Antietam battlefield,

October 1862. Notice how much taller Lincoln is compared to McClellan and his staff, and also

notice McClellans strutting pose. McClellan styled himself the savior of the nation, but a couple of

weeks after this picture was takenand more than a month after the battleLincoln firedMcClellan for good.


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Damaged Atlanta 1864 Peachtree Street, Atlanta, after Sherman captured that

city in 1864. Looks a far cry from the glorious Technicolor splendor of Gone withthe Wind, doesnt it.


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Most pictures of generals are stuffy and stiffly formal because of the nature of photographic technology at

that time but George N. Bernard managed to capture this image of General William T. Sherman on his horse

at Fort No. 7 before Atlanta, August 1864.

General William T. Sherman


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General Grant and staff

May 21, 1864, at Massaponax

Church, Va.Timothy OSullivan took this and several

similar pictures from the church, whose

pews the generals are sitting on. At left,

General Grant looks over the shoulder of

General George Meade, commander of the

Army of the Potomac. In other pictures in

the series, Grant is sitting on the pew facingthe photographer. Put these pictures

together and you have the closest thing to a

movie that came out of the Civil War.

Significant also because during this pause

in the campaign, General Lee was getting

ready to pull Grant into a trap at the North

Anna River. But Grant sensed the trap and

disengaged, sidestepping once more to the

South.


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7

Burned-out Richmond

May 1865

It looks like a European town destroyed by artillery or bombers during either of the world wars. But

this picture shows the devastating results from the fire that swept Richmond when the Confederategovernment retreated.


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Lincoln at Gettysburg

Nov. 19, 1863

Lincolns remarks were

very short, as the

photographer had barely

gotten ready when

Lincoln was finished.

Hence, the blurry nature

of this historic event.


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Yankees- General John Sedgwicks corps, early 1863This remarkable photo of Union soldiers waiting to advance is usually misidentified as being

taken during the siege of Petersburg, 1864-1865. The Library of Congress has it labeled as

such. But according to James McPherson, it was actually taken a year earlier, before theChancellorsville campaign.


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Hospital

1862

James Gibson took this photo of a field hospital at Savages Station, Va., during the

Seven Days campaign east of Richmond.


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Confederate dead- Starkes Brigade, battle of AntietamAlexander Gardener photographed these dead rebels of Starkes Brigade of the Army of Northern Virginia

where they fell along the Haggerstown Turnpike. Gardner took this picture two days after the battle of

Antietam (Sharpsburg to the CSA). Gardeners boss, Matthew Brady, took his photographs and made them

into a display for the publicone that shocked people who had never before seen war dead (which waspractically everyone).


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This picture was taken a few days after his

unfortunate assault at Cold Harbor. The

strain on his face is palpable. By the timethis photo was taken, Grant and Lee had lost

a combined 80,000 men (50K Union, 30K

Confederate) at the Wilderness,

Spotsylvania, North Anna and Cold Harbor.

Ulysses S. Grant

After 40 days of continuous combat


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This is one of the most historically valuable photos ever taken of the war because it is the

only known photograph that shows Confederate soldiers on the march in enemy territory.

(Maryland was indeed enemy territory to them, because slave-holding Maryland elected to

remain in the Union.) Whats haunting about this photo is that, statistically speaking,

before the end of the month one-third of all the men in that picture would be dead,

wounded or missing. The photo is the property of the Historical Society of Frederick

County (Maryland), and no larger size is available.

Confederate troops on the marchFrederick, Maryland, Sept. 12, 1862

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