Tuesday, May 20, 2008 5:11 PM CDT
REVIEW: 'Brady's Civil War' By Webb Garrison
Review by Bill Lair, Managing Editor
blair@jg-tc.com
If the Vietnam War was the first war that Americans could see on television, the Civil War was the first one people saw at all.
And Mathew Brady is the photographer credited with most of the images we have seen of the 1861-65 conflict.
A new book, “Brady’s Civil War,” by Webb Garrison (Lyons Press) recently arrived at the office.
“Brady’s Civil War” is a collection of more than 270 photos by Brady and his associates.
Webb points out that most of the photos credited to Brady actually were taken by members of his staff. “Photo by Brady” meant the Brady studio, not necessarily Mathew Brady himself.
My first reaction to the book was disappointment because there are just four photos of Abraham Lincoln in the 253-page book.
How can that be, I wondered.
As Webb notes, by 1864, Brady and/or his associates had taken so many photos of the war-time president that he became known as “Lincoln’s photographer.”
But this book isn’t about Lincoln. The focus is on the war. And the photos cover the war extensively.
The book includes 15 chapters with photos separated by category. For instance, the first chapter includes portraits of the civilian and military leaders of the war era.
Chapter 5 is “The Battlefields” and Chapter 7 is “War on the Water,” about the ships and crews of the Navy.
There also is a chapter on engineering marvels, such as the bridges built during the war when artillery had destroyed previous ones.
One of my favorite photos in the book is in the engineering chapter. The Tennessee state Capitol in Nashville can be seen on a hill above a railway trestle. Having visited Nashville many times, I am very familiar with the Capitol and the surrounding landscape. The photo shows the building, all alone atop the hill, without the big buildings that now dominate the city center.
Another favorite photo also is on the book’s cover. It shows four generals posing at a camp. One of the four, Gen. Francis Barlow, a Harvard graduate, enlisted as a private and was severely wounded at Antietam. He eventually was made a brigadier general but in the photo, his jacket is open — the only one of the four generals with an open jacket — and he is wearing his checked “hickory shirt,” which was worn by many enlisted men, not by generals.
There are photos of many famous people, including Union Generals George Armstrong Custer, U.S. Grant, William T. Sherman and George Meade.
Among Confederate generals, there are photos of Robert E. Lee, George Pickett and Jeb Stuart.
Also pictured are Confederate States President Jefferson Davis, Clara Barton, Kit Carson and little Tad Lincoln, the president’s son.
Among the battlefields included are Antietam, Gettysburg, Lookout Mountain and Fredericksburg, Va.
Another interesting photo is of the “managers of the impeachment proceedings” against President Andrew Johnson, shortly after the war.
One member of the seven-man impeachment committee is Gen. John A. Logan of Illinois. Logan, of course, is largely credited with founding Memorial Day to honor the country’s war dead.
The quality of the photos is inconsistent but that is to be expected considering the conditions the photographers worked in.
Images were captured on glass plates, exposures were two to four seconds and there were no light meters or flash. There are dark areas in some photos and blurs in others, when people or animals moved or artillery shells shook the cameras.
But the publishers explain that they chose to present the photos as they exist, rather than use modern techniques, such as airbrushing.
For Civil War buffs and those who enjoy historical photos, “Brady’s Civil War” would be a nice addition to their library.
Contact Lair at blair@jg-tc.com or 238-6865.
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