The American Civil War was the most photographed conflict of the 19th century. Images were widely copied and distributed to the public via newspapers, prints, and carte de visite. Roughly 70% of the war's documentary photography was taken by a stereo camera,"Blue & Gray in Black & White", Zeller, Bob, 2005 Introduction xvi which produced 3-dimensional images that could be viewed on a stereoscope.
Historical context The American Civil War (1861–1865) was the fifth war in history to be photographed, the first four being the Mexican–American War (1846–1848), the Crimean War (1853–1856), Indian Rebellion of 1857 and the Second Italian War of Independence (1859).
Northern photographers Mathew B. Brady
Mathew B. Brady (May 18, 1822(?) – January 15, 1896), the son of Irish immigrants, was born in Warren County, New York. Brady would spend his fortune to accumulate photos of the war. In the early 1840s, Brady was a manufacturer of "jewel cases" for daguerreotypes in New York City. By 1844 he had opened his own daguerreian gallery at 205 Broadway, the "New-York Daguerreian Miniature Gallery", having with Edward Anthony in 1840 received instruction from Prof. Samuel B. Morse for a fee of $50. Still in his 20s, Brady's next goal was to establish at his hall of fame, a Gallery of Illustrious Americans. "From the first, I regarded myself as under obligation to my country to preserve the faces of its historic men and mothers." Brady returned to New York in May 1852 after a long absence in Europe. While there he sought treatments for an undisclosed illness (mercury poisoning?). In 1856, seeing the tremendous potential for reproducible, enlarged prints and their purpose for the illustrated newspapers, Brady hired photographer and businessman, Alexander Gardner for his Washington City studio.D. Mark Katz, Witness to an Era: The Life and Photographs of Alexander Gardner, Viking, New York, 1991, pp. 14–15
Mathew Brady's fame derived in part from his self-promotion and his ambition to establish himself as the foremost portrait photographer of his day. He would also become known as the most prominent photographer of the American Civil War. From early on, Brady determined to accumulate as many war views as possible, with the understanding that in the not too distant future a photomechanical means of reproduction would be possible. With this end in mind, he made, exchanged, borrowed and copied prints and negatives, and acquired duplicate views when available. In light of Brady's practice, it is not surprising therefore, that a very large number of war views in his vast collection, that were actually taken by other photographers, came to be associated with his name.
At the beginning of the war, Mathew Brady secured the necessary permissions, purchased rugged cameras and traveling "darkrooms", and sent his employees out to begin documenting the struggle, all at his own personal expense. The First Battle of Bull Run provided the initial opportunity to photograph an engagement between opposing armies, however Brady returned with no known photographs from the battlefield. Following the Federal rout, he arrived back in Washington, D.C., the day after the battle and was photographed at his studio wearing a soiled duster and sword (see photo). Tantalizingly little is known about Brady's life, as he kept no journals, wrote no memoirs and left but few written accounts.Mathew Brady, Portraits of a Nation, Robert Wilson, 2013 pg. 4
By war's end, Brady estimated he had spent $100,000 to amass more than 10,000 negatives that the public no longer showed an interest in. In 1875, the War Department came to Brady's relief and purchased for $25,000 the remainder of Brady's collection. Anthony Company possessed another immense collection of Brady cartes-de-visite and war negatives, received by them as compensation for Brady's continued indebtedness. From the War Department, the collection devolved to the U.S. Signal Corps, and in 1940 it was accessioned by the National Archives. On January 15, 1896, Brady died penniless in the charity ward of Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. However, in his last days, Brady did not die in isolation. He was visited and comforted often, by friends and admirers up until the very end. His funeral was largely financed by the friends of his adopted regiment, the 7th NYSM.Mathew Brady, Portraits of a Nation, Robert Wilson, 2013 pg. 230
While it is true that in the beginning, at his own expense, the enterprising Mathew Brady secured the necessary permissions from the War Department for the purpose of documenting the "rebellion", it would largely be others, particularly those photographers who were under the direct supervision of Alexander Gardner, who would follow the armies and ultimately fulfill the difficult task of recording for posterity a timely, consecutive photographic history of the American Civil War.
