Civil War Photography Research Paper

War has always been an unfortunate part of our society and civilization. War will sadly and undoubtedly be with us as long as we exist. However, the portrayal of war for many centuries gave a sense of patriotism and romanticism. Then the invention of the camera changed how humanity perceived war in the late to mid 19th century. And all of a sudden, images of war became of shear violence and destruction. The violence in these images would play a significant part in the social and political standpoints of war in our nation.

Calcium floodlights were mainly used by the Union soldiers as made it easy to see and they soldiers were able to blind Confederate soldiers (8 Unusual Civil War Weapons"). One of the more creative weapons was a blanket used by Confederate soldiers (8 Unusual Civil War Weapons"). As strange as this sounds, the Confederate soldiers used the blanket to catch explosives and throw it back in the enemy's direction. My personal favorite weapon used was a hot air balloon. It was shocking when it say that hot air balloons were used to give a large view of the battlefield. (Appendix A) This was more commonly a Union weapon as the Confederacy lacked good, quality materials to build a durable balloon (“8 Unusual Civil War Weapons"). Like the machine guns and swords, rockets were actually used in the Civil War (“8 Unusual Civil War Weapons"). Although there were very few appearances from rockets, they still did help play a part by doing their job! The Confederacy used Congreve rockets as well (“Weapons”). They were around three feet and two inches long and filled with gunpowder. Although they could be powerful, they missed quite often and were pretty useless (“Weapons”). Used by both the Confederacy and the Union, underwater mines were useful to blow up the opponent's ship. Although the Union tried the underwater mines, the Confederacy had more success as they blew up dozens of the Union’s ships while the Union blew up only six Confederate ships (“8 Unusual Civil War

Artist Timothy O'Sullivan and his famous Civil War photograph "Harvest of Death," Which depicts dead soldiers spread across the battle field with their clothes gone through

The Civil War split the nation in half. It tore apart families, and Union soldiers against Confederate soldiers for four miserable years. From the first shots fired at Fort Sumter 1861, and ending with a unanimous Confederate victory in 1865. All in all 630,000 people died and many thousands wounded. The deaths in the Civil War totally surpassed the death totals from any other war (1). For those managed to survive the up hill battle just began, they faced many unknowns in a world moving in an uncertain direction. With the north beating the succeeded south in the war, politicians faced a hard task of reuniting the divided country. With reconstruction now in affect, both northern workers, and southern farmers now face many new obstacles and

The civil war had many new technologies arise that made it unique compared to the wars of the past. One of these technological improvements was the introduction of the Ironclad warship. This technology was introduced during the showdown between the Monitor and the Merrimac . These two Ironclad warships fought to a stalemate , but this struggle forever changed how ships would be designed. Another technology that had not existed in previous wars in american history was the reconnaissance balloon it allowed the union to gather information and send it through telegraph to the various commanders. The civil war brought the first submarine, The CSS Hunley. The Hunley successfully sank the Union ship Housatonic, but unfortunately the Hunley itself was damaged. The submarine would eventually prove to be important for all armies in the wars to come.

The civil war developed many inventions. Telegraphs, weapons and ships, the gatling gun, and the ambulance corps. The gatling gun itself killed thousands of men while these bullets shot more than 600 rounds per minute, this gun was a killer. Without The civil war america would be technologically behind other countries.

The photos which require long exposure time to capture a photo as it is still relatively invented, the photos generally captured the soldiers going into a battle and then laying dead from the result of the aftermath. Photography was a relatively a new technology but it was not a welcomed one as the photography pioneers displayed such vividly real images to civilians and noncombatants. Matthew Bradley was one of those pioneers which was quoted "From the first, I regarded myself as under obligation to my country to preserve the face of its historic men and mothers."

Amongst the most lasting of factors stemming from the Civil War are the weapons that were developed. Before the Civil War, the weapons used were highly unreliable, and were not advanced enough to provide the needed defense for a young nation such as our own. Innovative minds created many interesting ways to demolish their enemies without ever having to fire a shot or go into full combat through different types of bombs that were in disguise. Among the advancements in the Civil War were the torpedo, the carbine rifle, the minie` ball, several models of rifle-muskets, rocket launchers, rocket bombs, "Greek Fire," and a wide array of other secret weapons.

One was that soldiers finally had a more convenient way to communicate with their leaders, and even President Lincoln. Lincoln and other leaders were able to strategize and plan with their men swiftly and easily. Another way this war was different was that soldiers, battles, weaponry, etc. could be captured and documented with the use of cameras. Although the process of developing the photos was tedious, they still had the opportunity. To take and develop the photos they had to use the “wet plate” method which required focus, many specific steps, multiple people, and chemically powered equipment. Thanks to all of these advancements, we have our better, more modern versions of weapons, transportation, communication, and

Throughout the first half of the nineteenth century, there were many new inventions, and innovative technologies that played a major role in the civil war. At the time of the Civil War, many of the newfound war weapons in the Union proved essential for its victory. The new weapons showed a great change in the technological world.

In PHOT 501, I learned about the beginning of war photography and about famous war photographers, among all war photographers, there are Mathew Brady and Alexander Gardener. Two days after the war had started, Alexander Gardener who used to be working for Mathew Brady at the time,

Memorials have been the displays that represent the past. Many people from when the memorial was built, can go and learn a lot just from where it was placed. Lasting from the years of 1861 to 1865, the great American Civil War was a war that changed United States history. With American’s fighting against themselves, it was a battle in which over six hundred twenty-two thousand lives were lost. With memorials set almost everywhere in the United States, Gettysburg National Military Park has over one thousand four hundred monuments alone!

The photograph is a very powerful medium. The French painter Paul Delaroche exclaimed upon seeing an early photograph “from now on, painting is dead!” (Sayre, 2000). Many critics did not take photography seriously as a legitimate art form until the 20th century. With the

The deadliest war in American history is known as the American Civil War killing nearly 620,000 soldiers and a mass amount of civilians. The War Between the States was fought between Southern slave states and the United States federal government. Southern states formed a group called the Confederacy, which went against the beliefs of the Union. Jefferson Davis of the Confederate States of America and Abraham Lincoln sought different views on slavery. Lincoln believed that all slaves should be emancipated and advocated the restoration of the Union.

Photographers were expected to be able to take these mind blowing pictures of the war in rapid action, but the truth is there technology back then wasn’t advanced enough to be able to produce these sort of images. The images took only minutes to develop but a huge