Civil War photographers in the field.
Here we get an excellent idea of how the business of army photography, invented by
Brady and first exemplified by him at
Bull Run, had become organized toward the close of the war. In the lower picture we see the outfit with which
Samuel A. Cooley followed the fortunes of the campaigners, and recorded for all time the stirring events around
Savannah at the completion of the March to the
Sea.
Cooley was attached to the Tenth Corps, United States Army, and secured photographs at
Jacksonville,
St. Augustine,
Beaufort, and
Charleston during the bombardment.
Here he is in the act of making an exposure.
The huge camera and plate-holder seem to eyes of the present day far too cumbersome to make possible the wonderful definition and beautiful effects of light and shade which characterize the war-time negatives that have come down to us through the vicissitudes of half a century.
Here are
Cooley's two means of transportation.
The wagon fitted to carry the supply of chemicals, glass plates, and the precious finished negatives includes a compartment for more leisurely developing.
The little dark-room buggy to the left was used upon occasions when it was necessary for the army photographer to proceed in light marching order.
In the smaller picture we see again the light-proof developing tent in action before the ramparts of
Fort McAllister.
The view is of the exterior of the
Fort fronting the
Savannah River.
A few days before the
Confederate guns had frowned darkly from the parapet at
Sherman's “bummers,” who could see the smoke of the
Federal gunboats waiting to welcome them just beyond.
With
Sherman looking proudly on, the footsore and hungry soldiers rushed forward to the attack, and the Stars and Stripes were soon floating over this vast barrier between them and the sea. The next morning, Christmas Day, 1864, the gunboats and transports steamed up the river and the joyful news was flashed northward.
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The field dark-room |
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The Civil War photographers' Impedimenta |
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