Amazing Original Photographs from the Civil War

Whether you like history or not... These are pretty amazing considering they were taken up to 145 years ago: A compendium of photos from the Civil War era. Truly fortunate that so many of these have survived. Probably a million wet plate photos were made during the civil war on glass plate. Popular during the war, they lost their appeal afterwards and so many were sold for the glass. Many used in green houses. Over the years the sun caused the images to disappear.

http://www.angelfire.com/ak2/intelligencerreport/civil_war.html

Great pics for any history buff to appreciate.

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:hi:

A day when there were no unwelcome unreccers, just their idiot rebel ancestors.

:D

I just think that they are an interesting record of a very difficult time for the nation.

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Thanks

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Jeesh.

Who said they were new?

K&R

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E. L. Doctorow's Civil War novel The March, because one of its main characters is a Civil War photographer who travels with Sherman's army as it marches through the South, and the idea of this new means of documentation plays a large role in the narrative.

It sounds like an interesting book. I'm going to have to check it out.

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That sounds interesting....to the top of my summer reading list.

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I wish humankind was beyond all that.

One thing never changes, war is brutal.

:-(

Genocide (1981) yet another holocaust movie, just become numb to it. :(

I hadn't heard of the above movie and it was an oscar winning movie... Orson Welles was a great narrator for that.

These are amazing.

I love history and found these pics to be fascinating.

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So much that I majored it at college.

They were fascinating. I love glimpses into the past.

:pals:

I love old houses, museums and anything that has a past. It is so interesting to touch something that is very old and wonder about the people who owned it. What were their lives like, what were their hopes and dreams? Also, history holds many lessons for the present, if only people paid attention.

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Both from historical and visual arts perspectives. Thanks for posting this.

They are a visual record of the era. They speak volumes of the cost of war. So many young soldiers dead, not much different from any war. When will we learn?

:(

That is why Bu$h censored photos from Iraq and Afghanistan and barred journalists from Dover AFB.

...one picture speaks volumes.

So much suffering and humanity still hasn't learned the lesson.

;(

He was an elderly man who had been rejected from the Union Army for being too old. But he managed to get himself in a Union battalion, fought bravely, got severely wounded, captured by the Confederacy, escaped and lived to tell about it all. President Lincoln sought him out and met with him after the Gettysburg Address.

He was the Civil War's Audey Murphy.

Thanks, I'm going to have to read up on him.

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I was amazed at the resolution on some of them.

I don't think that most modern photos would last 145 years. I have some that are 20 years old and they are already starting to show their age. B&W photography seems more durable. There's also something very interesting about them, just like with B&W movies. The lighting, the shadows, the shades of gray give them more depth and add to the pathos of war.

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The Civil War era is one of my favorite historical eras. Thanks so much for posting these.

I enjoyed looking at them and thought that others would too.

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Shared with my fam.
Thanks!

That's fantastic!!!

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Those are great! K&R!

War is ugly no matter what the time period.

Thanks for the posting.

"Deck and turret of U.S.S. Monitor seen from the bow"


Thanks for the post! :patriot:

I had never seen such a close image of the Monitor.

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Can you imagine being inside that turret when the shots hit?

If nothing else, it must have left them temporarily deaf.

:-(

about the years after the civil was, during the restoration. It was about what they called the 2nd civil war, because many in the south were not ready to give up and they kept fighting. It had the start of the kkk and Lowery's war etc. VERY informative, I learned a lot.

Many people did not want to accept the results of the war and continued fighting. BTW, the term "carpetbagger" was coined around that time:

"In United States history, "carpetbaggers" was a negative term Southerners gave to Northerners (also referred to as Yankees) who moved to the South during the Reconstruction era, between 1865 and 1877. It was a derogatory term, suggesting opportunism and exploitation in the outsiders. The relocated northerners often formed alliances with freed slaves and southern whites who were Republicans, who were nicknamed scalawags. Together they are said to have politically manipulated and controlled former Confederate states for varying periods for their own financial and power gains. In sum, carpetbaggers were seen as insidious Northern outsiders with questionable objectives meddling in local politics, buying up plantations at fire-sale prices and taking advantage of Southerners."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpetbagger

may have been a Time book series, but they were over-sized so I don't know. They were filled with pictures like these. I remember being about 9 or 10 and looking at the pictures of the dead. I have no idea whatever happened to those books. I'm sure most of the pictures were from Mathew Brady.

