Rarely Seen Image of Faux Casualties in Devil's Den

Gettysburg Greg

First Sergeant
Joined
Jun 6, 2010
Location
Decatur, Illinois
The top photo below is not often published because at first glance it just appears to be a dark image showing the rocks somewhere in Devil's Den. However, upon closer examination, you can begin to make out several prostrate soldiers lying among the rocks and a couple others standing above them. Is this some recently discovered photograph taken by Alexander Gardner on July 6th? No, not at all! This is one of a series of photographs taken by P. S. Weaver in November of 1863 of very much alive soldiers from Camp Letterman serving as death posers. My similar modern photo on the bottom shows the setting to be right where the iron Devil's Den sign was placed ca. 1900.
DD Sign.jpg
 
In the early 1900s, this specific location was visited by William R. Houghton, a former member of Company G, 2nd Georgia Infantry, in Benning's brigade. He wrote:

"I took the trolley for Little Round Top, arriving there about the same time we charged on July 2, 1863. I recognized the precipitous rocks over Devil's Den as soon as I came in sight and got off the car to walk the rest of the day. Again I stood on the spot where I stood over 40 years ago. Above us then, quite twenty feet, on the edge of the rock stood a line of blue coated United States regulars [more likely the 99th Pennsylvania volunteers] firing straight down on our line which had become broken in passing over and around the huge boulders which barred our way. Here fell the gallant [Private Thomas H.] Muse and [1st] Lieutenant [George W.] Mays of my company, shot through the top of the head by the almost vertical fire. Muse fell to his left, striking my feet. The government avenue passes directly over the spot where they fell, and just beyond is an iron sign with the words 'Devil's Den' on it."

(Two Boys in the Civil War and After, W. R. Houghton and M. B. Houghton, Montgomery, AL: The Paragon Press, 1912, http://docsouth.unc.edu/houghton/houghton.html, 03/10/2001)
 
The top photo below is not often published because at first glance it just appears to be a dark image showing the rocks somewhere in Devil's Den. However, upon closer examination, you can begin to make out several prostrate soldiers lying among the rocks and a couple others standing above them. Is this some recently discovered photograph taken by Alexander Gardner on July 6th? No, not at all! This is one of a series of photographs taken by P. S. Weaver in November of 1863 of very much alive soldiers from Camp Letterman serving as death posers. My similar modern photo on the bottom shows the setting to be right where the iron Devil's Den sign was placed ca. 1900.
View attachment 415683
I have read where certain after battle scenes were staged as to cause a effect upon the viewer. One is at Bloody Lane. It is obvious that this has not been staged. It would be interesting if there was any of the infamous Pickett/Armstead Charge. I have read that these photos were set in photo studios so that the civilian population of cities as New York and Chicago could see what the war was like . Question; By the general public viewing the war through these photos, staged or not, did they have any effect upon the general public who git the chance to view these photos. Did Lincoln view any of these pictures or Stanton ?
 
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I have read where certain after battle scenes were staged as to cause a effect upon the viewer. One is at Bloody Lane. It is obvious that this has not been staged. It would be interesting if there was any of the infamous Pickett/Armstead Charge. I have read that these photos were set in photo studios so that the civilian population of cities as New York and Chicago could see what the war was like . Question; By the general public viewing the war through these photos, staged or not, did they have any effect upon the general public who git the chance to view these photos. Did Lincoln view any of these pictures or Stanton ?
The photographic event that caused the first stunning public reaction to the facts of war was Mathew Brady's October 1862 exhibit at his Broadway studio in New York City. See How Photos from the Battle of Antietam Revealed the American Civil War's Horrors.
 
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