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| Photographers of the western armies The Civil War was the first great war to be photographed. The art had just arisen. The daguerreotype had been superseded by the tintype, and the wet-plate method (still in vogue in the best portrait galleries) was then in the height of its excellence. It is a fortunate thing in recording the history of the time that the camera was in existence. In Corinth there was a firm of photographers occupying a little wooden shack in the outskirts of the town. They did a thriving business during the occupancy by the Confederates and by the Federals. George Armstead was a wonderful photographer — rivaling Brady at his best. In the picture he is standing back to the left, near where some of his negatives are printing in the sun; in front of the shop a drummer-boy stands with folded arms near the civilians who loll against the post. What would we not give for a nearer glimpse of the samples of Armstead's work on the right of the doorway! The little frame of portrait tintypes on the other side would also give us to-day a thrill of interest. They are the only relics, perhaps, of men who lie in far-off graves — duplicates of the only mementoes that their people, who are now old, possess. In turning the pages of this volume many will exclaim, “Look, there he is!” |
