GRAPHIC Chickamauga ?

However Alfred Waud was never at Chickamauga; he was always in the East fallowing the AoP. I'm not sure but I think he did this one along with a few other sketches of western battles after the war. Nevertheless, it still looks pretty accurate.

I always wondered how he would have gotten the eyewitness Confederate perspective in that particular sketch... :wink:
 
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Not sure, though I don't know if I'd want to see this one in color....


Yeah, I've read that as well. Supposedly the man with the bald head lying in the middle of the road in the background.

Col. Charles C. Tew of the 2nd North Carolina.
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How can that be even speculated? Unless possibly the photographer noted it as such...
 
How can that be even speculated? Unless possibly the photographer noted it as such...
What, Col. Tew? Well its known, mostly through John B. Gordon's account, that and how Tew was killed in the sunken lane. Both the 6th Alabama and 2nd North Carolina were right beside each other at the bend in the road, and according to Gordon, Tew was standing right beside him when he was shot through the head and killed.

Gordon says: "The first volley from the Union lines in my front sent a ball through the brain of the chivalric Colonel Tew, of North Carolina, to whom I was talking to."

In Priest's "Antietam: The Soldier's Battle" it says that a volley from both the 14th Indiana and 8th Ohio killed Tew and wounded Gordon in the calf. Other accounts suggest that Tew lay unconscious in the road after it was overrun by Federal troops and died shortly after. So his body was left in the road, but the idea that that is him in the photo is just speculation.
 
I believe it is Omaha Beach in Normandy. Just a guess.





Kidding,..obviously.

That is indeed rumored to be Tew's body as evidenced by the completely caved in face from his mortal wound... however, I never could could figure out why he would've been wearing an enlisted cartridge box and other enlisted 'couters/. SO speculation it remains.

Always found the headless private in the foreground interesting to look at too. Really shows you how savage the fighting was.
 
Probably not enough trees to be Chickamauga. Only place I could think of where there would be a sunken road like that would have been the dried up creek bed ditch at Viniard Field. Sadly it probably looked just as gruesome as that picture especially when Colonel Wilder had a battery hitting it with enfilading fire at one point. But almost 100% sure that isn't it. I wish there were more pictures after the battle of Chickamauga though.

Actually, the terrain matches up pretty well with the ceder glade and tree cover around the northern end of the Kelly Field line, where the Alexander Bridge Road comes close. The trees at Chickamauga were often very open, and the cedar glade itself was a natural clearing, roughly 200 yards wide, by about a mile long.
 
Actually, the terrain matches up pretty well with the ceder glade and tree cover around the northern end of the Kelly Field line, where the Alexander Bridge Road comes close. The trees at Chickamauga were often very open, and the cedar glade itself was a natural clearing, roughly 200 yards wide, by about a mile long.

Thanks for the info Dave. I always have more to learn! Why do you think there were not more pictures from Chickamauga? Just not as many photographers following the Army of the Cumberland at that time? There seem to be more photo's taken from the Atlanta Campaign in comparison.
 
Thanks for the info Dave. I always have more to learn! Why do you think there were not more pictures from Chickamauga? Just not as many photographers following the Army of the Cumberland at that time? There seem to be more photo's taken from the Atlanta Campaign in comparison.
George A. Barnard was the prominent photographer fallowing Sherman in Georgia. He first worked (under Brady I believe) in the East for the first couple years of the war, and by late 1863 was sent west as official photographer for the Military Division of the Mississippi. With headquarters in Nashville, he photographed East Tennessee, Chattanooga, etc. Barnard wasn't sent to Atlanta till about Sept. 1864. Other than Barnard, there wasn't many other major photographers working in the West. Whereas in the East there was Mathew Brady, Alexander Gardner, Timothy O'Sullivan, etc.
 
Hmm, what's the chance that the photographer gathered bodies in the road and laid them together for a more dramatic picture?
I ask this because the bodies in the above picture seemed to be grouped in piles.
 
Hmm, what's the chance that the photographer gathered bodies in the road and laid them together for a more dramatic picture?
I ask this because the bodies in the above picture seemed to be grouped in piles.

That was actually the description of the bodies in the Sunken Road. Several men wrote that they could walk from one end of the road to the other without stepping on the ground. Another Confederate who was in the road remembered that men were being struck several times as they were being fired at from the front as well as the flank and that some rounds would ricochet off of the back side of the road and strike men in the back. It was about as place as one could get during the war.

Ryan
 
I have recently come across two photographs supposedly taken at the battle of Chickamauga. I have my doubts that they are really from there. Has anyone else seen these before and can shed some light on their locale? Thank you.View attachment 70374 View attachment 70374 View attachment 70374
There are no after action images from Chickamauga. Any sketches from the battlefield would have been done well after the event. See David Powell in the comment above.
 
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