Antietam in color: Breathing life into 1862 battlefield images

Body of unknown Confederate next to grave of Michigan Lieutenant John Clark. (Library of Congress)
CLICK ON ALL IMAGES TO ENLARGE | COLORIZED BY ALGORITHMIA

Confederate dead near Dunker Church and West Woods. (Library of Congress) 

Like this blog on Facebook | Algorithmia colorization site.

Because of the limitations of the medium during the Civil War, photography wasn't produced in color. To add realism, soldier portraits sometimes were hand-colored or tinted by specialists, with varying results. Some battlefield photographs by Alexander Gardner -- whose images of Antietam dead fascinated, and horrified, the public 156 years ago -- were hand-colored. As seen in these two Antietam stereoviews from Center For Civil War Photography president Bob Zeller's collection, the results were less than spectacular.

Hand-colored Alexander Gardner stereoview view of Union burial crew at Antietam.
(Bob Zeller collection)

Colorized image by Alexander Gardner of Joseph Sherrick farm at Antietam.
(Bob Zeller collection) 

Unlike the cumbersome 19th-century process, colorization of black-and-white images is only a click away for us today. Using the Algorithmia site, I colorized Antietam images by Gardner and James Gibson, all available for your inspection in black and white in jpg. and tif formats on the fine Library of Congress web site.

Crude, crass ... or captivating? Let me know what you think.

James Gibson view of Middle Bridge from bluff above Antietam Creek. (Library of Congress)

Burnside Bridge, heavily contested on morning, early afternoon of Sept. 17, 1862. (Library of Congress)

Fallen Confederates arranged for burial. (Library of Congress)

Confederate dead along Hagerstown Pike. (Library of Congress)

Another view of Confederate dead along Hagerstown Pike ...  (Library of Congress)

... and more Confederate dead, also along Hagerstown Pike. (Library of Congress)

Confederate dead on the southern end of the battlefield. (Library of Congress)

Fallen Confederate in a ditch. (Library of Congress)

A Union soldier poses near Burnside Bridge by the graves of his comrades. (Library of Congress)

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A modern-day Alexander Gardner creates tintypes

I marveled watching wet-plate photographer John Bernaski create tintypes last weekend at a Civil War encampment in Madison, Conn., near Long Island Sound. The old-time craft requires patience and a lot of skill, but the end result is often beautiful ... and better than contemporary photography. Bernaski, who's from northern New Jersey, has perfected his technique since he began shooting tintypes 13 years ago. ...

... a young couple patiently poses as Bernaski works his magic with his bulky camera, similar to the version Alexander Gardner used to shoot images at Antietam and elsewhere in the field during the Civil War. The lens of his camera, Bernaski told me, dates to the 1850s. To produce his images, he uses the same process and same chemicals Civil War-era photographers used. ...

... just like most Civil War-era subjects, this couple must remain still for seconds so the final image does not appear blurred. Civil War photographers could not easily capture motion. ...

... a close-up of Bernaski's camera. ... 

... a Union officer poses for his image while Bernaski prepares his camera. ...

... an image of a Union chaplain rests in a bath of chemicals before the drying process begins. Bernaski charges $35 for a quarter-plate image, more for larger image sizes. ...

a table of the final product ... 

... like Civil War-era photographers, Bernaski has a portable studio. ...

.. for a much more detailed explanation of the wet-plate tintype process, go here and here or watch a pretty cool video here.

Antietam: 15th Massachusetts soldier returns

Shortly after I arrived at Antietam this afternoon, I traipsed through tall, wet grass to the 15th Massachusetts monument on a rise overlooking State Highway 65. Because of its out-of-the-way location, few battlefield visitors check out the "Wounded Lion" monument, a pity because it's easily one of the most beautiful on the field.  Today's visit was special because I brought with me from Connecticut a ninth-plate ambrotype of Justus Wellington, a private in the 15th Massachusetts, who was among the 70-plus soldiers in the regiment who were killed within 20 minutes during fighting in the West Woods at Antietam on Sept. 17, 1862.

 A 24-year-old shoemaker from West Brookfield, Mass., Wellington probably was buried with other soldiers from his regiment across the highway (which didn't exist in 1862), near the Mary Locher Cabin. His remains were not returned to West Brookfield, so it's a good bet he was disinterred after the battle and eventually buried under a gravestone marked "Unknown" in Antietam National Cemetery. Wellington's name is listed among those killed in the regiment on the bottom left corner on a plaque on the back of the 15th Massachusetts monument. To honor the young man who died here nearly 150 years ago, I placed Wellington's ambrotype near his name on the monument and shot the video above and photo below. I did this once before several years ago, but it will never get old.

Next time you are in Sharpsburg,Md., be sure to check out this hidden gem just off State Highway 65, near the Antietam National Battlefield Visitors' Center.

Ambrotype of Justus Wellington from my collection next to his name on the 15th Massachusetts
monument at Antietam. Private Wellington was killed in the West Woods here on Sept. 17, 1862.

Close-up of front of the 15th Massachusetts monument at Antietam.

Nature put on a spectacular display today in the West Woods at Antietam.