Alexander Gardner
Alexander Gardner (1821–1882) was born in Paisley, Scotland. He became an apprentice silversmith jeweller at the age of fourteen. Soon, Gardner found out that his interests and talents lay in finance and journalism. When he was twenty-one he left the jeweler's shop for a job on the Glasgow Sentinel as a reporter. After only a year of reporting he was appointed editor of the Sentinel. A love of chemistry soon led him to experiment with photography. Deeply disturbed by the exploitation of the working class, and in the spirit of the early cooperative movements in Scotland, Gardner organized a utopian venture in the US called the "Clydesdale Joint Stock Agricultural and Commercial Company" in Iowa, however by 1853 many at the Iowa colony were sick and dying of tuberculosis (then called "consumption") and the Clydesdale company was dissolved. In 1856, Alex, his brother James and seven others, including Alex's wife, Margaret (1824–?), his son Lawrence (1848–?), his daughter Eliza (1850–?) and his mother Jane, immigrated to the United States. Colleague James Gibson may have been one of the party. Alex sought out the renown Mathew Brady for employment, who hired him to manage the Washington City studio. Gardner's business acumen and expertise at wet-plate photography and particularly the "Imperial Print", a enlargement, brought Brady enormous success. With some reluctance, Brady agreed to let Gardner negotiate with Anthony Co. publishing of the increasingly popular "carte-de-visite", or visiting card.
In the fall of 1861, Gardner took a position as official photographer on the staff of General George B. McClellan, the commander of the Army of the Potomac, and was given the honorary rank of captain. This particular assignment lasted until McClellan's demotion in November 1862; however, the title "Photographer to the Army of the Potomac" was used by him to the end of the war. In the year 1862, Gardner and his operators photographed the 1st Bull Run battlefield, McClellan's Peninsula Campaign, and the battlefields of Cedar Mountain and Antietam. Since the battlefields of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville were Union defeats and remained in enemy hands, Northern photographers were unable to reach the fields.
By May 1863, Gardner had opened his own studio in Washington City with his brother James, taking with him many of Mathew Brady's former staff. Circumstantial evidence suggests that Gardner's split with Brady was not caused by any altruistic concerns over the proper citation in published works. Gardner himself in 1867 acknowledged in a deposition that though a photograph be identified on the mount as a "Photograph by A. Gardner" for example, it simply meant that it was printed or copied in his gallery, and he was not necessarily the photographer.D. Mark Katz, "Witness to an Era. The Life and Photographs of Alexander Gardner", Viking, New York, 1991, pg. 220 The split seems more likely to have grown out of Brady's incompetent business practices and his failure to regularly meet his payroll.
In July 1863, Gardner and employees James Gibson and Timothy O'Sullivan photographed the fresh battlefield of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Grant's Overland Campaign and Petersburg operations were mostly photographed by Gardner's employee Timothy O'Sullivan, "supervisor of my map and field work." By June 1864, the designation of official photographer for Grant's headquarters command had devolved to Mathew Brady."Blue & Gray in Black & White, Zeller 2005, ch. 5
In April 1865, Gardner photographed Lewis Powell, George Atzerodt, David Herold, Michael O'Laughlen, Edman Spangler and Samuel Arnold, who were arrested for conspiring to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln. Gardner, with the assistance of O'Sullivan, also took photographs of the execution of Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell, George Atzerodt and David Herold as they were hanged at Washington Penitentiary on July 7, 1865. Four months later, Gardner photographed the execution of Henry Wirz, commanding officer at the infamous prisoner of war camp in Andersonville, Georgia.
In 1865 and 1866, "Lincoln's favorite photographer" published his two-volume anthology, Gardner's Photographic Sketch Book of the War. The two editions consisted of two leather-bound volumes each. Both volumes contained 50 tipped-in, imperial size albumen prints each, with accompanying pages of descriptive, letterpress. At $150 per set however, it was not the success Gardner had hoped. When asked about his work he said, "It is designed to speak for itself . . As mementos of the fearful struggle through which the country has just passed, it is confidently hoped that it will possess an enduring interest."
In September 1867 Gardner closed his gallery, and with his son Lawrence and assistant William R. Pywell set out to photograph along the proposed route of the U.P.R.R., taking photographs along the 35th parallel, from Wyandotte to Hays Kansas. After finishing his assignment on October 19, Gardner returned to Washington City and that year published his folio sized anthology, "Across the Continent on the Union Pacific Railway, Eastern Division."
In 1875, the civic-minded Gardner worked at the Washington City Metropolitan Police Department, copying nearly a thousand daguerreotypes to be used as "mug shots", the forerunner of the "Rogues Gallery."D. Mark Katz, "Witness to an Era. The Life and Photographs of Alexander Gardner", Viking, New York, 1991, pp. 215–29 & 262 In 1879, Alexander Gardner formally retired from photography, devoting his remaining years to improving and enlarging the scope of the co-operative life insurance business model of the "Washington Beneficial Endowment Association." Gardner continued with his involvement in the "Masonic Mutual Relief Association", becoming its president in 1882, and the St Andrews Society, a Scottish relief organization.D. Mark Katz, "Witness to an Era. The Life and Photographs of Alexander Gardner", Viking, New York, 1991, pg. 264
George N. Barnard