Is this photo period?

[OleMissRebel]

I'm guessing this is bogus.

It's listed on the Library of Congress website as "Dead on battlefield at 1st Bull Run" and doesn't list a publisher. The only thing else it says is "Plate forms half of a stereograph pair. Forms part of Civil War glass negative collection (Library of Congress)."

I've never seen it before (which really doesn't mean a whole lot) and the picture looks almost too clear for that time period of the war. Plus the position of the foreground corpse looks a bit contrived. Also, it appears that he is wearing a greatcoat, which I certainly wouldn't be wearing during late July in Virginia.

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/I?ils:38:./temp/~pp_Kq24::displayType=1:m856sd=cwpbh:m856sf=03383:@@@mdb=cwp

[Andrew Kasmar]

Re: Is this photo period?

Hi,

I do not think the photo is period, one because 1st Bull Run was fought in July, and these men are wearing greatcoat. Two, I agree with Mr. Burns that the photo seems just too clear. Three, these men do not seem very dirty or to be wearing much equipment.

Andrew Kasmar

4th Missouri Company E

[OleMissRebel]

Re: Is this photo period?

Hi,
Three, these men do not seem very dirty or to be wearing much equipment.

To play devil's advocate here a bit, in a good many photos of CW dead, they aren't wearing their gear.

[Andrew Kasmar]

Re: Is this photo period?

Hi,

Now that I think about it you are right. Do you know why they are not wearing their gear?

Andrew Kasmar

[Dignann]

Re: Is this photo period?

It is a wartime image. See these threads:

Interesting Photo

Civil War photos plus more..

Eric

[OleMissRebel]

Re: Is this photo period?

Thanks Eric!

So I guess these guys are the first CW reenactors....:wink_smil

[Mike Willey]

Re: Is this photo period?

I guess someone beat me to the punch on this one.....this is a period photo but it's staged. It was taken on the Bull Run field, but in 1862 or 63.

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Is this photo period?

Hallo!

All things being equal...

1962 or 1963, IMHO.

The overall focus and particularly the depth of field is not NUG typical of period photography.

Curt

[OleMissRebel]

Re: Is this photo period?

Curt,

What does NUG mean?

[Craig L Barry]

Re: Is this photo period?

Agree, it was made in the last half century. Besides the deep focus, I can pretty guarantee no soldiers were wearing great coats in Northern Virginia during mid July 1861. They would not have been issued by that point, and certainly not worn. By all accounts I've read, the weather at 1st Manassas was "seasonable" for Virginia in July, meaning African humid and sizzling hot. If that is a period photo (and it isn't), that soldier in the greatcoat (front) died of heat prostration.

NUG = PEC in Herr Kammeraden-speak, language on the planet Curt Heinrich Schmidt hails from. He hatched from an egg left too long in a haversack. Some say he knows so much about Civil War-era firearms because he was around when most of the originals were produced.

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Is this photo period?

Hallo!

Sorry, my posting age is showing... the late 1990's. :o ;) :)

NUG is "Normally, Usually, Generally."
(A kind of adjunct to the PEC concept.)

Curt

[Johnny Lloyd]

Re: Is this photo period?

Hey... just throwing the suggestion out there...

Perhaps the "1st Bull Run" designation by the LOC is wrong? That could place it at any time of the year.

Before we run-off with the possible assumption that the aftermath of the battle we are looking at is "1st Bull Run", the question to ask is does the LOC even know for sure?

Wouldn't be the first time government wasn't correct.

Just a thought... Johnny Lloyd

PS- Yeah, Curt... you've been driving me crazy with the "PEC" thing in your posts. :p;) I figured it was something along the lines of the "NUG"- thing. With all these abbreviations, this is starting to sound like the REAL Army. What sort of newspeak is this??? ;) LOL

[ajroscoe]

Re: Is this photo period?

Hello all,
Having read the two previous posts in their entirety, as Eric Mink suggested, I would say this post has been discussed, the photographer identified as a wartime photographer by name, that these men are not dead, rather models, and that it was not in fact taken at Bull Run in 1861 right after the battle, but sometime later during the war. Yes, the photography is sharp. Yes, it is hard to believe its period. Yes, it is identified as period, taken by Mr. Albert Bierstadt.

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Is this photo period?

Hallo!

I like Bierstadt's paintings....

Curt