Comparative Analysis Photographers Bring the War Home Documents 13.2 and 13.3
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS
Photographers Bring the War Home
The development of battlefield photography in the 1860s offered civilians new perspectives on warfare. Photographs were exhibited in photographers’ studios and reproduced as engravings in newspapers across the country. The photographs here offer stark contrasts between soldiers on and off the battlefield. In the first, Union soldiers rest at a camp with sturdy wooden cabins. For this picture, some men stopped in the midst of work while others caroused for the camera. In the second, Union dead lie in front of the Dunker Church on the Antietam battlefield, where more than 3,600 were killed in a single day.
Document 13.2
Union Soldiers in Camp, c. 1863
Document 13.3
Battlefield Dead at Antietam, 1862
Interpret the Evidence
How do the soldiers present themselves in the Union camp photo? How would this photograph have affected viewers on the home front?
How might the photograph of the Antietam battlefield affect civilians and influence soldiers like those shown in the Union camp photo?
Put It in Context
How might images like these affect attitudes toward the war among politicians, military leaders, and the public, North and South?
Exploring American HistoriesPrinted Page 427
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