Mathew Brady Discovers a "Corpse" on Wheafield Road

[Gettysburg Greg]

(Note, should be Wheatfield, not Wheafield in title) Mathew Brady was well aware that the money shots for Civil War photographers were images that included the bodies of dead soldiers. There are many post battle photos taken at Gettysburg that show legitimate fallen soldiers, most of which were taken by Alexander Gardner's crew July 5-7, 1863. Brady did not arrive in Gettysburg until mid July after all the bodies from both sides were interred. However, Brady attempted to capitalize on the commercial value of photos of dead soldiers anyway by having one of his assistants pose in three photographs from his Gettysburg album assuming the role of a dead soldier. The example below is a highly magnified crop from his panorama of Little Round Top. Brady and an assistant are seen sitting on their wagon apparently staring at a dead body lying (rather uncomfortably) in the Wheatfield Road. The "body" is, in fact, Brady's assistant seen very much alive in over a dozen of the photographs taken at Gettysburg by Brady.