- Joined
- Feb 23, 2013
- Location
- East Texas
Part I - Gardner's Visits to the Battlefield
During my recent visit to Sharpsburg, Maryland and the battlefield of Antietam I wanted to locate the scenes of some of the famous photographs of landmarks and dead taken there by Alexander Gardner; unfortunately, I didn't have a copy of William Frassanito's companion volume to his Gettysburg - A Journey in Time which had been invaluable at Gettysburg.
Fortunately, my want was anticipated by the National Park Service and the fold-out leaflet above which locates eight of the most recognizable photos which are to be found on or very near the current park auto tour route. In this thread I have used the brochure and added to it a few other scenes and my own "takes" on them.
When photographer Matthew Brady, at left above, created a special exhibit in his downtown Manhattan studio in the fall of 1862 it created a huge sensation and drew immense crowds and reviewers' comments such as this:
...We recognized the battlefield as a reality, but a remote one, like a funeral next door. Mr. Brady has brought home the terrible earnestness of war. If he has not brought bodies and laid them in our door-yards and along the streets, he has done something very like it. At the door of his gallery hangs a little placard, "The Dead of Antietam."
The photographs displayed in Brady's gallery were the products of the manager of his Washington, D. C., studio, Scots immigrant Alexander Gardner, seen at right with his camera. The previous year Brady himself had attempted to photograph the battle at Bull Run but that effort had turned into a fiasco with the loss of his photographic what-is-it darkroom wagon and supplies in the Union rout; besides, Brady's health and eyesight were beginning to fail him, rendering him unfit for such a journey himself. Although he would again take the field in the aftermath of Gettysburg it was his assistants who did most of the actual photography, though Brady likely selected the subject matter and general layout of the shots. Gardner would soon leave Brady's employ and strike out on his own; but he first made two trips to Sharpsburg on behalf of his employer in the wake of the battle there. The first visit occurred Sept. 18 - 21 and is the subject of the photographs here.
The Dunker Church
One of Gardner or his assistant James Gibson's iconic Antietam photos above shows the wreck of a Confederate battery before the whitewashed Dunker Church on the Hagerstown Turnpike. Likely, the actual site of their camera was a little closer to the church than my modern shot below. The guns in the photo are a NPS display showing the four main types of cannon used in field artillery during the war: from the foreground, an 1840's six-pounder gun; a M.1857 12-pounder "Napoleon"; a 3" ordnance or James rifle; and a 10-pounder Parrott.
A closer view of the Dunker Church; in order to "match" Gardner's photo I have had to rotate my photo below 6 degrees to the left to copy the cock-eyed angle, caused possibly by his camera not being properly leveled on the slope.
This less-familiar shot showing the same limber was taken a little farther south than the more famous one and is looking to the north instead of due west. This area had been occupied first by Confederate guns from the battalion of Col. Stephen D. Lee and later by Union guns supporting the attack on the Sunken Road. My photo below shows the ten-pounder Parrott rifle from the group and is looking in the same direction as Gardner's photo above.
Another artillery subject photographed by Gardner at Antietam was Knap's Pennsylvania Battery deployed below as if for battle; the battery was armed with ten-pounder Parrotts like that above.
Next, Part II - The Cornfield
During my recent visit to Sharpsburg, Maryland and the battlefield of Antietam I wanted to locate the scenes of some of the famous photographs of landmarks and dead taken there by Alexander Gardner; unfortunately, I didn't have a copy of William Frassanito's companion volume to his Gettysburg - A Journey in Time which had been invaluable at Gettysburg.
Fortunately, my want was anticipated by the National Park Service and the fold-out leaflet above which locates eight of the most recognizable photos which are to be found on or very near the current park auto tour route. In this thread I have used the brochure and added to it a few other scenes and my own "takes" on them.
When photographer Matthew Brady, at left above, created a special exhibit in his downtown Manhattan studio in the fall of 1862 it created a huge sensation and drew immense crowds and reviewers' comments such as this:
...We recognized the battlefield as a reality, but a remote one, like a funeral next door. Mr. Brady has brought home the terrible earnestness of war. If he has not brought bodies and laid them in our door-yards and along the streets, he has done something very like it. At the door of his gallery hangs a little placard, "The Dead of Antietam."
The photographs displayed in Brady's gallery were the products of the manager of his Washington, D. C., studio, Scots immigrant Alexander Gardner, seen at right with his camera. The previous year Brady himself had attempted to photograph the battle at Bull Run but that effort had turned into a fiasco with the loss of his photographic what-is-it darkroom wagon and supplies in the Union rout; besides, Brady's health and eyesight were beginning to fail him, rendering him unfit for such a journey himself. Although he would again take the field in the aftermath of Gettysburg it was his assistants who did most of the actual photography, though Brady likely selected the subject matter and general layout of the shots. Gardner would soon leave Brady's employ and strike out on his own; but he first made two trips to Sharpsburg on behalf of his employer in the wake of the battle there. The first visit occurred Sept. 18 - 21 and is the subject of the photographs here.
The Dunker Church
One of Gardner or his assistant James Gibson's iconic Antietam photos above shows the wreck of a Confederate battery before the whitewashed Dunker Church on the Hagerstown Turnpike. Likely, the actual site of their camera was a little closer to the church than my modern shot below. The guns in the photo are a NPS display showing the four main types of cannon used in field artillery during the war: from the foreground, an 1840's six-pounder gun; a M.1857 12-pounder "Napoleon"; a 3" ordnance or James rifle; and a 10-pounder Parrott.
A closer view of the Dunker Church; in order to "match" Gardner's photo I have had to rotate my photo below 6 degrees to the left to copy the cock-eyed angle, caused possibly by his camera not being properly leveled on the slope.
This less-familiar shot showing the same limber was taken a little farther south than the more famous one and is looking to the north instead of due west. This area had been occupied first by Confederate guns from the battalion of Col. Stephen D. Lee and later by Union guns supporting the attack on the Sunken Road. My photo below shows the ten-pounder Parrott rifle from the group and is looking in the same direction as Gardner's photo above.
Another artillery subject photographed by Gardner at Antietam was Knap's Pennsylvania Battery deployed below as if for battle; the battery was armed with ten-pounder Parrotts like that above.
Next, Part II - The Cornfield
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