Chapter IV: Part 4

The war cameras during 1864 were taxed to their utmost. It was the hardest test that had ever been given the new science of photography. The thrilling story of this closing year is told in the rare old negatives in these pages--actual photographs taken at the scene of battle.

THE last days of 1863 were inactive. The armies in the East were going into winter quarters. Brady's men had experienced a hard year with their cameras, but had perpetuated many tragic incidents. One of the cameras was held in winter quarters at Rappahannock Station until early in 1864. It was used in recording conditions in camp and one of its negatives is here reproduced. This camp was occupied by the 50th New York Engineers. It was the duty of these engineers to construct roads, bridges and fortifications, and their services in the Civil War were of great importance. An interesting feature of this photograph is the row of pontoon boats on wheels. These pontoons are vessels, used to support the roadway of floating bridges. The boats were a small, substantial frame of wood, light of weight, and easily transported overland. By stretching them across a river an army could begin its movement to the other side within half an hour on reaching the banks. A pontoon train of the army carries about one hundred yards of pontoon bridge for each army corps, including the boats, roadway planks, etc. Early in the spring of 1864 the skirmishing began for what promised to be the deadliest year of the Civil War. Sherman organized his expedition in February against Meridian, Mississippi, a position of great importance to the Confederacy, as it controlled the railroad communications with Mobile and Wilmington. Banks began his Red River expedition in March. Meade's columns crossed the Rapidan River, in Virginia, in May. Grant was placed in command of all the United States armies in the field on March 1, 1864, while Sherman was given command of Federal armies in the West.

THE first great conflict of 1864 occurred on the fifth of May when the Army of the Potomac met Lee's forces in the Battle of the Wilderness. It was a virgin forest of oak and pine, choked with dense undergrowth. The Federal soldiers knew nothing of its entanglements, but the Confederates had full knowledge of the roads and wagon paths intersecting the woods. It was so dense that the troops found it necessary at times to move in single file. The artillery and cavalry had great difficulty in getting into the encounter, and in one of the sallies nearly all the men and horses were killed. The battle was deadly. Regiments shot into their own ranks as they fled through forest and undergrowth, becoming separated from the main line. General Longstreet, of the Confederate Army, was shot and severely wounded by his own men. Tremendous volleys of musketry rang through the woods. Dead leaves and branches were swept with flames. Men lost their way and wandered into the enemy's lines. So rapid was the fire that the muskets became hot and blistered the fingers of the soldiers. The losses in this great two-days' battle cannot be stated accurately. One estimate places the Union killed, wounded and missing at 18,387 and the Confederate, 11,400. On the afternoon of the seventh of May, Grant moved his army toward Spottsylvania Court House, fifteen miles southeast of the Wilderness Battlefield, with the intent of getting between the enemy and Richmond and compelling Lee to fight at a disadvantage. It was during these maneuvers that this photograph was taken while the artillery was stationed at the edge of the forest. The negative was taken in the full light of the noonday sun in the Spring of 1864.

BOTH armies faced each other in full force at Spottsylvania Court House in the forenoon of the ninth of May, 1864. The Brady cameras arrived with the Government supply trains and perpetuated the historic scenes. While the Union lines were placing their batteries, they were annoyed by sharpshooters, and General Sedgwick was killed. His death was a great loss to the Federals, just as Jackson's had crippled the Confederacy. During the first day at Spottsylvania the Federals lost fully 10,000 men, while the Confederates' loss was very nearly 9,000. The unburied bodies of 3,000 men lay scattered along the slopes of the ridges and under the trees. Out of the 200,000 Federals and Confederates who rushed into battle on the fifth of May, 43,000 were either dead, wounded, or prisoners, after three days of fighting. During the week the fighting extended along the Fredericksburg road, Laurel Hill and Ny River, reaching to Swift Creek and Cloyd's Mountain. The Army of the Potomac, since it crossed the Rapidan River, had lost nearly one-fourth of its men in the brief space of eight days, and now had a fighting force of only 87,000. The photograph of the Confederate dead was taken near Spottsylvania Court House, May 12, 1864, after Ewell's attack.

WHILE Grant was moving toward Richmond from the north, Butler was forcing his way from Yorktown on the south, threatening Richmond from the peninsula as McClellan had done two years before. It was at this time that the photographs here shown were taken in May, 1864. Butler succeeded in destroying part of the road from Petersburg to Richmond. He received word that Lee was in full retreat for Richmond, with Grant close upon his heels. One of the extreme southern positions in the defense of Richmond was Fort Darling at Drewry's Bluff. On the thirteenth of May, Butler succeeded in carrying a portion of the outer lines, capturing a considerable amount of artillery, but on the sixteenth he was repulsed and fell back upon Bermuda Hundred. A powerful Confederate battery on the James River barred the bridge toward Richmond. Butler conceived the idea of cutting a canal through the narrow neck of land known as Dutch Gap for the passage of the monitors. A photograph was taken of this canal, which was constructed under a severe and continuous fire. The dredge and steam pump used were bomb-proof. The greater part of the excavation was done by colored troops, who sought cover, from the bombardment of the enemy, in earthen dugouts that covered the site of the work. The canal was only 174 yards long, 43 yards wide at the top, 27 yards at the water level, and 13 5/10 yards at a depth of 15 feet below water level. It cut off 4-3/4 miles of river navigation and the excavation was nearly 67,000 cubic yards. The war photographers secured many negatives of these operations and several of the most important ones are shown on these pages. One of them was taken at Aiken's Landing, where the flag-of-truce boat from Richmond came to discharge her cargo of poor, starved, and often dying Union prisoners, and received in exchange the same number of healthy, well-fed rebels from our guards. Two or three rough old canal boats, and the grim old monitor there at anchor, but above all the glorious old Stars and Stripes, and on the shore the loving hearts and kindly hands of friends. The soldiers called it "the gate into God's country."

