Synopses & Reviews
Photographer Mathew Brady was already famous by 1850; in his lifetime he captured eighteen U.S. presidents on film. But when the Civil War began, Brady left his studio and joined the rough-and-ready camps of soldiers, recording the entire war with the help of several assistants. He went bankrupt in the process and died alone and destitute in 1896. But, thanks to Brady, those thousands of images of camp life, military drills, and moments just before and after battles are forever part of our flickering consciousness of that calamitous conflict. A century-and-a-half after that war, Bradys Civil War brings alive hundreds of those stunning Civil War moments, highlighting the photos immense creativity and informative value for military enthusiasts as well as readers interested in the art of photography. The text by Webb Garrison is incisive and explanatory, describing how the camera was taken to the battlefield to create the worlds first comprehensive photo-documentation of war. This edition, with an introduction by historian Alan Axelrod, is a fitting tribute to the Civil War on the occasion of its 150th anniversary.
Synopsis
A collection of hundreds of the greatest Civil War images photographed by the incomparable Matthew Brady and his staff.
Synopsis
Commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Civil War this is a fascinating collection of superb Civil War images by the premier photographer of the conflict—the first war to be comprehensively photo-documented.
More than 275 dramatic photographs depicting the battlefields, weapons, officers and troops, uniforms, the sick and wounded, and the utter devastation of the war are included.
Mathew Brady has “done something to bring home to us the terrible reality and earnestness of war. If he has not brought bodies and laid them in our door-yards and along the streets, he has done something very like it. . . . [A] terrible fascination . . . draws one near these pictures.”
—“Bradys Photographs,” New York Times, October 20, 1862
About the Author
Webb Garrison, a former university dean and college president who has spent a lifetime collecting and chronicling Civil War imagery and documentation, is the author of almost seventy books.