Last year marked the 150th anniversary of the start of the American Civil War, a milestone commemorated by The Atlantic in a special issue (now available online).
Although photography was still in its infancy, war correspondents
produced thousands of images, bringing the harsh realities of the
frontlines to those on the home front in a new and visceral way.
Photographers also made extensive use of stereo photography, bringing
images to the public in three dimensions, for those with access to a
stereoscopic viewer. The images collected here are stereo pairs, which
will animate when clicked (starting with photo #2), adding a new
dimension, and further bringing home the reality of the moment. (Be sure
to see part 1 and part 2
as well.) Keep in mind, as you view these photographs, that they were
taken 150 years ago -- providing a glimpse of a United States that was
only 85 years old at the time. [20 stereo pairs]
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Photographer Timothy H. O'Sullivan took this photo, one half of a
stereo view of Alfred R. Waud, artist of Harper's Weekly, while he
sketched on the battlefield near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in July of
1863. To see this animate in 3-D, click through to photo #2 in the full entry. (Timothy H. O'Sullivan/LOC)
Photographer Timothy H. O'Sullivan took this photo, one half of a
stereo view of Alfred R. Waud, artist of Harper's Weekly, while he
sketched on the battlefield near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in July of
1863. To see this animate in 3-D, click through to photo #2 in the full entry. (Timothy H. O'Sullivan/LOC)
Photographer Timothy H. O'Sullivan took this photo, one half of a
stereo view of Alfred R. Waud, artist of Harper's Weekly, while he
sketched on the battlefield near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in July of
1863. [click on image to view 3-D animation] To view a red/blue anaglyph version of this photo, click here. (Timothy H. O'Sullivan/LOC) #
13-inch seacoast mortars of Federal Battery No. 4 with officers of 1st
Connecticut Heavy Artillery, near Yorktown, Virginia in May of 1862. [click on image to view 3-D animation] To view a red/blue anaglyph version of this photo, click here. (James F. Gibson/LOC) #
"A muss at headquarters," Army of the Potomac, near Falmouth, Virginia in April of 1863. [click on image to view 3-D animation] To view a red/blue anaglyph version of this photo, click here. (James F. Gibson/LOC) #
Mail wagon for headquarters, Army of the Potomac, at Falmouth, Virginia, March 1863. [click on image to view 3-D animation] To view a red/blue anaglyph version of this photo, click here. (LOC) #
Fugitive African Americans fording the Rappahannock River, Virginia during Pope's retreat in August of 1862. [click on image to view 3-D animation] To view a red/blue anaglyph version of this photo, click here. (Timothy H. O'Sullivan/LOC) #
Three "Johnnie Reb" Prisoners, captured at Gettysburg, in 1863. [click on image to view 3-D animation] To view a red/blue anaglyph version of this photo, click here. (Mathew Brady/LOC) #
"Council of War". General Ulysses S. Grant (2nd from left on bench at
center left), Gen. George G. Meade, Assistant Secretary of War Charles
A. Dana, and numerous staff officers meet at Massaponax Church, in
Virginia on May 21, 1864. [click on image to view 3-D animation] To view a red/blue anaglyph version of this photo, click here. (Timothy H. O'Sullivan/LOC) #
A Confederate Mill in Petersburg, Virginia in May of 1865. [click on image to view 3-D animation] To view a red/blue anaglyph version of this photo, click here. (Timothy H. O'Sullivan/LOC) #
General Sherman's men destroying the railroad before the evacuation of Atlanta, Georgia in 1864. [click on image to view 3-D animation] To view a red/blue anaglyph version of this photo, click here. (George N. Barnard/LOC) #
Soldiers boxing in a Union camp in Petersburg, Virginia, in April of 1865. [click on image to view 3-D animation] To view a red/blue anaglyph version of this photo, click here. (LOC) #
The "Slaughter pen" at foot of Round Top, after the Battle of Gettysburg, in Pennsylvania in July of 1863. [click on image to view 3-D animation] To view a red/blue anaglyph version of this photo, click here. (Alexander Gardner/LOC) #
