Civil War - The First War Photographed

Civil War – The First War Photographed

Seeing a picture makes one feel as if he knows what is happening. When one sees a familiar face suffering, it shocks them. One feels as if they are experiencing, or at least comprehending better, what the image in the picture is going through. If the photograph is of people laughing, for a brief second, the person looking at it, thinks that they are a part of the inside joke going on. When the images in the pictures are hurting, the person looking will feel the pain slicing through their flash as well. When the civil war broke, photography had been existent in the United States for almost 20 years. The new technology was quickly catching on, and many photographers at the time took it as a challenge to bring the truth about war out to the public. Pictures of lost battles started showing up in newspapers. Images of hurting soldiers fighting for their lives startled the country. The public was, for once, able to see the awful reality of war. Most people did not like it. The old myth of an honorable war was somewhat broken, and the battles were no longer a question of imagination. People saw their kids dying, families saw pictures of other’s loved ones hurting, and thought of their own suffering in the same way. The option to see, and for a second feel, what soldiers were experiencing daily during the way, shocked the public. Other than shocked, the public was interested. When the Harper’s Weekly first published pictures of the Bull Run battlefields, its popularity increased so much that even today, one can subscribe to the original copies it has printed in the civil war (). People’s new perspective that war is not a glorious act but rather dreadful and deadly brought rivals to seek and appreciate unity, and helped end the war.

A war usually breaks over disagreements on specific ideologies parties may have. The American Civil War broke mainly over the concept of slavery. The north, comprised of free states, wanted to end slavery in the South as well. The South, however, regarded slavery as a significant economical means. Most of the southern states did not find slavery immoral and objected the northern states’ right to interfere with the way they manage their affairs. Photographers helped people in the South realize the misery that is associated with slavery by publishing photos of young blacks that were doomed for slavery. These photos were placed in exhibitions that were used as an aid for gaining public support against slavery and for fundraising money to help slaves. Since civilians in the South became more aware of the wrongful act of slavery, they were willing to act upon it. Civilians’ support is always crucial in motivating soldiers. Once people started doubting their right to enslave other people, it weakened their support of the Southern army, and helped the northern army win the war. In History of Photography: An International Quarterly, Dr. Collins concludes:

"These visual mementos remain as evidence of a social reform campaign which was widely discussed and supported among abolitionists at the time. Ten years after their establishment, support for the schools had dwindled, and the campaign ended. Now, among Northern collections large and small may be found these enigmatic portraits of Caucasion-featured children who, because of their 'whiteness,' could stimulate their Northern benefactors to contribute to the future of a race to which these children found themselves arbitrarily confined." ().

Just like photographs of slavery helped turn a high level moral concept into a concrete one that people could ...

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Just like photographs of slavery helped turn a high level moral concept into a concrete one that people could relate to, photographs of bloodshed in the battlefields helped raising people’s conscious to the dreadful consequences of war. It stimulated both sides’ want to end the war in a peaceful manner. One of the most famous photographers of the time was Matthew Brady (1823-1896). When the Civil War broke, Brady took on himself the challenge of showing the war to the public as accurately as possible, and he sent numerous photographers around the country. In 1861, Brady was permitted to work on a photographic record of the war, and he opened a huge scale war photography operation (). The public was eager to this kind of information, and it made a huge change in public in people’s perspective about the war. On October 20, 18, the New York Times reported:

“Mr. Brady has done something to bring home to us the terrible reality and earnestness of war. If he has not brought bodies and laid them on our dooryards and along the streets, he has done something very like it. . . . It seems somewhat singular that the same sun that looked down on the faces of the slain blistering them, blotting out from the bodies all semblance to humanity, and hastening corruption, should have thus caught their features upon canvas, and given them perpetuity for ever. But it is so.”(Encyclopedia Britannica Online)

