Gettysburg Then & Now: Confederate dead in Slaughter Pen

The location where Alexander Gardner shot the image of these two fallen Confederates in early July 1863 is just yards from where battlefield visitors park their cars today near Devil's Den. The boulder-strewn Little Round Top appears in the background of the "Now" image.

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Click here to see a larger version of this "Then & Now." 

Gettysburg Then & Now: Fallen Confederate 'sharpshooter'

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When nearly 100 Civil War photo geeks crowded around the (in)famous nest of a fallen Confederate "sharpshooter" in Devil's Den on Saturday afternoon, we were in for a rare treat: a real, live re-enactor willing to play dead. It didn't take much for the Center For Civil War Photography's Gary Adelman to persuade Bryan Parkhurst of Seven Valleys, Pa., who just happened to be on the scene, to duplicate the lifeless form of a Rebel photographed by Alexander Gardner assistant Timothy O'Sullivan on July 6, 1863, three days after the Battle of Gettysburg. Adelman, the CCWP's vice president/ball of kinetic energy, carefully posed Parkhurst, who lay motionless for 20 minutes or so while we CCWP "Image of War" attendees shot our own images at one of the most visited spots on the battlefield.

While I didn't nail this "Then  & Now," the chance to feature on the blog a re-enactor replicating one of the war's iconic images was too good to pass up. Download a high-res version of the 1863 photograph at the Library of Congress' excellent web site. And here's a detailed explanation of how the body of the young Confederate "sharpshooter" ended up behind the stone barricade.

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For a "Then & Now" on steroids of the images above, visit my companion Civil War blog here.

Bryan Parkhust plays dead while Tim Smith of Center For Civil War Photography explains the scene.

Gary Adelman, VP of the Center For Civil War Photography,  holds a  copy of the iconic 1863 image.

Re-enactor Bryan Parkhurst, who represents a  2nd Maryland CSA private, was a popular 
photo subject at the Center For Civil War Photography's  annual "Image of War" seminar.

Gettysburg interactive panorama: Devil's Den

Click here for battlefield panoramas from Antietam, Cedar Mountain, Chickamauga, Gettysburg, Harris Farm, Manassas, Malvern Hill, Salem Church,  Spotsylvania Courthouse and more.


From tourists to soldiers to ghost hunters, visitors to Gettysburg are drawn to Devil's Den, scene of intense fighting on July 2, 1863. I shot the interactive image above of the iconic spot during an early April visit ... 

... early photographers at the site posed "dead" soldiers on the massive boulders, perhaps eager that such scenes would lead to a spike in sales. This image was taken in Devil's Den on Nov. 11, 1863 by Peter Weaver, a Hanover, Pa., photographer, according to research by William Frassanito. (Hat tip: John Cummings of Spotsylvania Civil War blog) ... 

... an enlargement of the photograph, which is available on the Library of Congress web site, shows three"dead" men and their muskets ... 

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.

... and these 8th Connecticut veterans and their families visited Devil's Den on Oct. 9, 1894 en route to Antietam, where the regiment nearly broke through the Rebel lines on Sept. 17, 1862. This image is in the Connecticut State Libary archives ...

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.

... years later, these soldiers in Company C of the 303rd U.S. Army Tank Corps posed in Devil's Den before they sailed for Europe to fight the Germans during World War I.  This photograph appeared in the Hartford Courant on Aug. 11, 1918. ...


... of course, no visit to Gettysburg is complete without a ghost tour or a little paranormal activity. In April 2008, I met Stewart Cornelius of the Mason Dixon Paranormal Society in Devil's Den, where he was conducting an "investigation." Before I departed, Stewart played a recording of an EVP -- Electronic Voice Phenomena for the uninitiated -- that his group recorded of a Civil War soldier in Gettysburg. "Help me," the "soldier" pleads in a low voice. Real or nutty? Judge for yourself by clicking on the video above.