The Photographic History of the Civil War: 3 Volumes in One

As part of the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the start of the Civil War in 1911, a photographic history of the war in ten volumes was published. The Blue & Grey Press has reprinted this resource, consolidated into five volumes. Volume I covers the conflict from the Battle of First Bull Run/Manasas in 1861 to the Battle of Chattanooga in August 1863. The photographs are a remarkable combination of key landscapes, fortifications, troop formations, and individual leaders, supplemented with descriptions of each photograph and a running narrative that stitches the whole collection together. An introductory essay speaks to the difficulties of photography in the field, due to cumbersone equipment, long exposure times, and the need for a dark room in which to develop the glass transparencies. The challenge of field photography accounts in part for the lack of what we would today consider to be combat photography, images of battles in progress. This volume and the others in the series provide a vital sense of scale for a conflict and an American long gone in our wake. The America in which the Civil War was fought was one of dirt roads, rough wooden houses, and a citizen army that never quite mastered the spit and polish of the regulars. On the other hand, by necessity, the soldiers of the Civil War became masters of field fortifications, temporary shelters, and hasty bridges, as the photographs demonstrate. This volume of The Photographic History of the Civil War is highly recomemnded as a resource for students of that conflict.