AFTER the battle of Spottsylvania Court House the war photographers exposed many negatives, during the five days that the relative positions of the two armies remained unchanged. Grant and Lee were engaged in brilliant strategy. Grant had thrown out his left until it rested on Massaponax Church. While the great General was in council of war at this place on the twenty-first of May, 1864, a remarkable photograph was taken. In the reproduction on this page it will be seen that the pews have been brought out under the trees and the officers are gathered to discuss the situation. Grant is sitting on the bench against the trees. With him are General Meade, Assistant Secretary of War, Charles A. Dana, and the staff officers. This was a critical time. The Union losses had been heavy and Lee had not yet been outwitted. This photograph is of much historic significance. In advance of Grant's movements, General Sheridan had started on a raid, with 10,000 sabres, and reaching the North Anna River, captured Beaver Dam Station, destroyed ten miles of railroad track and three freight trains containing a million and a half Confederate rations. Here he was fiercely assaulted by "Jeb" Stuart, but he succeeded in crossing the North Anna River by Ground-Squirrel Bridge and proceeded toward Richmond as far as Yellow Tavern, six miles from the Confederate Capital. Stuart fell mortally wounded and died in the city of Richmond. Sheridan then attempted to capture the works around Richmond, and Custer crossed the first line and seized two pieces of artillery and one hundred prisoners. Lee had fallen back from the North Anna River and assumed a position still covering Richmond. A photograph was taken of the pontoon bridge constructed across the North Anna River at Jericho Mills, where General Warren's five corps crossed on the twenty-third of May. The Federal base of supplies was shifted to the White House on the Pamunkey River where the remainder of the Federal Army crossed on the twenty-eighth of May, followed by the war cameras.

WHILE Grant was moving on toward Richmond, Sherman's armies of Arkansas, Cumberland, Ohio and Tennessee, with 352,000 men distributed in many garrisons over this wide expanse of territory, was moving against Atlanta, Georgia. Opposed to Sherman was Lieutenant-General Joseph E. Johnston, who commanded all the Confederate troops in the West, including the men of Bragg's old army. Atlanta was of equal importance with Richmond. It was a great railroad center and it contained the Confederate depots, mills, foundries and the manufactories of military supplies. Sherman had moved simultaneously with the Army of the Potomac, on the second day of the Battle of the Wilderness. On the thirteenth of May, Sherman's men met the Confederates at Resaca, Georgia. There was brisk, sharp fighting all along the lines. On the night of the fifteenth the Confederates abandoned the town and crossed the Oostenaula River, setting fire to the bridges. At dawn of the sixteenth the Federals entered Resaca and began a vigorous pursuit, and the camera recorded the scene of the abandoned entrenchments. The fields across which the Confederates withdrew may be seen in the distance. The Confederates concentrated their forces near New Hope Church on the twenty-fifth, and attacked the advancing Union troops but were driven back with heavy loss. The war photographers here secured a photograph of the entrenchments in the woods where there was continuous fighting for six days. The Federal Army forced its way through the mountainous country to the towering peaks of Kenesaw Mountain, Lost Mountain, and Pine Mountain. On all these heights the Confederates had signal towers. The outlying hills were occupied by batteries. The cameras were carried to the heights of Kenesaw Mountain and taken into its entrenchments. Sherman's troops climbed this slope, through its tangled wood and rifle pits, in the face of a steady musketry and artillery fire. This really ended the first movement of Sherman's campaign against Atlanta. Sherman's losses during May and June were over 2,000 killed and 13,000 wounded. Johnston's losses were about 1,200 killed and nearly 14,000 wounded. During the fifty-four days, both armies were depleted by 3,200 killed, 27,000 wounded.

GRANT and Lee met at Cold Harbor in a desperate struggle on the first day of June in 1864. The following day was occupied by a general massing for the deadly encounter. Meade's army moved silently on the enemy at daylight on the third and the result was the fiercest battle of the entire war. There was a drizzling rain. The armies could hardly see the faces of their antagonists. Not a shot was fired until they were upon each other. One hundred thousand muskets simultaneously began their murderous work at a range of sixty to seventy yards. Two hundred pieces of artillery added to the deafening roar. It was the tragedy of Fredericksburg and Gettysburg re-enacted. The Union soldiers pressed toward the solid mass of lead and flame from the Confederate entrenchments only to be forced back. At times they swept to the breastworks against the torrents of musketry and mounted the parapets. The assault lasted but twenty minutes and the Union Army lost in killed, wounded and missing over 14,000 men; the Confederate loss has been estimated at 1,700. The two armies stayed at Cold Harbor for ten days, working on their field entrenchments, and fighting whenever either side grew bold. Lee remained immovable in his entrenchments before Richmond and on the afternoon of the sixteenth of June, Grant's army, horse, foot and artillery, had crossed the James River. On the seventh of June the dead were buried and the wounded gathered during an armistice of two hours. This is a ghastly view, showing the process of collecting the remains of Union soldiers who were hastily interred at the time of the battle. This photograph was taken on the battlefield months after the battle, when the Government ordered the remains gathered for permanent burial. The grinning skulls, the boots still hanging on the bones, the old canteen, all testify to the tragedy.