A damaged locomotive among the ruins of the Richmond & Petersburg Railroad depot, in Richmond, Virginia, in April of 1865. [click on image to view 3-D animation] To view a red/blue anaglyph version of this photo, click here. (LOC) #
A group of Contrabands at Haxall's Mill, Richmond, Virginia, on June 9, 1865. [click on image to view 3-D animation] To view a red/blue anaglyph version of this photo, click here. (Alexander Gardner/LOC) #
A mortar mounted on a railrioad car, near Petersburg, Virginia. [click on image to view 3-D animation] To view a red/blue anaglyph version of this photo, click here. (Mathew Brady/LOC) #
Fugitive African Americans are fording the Rappahannock River in Virginia, August 1862, during the Second Battle of Bull Run. [click on image to view 3-D animation] To view a red/blue anaglyph version of this photo, click here. (Timothy H. O'Sullivan/LOC) #
A street view of St. Augustine, Florida. [click on image to view 3-D animation] To view a red/blue anaglyph version of this photo, click here. (Samuel A. Cooley/LOC) #
Soldiers bathing in the North Anna River, Virginia, in May of 1864. The
ruins of Richmond & Fredericksburg railroad bridge are visible in
the distance. [click on image to view 3-D animation] To view a red/blue anaglyph version of this photo, click here. (Timothy H. O'Sullivan/LOC) #
Outside view of Fort Sumter, in March, 1865. Foot of slope on southwestern front, looking southeast. [click on image to view 3-D animation] To view a red/blue anaglyph version of this photo, click here. (George N. Barnard/LOC) #
Lord (William) Abinger and a group of officers at headquarters, Army of
the Potomac, near Falmouth, Virginia, in April of 1863. [click on image to view 3-D animation] To view a red/blue anaglyph version of this photo, click here. (James F. Gibson/LOC) #
Details from the "Burnt district" of Richmond, Virginia, photographed in April of 1865. [click on image to view 3-D animation] To view a red/blue anaglyph version of this photo, click here. (Alexander, Gardner/LOC) #
Related links and information
The Civil War - The Atlantic, 150th Anniversary Commemorative Issue
To see more than 160 stereo images restored and in color (including 2, 3, 4, 7 & 8 on this page) visit: http://www.civilwarin3d.com/
You can purchase the cards in B&W, Sepia or color. There is a
great DVD for your PC with hundreds of views of images on them.
Great stuff.
the
easiest and best way to view these is to get a pair of anaglyph glasses
(red/blue) and click on the view as anaglyph. (These are readily
available in many places including eBay.) You can even copy them
as a jpg in this form to a CD and view them on your tv. simply
amazing.
If you can cross your eyes, you can see the actual 3-D depth in these stereographs. Get both images side by side, cross your eyes, to bring the images together as one. If the image is "negative", switch the images. I produce cross eye stereographs, and find about 20% of people have the gift to see these. No viewer required.
I
set up a gallery with these images side by side, for anyone else
interested. I agree that the cross-eyed method is much more exciting to
look at. https://imgur.com/a/tC1W8#0
#10
shows the heating of rails. They would dig up the rails, heat
them and bend them around trees creating Sherman Neckties. The
whole point of Sherman's March to the Sea was Total War. It was
not to kill people, it was to destroy everything of value that might
help the enemy, including crops and livestock and transport.
Once he hit Savanna he headed North to
Charlotte. He cut a swath of destruction 30 miles wide (or was it
60?). The South hated him for it, but it was a tactic
to end the war.
Before the war even started Sherman had spent time in the South
teaching, and commented that the South could never win a war against the
North because they could not manufacture a pair of shoes, while the
North could produce rifles and cannon and locomotives indefinitely.
Once Sherman began his unstoppable destruction, Lee must have
known the end was near. The progress also got Lincoln re-elected
as the North was growing tired of the carnage of a stalemate. A
stalemate was the southern strategy, a strategy costing 700,000
lives.
Prior to hostilities, Sherman warned Lincoln that this would be a
long war because capable or not, the South would be defending their
homeland, not the skirmish and surrender Lincoln had envisioned.
