Antietam: Re-examining Gibson's image of Middle Bridge

Middle Bridge over Antietam Creek (James Gibson | Library of Congress)
(CLICK ON ALL IMAGES TO ENLARGE)

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Days after the Battle of Antietam, Alexander Gardner and James Gibson photographed the Middle Bridge, also known as Antietam Bridge, on the Boonsboro Pike. Although little fighting took place in this area, thousands of troops crossed over Antietam Creek here, perhaps the reason the photographers chose it for subject matter. (The bridge, built in the early 1800s, was destroyed by flood in 1891. A modern bridge crosses the creek today.)

On initial inspection, this Gibson image, taken from a steep bluff on the east bank of Antietam Creek, is unremarkable. But cropped enlargements of the photograph, available in high-resolution format on the Library of Congress web site, reveal cool details you may not have noticed. Click on the image above to enlarge -- the famous East Woods, where fighting raged on Sept. 17, 1862, appear in the right background, just above the farm buildings. Traveling west (to the left), the village of Sharpsburg is about two miles down the turnpike.

What else do you see?

... the ghost-like image of a man, his elbow resting upon the bridge near its east end. To his right, a large piece of cloth or canvas. What could that be?

.... several feet from the man leaning against the bridge, another ghost-like figure and what appears to be a barrel resting on some type of implement ....

.... toward the west end of the bridge, we find three human-like forms, each looking like the grainy figures that appeared in a Nov. 22, 1963 photograph of that infamous grassy knoll in Dallas. ...

.... at the far west end of the bridge, a covered wagon and a horse ...

... at the bottom of the image, this unusual object appears. What was it used for?

... a skiff on the eastern bank of Antietam Creek ...

... and on land in the background, on the west side of the creek, split-rail fencing, apparently with little damage ...

... and in the middle background, more fencing, apparently undamaged. A short distance over the ridge, a sunken road infamously known today as Bloody Lane ...

... and in the upper right, the farmhouse, barn and outbuildings used by tenant farmer Joseph Parks.  During the battle, the farm was well within Federal lines, but no significant action took place there. The farm may have been used as a hospital after the battle, although definitive information could not be found. Accessible to battlefield visitors, the farm is rarely visited. Below are present-day images of the Parks barn and farmhouse (in background). To visit the farm, park at the war-time Joshua Newcomer House on the west side of Antietam Creek and follow the signage for the 3 Farms Trail.

The barn and farmhouse are believed to have been constructed in the 1830s.

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Antietam up close: A study in contrasts

O.J. Smith's farm, near Keedysville, Md., was used for a Union hospital after the Battle of Antietam.
(Library of Congress collection)

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At first glance, this image from Alexander Gardner's series of glass-plate photographs taken days after the Battle of Antietam seems uninteresting. In the pastoral scene, men gather in the foreground while in the background appear tents and the barn of a 52-year-old farmer named O.J. Smith, whose property two miles northeast of Sharpsburg was used as a Union hospital...

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.

... But enlargements of the image show compelling detail. In this blow-up, six or seven men, two of them apparently staring at Gardner's camera, congregate a short distance from Smith's barn. Perhaps they are surgeons taking a break from their arduous duties ...

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.

... and this enlargement shows the crude, hay-covered shelters undoubtedly used for the wounded. In the right background, just outside the barn, soldiers gather -- one appears to be reading a letter -- as three horses rest near a fence, a cornfield and possibly shelters for other wounded soldiers in the far background  ...

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.

...while in this enlargement, men appear outside the entrance to the barn. Judging from their attire, at least two of the men may be civilians. We can only speculate about the scene inside the barn, where surgeons likely performed the horrible tasks of amputating arms and legs. A nurse named Eliza Harris described the scene on the farm days after the battle:

 "The first night we slept in our ambulance. No room in the small house, the only dwelling near, could be procured. The next day was the Sabbath. The sun shone brightly; the bees and the birds were joyous and busy; a beautiful landscape spread out before us, and we knew the Lord of the Sabbath looked down upon us. But, with all these above and around us, we could see only see our suffering, uncomplaining soldiers, mutilated, bleeding, dying."

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE

... this bare-chested man, probably a wounded soldier, peers at Gardner's camera from a makeshift shelter in this enlargement of the right background of the image. Could that be another wounded man at left? 

Two woman and two men gather for a picnic at Antietam Creek in this image shot by 
Alexander Gardner five days after the Battle of Antietam  The Middle Bridge, also known as
Antietam Bridge,  appears  in the background. (Library of Congress collection)

... As wounded soldiers suffered in barns, houses and field hospitals such as the one on O.J. Smith's farm, Gardner took this image entitled "Picnic Party at Antietam Bridge, September 22, 1862."  This incongruous scene was photographed less than two miles from Smith's farm near Keedysville, Md. A week earlier, more than 10,000 Rebel soldiers crossed the bridge in the background on the Boonsboro Pike as they made their way toward Sharpsburg ...

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.

... detail in this enlargement of the picnic image is so impressive that even pieces of hardtack can be seen in the hands of the women on the boat. The woman at left may have even taken a bite of hers. A man, perhaps a soldier, stirs something in a container held by the woman on the right. Were they aware of the pain and suffering nearby? Did they care? Who were they? Their names and their stories are lost to history.

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SOURCES

--  Moore, Frank. Women of the War: Their Heroism and Self-Sacrifice, S.S. Scranton & Co., Hartford, Conn., 1866.

-- Frassanito, William. Antietam: The Photographic Legacy of America's Bloodiest Day, 1978.