SHERMAN, in his campaign in Georgia in 1864, was much interested in the cameras that followed his army and urged the photographer to take negatives of every movement as his forces pushed the Confederates toward Atlanta. On the morning of July 3, 1864, the Stars and Stripes fluttered on the crest of old Kenesaw Mountain. All the Federal corps were in rapid motion, and on Independence Day Sherman could distinguish the houses of Atlanta only nine miles away. General Johnston withdrew into the city and a storm of indignation swept the Confederacy. Johnston resigned his command and was succeeded by General J. B. Hood. Sherman set his troops in motion for the city on the seventeenth of July. On the nineteenth, the troops were so near Atlanta, and were meeting such feeble resistance that it was supposed the Confederates were evacuating, until they poured out of their entrenchments and opened furious fire on the north side of Peach Tree Creek. The war cameras were busily engaged and one of the negatives is an abandoned Confederate fortification on the road leading to Atlanta. A camera was taken into this fort shortly after its capture by Sherman. It shows the extent to which the Confederates had protected themselves. It is one of the rare pictures in which chevaux-de-frise construction is shown. It is here seen that the defense is a temporary obstruction by placing rails in a row with their pointed ends directed against the enemy. They impeded the advance of the foe and afforded cover for the defenders. During the conquest of Georgia the Confederates were much awed by the Brady "what is it?" wagons. It is the first time that field photography was witnessed in the far South.

WHILE Sherman's Army was literally standing at the gates of Atlanta, this photograph was taken. The great general was with his staff in a Federal fort on the outlying hills. He was leaning on the breech of the cannon in one of his most characteristic attitudes. At this time Sherman was forty-four years of age. When sixteen years old he had entered West Point as a cadet, through the influence of his father, who was a Supreme Court judge in Ohio. At twenty years of age he entered the United States regular army and during the Mexican War was engaged in service in California. When thirty-three years of age, Sherman resigned from the army and became President of the State Military Institute of Louisiana. At the outbreak of the Civil War he left the South and offered his services to the Union. He was a colonel at the Battle of Bull Run. After that battle, when the Northern Army was reorganized, Sherman was appointed Brigadier-General of Volunteers and commanded the Department of the Cumberland. He demanded 200,000 men to reach the Gulf, but it was refused and he was ordered into Missouri. He was for a time inactive but came to the front again at Shiloh in command of a division under Grant. His bravery secured his promotion to Major-General and he became active in the campaign around Vicksburg. He then entered into the Mississippi Campaign and led the forces against Atlanta, resulting in his famous march to the sea. This photograph was taken on the eighteenth day of July, in 1864, on the lines before Atlanta. Sherman was much interested in the new science of photography and he always protected the cameras.

ATLANTA was evacuated by the Confederates on the first day of September, in 1864 after a long, hard siege. The formal surrender was made by the Mayor on September second and the city became a military depot governed by military law. During this campaign of four months the Federals lost 31,680 men; the Confederates 34,986. The war photographers secured many negatives of the battlefields in the siege around Atlanta. A view is here shown of Peach Tree Creek where the Federal loss was 1,710 and the Confederate 4,796. Another camera was taken to the woods where the Union general, McPherson, was killed in Hood's second sortie outside of the city. The daring commander rode directly into the enemy's line, without knowledge of danger. An interesting picture is that of the earth works before Atlanta, during Hood's first sortie, in which the Union losses were 3,641, and the Confederate 8,499. The destruction that was wrought during the siege of Atlanta is perpetuated by many of these negatives. While the armies were making these decisive blows, the "Kearsarge" 3,000 miles away, met and sunk the Confederate ship, "Alabama," in the English Channel on Sunday morning, June 19, 1864. The "Alabama" had been roaming the seas nearly two years, capturing and burning American merchantmen. Another important naval conflict occurred on the 5th of August when Admiral Farragut gained possession of Mobile Bay, Alabama, and the war cameras caught a picture of the rebel ram, "Tennessee," the ironclad captured at that time by Farragut.

WHILE the combined armies under Sherman lay in and around Atlanta until October, 1864, the war photographers were used extensively. Fierce encounters took place early in that month around Kenesaw Mountain and along Allatoona Pass. During this famous encounter Sherman stood on the top of Kenesaw. General Corse, who was leading the Union Division into combat, sent him this message: "I am short a cheek-bone and one ear, but am able to whip all hell yet." It was to this that Sherman made his famous reply: "Hold the fort, for I am coming." Sherman began his famous march to the sea on the fifteenth of November. As the columns left Atlanta the Federal engineers applied their torches to the depot, roundhouse, and the machine shops of the Georgia railroad. The columns extended to the northern part of the city. Stores, warehouses, hotels, and mills, with many private dwellings, were destroyed to the value of more than three millions of dollars. Amid the fierce heat and roar Sherman rode out of Atlanta on the afternoon of November 16th. The great army for five consecutive weeks swept across Georgia. The 62,000 men, 20,000 horses and mules, marched 300 miles in a route from 20 to 60 miles wide. The army captured twenty million pounds of corn and fodder, three million rations of bread and meat, one million rations of coffee and sugar and 350 miles of railroad track were destroyed. Sherman estimated the property losses at over one hundred millions of dollars. The Federal losses during the campaign were but 63 men killed on the field, 245 wounded, and 259 missing. The Confederacy was severed and a decisive step taken toward ending the Civil War.

