PHOTOGRAPHS THAT FURNISHED VALUABLE SECRET-SERVICE INFORMATION TO THE CONFEDERATES

Robert Gray

Sergeant Major
Joined
Jul 24, 2012
Historical note. When Francis T. Miller published this photograph in 1911, it was suggested that photographer Andrew D. Lytle was forwarding information to the Confederate government. This has since been discredited, so take the caption for this image with a grain of salt.

PHOTOGRAPHS THAT FURNISHED VALUABLE SECRET-SERVICE INFORMATION TO THE CONFEDERATES

The clearest and most trustworthy evidence of an opponent's strength is of course an actual photograph. Such evidence, in spite of the early stage of the art and the difficulty of "running in" chemical supplies on "orders to trade," was supplied the Confederate leaders in the Southwest by Lytle, the Baton Rouge photographer—really a member of the Confederate secret service. Here are photographs of the First Indiana Heavy Artillery (formerly the Twenty-first Indiana Infantry), showing its strength and position on the arsenal grounds at Baton Rouge. As the Twenty-first Indiana, the regiment had been at Baton Rouge during the first Federal occupation, and after the fall of Port Hudson it returned there for garrison duty. Little did its officers suspect that the quiet man photographing the batteries at drill was about to convey the "information" beyond their lines to their opponents.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC HISTORY OF THE CIVIL WAR IN TEN VOLUMES
Frances T. Miller - Editor in Chief - The Review of Reviews Co.
1911

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Those are some interesting images, and one wonders where that information came from in the photographic history. Thank you for posting @Robert Gray, I still like the images. One wonders where Miller got his information for the captioning.
 
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