Alexander Gardner, Confederate Dead before the Dunker Church (photograph, 1862)

Alexander Gardner

Photographer Alexander Gardner lived from 1821 to 1882. The following photograph is from the 1866 collection Gardner’s Photographic Sketchbook of the War.

Confederate Dead before the Dunker Church

This photograph was taken after the Battle of Antietam, a few miles north of Harpers Ferry, which lies on the border of Maryland and West Virginia. The battle took place on September 17, 1862, and was the bloodiest single day of the Civil War—and, in fact, in all of American history. Approximately four thousand soldiers were killed and nearly twenty thousand others were wounded or missing after twelve hours of fighting.

image
Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress