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- Oct 17, 2012
- Location
- Middle Tennessee
Iconic Civil War photograph sparks controversy
By CHUCK MYERS
McClatchy/Tribune News Service
GETTYSBURG, Pa. - Photographer Alexander Gardner and his two colleagues, Timothy O'Sullivan and James Gibson, came upon a frightful landscape late on July 5, 1863.
Soldiers of the Blue and Gray lay dead virtually everywhere, still littering a battlefield nearly two days after the Civil War Battle of Gettysburg.
The trio set about recording the aftermath of the battle, photographing the dead at locations that have long since become synonymous with the Gettysburg lore - the Slaughter Pen, the Wheatfield, the Valley of Death and Little Round Top.
One picture they captured, of a lone Confederate soldier lying dead in Devil's Den within the Slaughter Pen area, has become an indelible symbol of intimate combat and death - and possibly even the war itself.
The dead Confederate in the photograph, "Home of a Rebel Sharpshooter, Gettysburg," shows a young soldier lying prone behind a stonewall, situated at the confluence of two large stone outcroppings in Devil's Den.
The scene has a compelling quality, almost as if the viewer has happened upon a sacred roofless tomb.
But despite the sense of deadly immediacy the image possesses, all is not as it seems in the photograph.
Each year, the Gettysburg National Military Park attracts more than one million visitors, many of which call on Devil's Den, and make it among the most popular stops on the battlefield.
Historically, Devil's Den and its surrounding outcropping of huge boulders hosted some of the fiercest combat during the second day of the three-day battle.
"I would describe it as certainly as some of the most intense fighting of the day," said Ronald S. Coddington, author of three books profiling rank-and-file Union and Confederate soldiers. His latest effort, "African American Faces of the Civil War; An Album" (The Johns Hopkins University Press), details the life experiences of black Union soldiers. "The Union infantry and artillery here courageously defended their position against an overwhelming number of Confederate attackers late in the afternoon."
The battle began on July 1, 1863, when Confederate troops clashed with Union forces on the north side of Gettysburg. Forced to draw back, the Union Army of the Potomac established a strong line south of town along Cemetery Ridge, with Gen. George G. Meade in overall command. Across from Meade's army on Seminary Ridge sat the Army of Northern Virginia, led by Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
On the second day of battle, a Union corps commanded by Gen. Daniel Sickles made an ill-advised advance that exposed the army's left flank. Sickles' force soon faced a serious threat from a late-day assault by a Confederate corps led by Gen. James Longstreet.
The Confederates pushed back Sickles' men from positions in the Wheatfield, Slaughter Pen and Peach Orchard, and pressed on toward the strategically important but lightly defended Union site on Little Round Top. In the process, Rebel soldiers, including sharpshooters - snipers, - occupied Devil's Den.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/06/24/3467411/iconic-civil-war-photograph-sparks.html#storylink=cpy
By CHUCK MYERS
McClatchy/Tribune News Service
GETTYSBURG, Pa. - Photographer Alexander Gardner and his two colleagues, Timothy O'Sullivan and James Gibson, came upon a frightful landscape late on July 5, 1863.
Soldiers of the Blue and Gray lay dead virtually everywhere, still littering a battlefield nearly two days after the Civil War Battle of Gettysburg.
The trio set about recording the aftermath of the battle, photographing the dead at locations that have long since become synonymous with the Gettysburg lore - the Slaughter Pen, the Wheatfield, the Valley of Death and Little Round Top.
One picture they captured, of a lone Confederate soldier lying dead in Devil's Den within the Slaughter Pen area, has become an indelible symbol of intimate combat and death - and possibly even the war itself.
The dead Confederate in the photograph, "Home of a Rebel Sharpshooter, Gettysburg," shows a young soldier lying prone behind a stonewall, situated at the confluence of two large stone outcroppings in Devil's Den.
The scene has a compelling quality, almost as if the viewer has happened upon a sacred roofless tomb.
But despite the sense of deadly immediacy the image possesses, all is not as it seems in the photograph.
Each year, the Gettysburg National Military Park attracts more than one million visitors, many of which call on Devil's Den, and make it among the most popular stops on the battlefield.
Historically, Devil's Den and its surrounding outcropping of huge boulders hosted some of the fiercest combat during the second day of the three-day battle.
"I would describe it as certainly as some of the most intense fighting of the day," said Ronald S. Coddington, author of three books profiling rank-and-file Union and Confederate soldiers. His latest effort, "African American Faces of the Civil War; An Album" (The Johns Hopkins University Press), details the life experiences of black Union soldiers. "The Union infantry and artillery here courageously defended their position against an overwhelming number of Confederate attackers late in the afternoon."
The battle began on July 1, 1863, when Confederate troops clashed with Union forces on the north side of Gettysburg. Forced to draw back, the Union Army of the Potomac established a strong line south of town along Cemetery Ridge, with Gen. George G. Meade in overall command. Across from Meade's army on Seminary Ridge sat the Army of Northern Virginia, led by Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
On the second day of battle, a Union corps commanded by Gen. Daniel Sickles made an ill-advised advance that exposed the army's left flank. Sickles' force soon faced a serious threat from a late-day assault by a Confederate corps led by Gen. James Longstreet.
The Confederates pushed back Sickles' men from positions in the Wheatfield, Slaughter Pen and Peach Orchard, and pressed on toward the strategically important but lightly defended Union site on Little Round Top. In the process, Rebel soldiers, including sharpshooters - snipers, - occupied Devil's Den.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/06/24/3467411/iconic-civil-war-photograph-sparks.html#storylink=cpy