Antietam, The Other Side

Photographing and filming The American Civil War history has been a passion and favorite photographic subject. It takes us on travel throughout the United States to beautiful places and National Parks that have restored and maintained these historical sacred grounds. Autumn is the most popular time to visit and photograph them in their splendor and natural beauty. The image below is the North side of Burnside’s Bridge. See our earlier Antietam post for another view of the bridge and our early work in film here.

The National Archives and Antietam National Battlefield Park offer a host of original images, sketches and paintings of this battle and its aftermath. We featured some of those images in our earlier post above and a slideshow here of Burnside’s Bridge as it was in September 1862.

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“Historic Photographs by Alexander Gardner
Alexander Gardner took 70 photographs of the battlefield starting just two days after the battle. This was the first time an American battlefield had ever been photographed before the dead had been buried. Gardner returned in early October when President Lincoln visited General George McClellan and the Army of the Potomac and took another series of images. Gardner, 41 years old at the time of the battle, was employed by Mathew Brady who owned of a photography gallery in Washington, D.C. during the Civil War.”
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Slideshow Image Credit:
Historical Photographs of Alexander Gardner, Antietam National Battlefield Park and National Archives.

HDR Image: Copyright, JayJacy Photography ©2013 All Rights Reserved
No Reblogs Please. Thank you.

The Cornfield of Antietam

The “Cornfield” and “cornfields” are compelling sites from one of the bloodiest battles of the American Civil War.  How calm they look today than in 1862 when the battle raged and the glint of Confederate bayonets were concealed in the Cornfield revealing their location as Union soldiers approached.

“I ordered the regiment to charge into the cornfield.  They started in a gallant style cheering as they moved and penetrated the cornfield, but because of overpowering numbers of concealed enemy we were compelled to fall back.” 1/

“The battlefield was too terrible to behold without a shock.  I never want to see another such.  I counted eighty Rebels in one row along the fence in front of us, lying so thick you could step from one to the other, and this was only in one place.  In others they lay in heaps, mowed down, and many of our brave boys with them.  So it was everywhere.” Edward S. Bragg of the 6th Wisconsin, and wounded at Antietam describes the scene where the Texas Brigade fought.”2/

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1/ Joel Wanner of the 128 PA describes their attack into the cornfield –
From For Honor, Flag, and Family Civil War Major General Samuel W. Crawford, 1827-1892 by Richard Wagner.  Shippensburg:  White Mane Books, 2005.

2/From “First Texas in the Cornfield.” by George E. Otott.  The Maryland Campaign of 1862 Civil War Regiments:  A Journal of the American Civil War. Vol 5, No 3. Campbell CA:  Savas Publishing Company, 1998.

The Battle of Antietam in HDR

As lovers of  American History and our Civil War History, our photography travels have sent us all over the United States to capture those historical places and battlefield parks which were instrumental in the building of America.  In our university studies, we were intrigued by the American Civil War and set out to capture it in modern photography.   We have captured all of the major battlefield parks in the US in both film and digital as well as Civil War reenactments from those battles.*  These parks are not only beautiful, historical and sacred ground but offer amazing scenes for landscape photographers.  This is especially so at Antietam National Battlefield Park in Sharpsburg, Maryland.  The cherished time to photograph is the fall when breathtaking color abounds and the pastoral landscape is perfection.

“The Bloodiest One Day Battle in American History

“23,000 soldiers were killed, wounded or missing after twelve hours of savage combat on September 17, 1862. The Battle of Antietam ended the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia’s first invasion into the North and led to Abraham Lincoln’s issuance of the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.”**

Slideshow:  Images by Jay&Jacy Photography, National Archives, Kern Collection

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Visit the Antietam National Battlefield Park for history, images, maps and to download their history .pdf.

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* Image shot w/Minolta SLR, film, slide scanned to digital, processed HDR from single image in Photomatix Pro, Efex Pro, texture overlay.

** Antietam National Battlefield Park

See our posts/images from Cedar Creek Battlefield Park & Reenactment; Abraham Lincoln and other battles under “Categories” in our Archives.