WHILE Sherman was marching from Chattanooga, Tennessee, to Atlanta, Georgia, on his famous march to the sea, Grant was laying siege on Petersburg, Virginia, twenty-two miles south of Richmond. This was the central point for five railroads, giving communication with the Carolinas and Southern Virginia. Its possession by Federal troops would cut off Richmond and force the evacuation of the Confederate Capital. Lee was strongly intrenched around Petersburg. For a time during the summer there was hot fighting every hour in the day and frequently far into the night. The two armies were ready to fight to a finish. The Union Army was preparing itself for the final stroke and the conflicts were constant. It was during this campaign that the battles of New Market Heights and Cedar Creek were fought and Sheridan made his famous ride down the Shenandoah Valley to Winchester. Grant's base of supplies was at City Point on the James River. On the ninth day of August, in 1864, there was an explosion of the ordnance barges and a war camera was hurried to the scene and secured this negative on the same day. At the same time, while General Grant was in conference with his staff in his tent at the army headquarters, the war photographers secured the picture shown on the preceding page. The general may be seen in the center of the group, sitting in the chair, with his hat characteristically pushed back on his head and his legs crossed. This is an interesting negative.

IN the closing months of 1864 events occurred in rapid succession in the southwest. The Confederates, under Hood, driven from Georgia by Sherman, invaded Middle Tennessee. General Price began his invasion of Missouri and destroyed property valued at three millions of dollars and seized a vast quantity of supplies. The Union forces, under General Thomas, were concentrated at Nashville. There were continual skirmishes and at nightfall, on the sixteenth of December, General Thomas ordered his troops into line of battle, with the intent of driving Hood's Army from the territory. In a terrific fire of musketry, grape and canister, the Federals pushed forward. In the next two days the Confederates lost all their artillery. General Thomas took four thousand, five hundred prisoners, nearly three hundred being officers. The fleeing Confederate columns left nearly three thousand dead and wounded on the ground, while the Federal loss was three hundred. The weather was very cold, but Thomas pursued his foe relentlessly. Flood's men were in a desperate condition, barefooted, ragged and disheartened. They were pressed to the Tennessee River where thirteen thousand were taken prisoners, and Hood's great army was practically annihilated, their small arms scattered along the roads, and cannon, caissons and wagons abandoned. Hood took the remnants of his army into Mississippi where he was relieved from command by his own request and retired minus the arm he left at Gettysburg and the leg he left at Chickamauga. On the thirtieth day of December, in 1864, Thomas went into winter quarters. One of the last photographs of the year was taken in Fort Negley, Nashville, Tennessee, showing the ironclad casemates and the interior of the fort.

THE last days of 1864 closed with the Army of the Potomac and the Army of the James maintaining the siege about Petersburg. Nearly every hour of the day and night the air was filled with the roar of siege cannons and mortars. Brady and Gardner had several of their cameras at the siege of Petersburg. Many rare negatives are to-day witnesses of this great event. The picture shown on this page was taken during the siege. It shows the thirteen-inch "Dictator," known as the "Petersburg Express," mounted on a flat freight car made strong for this purpose. It was on the military railroad outside of Petersburg and moved continually along the line, throwing its huge death-dealing bombs into the city. Some of the mortars were mounted on very strong, special-made cars, protected with roofs of railroad iron. Grant's line was twenty-five miles long, but with its parallels extending over ninety miles. The two forts nearest the city of Petersburg were known by the soldiers as Fort Hell and Fort Damnation. From their casemates the movements of the soldiers of the beleaguered city were distinctly visible. The guns of these two advanced forts were never silent. At nightfall, the pickets, with one hundred and fifty rounds of ball cartridges, left for the outposts, and many of them never returned. The night was made hideous by the roar of huge siege guns, the sudden crashes of musketry and the crack of rifle shells. The openings of the breastworks were so filled with shot during this siege that in time of truce the soldiers would dig the narrow openings out with their fingers. On the next page is shown a photograph taken April 2, 1865, in Confederate trenches at Petersburg just after their capture by the daring Union troops.

DEEDS of valor on the battlefield have been sung from the earliest ages, but there is no epoch in the world's history when men have shown more magnificent courage, or greater devotion to principle, than in the Civil War of the United States. The days of ancient knighthood never saw more gallant fighters, no lancer ever met a worthier foe. It was the grandest spectacle of heroism that eyes have ever witnessed. At the battle-front, in prison pit, in hospital, or wounded on the field--no men ever endured more intense suffering.

