Brady Assistant Playing Dead-Again

[Gettysburg Greg]

As I've often pointed out, Mathew Brady did not arrive in Gettysburg until mid-July after all the dead soldiers on both sides were buried. Alexander Gardner and his crew of fine photographers were the first to work the battlefield as early as July 5th, 1863, and recorded most of the images we see of dead in the Devils Den area as well as the Rose pasture. However, even today, Brady is often credited with Gardner's work. Knowing the "money-shots" were going to be those with fallen soldiers, Brady used one of his assistants in a few futile efforts to portray an actual dead combatant. In at least three of his Gettysburg photographs, the same assistant is seen in obviously fake death poses. The one I am showing below is a bit of a mystery because the prostate assistant can only be seen under very high magnification. What you see below is a very small crop from Brady's panorama of the Round Tops from the Wheatfield Road. Brady and his vested assistant are sitting on their wagon and appear to be looking at the poor soul awkwardly lying on the road (see arrow) with knees in the air and head resting uncomfortably on a large rock. As I said, the man on the road is not even visible in the original frame and Brady certainly had no idea we would be super magnifying his image 160 years later, so why he posed his assistant in this manner is one of those things that makes you go "hmmm". I will also add Brady's uncropped original version for you to check out.

 

[Reconstructed Rebel]

Speculations on my part and I appreciate corrections -

The "dead" assistant appears to be lying on a hastily constructed defensive work of some sort, with fence rails thrown in for good measure. These would have been used by Confederates attacking LRT? Or Union soldiers defending it?

Is the road leading into the trees (on which the assistant reclines) the one used by Union troops to get support from the Taneytown Road area to Sickles? Also the one perhaps that Warren rode down to from the LRT summit to find help when he realized the Confederates were going to attack?

The perspectives on these old photos are always tricky, but this area of the battlefield looks much more condensed than I have imagined it when looking at maps. It changes my ideas of actions and timeframes.

 

[Gettysburg Greg]

Speculations on my part and I appreciate corrections -

The "dead" assistant appears to be lying on a hastily constructed defensive work of some sort, with fence rails thrown in for good measure. These would have been used by Confederates attacking LRT? Or Union soldiers defending it?

Is the road leading into the trees (on which the assistant reclines) the one used by Union troops to get support from the Taneytown Road area to Sickles? Also the one perhaps that Warren rode down to from the LRT summit to find help when he realized the Confederates were going to attack?

The perspectives on these old photos are always tricky, but this area of the battlefield looks much more condensed than I have imagined it when looking at maps. It changes my ideas of actions and timeframes.

I believe you are right on. That is the Wheatfield Road running on the north side of LRT that connected the Taneytown Road with the Emmitsburg Road. Those rails he is lying next to show up in an August photo too.

 

[6thMichCav]

You can get an almost identical perspective just off the road southeast of Auto Tour stop 11, also facing southeast. I think the rails are the remnants of a fence that stretches in the left of the picture. Considering the number of fires and damage and breastworks during the battle, it seems a minor miracle that any stacked rail fences survived at all

 

[Tom Elmore]

The image also appears to show the remnant of a stone wall in the foreground (running perpendicuar to the Wheatfield road and north of it), over which the wooden fence has been reconstructed in the modern photograph. I think that fence is the same as appears in my Little Round Top map series, and at 7:45 p.m. on the night of July 2 was occupied by Bartlett's 96th Pennsylvania as shown below. The fortified outpost shown in the image where the assistant lay was almost certainly done by the Federals since the Confederates may not have even reached that far, or if they did, held the ground no more than a few minutes around sunset that day.

 

[Reconstructed Rebel]

Tom's map makes clear that the morass was behind Brady's wagon (to the west) and not in front of it, as I had pictured it. (Another assumption bites the dust.) Would anyone know how far apart the soldiers of the 96 PA, 95 PA, and 5 ME would have been posted?

I came across a CWT thread yesterday in which someone posted that Brady was known to use a wire running from his camera to his hand in order to take pictures which included himself and his assistants without needing anyone to man the camera. In Greg's original photo, there does appear to be a wire running up to Brady that passes under a small rock at the back of the wagon. Another revelation, if true.

 

[lelliott19]

The image also appears to show the remnant of a stone wall in the foreground (running perpendicuar to the Wheatfield road and north of it), over which the wooden fence has been reconstructed in the modern photograph. I think that fence is the same as appears in my Little Round Top map series, and at 7:45 p.m. on the night of July 2 was occupied by Bartlett's 96th Pennsylvania as shown below. The fortified outpost shown in the image where the assistant lay was almost certainly done by the Federals since the Confederates may not have even reached that far, or if they did, held the ground no more than a few minutes around sunset that day.
View attachment 465843

Thanks for the image and the map. So the fence and associated hastily constructed works in the image would have been North of the Wheatfield Road and about 100 yards further on beyond the fence that was immediately behind Walcott's battery?

 

[Ed Zeppelin]

Tom's map makes clear that the morass was behind Brady's wagon (to the west) and not in front of it, as I had pictured it. (Another assumption bites the dust.) Would anyone know how far apart the soldiers of the 96 PA, 95 PA, and 5 ME would have been posted?

I came across a CWT thread yesterday in which someone posted that Brady was known to use a wire running from his camera to his hand in order to take pictures which included himself and his assistants without needing anyone to man the camera. In Greg's original photo, there does appear to be a wire running up to Brady that passes under a small rock at the back of the wagon. Another revelation, if true.

 

[Tom Elmore]

Thanks for the image and the map. So the fence and associated hastily constructed works in the image would have been North of the Wheatfield Road and about 100 yards further on beyond the fence that was immediately behind Walcott's battery?

The fence is north of the Wheatfield road but I believe the outpost is on the other (south) side of the road, in reference to the trees.

The other tell-tale marker is that fringe of trees, which the Park has rather accurately maintained, extending out just along the south side of the Wheatfield road and confirming that presumed location when compared against Google Earth imagery (although those trees do not appear on my map as they should).

As for that "outpost," I surmise it could have served as a picket post or maybe to protect a regimental or brigade headquarters staff. Perhaps it was reinforced with fence rails after dark on July 2, which would have been needed throughout the next day (July 3), since Benning's sharpshooters remained vigilant among the rocks and crevices in the vicinity of Devil's Den and proved quite deadly to Federal soldiers or officers who revealed themselves.