Fredericksburg Photo help

[Michael Comer]

I have two questions:

There is a photo, taken from the Union side, that shows a group of Confederates standing on one end of a destroyed bridge/trestle at Fredericksburg. I have been looking for it online but am not finding it. I know it's out there somewhere. Can someone steer me in the right direction?

Secondly I was wondering if some of the fellows on this forum that have that neat photoshop type software have worked on this photo to bring out the details? If not, would someone consider it and post them here?

That photo is a great, great photo - right up there with the candid shot of the column in Frederick MD before Sharpsburg. I would love to see some of the detail that might be brought out of it.

[ThehosGendar]

Re: Fredericksburg Photo help

While the image you're talking about isn't on the Library of Congress' site, there is a sketch by Alfred Waud which is pretty much the very same thing. While we can't get the fun little details we'd like to, it's still a fantastic resource.

[Moonshine]

Re: Fredericksburg Photo help

Hmmmmm,

Why have I NEVER seen this sketch before in any Civil War books I possess, or have seen???!!! Makes me wonder how many other sketches of his exist that I'll probably never get to see... unless a book on his work is out there.

Thanks for posting.

James Ross

[Matthew.Rector]

Re: Fredericksburg Photo help

Hmmmmm,

Why have I NEVER seen this sketch before in any Civil War books I possess, or have seen???!!! Makes me wonder how many other sketches of his exist that I'll probably never get to see... unless a book on his work is out there.

Thanks for posting.

James Ross

James,
There are a few books with Alfred Waud's artwork out there. As mentioned above, the Library of Congress also has a decent collection of his works. Look under "Drawings." http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pp/pphome.html

[Dignann]

Re: Fredericksburg Photo help

The Waud sketch was published on page 30 of the Fredericksburg volume of Time-Life's Voices of the Civil War series.

The photograph is at the Library of Congress as well, but I haven't found a scan posted on their website. What is also neat about this photo is that when the upper right hand quadrant is enlarged, you can see the Washington Artillery's lunettes and the Willis family cemetery on top of Marye's Heights nearly a mile in the distance.

Eric

[markj]

Re: Fredericksburg Photo help

I'm pretty sure the photo in question is also shown in the Time-Life "silver" series as well as various coffee-table books about the war. If all else fails, you can probably just scan the image at high-resolution from one of these books and this should produce the results you want. Or perhaps you've already tried this....?

Regards,

Mark Jaeger

[markj]

Re: Fredericksburg Photo help

I took the time today to scan the "bridge" image at 300 dpi and 600 dpi and have attached them below. I don't have "Photo Shop" or other decent graphics software on my computer so I left them pretty much "as is." If anybody can clean them up further, I'd greatly appreciate it if they could share the revised images with the rest of us.

However, I did note some interesting details: among other things, it appears the man standing on the far right (wearing a dark, low-crowned hat) appears to be grinning at the cameraman.

You be the judge.

Mark Jaeger

[markj]

Re: Fredericksburg Photo help

Here are both images placed into a Word document. Using your "View" function will allow you to enlarge them. I got pretty good results with 500%.

Regards,

Mark Jaeger

[GBaylor]

Re: Fredericksburg Photo help

Those my friends are the boys of Barksdale's Mississippi Brigade on Picket Duty in Fredericksburg during the Winter '62-'63. Nice RDII's !

John Sweeney

[Masked Battery]

Re: Fredericksburg Photo help

Maybe this has been pointed out before, but doesn't it look like the fellow standing towards the left w/ hand in pocket has on a double-breasted jacket (maybe he just moved), a stripe down his trouser leg, and GAITERS?

[markj]

Re: Fredericksburg Photo help

I counted at least 23 discernible individuals (some of them blurred or in shadows). Only one, as far as I can tell is a [company-grade] officer (the man standing in the frock coat on the right-most pier--his "chicken guts" appear to be discernible on the sleeves of his coat).

Two particularly intriguing individuals are

1) The man standing "three heads to the left" of the officer. He seems to be wearing some sort of baggy sack coat.

2.) The man sitting on the left-most pier is wearing a light-colored jacket (I don't think it's a shirt because it seems to have epaulets). This item might have been made out of undyed wool--if he was Mississippian the possibility exists the jacket was obtained from home. Various Magnolia State individuals and even companies are known to have been clothed in this way. Incidentally the same man seems to have rolled up his trouser cuffs.

If you also look a bit to the right and above the aforementioned man, you'll see an individual with a low-crowned beehive hat. The "shiny" item in the front of his hat is intriguing--it may have been some kind of cap brass placed in the front that likely "blurred" due to movement during the photo exposure. Also, at least six men are wearing accoutrements of various kinds, suggesting they may have either been just relieved from picket duty or were about to placed on it. At least nine men are wearing hats with the balance of their "lids" being forage caps, kepis, &c.

Thoughts?

Mark Jaeger

[BobRoeder]

Re: Fredericksburg Photo help

Hello,

While there is another thread which discusses this photo in great detail - The Trestle started by roundshot - a few responded here mentioning the Alfred R. Waud drawing of the railroad bridge. For those who might be interested I thought I would add the description Waud wrote to accompany the drawing as provided in They Were There: The Civil War in Action as Seen by its Combat Artists, by Philip Van Doren Stern, Crown Publishers Inc., 1959.Pg. 60 Plate 69. It's too bad the drawing isn't posted anymore.

Anyway here is the caption which accompanies the drawing:

The railroad bridge at Fredericksburg was burned before the Union attack in December 1862. A.R. Waud who drew this picture of it, also wrote a description: "This is a favorite spot for soldiers of either army to meet within speaking distance and exchange remarks, frequently of an uncomplimentary character. Proposals of all sorts of exchanges (impossible of accomplishment) are made, such as offers to barter coffee or tea for whiskey or tobacco...The seceshers show a laudable anxiety to get New York papers for Richmond publications."

Van Doren Stern notes that one of the men is waving a copy of Harper's Weekly.

regards,

[GermanDraftee]

Re: Fredericksburg Photo help

I thought the image looked familiar. There is a recent thread on this in the "Civil War Photos" forum of this website, titled "The Trestle". (http://www.authentic-campaigner.com/...ead.php?t=8981) The repository is ID'd as NARA.