The Civil War was the third war in history to be recorded through photography. At the time of the Civil War, photographs provided a new, wholy realistic view of the war that could not be provided by paintings or verbal accounts. Photographs of the war were provided to a range of audiences. From being sold in galleries and to newspapers for the general public to see, to the governments who hired photographers for the war, everyone at the time could see directly the events of the Civil War. To date, there are still thousands of photographs left from that time, all providing a valuable record of the war to audiences today. But there was more to photography in the Civil War than just snapping and selling pictures; the pictures taken all had a specific purpose, and shooting photographs was difficult, dangerous, and only sometimes rewarding.
Photographers at the time had different motivations for photographing the Civil War; some were semi-official photographers of the war, hired by the government, others were unoffical photographers who were there to take photos for profit or were there under a sense of obligation to record this major event in American history. This resulted in a wide variety of subject matter in the photographs. Of those hired by the government, there subject matter varied depending on what government bureau they were hired by. For example, Alexander Gardner was hired by the Tophographical Engineers to photograph maps and distribute the copies (though he was most widely known for his unofficial battle scene photographs). Other semi-official photographers included George Barnard, who photographed for the Corps of Engineers, and Sam F. Cooley, who photographed for the Quartermaster's Department. Of the unofficial photographers, the most famous were the ones who were there to provide a photographic record of the war. The most famous of these were Mathew Brady and Alexander Gardner. Their photographs consisted of views of army encampments, battles, and scenes of the fallen soldiers. While these types of photographs are the most well known now, the most popular type of photograph taken during the war was the portrait. The main purpose of the portrait was as a source of income for photographers who followed the armies from camp to camp. The Bergtresser brothers, for example, followed the army for nearly a year, taking literally thousands of portraits at a dollar a piece.
With this job came the extreme difficulty of actually taking the photographs. The process of taking photographs at the time was laborious, time-consuming, and extremely delicate; any number of things could go wrong when creating the photograph. Photographers at the time worked with collodion-on-glass, or wet-plate, negatives. The process of making these involved coating a clean sheet of glass in collodion, partially drying it, and bathing it in silver nitrate. The glass was then exposed in the camera for several seconds and then processed in a makeshift darkroom. The most obvious obstacle this created for photographers was the amount of time this process took. It made it nearly impossible to photograph battle or marching scenes; the photographer was only able to acheive such scenes if he was lucky enough to have cooperation from the commanding officer. Along with this came the problem of where to set up the photography equipment. On the battlefield, terrain was generally too uneven for the amount of equipment that needed to be set up; it was also quite imperative that the photographer find a place safely out of the way of enemy fire. If the photographer was even able to take the photograph, the development of the negative proved further trouble. Out in the field, wayward bugs or debris could find their way into the chemical, or onto the still wet negative and easily ruin it.
Obtaining, transporting, and keeping the equipment and chemicals safe also proved difficult for field photographers. Many photographers had wagons to transport their equipment, but portable dark rooms were expensive and hard to obtain. If the wagon or equipment was destroyed, it was hard to replace in a timely manner. The glass needed for the negatives was heavy and hard to transport, and chemicals needed to be kept safe. This occasionally proved especially difficult on the battlefield. A perfect example of what a problem this posed for photographers was an incident that happened to Mathew Brady at Petersburg. As he was attempting to shoot a photograph of the battle, gunshots from the armies frightened the horse tethered to his portable darkroom, destroying his equipment and chemicals. Another photographer, George S. Cook, who photographed for the Confederacy, also faced similar difficulties. As he was photographing the battle at Fort Moulrie, incoming fire knocked some of his equipment into a rainwater cistern (he was able, though, to pay a soldier five dollars to fish it out for him).
While there are no records of photographers being killed in battle, those most devoted to photographing the battle did put themselves in risky situations. Because taking a photograph involved so much equipment, photographers were forced to schlep their dark rooms and wagons wherever it was that the photograph was being taken. If a photographer wanted to shoot a battle, this involved moving and setting up their equipment directly in the battle, sometimes even all the way up to the trenches. This put photographers directly in the line of fire of sharpshooters and flying debris. For instance, as George S. Cook was photographing the battle at Fort Moulrie, he was eventually ordered by the commanding officer to get away from the battle and out of sight because he and his wagon were drawing too much fire from the opposing army. Another danger that photographers faced was if they took jobs photographing for their respective government's secret service. Photographs taken secretly of the opposing army relayed such information as batteries, regiments, camps, artillery, and lookouts. Because these photographs contained such sensitive information, photographers captured while taking them were subject to be treated, and punished, as spies.
It was only after the Civil War that photographers began receiving due recognition for their efforts. Photographers put their lives on the line just as much as the soldiers in an effort to provide such a record their governments and fellow countrymen. While some photographers, such as the Bergtresser brothers, were able to find a way of making an income out of their profession, others, such as Mathew Brady, went bankrupt due to the expense of their endeavors. Many photographers, such as those who worked under Brady, will never be recognized, due to the fact that Brady's name, and no one else's was attributed to every photograph, regardless of who took it. Other's will never be recognized because they photographed for the Confederacy, and after its defeat most pictures were hidden away or destroyed for being records of a failed rebellion. Finally, in the 20th century, did photographers begin receiving note for their efforts from researchers, archivists, and the American government. It is through this reognition that we now have a comprehensive account of the experience of photographers in the Civil War.
Works Cited:
1. Department of Photographs. "Photography and the Civil War, 1861–1865". In Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/phcw/hd_phcw.htm (October 2004)
2. Josephin Cobb. "Photographers of the Civil War." Military Affairs Vol. 26, No. 3 (Autumn 1962) pp. 127-135. JSTOR. Accessed Oct. 22, 2007
3. Miller, Francis Trevekyan, ed. The Photographic History of the Civil War in Ten Volumes. New York: The Review of Reviews Company, 1912.
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