A Photographic History of the Civil War by Francis Trevelyan Miller (in ten volumes). They were published 50 years after the end of the Civil War. My husband's uncle gave us his set. Someone had an op a few months ago about some photos of Civil War graves and
another DU'er advised me that the set was all online. Here is a link to the online volumes and the earlier DU post too.

http://www.quinnipiac.edu/other/abl/etext/civilwar/toc.html

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8130093#8134446

'landscape' wise. Thanks for the link to the Miller volumes.

:(

Photos from the Civil War are among the most beautiful ever.

Everyone else seems to have been able to opened the link.

:(

You must read, Personal Memoirs of US Grant. It is fascinating to read and you won't want to put it down. You will come to the conclusion that Grant was truly the best general in the Civil War and perhaps the best ever to come from the United States. He not only commanded the field he understood war in its entirety, the men, the logistics, the strengths, the weaknesses, everything. If you like history you will love this set.

One of his projects that actually MADE money.

I think that people have tended to dismiss Grant due to his drinking, but he was quite a remarkable man.

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Mr Pip's great-great-great uncle was with the 7th Illinois.

He did a family genealogy, and passed down a large book with information going back to the Mayflower, along with some neat Civil War photos and a couple of diaries. We also had his original Henry rifle, but it's in a museum now.

Our photos have been kept in a dark, cool place so they should be OK, but eventually we may have to think about some other way of storing them.

I love looking at very old artifacts.

:)

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and it may just be that they were hidden from view, but unlike the wars of this era, there are no dead or maimed children in those pictures. We've killed and horribly mutilated thousands of children in Iraq and other recent wars. Did that happen in the civil war? If not, why have things changed?

Except for burning down a city, the weaponry and therefore casualties tended to be on the battlefield.

Most battles took place in open fields outside of cities, therefore minimizing collateral and property damage. The killing capacity of modern weaponry has changed how wars are now waged and the civilian deaths have increased dramatically. There used to be a gentlemanly code among combatants that doesn't seem to exist anymore.

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that was for our nation. But what a worthy cause.

Wars are bad enough, but it's unthinkable to have brother fighting brother. Very sad times, indeed.

:-(

Basically it's going to consist of organizing stacks of scrapbooks, letters, pictures, drawings and books spanning at least two centuries of Pennsylvania history. She has at least 5 big trunks full of old stuff.

I'm giddy at the potential, and would have done it for free. :)

I would have loved to dive into your grandma's trunks. Who knows what treasures you will find? You will also get to learn a lot about your own family history.

Have fun!!!

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ironically what stuck in my mind were the distorted bodies of those poor souls in the last stages of syphillis

I think that I'll try to keep it that way.

:-(

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Thanks, guys!!!!

:woohoo:

When I see these photos, I'm reminded of the 1948 song "Passing Through" by Dick Blakeslee--

I saw Jesus on the cross on a hill called Calvary
"Do you hate mankind for what they done to you?"
He said, "Talk of love not hate, things to do - it's getting late.
I've so little time and I'm only passing through."

Passing through, passing through.
Sometimes happy, sometimes blue,
glad that I ran into you.
Tell the people that you saw me passing through.

I saw Adam leave the Garden with an apple in his hand,
I said "Now you're out, what are you gonna do?"
"Plant some crops and pray for rain, maybe raise a little cain.
I'm an orphan now, and I'm only passing through."

Passing through, passing through ...

I was with Washington at Valley Forge, shivering in the snow.
I said, "How come the men here suffer like they do?"
"Men will suffer, men will fight, even die for what is right
even though they know they're only passing through"

Passing through, passing through ...

