Confederate Death at Gettysburg

[Clsinclair]

The attached photo was taken from the Library of Congress. The soldier took a cannonball hit to his mid-section which also took off his arm during Pickett's charge at Gettysburg. He appears to be using a M-1842 and a model 1858 Smoothside Canteen. His hand is laying near the trigger of the musket. Moderators, if this picture has already been discussed please delete post.

[FloridaConscript]

Re: Confederate Death at Gettysburg

claude,
I think that may be a 55 or 61 springfield..look at the top barrel band.

[NYCivilWar]

Re: Confederate Death at Gettysburg

This is part of the Rose Farm Death Study images done by Alex Gardner and his team on or about July 6-7th 1863. It has been suggested he was not hit by the nearby shell, but his mid section was devoured by loose hogs in the area. Also notice that the bayonet doesn't seem to fit, or is improperly placed, on the musket. According to William Frassanito, this is the only shot in the Rose Farm group that the photographers chose to shoot an 8x10 image, whereas all the other Rose Farm shots were done in stereo. He also suggests that these dead Confederates were most likely Semmes' Georgians, or Kershaw's South Carolinians, killed on July 2nd.

I also included a different version of the image from the LOC site

[GreencoatCross]

Re: Confederate Death at Gettysburg

I haven't read any analysis or commentary on this photograph before, but I've always figured that the severed hand was also a "prop" and not in it's original position. Not saying that it isn't HIS hand though; it could be his but manipulated by the photographer.

[FloridaConscript]

Re: Confederate Death at Gettysburg

the canteen has been moved in those 2 photos, so moving a severed hand would not be out of the question IMO.

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Confederate Death at Gettysburg

Hallo!

That will teach them for building works out of the Gettysburg pig fences.

It is likely the same M1861 Gardner/O'Sullivan carried around to add as a prop to some of his images such as the posed "dead Confederate sharpshooter" at Devil's Den.

:)

Curt

[PetePaolillo]

Re: Confederate Death at Gettysburg

You know what I noticed about the photo? There is a dead soldier in it who gave his all for what he believed. He laid down his life so others would not have to. That is what I noticed:(

[PogueMahone]

Re: Confederate Death at Gettysburg

You know what I noticed about the photo? There is a dead soldier in it who gave his all for what he believed. He laid down his life so others would not have to. That is what I noticed:(

Pete,

No one is overlooking that. But this is an example of two images of the same thing, yet things are being moved about by the photographer. We rely heavily on these images to inform us, yet we don't know how much of the image is real and how much has been altered by the photographer for "artistic license".

I looked at that same image for years as a kid and only saw a body nearly cut in half by a man-made object. Then someone pointed out the hand to me. I had never noticed it before. The image had a whole new meaning to me then. Then, when I was shown the second image, I realized that these images were being somewhat fabricated for some reason.

As historians, we have to be able to look at these images objectively and critically and not just emotionally.

[PetePaolillo]

Re: Confederate Death at Gettysburg

Joe, I know that people here do not overlook that but nobody mentioned it so I did, so I knew in my mind it was not.....The theory that photographers added props and moved bodies around makes them somewhat unreliable to scrutinize and speculate details from....but to each is own I guess. ........... "A sharpshooters last sleep" plate 40 of Gardners and "The home of a rebel sharpshooter, Gettysburg" plate 41 of Gardners in his photo sketchbook both seem to have the same musket as the above photo. Hard to tell. These photos have been brought up as being manipulated as well. As CHS mentioned previously Gardner probably carried the musket with him as a prop. Just a guess. I do not have fact based research in front of me to prove this, but it leaves much suspicion and makes analyisis of the dead too difficult in my opinion to differentiat fact from fiction. just my .02 cents, I don't wish to derail the thread.

[TheRegularsDrummerCo.H]

Re: Confederate Death at Gettysburg

He also put an artillery shell behind his leg.

[FloridaConscript]

Re: Confederate Death at Gettysburg

The dead confederate sharpshooter was moved. There is a thread around here somewhere. That brave southern soldier, who laid down his life for his cause, did so wearing a frock coat with a large exterior pocket on the breast.

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Confederate Death at Gettysburg

Hallo!

IMHO, it does not diminish the awareness or appreciation that the dead in Period images having given what the living refer to as the ultimate sacrifice for what they believed in and died fighting for- by disease, in accidents, by lightning, by suicide, etc.

And while the photographer gives himself license to enhance the interest if not power of his imagery, it also does not detract that the subject was previosuly a living person with a name, a personality, parents, family, occupation, and life-story cut short and lost by the waste, carnage, destruction, and idiocy of war.

Nor does a photographer altered image totally destroy its value to historians and researchers. For example, what the lad wore, was what the lad wore.

NUG, "Ordnance" folks (on the winnng side) "glean" the usuable arms and sometimes accoutrements from the battlefield dead- and sometimes even shoes long before the photographers are able to beat out the burial details and contractor burial parties to inter the corpses.

"And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind
In some loyal heart is your memory enshrined?
And, though you died back in 1916,
To that loyal heart are you always 19?

Or are you a stranger without even a name,
Enshrined forever behind some glass pane,
In an old photograph, torn and tattered and stained,
And fading to yellow in a brown leather frame?"

Curt

[David Fox]

Re: Confederate Death at Gettysburg

A tip-off on Gardner's abulatory M1861 rifle-musket is the lack of a ramrod and sling. Also, Gardner or his assistant, civilians, may well have been awkward in the proper drill of affixing a bayonet to the piece. I've long pondered: the dead Confederate boy who became the "sharpshooter" atop Devil's Den isn't at all bloated. This seems unique(?) in the photographic series. I've been on battlefield aftermaths and, although bloating is uneven among the dead, it is, in my experience, universal in hot weather and collapse occurs well beyond three or four days. Cound this deceased Reb have been mortally wounded on 2 or 3 July, but lingered in a coma, presumed dead by his comrades, and expired soon before the photographer's arrival? I've suspected so.

[csabugler]

Re: Confederate Death at Gettysburg

Pure speculation here, but an impact so fierce as to carve out the abdomine of a man makes me think his musket would have been flung futher away, as opposed to being dropped across his thighs.
Proper respects offered as always.

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Confederate Death at Gettysburg

Hallo!

"I've long pondered: the dead Confederate boy who became the "sharpshooter" atop Devil's Den isn't at all bloated. This seems unique(?) in the photographic series. I've been on battlefield aftermaths and, although bloating is uneven among the dead, it is, in my experience, universal in hot weather and collapse occurs well beyond three or four days."

I have shared similar thoughts.

The Devil's Den/Slaughter Pen/Valley of Death images are dead killed on July 2nd at a time the temps hit the mid 90's, plus the July 4th rains.

Gardner/O'Sullivan are NUG given credit for working July 4, or between July 4-6, or July 6th.

It is indeed odd that the Georgian or Texan (I hold as Texan) lad is not bloated or discolored as the other CS casualties. On the other hand, it may be a factor why he was chosen for his "sharpshooter" role.

Curt