The only National debt we can never pay is the debt we owe to the men who offered their lives that the United American Nation might live to become the greatest power in the human race. The heroic sacrifices will never be known. It has been variously estimated from three hundred thousand to a million lives. The Government records 44,238 men as having been killed in battle; 49,205 dying of wounds and injuries; 186,216 succumbing to disease; 24,184 expiring from unknown causes; and 526 suicides, homicides and executions. Thousands of men disappeared during the conflict and have never been heard from since. The surgeon-general's records give 280,040 wounded in battle; 184,791 missing or captured; 26,168 dying while prisoners of war. The medical records state that 6,049,648 cases were brought into the hospitals, great numbers of whom were sent home to die. The Confederate losses can never be ascertained but it is very probable that the price that America paid for the preservation of the Union was a million of its manhood.

The crisis of 1865 held not only the future of the United States in the balance, but threatened to change the political divisions of the world. The American Nation, which is the "freest, richest and most powerful" nation under the skies, would have been divided into two weakened republics, each struggling for existence, disputing the ownership of rivers and coast, engaged in continual border uprisings, and finally becoming the prey of the powerful nations of Europe--only to be soon devoured by encroaching monarchies of the Eastern Hemisphere.

"When 'Greek meets Greek' the tug of war
Is sure to follow fierce and strong;
What wonder that the bloody strife
'Twixt North and South was four years long!
Four hundred thousand of our brave
Gave up their lives that we might be
A Nation, powerful and great,
The fitting home of Liberty.
America will surely stand
The first and foremost of the earth:
The Queen of Nations she shall be,
And all her sons have royal birth.

"The Goddess of sweet Liberty
Still smiles upon her gallant knights
Who bravely sprang to her defense,
And fearless fought to keep our rights.
Then cheer our heroes, grim and old,
And let them feel while yet alive,
We honor them for what they did
From sixty-one to sixty-five.
All honor to our sacred dead,
And honor well the living, too,
Our Veterans of the Civil War,
These noble boys who wore the blue."

The problem was settled for all ages in 1865. The American Nation rose from the ruins of War like a young giant. Grasping the hand of the North and the South, it clasped them together with the grip of brotherhood and the sacred pledge, "United we stand; divided we fall." Long live America, the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave! The vast armies, "strong enough to have conquered a hemisphere, vanished like a vision and the men who fought side by side through the perils of four years of Civil War, laid down their arms, changed their uniforms of blue and gray for the apparel of everyday life, and took up once more the peaceful occupations they had abandoned to serve their country."

The Spring of 1865 can never be forgotten by the men who went through it. It was a time of intense excitement and overflowing enthusiasm which carried itself almost to pandemonium. The war cameras, which had perpetuated the last wonderful scenes of the conflict, were taken to Washington and New York, and the Summer fell upon a peaceful people.

It is the avowed mission of these pages to lay before the present generation the vision of War in all its horror that those who look upon them may pledge themselves to the furtherance of the day "when a cannon will be exhibited in public museums, just as an instrument of torture is now, and people will be amazed that such a thing could have been;" the day when "those two immense groups, the United States of America, and the United States of Europe," and the United States of Asia and of Africa, "will be seen placed in the presence of each other, extending the hand of fellowship across the oceans, exchanging their produce, their commerce, their industries, their arts, their genius; clearing the earth, peopling the desert, improving creation under the eye of the Creator, and uniting for the good of all, these two irresistible and infinite powers--the fraternity of men and the power of God!"

THE first days of 1865 around Petersburg were a hard strain on the soldiers. The winter's siege had been severe. The Confederates were desperate. Unable to break the Federal lines at Dinwiddie, Five Forks, or any of the many combats that were continually taking place, defeat and annihilation awaited them. On the first of April the entire artillery forces in the trenches before Petersburg began a tremendous cannonading which continued until dawn. The Union troops during the night tightened their lines around Petersburg until the following morning, which was Sunday. At daylight, on Monday, the third of April, Lee evacuated Petersburg and the Union forces entered the city about nine o'clock. Cameras were soon taken through the gates and during the day several photographs were taken, including a negative of the trenches containing the dead. This photograph shows a company of colored infantry. There were 186,097 colored troops enlisted in the Civil War. In many conflicts they showed great bravery, especially during the siege of Petersburg. An instance of their great courage was the attempt to break through the Confederate lines by tunneling under one of the fortifications and blowing it up with the charge of eight thousand pounds of powder. In the smoke of the explosion the colored troops charged through the crater and up the slope beyond, only to meet with a terrific fire in which hundreds of colored heroes were mown down like grass, with no hope of anyone reaching the crest, but they held to the charge until ordered to retire. The engagements around Petersburg during its last nine months cost the Union Army more than thirty thousand men.

