Valor Friday

Timothy O’Sullivan (1840-1882) photo of the aftermath of the Battle Of Gettysburg entitled “A Harvest of Death”

This week’s piece will be a little different from the usual fare. The above photo is something you’ve surely seen before. It’s called “A Harvest of Death” and is one of the most famous Civil War photos. It was taken by Timothy O’Sullivan, an Irish immigrant. He claimed to have at one point early in the Civil War been commissioned a second lieutenant in the Union Army, but that may have been an embellishment. He was, at the time of this photo’s taking, working under Alexander Gardner, who was the principal photographer for Union General McClellan and his Army of the Potomac.

We’ve become accustomed to seeing pictures, film, and video of military action. Operations are practically aired live, and have been since the Gulf War. The Vietnam War was the first time that trans-continental nearly live reporting brought the unvarnished realities of war to the American people. Previous wars had significant media presence, but those journalists were subject to government censorship. Most of what the American public saw of their boys fighting in far off lands were the victories and the heroes. The recordings of the brutality of war weren’t widely seen at the time, as it would hamper the war effort.

The American Civil War was the first major war in which photography was widely available. As such, there were those who wanted to utilize the new medium to document the horrors and triumphs. Photography would play a major role in how we understand and connect with the conflict more than a century and a half later. It’s said that a “picture is worth a thousand words” and it’s especially true of military photographs. Whether that’s a shot from before, during, or after a battle or one of the many shots of what camp life was like, it tells a story without saying a word.

Prior to the development of photography, the only people who witnessed war were the ones who fought in it. Though there would also be spectators that lived in nearby towns. Apparently, as two opposing armies would line up and prepare to blow as many of the other line up as they could, locals would observe from a short distance and have an honest to God picnic. It was a form of entertainment I guess. With their sandwiches, some of them even sported opera glasses. Most famously, many made the trek from Washington to Manassas, Virginia to watch the First Battle of Bull Run. When the Confederates routed the Yankees, the spectators (which included congressmen) were sent scrambling as well.

Getting back to Gettysburg, it was a pivotal moment in the war. Confederate General Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia had seen great success, and had pushed well into the North. To stop them, the Union made a stand. It would be the biggest battle ever in the Western Hemisphere, the biggest battle of the Civil War, and the bloodiest battle of the war. Strictly by the numbers, about 165,000 men took part from both sides. There were at least 50,000 casualties (dead, wounded, missing) on both sides. Six Confederate generals were killed in action and the Union lost five, for both sides that was a record loss never to be topped.

Now I’ve previously talked about some of the many men involved in the Battle of Gettysburg;

• Jefferson Coates, MoH
• Thomas Wilson Bradley, MoH
• Adelbert Ames and William Sewell, both MoH
• Henry Harrison Bingham, MoH
• Daniel Sickles, MoH

There was much heroism on display at Gettysburg. A full 64 men would receive the Medal of Honor for actions there. The Confederate Army similarly cited 10 men to have their names placed on the Confederate Roll of Honor (which, it was planned, would have included an appropriate medal, but one was never issued).

The reason I bring all this up though goes back to the photo. It captures just one spot on the battlefield. Just precisely where and which men are pictured has been lost. Though there are clues.

Field Where General Reynolds Fell from Gardner’s collection

This photo from Gardner is of the same men, from a different angle. In the 1865 release of these photos, it was written that they were two different groups of men. One a group of valiant Union men, and the other attacking Confederates. With these two photographers working closely together, and their equipment being large, heavy, and taking significant time to work, it’s hard to believe they didn’t know this was the same scene. As a form of historical documentation, it’s obviously problematic, but photographers are also artists. They are using their medium to tell a story, and on a battlefield where thousands of men lay dead, I won’t fault them for their choice in photos. No matter the angle, these men laying in the open where they fell is a powerful message.

Which brings me to the crux of this article, and if you’re still with me, then you find me more interesting than my family does. They would have tuned out about the middle of paragraph two. The photograph(s) of Gettysburg’s battlefield capture some of the terrible savagery of an event like a major battle between two armies operating at the apex of the day’s modern warfare technology. What they don’t capture though is that this was the situation over hundreds of acres and for days. You see, the title of the photo “A Harvest of Death” is what the locals called the cleanup.

Gettysburg at the time was a town of roughly 2,400 people. Immediately after the battle, the Confederates fled, and the Union Army pursued them. In their wake was 7,000 dead men and roughly 3,000 dead horses. The small town was still playing host to about 30,000 men (from both sides), but those men weren’t a garrison force left behind to police the battlefield. They were the wounded, often receiving treatment in locals’ barns and houses, and some of them were still lying in their fields waiting for help.

Of the heroes in the battle, those fallen and those who lived, one group of heroes were those local civilians. With the battle occurring in July 1863, you can imagine what started to happen to the remains of those left behind. The stench was overpowering to people in York some 40 miles away were gagging and nauseous if they left the confines of their houses. Since Gettysburg was so far from the usual front lines of the war, many curious northerners came to see for themselves, and what they saw horrified them.

Not only would the dead need to be given proper burials, but soon the rotting remains would bring a biblical plague of disease and pestilence.

The Emerging Civil War blog has a post if you want to read some quotes from contemporary accounts. Ads were placed for help from all able-bodied residents and soon everyone who could did what neighbors do and slowly but surely the clean up began. A cemetery was constructed, which was dedicated by President Lincoln in November of 1863, where he gave his most famous address.

Among the animals that heeded the stench that is the carrion call of rotting flesh were vultures, both black and turkey vultures. Which isn’t surprising, as they are famous scavengers of all things dead. What is surprising is that since that summer of 1863, huge roosts of the birds have returned every year, for more than 150 years. Scientists aren’t sure why, and there are no records from the days before the Civil War if the animals regularly visited, but the prevailing theory is that they returned to the site in hopes of finding another fabulous feast. At this point it’s been encoded in their genetic memory that Gettysburg is a place they must visit.

Category: Historical, We Remember