Believe it or not, the American Civil War was the fourth war to be captured on camera. In 1846, the Mexican-American War was the first American disagreement with photographers to narrative first hand accounts of this history. The second was the Crimean War in 1854, and the third was the Indian Rebellion of 1857.
Union photographers such as Matthew Brady are very well-known, and Brady is determined to be the father of photojournalism. He was a passionate photographer and master of his craft. History knows quite a bit about Brady and other Union photographers and their work. However, less customary are the Southern photographers.
Henry S Camera
Many photographs were taken by Southerners, but unfortunately most of them were destroyed at the end of the war. The bitter loss and discontentment was too much for many to bear, and so these precious photos were very often destroyed.
George Cook was the most preeminent of the Southern photographers. He is known for recording the troops destruction of Charleston, Ft. Sumter, and he even captured ironclad activity near Ft. Sumter. Tragically, most of his work was destroyed in a fire in 1864. In 1880, he relocated to Richmond, where he purchased most of the work and negatives of many Southern photographers who were retiring or moving. As a result, he had amassed the biggest collection of Southern photography at the time.
Robert Smith was other foremost Southern photographer who was also a Confederate lieutenant. During the war he was captured and held at Johnson's Island, Ohio. Amazingly, he was able to privately fabricate a wet-plate camera. He used a spyglass lens, a knife, pine box and tin can. Prison security was apparently pretty lax! He then used his newly constructed camera to take undercover images of fellow prisoners and prison life in general. He was able to gain chemicals from the prison hospital to use in his developing process. It is an marvelous story! Unfortunately, few Robert Smith images have survived today.
The American Civil War was the most completely covered event of the 19th century. Even conflicts that came later did not have the coverage that the Civil War did. The photography is one of the main aspects that draws most interest to this conflict. By the time of the American Civil War, the art of photography was already 21 years old. We are fortunate that the technology of photography was industrialized just in time for the most sobering disagreement in American history.
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