THIS witness of a remarkable sight is so old that it will be noted that the tree at the right of the picture is being eaten away from the original negative. It lays before the eyes of all generations the view of the first wagon train entering Petersburg with provisions for the starving inhabitants after one of the greatest sieges in history. It was on Sunday night, about ten o'clock, the second day of April, in 1865, that the resolute Lee marshalled his troops for the evacuation of Petersburg. At three on the following morning the stronghold of the Confederacy was left to the Union forces. At nine on the same morning General Grant rode into the deserted city. The remaining inhabitants were panic-stricken and in a destitute condition. Many of them had escaped with their beloved leader while others, in abject terror, secluded themselves in their homes. Grant, with his staff, rode quietly through the streets until he came to a comfortable-looking brick house, with a yard in front, where he dismounted and took a seat on the veranda. The gentle manner of the great general found a response in the hearts of those who had feared him. Citizens soon gathered on the sidewalk and gazed with curiosity on the Union commander. News of the hunger of the people was hurried along the line. Great wagon trains of provisions struggled for miles through roadways choked with prisoners, stragglers and wounded. This photograph was taken as the first division, loaded with barrels of flour, pork, coffee, sugar, and other necessaries, rolled into Petersburg. With the brotherly affection that even the madness of war cannot destroy, the men in blue came to those devoted to the gray, not as enemies, but as fellowmen ever willing to relieve the suffering. The humanity of war is here exemplified.

THE largest fleet that had ever been assembled under one command in the history of the American Navy concentrated before Fort Fisher, North Carolina, late in 1864. It included nearly sixty vessels, of which five were ironclads, and the three largest United States steam frigates, "Minnesota," "Colorado" and "Wabash," and was accompanied by one of the war cameras. The total number of guns and howitzers of the fleet were over six hundred, and the weight of projectiles at a single discharge of all the guns, both broadsides, was over twenty-two tons. The Atlantic and Gulf coast were almost entirely in the Government possession and the Navy was prepared to strike its decisive blow. Fort Fisher was now the most important Confederate naval position. The first attack took place in the night of December twenty-third, when a powder-boat was exploded under the towering walls of the old fort. It was believed that it was leveled to the ground, but in the morning the grim fort stood absolutely uninjured with its flag floating defiantly. An attack was then led by the ironclads, followed by the monitors and frigates. A naval officer in describing it says: "Their sides seemed a sheet of flame, and the roar of their guns like a mighty thunderbolt." The enemy took refuge in their bomb-proofs. Owing to misunderstanding between army and navy the fort was not taken. An excellent photograph was secured of one of the gunboats in the Fort Fisher expedition--the "Santiago de Cuba," and the negative is one of the finest naval pictures ever taken.

THE last stronghold of the Southern Confederacy on the Atlantic Coast fell early in 1865. On the twelfth of January operations were agreed upon for the final assault on Fort Fisher and a photograph was taken of the fleet as it lay off the coast. On the morning of the thirteenth the ironclads opened a terrific fire. Fort Fisher was at this time much stronger than at the first attack. Troops had reinforced the garrison. Damages from the first bombardment had been repaired and new defenses added. In describing the downfall of the fort one who participated says: "I believe there had never before been such a storm of shell in any naval engagement. At noon on the fifteenth the attempt was made for the sailors and marines to land. From thirty-five of the sixty ships of the fleet boats were lowered, and with flags flying, pulled toward the beach in line abreast, a most spirited scene. The sailors were armed with cutlasses and pistols. The great land battery, the artillery and a thousand rifles opened fire from Fort Fisher. The daring sailors found themselves packed like sheep in a death pen, under a most galling fire." The army pressed forward under General Terry's command, fighting its way from traverse to traverse, overpowering the garrison, and finally driving the Confederates from their last refuge. Fort Fisher fell on the fifteenth of January. The casualties in the fleet amounted to 309, while Terry's command lost 110 killed and 536 wounded--a total of nearly 1,000 men. With the fall of Fort Fisher and its seventy-five guns, the Confederates abandoned Fort Caswell and all the works on Smith's Island; all those between Caswell and Smithville up to the battery on Reeve's Point on the west side of the river. This photograph of the fleet that took Fort Fisher shows the ships assembling off the coast. The negative was secured under much difficulty.

THE Civil War was a great practical demonstration of naval vessels propelled by steam. The whole system of naval tactics had undergone a great change. The guns had become vastly more powerful; war ships were now protected by a light armor, and the torpedo had found its way into successful employment. The normal strength of the Navy at the beginning of the war was ninety vessels; fifty of these were sailing ships, worthy vessels in years gone by, but now left behind by progress. There were forty vessels propelled by steam and many of these were scattered on the high seas. As the war progressed, the Navy was increased and at its close had nearly six hundred ships, including every variety of merchantman and river steamboat roughly adapted in navy-yards for war services. There were built or projected during the war nearly sixty ironclads. At the beginning of the war the total number of officers of all grades in the Navy was 1,457, and during its progress the number was increased to 7,500, chiefly from the merchant marine. The normal strength of seamen, which was 7,600, rose during the war to 51,500. The South entered upon the war without any naval preparation and with very limited resources, but by purchases and seizures equipped a considerable fleet. Toward the close of the conflict the war photographers secured a large number of negatives during naval demonstrations. Among those here presented is Admiral David D. Porter and staff on his flagship, "Malvern," on the Fort Fisher Expedition. The gallant admiral may be seen standing in the center of the group. A picture is on the following page of Major-General A. H. Terry and staff, in command of the land demonstrations around Fort Fisher, and on whom special honors were conferred by Congress for his courageous leadership in the attack. These photographs witness the last great naval demonstration of the war.

