Thursday, October 04, 2012

Antietam: Amazing details in old monument photo

16th Connecticut monument at Antietam. The regiment advanced
on the ground in the background.  (Connecticut State Library Archives.)
The monument notes 43 16th Connecticut
 soldiers  were killed at Antietam. Many more
 died in the days and weeks after the battle.
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There's a trove of terrific stuff in the Connecticut State Library archives on the state's Civil War service, including several old photos of the Antietam battlefield. In early August, I posted a shot of this torn William Tipton image of the 16th Connecticut monument at Antietam, probably taken during the visit of veterans to the battlefield in 1894. And on Tuesday, I posted this shot that Antietam photo expert Stephen Recker confirmed as an image of Hagerstown Pike and the Dunker Church taken by John Waggoner in the 1890s.

Now, via Connecticut Civil War re-enactor Tad Sattler and the Connecticut State Library, comes another photograph of the 16th Connecticut monument. This one, probably taken in the late-19th century, includes amazing detail when enlarged of the landscape around the monument. The 16th Connecticut advanced on the ground in the background during the battle. According to a map drawn after the war by Private William Relyea of the 16th Connecticut, the body of Captain Samuel Brown of Company D, his outer clothes and shoes removed,  was found just over the slope in the left foreground. 16th Connecticut privates Henry Barnett of Suffield, John Bingham of East Haddam and Henry Aldrich of Bristol were killed near where the monument, dedicated in 1894, stands today.

The background of the image includes amazingly rich detail of the terrain the 16th Connecticut 
advanced on during the Battle of Antietam on Sept. 17, 1862. 
(CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)
A  40-acre cornfield was here at the time of the battle. (CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)
Close-up shows fences and terrain on what was the 40-acre Cornfield in 1862.
(CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)
Close-up of the challenging terrain on the Union's left flank at Antietam.
(CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

1 comment:

  1. This is a really incredible image! To the left of the monument it looks like the NE corner of Connecticut Park. The clarity of the detail sure does look like Tipton. It would help to know what kind of mount it is on. Around the turn of the century he was printing a lot of Antietam monument photos on what looks like today's 8x10 glossy paper, only it is a hand-cut rag. That said, those look more black and white than sepia, but this toning might be from the scan?

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