NARA Collection lc — Collection lc

Original caption: The woods at the foot of "Round Top," which was the "right" of the Union line, were named by the soldiers "the slaughter-pen." The enemy made a desperate attempt to gain a foot-hold on Round Top, for it was virtually the "key" to the field. The woods on the slope were strewn with dead. This view gives a glimpse among the trees, showing the harvest of death.

Original caption: This large sea-coast mortar is mounted on a special flat-car made very strong for this purpose. This mortar-car is on General Grant's Military Railroad, at Petersburg. The car is readily moved along the line and the mortar is fired whenever required; it is thus made very effective and annoying to the enemy, for it is something like the Irishman's flea, "when they put their hand on it, it aint there;" in other words, when they turn the fire of their batteries on the "Dictator," our boys hitch on to the car and run it along out of the line of fire and commence pegging away again. By the time the "Johnnies" find out where the "Dictator" is and get the range to smash it, "it aint there" again; the boys run it along to a new stand for business.

Original caption: From among a large number of views of the Petersburg hues, we select this as one which gives, perhaps, a better idea of our lines at Petersburg than any other view we have of them. First is seen the line of sharpened spikes or abbatis placed all along in front of the works to delay the enemy (in case of a charge) within short range of our guns. This moment of delay necessary to tear away this abbatis is deadly to the charging column. Then back of the abbatis the line of breastworks can be seen stretching away in the distance. Behind the breastworks is seen the rough made huts of the troops who defend the line.

Original caption: This view shows three "Johnnies" who were captured at Gettysburg. It is a very characteristic view, and gives a good idea of how the "Johnnie Rebs" looked. They were nearly all clothed in a grey or butternut homespun cloth, and there were hardly two suits alike in a whole regiment; however, "a man is a man for a' that." These "Johnnies" were royal good fighters.

Original caption: This view was taken before Petersburg in 1864, and shows the troops formed in a hollow square to witness the execution of a negro soldier named Johnson, who was hanged on this scaffold, by order of a general Court-martial, having been convicted of an attempted rape of a white woman, whose house was within the Union lines near here, but whose husband was in the Rebel army.

Original caption: At the commencement of the war these great Frigates were the most powerful ships of war known, but the little Monitor came and revolutionized the navies of all the world. This is a view of Frigate "Pensacola," laying in the Potomac River, off Alexandria, Va., in June, 1861.

Original caption: This photograph was made several months after the battle, on the field at Games' Mills, Va. At the time of the fight our troops were obliged to abandon the field and leave the dead unburied. The skulls and skeleton remains of some of our unknown heroes are here seen on the spot where they gave up their lives for our country.

Original caption: This group of dead was in "the wheat-field." The burial details found many such groups on that terrible field. The work of burying the thousands of dead was a Herculean task in itself. The hot July sun made it imperative that the dead should be placed underground as soon as possible. In some cases a little mound of earth was heaped over the bodies as they lay, and after the first rain storm the hands and feet of the dead could be seen sticking out from their covering of earth.

Original caption: This is a view of the Sixth Corps wagon train crossing the Rappahannock River on a pontoon bridge, below Fredericksburg in May, 1864.

Original caption: This view shows the Water Battery of Fort Johnson, looking towards the celebrated Fort Sumter. Fort Sumter can be seen in the distance.

Original caption: This is the place on the battlefield of Atlanta, Ga., where the gallant General McPherson was killed, in July, 1864. During the fight General McPherson rode into this piece of woods alone. It so happened that there was a small gap at this point, between the 16th and 17th Corps, during the severe fighting. McPherson did not know of this fatal gap, and he rode through, directly into the enemy's line. The skirmishers of the Rebel General "Paddy Cleburne" were concealed in the underbrush; they fired and killed McPherson. He fell from his horse at this spot; the horse dashed back into our lines, and the General's aides seeing his horse riderless, charged into the woods and recovered the General's body, driving off the vandals who were robbing him of his watch and money.

Original caption: This view shows where a battery of Rebel artillery was posted in the morning of Sept. 17, 1862. During the day Sumner's Corps charged over this portion of the field, and the dead bodies of men and horses, and the broken gun-carriages shows how the tide of battle carried destruction and death with it.