Shock and Awe in Iraq, drop a few bombs on Iran; that's the
trouble with politicians, no sense of history.
Great
photographs. We have been assembling civil war veterans photos for a
few years now from public and private owners; the collection now numbers
over 5,000 and can be seen here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/v...
Its
like time travel. Awesome. Thanks so much. Does
anybody recognize who any of those Union officers are in the photo with
the English chap? The stoic looking man standing back left feels
familiar. Also, the group shot of former slaves taken in June '65,
Shockoe Bottom area of Richmond maybe?
I think you are right about the June of '65 photograph; it strikes me as being Shockoe Bottom, as well.
Andy Hall (was AndyinTexas) 1 comment collapsed CollapseExpand
Yes,
the very large ruins in the background are of the Gallego Flour Mill --
it seems to have been one of the largest structures in Richmond and so a
lot of photos were taken of it at the end of the war. The waterway
behind them is the James River and Kanawha Canal. There's another
photo here that was taken just a few yards to the west that helps
identify the location:
The photographer in that latter image much have had his back to the site of the Richmond & Danville RR Depot.
I don't recognize any of the officers in the other photo (No. 20),
but it's unusual for another reason. Most stereo images were taken with a
multi-lens camera like this one, that captured two or more images on a single plate, in one exposure. The photo of the officers seems to have been made in two separate exposures
-- notice the man seated at left changes the position of his left hand,
and the man seated center in the straw hat changes his posture
slightly. I think that stereo pair was made the hard way -- making the
subjects sit still while the photographer swapped out his plates, moved
the camera several inches, and made another exposure. Obviously that's
pretty annoying to the sitters, which may be why those same guys totally lost their composure in No. 4.
Andy Hall (was AndyinTexas) 2 comments collapsed CollapseExpand
In the last image, of the ruins of Richmond in 1865, the pediment of the Virginia State Capitol
is visible at upper left. This structure served as the Confederate
Capitol during the war. If correct, that would put the camera at the
intersection of present-day North 12th and East Main Streets.
That
first guy could be dropped into a coffeehouse in Williamsburg and fit
in perfectly. If only he'd lived another 150 years to seduce the
artistic women of today...
Historical
photo collections like this are amazing, I wish you could do them every
week! I'm not sure what's possible, but I'd love to have a way to hide
certain images because my son (8) is extremely interested in the civil
war (among others) and he'd LOVE these pictures, but obviously he isn't
ready for pictures of dead soldiers.
I
wish my folks had been open about the realities of war. Instead I had
this impression for may of my formative years that warfare was all
theater and games.
In hindsight, I feel that this falsehood should have been made clear
at an early age. Instead, I eventually stumbled across such horrific
images as a child while browsing the early internet. Parents can't
monitor what their child has access to 24/7, and this was the case then
as well. I would have appreciated their experience and would have rather
had them made this known to me then have it hidden. This sent me
confusing messages.
Having this narrative introduced with guidance is a better option than hiding it for him to discover when you are not aware.
Not
sure that's "obvious." When I was younger than 8, they showed
soldiers fighting in Vietnam on the TV news every night, right in our
living room, and they had a little "body count" in the corner of the
screen telling you how many Americans had died that day.
Oh
Botsko, you have a lovely young son that is extremely interested
in war, and you want to encourage his interest, yet you want to shield
him from images of dead soldiers? There are many, many difficult
conversations one must have with their children as you assist them in
becoming responsible adults. Perhaps one pointing out that pretty much
the entire point of war is to create dead soldiers, is in order? Or
would that be too stifling to his interest? The world is perhaps too
full of men that are fascinated with war yet want to be shielded from
its inevitable result.
A
note about the captions - most of the dates and places come directly
from the source (AP, National Archives, Library of Congress), and were
compiled more than a century ago. Civil War photographs are also
notoriously mislabeled, misattributed, or left undescribed. If you find
any errors, please let me know here in the comments, and I'll update, or
point out discrepancies, as soon as I can. Thank you.
DBking/Flickr
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