I was at Franklin Roosevelt's side on the night before he died.
He said, "One world must come out of World War Two" (ah, the fool)
"Yankee, Russian, white or tan," he said, "A man is still a man.
We're all on one road, and we're only passing through."

Passing through, passing through ...

Thanks for posting. I'll be bookmarking that site.

Ann Arbor

Great Find.
Thanks for sharing these!
:hi:

They are a great collection.

;)

Through my recent genealogical research I found out that my great-great grandfather was wounded twice in the war and had his hand amputated. He served with the Indiana Calvary.

But a land grab by Lincoln.

Seriously, I recognize a few of the photos. Great find anyway.

do they really say or believe that?!!!

The "North" forum has 3 posts last one in Oct. of 09. The "South" on the other hand has 31 posts the last one just a few days ago. Lots of back and forth about whether the Confederate flag is a symbol of hate. You can guess what the consensus is. There's one section devoted to remembering "Confederate Heritage." Um um.

The pics are pretty run of the mill, nothing you can't get out of a civil war remainder coffee table book at Borders. Fail! The South lost, get over it already.

Between living in the DC area and my father's love of military history, I've been to most of these places. We just drove over and under the Union Arch Bridge at Glen Echo today.

Thank you for this wonderful glimpse into the past!

Thanks Bea! (I wonder what kind of bizarre hidden agenda would propel somebody to unrec this thread???) :crazy:

The "unrec'ing crew" unrecs anything I post. They are petty and childish, but that's their problem. I just laugh it off.

:D

(bulk image downloader) there are others, but that's been the most effective. 280 photos to download? drooling.
love old pix

:D

What a treasure trove. I remember the first time I visited Gettysburg, when I was 15, back in the late 60's. Of course at that time it was only a little over 100 years since the Civil War. I was struck by the photographs from so long ago. I never forgot this haunting experience; I was very sad for weeks after visiting Gettysburg.

For those of you who love Civil War history, I highly recommend an excellent book which I have been reading lately: "Master of War: the Life of General George H. Thomas", but Benson Bobrick. Thomas was born in the Tidewater region of Virgina, to a slave-owning family. He opposed slavery, however, and fought for the Union in the Cumberland and the western theater. He was very methodical and never lost a battle. After the war Sherman and Grant advanced their own legacies, to the disadvantage of Thomas, who died in 1870, before he had a chance to write his memoirs. Thomas did say "Time and history will do me justice." Bobrick says he was the greatest general of the Civil War.

Thomas is an example of true leadership, the kind of man that men wanted to follow. He was a man of self-control and discipline. He never allowed his men to plunder and destroy private property, and I would submit that had he been in Sherman's place, the South would never have seen the indiscriminate destruction carried out by Sherman, who was called "crazy" and "insane" in the newspapers.

Here's info from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Henry_Thomas. I did not see a photo of Thomas in OP's link.

I just got my AAA magazine and it has Gettysburg on the front page. I was thinking that I would love to go, I have no idea why I have never been there.

I read what you posted on General Thomas, sounds like an interesting man. One more book to add to the list. Thanks!!

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What's he reaching for under his jacket?

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The pics are fantastic
It's great stuff like this is preserved
I've never understood why people aren't interested in history
It's our (their) heritage

Love the beard on the guy in row 59 column 3

"Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it".........

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Thanks for the thread, Beacool.

;)

thanks

And some Conservatives want to do this again.

wow

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I LOVE history! I looked at some now and I'm saving the link so I can really take my time and carefully look at everyone of them. :thumbsup:

I don't understand how people cannot like history. You learn so much from studying how others lived before our time.

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Most of mine are from 1890's through the 1920's and are topical..sports, main street USA, horse drawn/transportation, social movements (temperance, votes for women, etc.),,,

Oh, if you get a chance check out Harper's Civil War issues. They are line drawings but are also fabulous. They are all posted here along with the text written at the time...very interesting for civil war buffs..

http://www.sonofthesouth.net/

I buy old photos at random. If I like the place it depicts, if it's something related to my town, etc.

Thanks for the link, I'll check it out.

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