THE final blows of the Civil War came quick and sharp. Grant had taken Petersburg; Thomas had annihilated the Confederate forces under Hood along the Mississippi River; Sherman had swept through Georgia and overrun the Carolinas. Exactly four years after the inauguration of Jefferson Davis as President of the Confederacy, historic Columbia and Charleston, South Carolina, surrendered. The closing days sowed flame and devastation. The war cameras followed Sherman's Army into Columbia and the old negatives tell the tragedy of the destroyed Confederate cities. One of them here reproduced is historic Secession Hall in ruins. It was here that the first Ordinance of Secession was passed. This view shows the historic edifice as it appeared when the Union troops took possession of the city. Adjoining the Hall are the ruins of Central Church, and in the background is St. Phillips Church. The fall of Columbia occurred on February 12, 1865. Charleston surrendered the following day, and the Federal Government took possession. One of these photographs shows the ruins of the Northeastern Railroad Depot at Charleston where two hundred persons were blown up on the day of evacuation, February 17, 1865. Sherman moved on through North Carolina and fought his last battle at Bentonville, where the National loss was 1,604 men and the Confederate loss 2,342. During these last days of the war occurred a disaster on the Mississippi River. The "Sultana" was on her journey from New Orleans to St. Louis, receiving on board 1,964 Union prisoners from Columbia, Salisbury, Andersonville and other Confederate prisons. Anxious to proceed North, little heed was given that the ship was already carrying a heavy load of passengers on board, occupying every foot of available space on all the decks to the tops of the cabins and the wheelhouse, and on the twenty-seventh of April, when about eight miles above Memphis, one of her boilers blew up. The dead at the scene numbered 1,500.

IN the hospitals of the army during the Civil War 6,049,648 cases were treated by the officers of the Medical Department. The medical skill of the surgeons and physicians is evidenced by the fact that only 185,353 of these patients died during their detention in the hospitals. While a large number of these soldiers suffered from gunshot wounds, the disease of chronic diarrhoea was nearly as fatal, and its deadliness was closely followed by the ravages of typhoid fever and lung diseases. It is estimated that 285,245 men were discharged during the war for disability. A tribute should be paid to the nobility of the hospital corps. Many noble men and women did great service to their country in relieving the sufferings that followed the battles. After many of the terrific conflicts the ground was strewn with the dead and dying. The wounded, in whom there was a hope of life, were given immediate care and hurried on stretchers to nearby houses and barns from which floated the yellow flag of the Medical Department. Large hospital tents were erected near the scene of battle. At times all the rooms in the surrounding farmhouses were full of wounded; the injured men were laid on cornstalks and hay in the barns. Sometimes it was impossible to find shelter for them all and they were laid on boards inclined against fences. Many of the large trees formed a shelter for a temporary hospital, where the men were laid in rows while the attendants administered to their wants. In no previous war in the history of the world was so much done to alleviate suffering as in the War of 1861-1865. But notwithstanding all that was done, the wounded suffered horribly. After any great battle it required several days and nights of steady work before all the wounded men were gathered.

JEFFERSON DAVIS was at St. Paul's Church, in Richmond, at the usual hour of Sunday morning worship when he received the message that Petersburg was being evacuated and Lee's lines were irreparably broken. The sexton walked up to Davis's pew and whispered a few words in the President's ear. The members of the Cabinet received similar calls. From church to church the note of warning was communicated. By two o'clock everybody in Richmond knew that the city was to be abandoned. The Presidential party with difficulty made its way through the excited crowd which thronged and blocked the streets. Davis began his flight by boarding a train and went as far as Danville where, on April 4, 1865, he began to establish a new seat of government. The following day he issued a proclamation to his people, only to again flee to Greensborough, North Carolina, where he remained in a railroad car. On reaching Charlotte, he threw off the semblance of authority and planned to reach Texas. The flight was continued through South Carolina and into Macon, Georgia. In the meantime, a reward of $100,000 was offered for the apprehension of Davis. He was finally captured in a camp in the woods near Irwinsville, Georgia, while trying to escape in a lady's waterproof coat, gathered at the waist, with a shawl thrown over the head, and carrying a tin pail. This remarkable photograph was taken while the Confederate President was being carried as a prisoner in an ambulance through the streets of Macon. He was conveyed to Fortress Monroe, for safe keeping, on May 22, 1865, and was finally allowed his freedom on bail and never brought to trial. Brady entered Richmond with his cameras a few hours after the departure of Davis and these negatives witness the ruins. The great tobacco warehouses had been destroyed and the ironclad rams on the river had been blown up. The city was being pillaged. The Union troops entered as conquerors and immediately set to work with a will to extinguish the flames which wrought great destruction and havoc.

RICHMOND was a mass of flames on the third of April, in 1865. As the Federal forces entered the city it was a scene of terrible splendor. The explosion of magazines caused the earth to rock and tremble as with the shock of an earthquake. The flames were leaping from building to building until thirty squares were ablaze, consuming over one thousand structures. Prisoners were liberated from the penitentiary and the torch was applied to it. Men, women and children, faint from hunger, fled from their homes. The provision depots were battered at the doors and forced open in the demoniacal struggle against starvation. The gutters ran with whiskey, and men fell to their knees and lapped it as it flowed through the streets. The clatter of the hoofs of the horses added to the tumult as the Union troops entered the city. At daylight the approach of the Federal forces could be plainly discerned. The war cameras came into Richmond with the army. The Union soldiers began to fight the flames, blowing up houses to check their advance. There was a cavalry rush for Libby prison to bring freedom to the Union soldiers confined within its walls, but upon reaching it not a guard nor an inmate remained. The doors were wide open. An old negro placidly remarked: "Dey's all gone, massa!" The day following a mighty cheer was heard near the abandoned residence of Jefferson Davis. President Lincoln walked down the street with his usual long, careless stride. After viewing the situation and impressing upon the officers his desire that they exert the most humane influences, Lincoln returned to Washington. One of the most valuable negatives in the Civil War collection is the ruins of Richmond on the day that Lincoln inspected the condition of the city.

