Scene from Cyclorama Compared to Matching Photograph

[Gettysburg Greg]

Before French artist Paul Philippoteaux began working on the grand Gettysburg Cyclorama, he visited the battlefield and interviewed many of the participants in the battle. Additionally, he employed Gettysburg photographer William Tipton to record a series of 360 degree of panoramas from near the Angle. He would use these 1882 images to accurately display the landscape in his masterpiece. The Tipton image below was recorded from a small tower located on today's Hancock Avenue just east of The Angle. The fence seen running away from the camera on the right terminates at The Angle. The view, facing west, includes the area within the Angle where the great charge of July 3rd climaxed, as well as Seminary Ridge in the background where the Southerner's stepped off. Crossing the scene in the middle background is the Emmitsburg Road where the Confederate struggled to climb over the stout 6-rail fences on both sides of the road while under intense rifle fire. The Codori farm is seen along the road on the left. Notice that Tipton included a man and a horse in the foreground as well as a man crossing the wall for the artist to use for perspective.
On the bottom is the same scene as it appears in the Cyclorama. This is a representation of the point in time when the Confederates have breeched the wall and the 71st Pa is being rushed to the Angle to fill the gap.
The attention to detail is amazing when comparing the two images.

 

[Yankeedave]

Trivia!
The fence on the right is a stonewall with timber rails on top. What is this style of fence called? Cue the Jeopardy music.

 

[E_just_E]

This is a great comparison

And it really shows that one really important detail was altered:

The cyclorama was created in 1882, a good 19 years after the battle. Unfortunately Pillippoteaux has been talking to another person during that time, John Bachelder who developed the Copse of Trees mythology. If you look at the top (winter of 1864?) picture, the "copse of trees" is barely distinguishable (and only because we know where to look for) and as a matter of fact, those trees are more sparse and shorter than trees in front of them right by the stone fence in the year of the battle. Also (but hard to see,) between the Codori house and the "copse of trees", there is another, denser, spot of trees (visible in the picture, but missing in the painting.) Give the picture full foliage, and the "copse" would be indistinguishable from the taller trees by the fence and the other denser trees half way to the farm. It is not painted that way, but the "copse" is exaggerated to fit the picture to the Mythology, ignoring the facts...

 

[Yankeedave]

This is a great comparison

And it really shows that one really important detail was altered:

The cyclorama was created in 1882, a good 19 years after the battle. Unfortunately Pillippoteaux has been talking to another person during that time, John Bachelder who developed the Copse of Trees mythology. If you look at the top (winter of 1864?) picture, the "copse of trees" is barely distinguishable (and only because we know where to look for) and as a matter of fact, those trees are more sparse and shorter that trees in front of them right by the stone fence in the year of the battle. Also (but hard to see,) between the Codori house and the "copse of trees", there is another, denser, spot of trees (visible in the picture, but missing in the painting.) Give the picture full foliage, and the "copse" would be indistinguishable from the taller trees by the fence and the other denser trees half way to the farm. It is not painted that way, but the "copse" is exaggerated to fit the picture to the Mythology, ignoring the facts...

Hey Lt. Can you go into further detail on that subject?

 

[Gettysburg Greg]

Trivia!
The fence on the right is a stonewall with timber rails on top. What is this style of fence called? Cue the Jeopardy music.

Pig tight and cow high.

 

[Yankeedave]

Pig tight and cow high.

Yes! Cow high, pig tight. I bow to your superior knowledge!

 

[E_just_E]

Hey Lt. Can you go into further detail on that subject?

In what respect? That picture is worth more than 1000 words about how that area looked back then and how the reality got skewed to fit someone's mythology.

 

[Yankeedave]

In what respect? That picture is worth more than 1000 words about how that area looked back then and how the reality got skewed to fit someone's mythology.

The picture, according to the post, is almost 20 years later.