Does The Camera Ever Lie?

The Case of Confused Identity | 1 | 2 | 3

The Analysis.

This analysis is based upon the pioneering work of the historian William Frassanito in his book Gettysburg: A Journey in Time (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1975, pp. 222-229).

Plate 36. Incidents of the War. A Harvest of Death. Full Image | Caption

Image with numbers added to help compare bodies

Plate 37. Field where General Reynolds Fell. Battle-Field of Gettysburg. Full Image | Caption

In the text accompanying the first photograph -- Plate 36, titled Incidents of the War. A Harvest of Death. -- Alexander Gardner describes the soldiers as dishonored Confederate troops who paid for their treason with their lives, dying a lonely battlefield death, buried by strangers in graves far from home.

Close examination indicates, however, that the men in Plate 36 are the same soldiers seen in the second photograph -- Plate 37, titled Field where General Reynolds Fell. Battle-Field of Gettysburg. -- for which Gardner wrote a melancholy description of Union troops, calm and peaceful in death, so tranquil that they seem about to wake and rise.

Several clues indicate that the images are two views of the same scene taken from opposite sides. One of the most obvious clues is a piece of rumpled clothing that shows the diamond badge worn only by Union 3d Corps soldiers. The numbers identify the individual bodies; to confirm these identifications, researchers may wish to compare the placement of hands and feet. Other features of the men's uniforms permitted Frassanito to identify them as Union. Topographic clues convinced him that the photographs were made in open fields near the Rose farm and close to the Emmitsburg Road. Under General Dan Sickles, the Union 3d Corps suffered heavy losses around Emmitsburg Road. General John Reynolds, commander of the 1st Corps and mentioned in Gardner's title, fell at a different location.

1. Copied from Gardner's Plate 36. LC Caption: Incidents of the war. A harvest of death, Gettysburg, July, 1863. Photographed by Timothy H. O'Sullivan, July 1863. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Reproduction number: LC-B8184-7964-A)

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2. Copied from the Glass, wet collodion negative from which Gardner made Plate 37. LC Caption: Gettysburg, Pa. Bodies of Federal soldiers, killed on July 1, near the McPherson woods. Photographed by Timothy H. O'Sullivan, July 1863. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Reproduction number: LC-B8171-0234)