WHEN Lee, with the remnant of his army, fled from Richmond and Petersburg, he was closely pursued by Grant and attacked vigorously at every approach. For seventy miles it was a race that was marked by a long track of blood. There were collisions at Jestersville, Detonville, Deep Creek, Paine's Cross Roads, and Farmville. At Sailor's Creek the Confederate lines were broken by Custer. The Confederate General Ewell, with four other generals and his entire corps, were captured and on the eighth of April the Southern Army, under Lee, was completely surrounded. Lee had but 28,000 men left and his brave dead were lying in heaps along the route of his retreat. Hemmed in at Appomattox Court House a last desperate effort was made to cut through the Federal cavalry. He was gaining ground when Sheridan's bugles rang out the signal for a general charge and a halt was called under a flag of truce. The two historic armies never exchanged another shot. General Lee left his camp on the morning of April 8 and was conducted to the McLean house, where he found General Grant awaiting him. The actual surrender took place on April 12, 1865. The Confederate officers and men were paroled. Lee returned to his men and bade them farewell. The scene was one of the most pathetic in the records of war. The Confederate veterans wept like children as they looked upon the face of their beloved leader. His last words to his men were: "You will take with you the satisfaction that proceeds from the consciousness of duty faithfully performed. I earnestly pray that a merciful God will extend to you His blessing and protection." A few hours after Lee's surrender this photograph was taken at Appomattox.

IT is here in these closing pages the sad duty of these wonderful old negatives to record one of the deepest tragedies in the history of the world. In it the greatest Republic of the earth, at the close of the most terrific conflict ever waged by fellow countrymen, saw its champion of Liberty fall at the hands of an assassin. The great Lincoln looked forward to years of peace among a re-united people. On the night of April 14, 1865, he was murdered at Ford's Theater. The bitter tidings swept the country. The American Nation was bowed down with grief. The rendezvous of the conspirators was found to be the house of Mrs. M. E. Surratt, located in the very heart of Washington. Mrs. Surratt, her daughter Anna, Miss Fitzpatrick and a Miss Holahan were arrested. George A. Atzerott, and one named Powell, were later captured. The principal assassin, John Wilkes Booth, was found eleven days after the murder and was shot when he refused to surrender. His companion, Harold, who had been a fugitive with him, was taken prisoner. The trial of the conspirators took place in Washington before a military commission. On July 6, 1865, sentence was pronounced and on the following day the four conspirators--Harold, Atzerott, Powell and Mrs. Surratt--were hanged. Two of Brady's cameras were taken into the prison yard and placed near the scaffold. When the warrant was being read one camera was used and the historic view is now in the Eaton Collection. When the drop was sprung, the second negative was exposed and the tragic scene is here recorded. Mrs. Surratt is hanging at the left. The ghastliness was such that many of the guards turned their heads. It is believed to be the first time that the camera has been used to perpetuate the execution of political conspirators. The negatives are in excellent condition and their historic value is beyond purchase.

THE funeral procession of Lincoln as it passed through New York was witnessed by nearly a million people. The body was taken to Springfield, Ohio, his old home town to which he had not returned since he left it to go to Washington as President of the United States. Lincoln was buried at Oak Ridge Cemetery, about two miles from Springfield. Immediately after the close of the war the Government began inquiry into the cruelties alleged to have taken place in many of the prisons. The result was the arrest of Captain Henry Wirtz, the jailor at Andersonville. He was given trial before a military commission and convicted of brutally murdering Union prisoners. Wirtz was sentenced to death and hanged on the tenth of November, 1865. The execution took place in Washington within short distance of the National Capitol, and Brady's cameras were taken into the prison yard. The negative was taken as the condemned man stood on the scaffold, with head bowed, listening to the reading of his death warrant. Another negative was secured after the noose had been tightened around his neck and the drop had been sprung. The photographs perpetuate a tragic moment. It will be seen that the soldiers on guard were standing at "attention." The evidence against Wirtz was overwhelming. Many witnesses testified to the cruelty of the accused man and the horrors enacted within the dead lines at Andersonville. Prisoners were forced to go forty-eight hours without food. Many of them became insane; others committed suicide. There were deliberate, cold-blooded murders of peaceable men. No opportunities were afforded for cleanliness and the prisoners were covered with vermin. The execution of Wirtz met public approval and this photograph shows him in his last moments of life.

Ulysses Simpson Grant--Born at Point Pleasant, Ohio, April 27, 1822--Died at Mt. Gregor, New York, July 23, 1885--Graduated from West Point in 1843 and fought gallantly under the Stars and Stripes in the War against Mexico--Commander-in-chief of the victorious Union Army in the Civil War in the United States--This photograph was taken when he was forty-two years of age, during the Civil War, and was never before published--It is protected by copyright]