The pictures that Brady and his fellow photographers took were until then, unheard-of. In the Harvest of Death, a picture taken by T.H. O’Sullivan, the battlefield of the battle of Gettysburg is illustrated. In the photo, there are many bodies lying around, one cannot identify any faces with the exception of the closest body to the camera. This picture is one of the ones that traumatized the country the most. It was the first time that bodies of soldiers were actually shown on newspapers, and moreover a face of a dead soldier. The face did not look anything like a proud soldier; the dreadful, suffering image had made it clear that the myth of war is glorious has no truth in it. Another photo, taken by Alexander Gardner, The Bodies of Confederate Gathered for Burial. In this picture, there are many bodies lying one on top of the other, waiting to be namely buried. There was absolutely no honor in burial with an enormous number of other nameless soldiers.

As photographers like Brady were determined to communicate to the public the horrible consequences of warfare, they did not let technical difficulties come in their way. Cameras in the 1860’s were only starting to appear on the market, and they were gigantic and were not fitted for quick filming. In order to take pictures of the actual battlefields, a photographer had to pause everything for a few minutes until the shading and the focus was exactly right. Many times, because of these limitations, the photos were not actually pictured “live.” Many regiments were actually photographed before the battle, rather than during the actual battle. Many of the pictures were not a documentary representation of the factual events, but rather a simulated act that was choreographed to some extent after the scene. It was especially evident in some pictures that showed lines of dead bodies lying in the battlefield, in which bodies have been moved around to create a more dramatic effect. For example, in the Harvest of Death, the fact that only one face out of the many bodies lying in the battlefield has been turned to the camera seemed suspicious to many people. Soldiers that had randomly fell do not usually fall to the same direction, with one exception, which is miraculously the body closest to the camera. There were countless rumors about the staging of photos and therefore misleading the public through false reporting.

While the power of photography was misused in some cases, it has played a positive role in many other cases. For instance, despite of the fundamental debate on the subject of slavery, the civil war had been a war among the white people from both sides for the most part. However, shortly after the Emancipation Proclamation, many black people joined the north army. Pictures of black soldiers fighting shoulder-to-shoulder with white soldiers started appearing in the newspapers, and they increased the self-conviction and motivation of civilians of the northern states, and their support of their army. Such simple yet symbolic pictures contributed to the victory of the north in this long and cruel war. One can assume that such pictures had also a demoralize effect on the Southern army, as they realized that they are now going to have to fight with the black community as well. Losing a battle to a former slave, a non-person inferior to the Southern whites, may have decreased the South’s confidence and self esteem.

The strong effect of pictures was also evident in the residual effect once the war ended. Brady’s plan was to later sell his collection of war photography to the government. However, despite the fact that photos of battlefields filled the newspapers during the war and were very popular at that time, the situation completely reversed once the war ended. The government was not interested in purchasing Brady’s photos as they were trying to repress the memories of the war. Brady tried to sell them to the public, but people were not interested in recollections of bloodshed and conflict. Brady invested $100,000 in financing his photography operation, and was unable to get any return on his investment. He declared bankruptcy and died a few years later.

Clearly, Matthew Brady expected to make a fortune out of the new power of photography. While he failed with his personal plan, the influence of photography on people’s perspective of warfare was irreversible. Recollections of all previous wars had been artificial work like paintings that did not communicate any realistic sense to their audience. By virtue of being piece of art that was created after the event, these paintings were primarily used to present a heroic perspective on warfare. Photography, by contrast, was a real time documentary work, for the most part, and was used as a key vehicle in helping people realize its non-heroic dark side, comprising of death, pain and suffer. Photographs are more transparent and leave little room for miscommunication of the horrible consequences of bloodshed. The ability to publish them in newspapers and exhibitions within a short time of the actual events puts the big picture of warfare in some human down-to-earth perspective. As the modern world had learned ever since, media has a crucial role in maintaining civil rights by making many actions and their consequences transparent in a real time manner.

Civil War, The First War Photographed

Kesem Rozenblat

U.S. History, A block

Mr. Turner

December 19, 2002