Series I: War Scenes and Sites

Series I. War Scenes and Sites contains views of battlefields, forts, and other places associated with war battles or events. About half of the images also show soldiers or other people; the rest are desolate empty scenes. The series includes three composite panorama photographs: a view of Gettysburg from Seminary Ridge; the Army of the Potomac at Cumberland Landing, Pamunkey, VA, May 1862; and a view of the Camp of the 40th Massachusetts Infantry at Miners Hill, VA.

Several photographs by New Hampshire photographer Henry P. Moore (1835-1911) can be found filed with views of South Carolina and Georgia. Moore took pictures of the locations where New Hampshire regiments were stationed in the 1862-1863 period. Moore's prints have a blue paper label affixed to the lower right of their mounts, though Moore's name has been cut from the label itself. Other photographs by Moore include views of the USS Wabash, marked and unmarked.

There are two sets (seven of nine numbered images) of card-mounted photographs taken at Fort Pulaski, Georgia, which are signed in the negative "Lt. P. Haas." Philip Haas was a second lieutenant in the 1st New York Engineers regiment who had worked as a daguerreotypist in New York City before enlisting. Lt. Haas appears to have taken on a partner at some point, and produced prints on mounts marked "Photo by Haas & Peale Morris Island & Hilton Head S.C.," and signed in the negative, "Haas & Peale." This collection holds five images (nos. 8, 12, 13, 17, and 32) from a series of photographs taken by the partners on the islands off South Carolina. The "South Carolina Morris Island" folder contains four images by Haas & Peale of buildings and installations, as well as one photograph of the "Swamp Angel."

This series also holds seven out of a set of eight photographs of the prisoner of war camp at Andersonville, Georgia, made in 1864 by Confederate photographer A. J. Riddle. They were issued on letterpress mount with descriptive captions.

The only view of Baltimore is one small photograph of the front gate of Fort McHenry showing a portion of the hospital.

One important set of photographs is thirteen views of Forts Sumter and Moultrie in Charleston Harbor, the work of an unidentified photographer. Each mount is labeled with a full description of the image and features an autographed approval note by the victorious Confederate Brigadier General Pierre T. Beaureguard (1818-1893). The photographs were made on April 15 and 16, 1861, just after the evacuation of the defeated Union forces. Many more images of both of these South Carolina forts can be found in Series V, "Brady's Album Gallery." A second set of three views of Fort Sumter are mammoth plate albumen prints mounted on letterpress sheets. Issued as commemoratives to be presented by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton to Major General John A. Dix (1798-1879) as a guest at the ceremonies of restoring the national flag on the fort on April 14, 1865, all three mounts are inscribed by Brigadier General Richard Delafield (1798-1873) who was then Chief Engineer of the Army Corps of Engineers.

The "Tennessee" folder holds an image labeled the "Rebel Saltpeter Source, the Nicojack Cave" in Marion County near Chattanooga, by Morse, a Nashville photographer. Saltpeter was a major component of gunpowder and Tennessee was a major supplier of this important resource.

Photographs of dead soldiers can be found filed in Sharpsburg, Petersburg, Fredricksburg, Chancellorsville, Richmond, Manassas, Gettysburg, Antietam, and Cold Harbor.

Images are filed alphabetically by state.