Portraits of Conflict: A Photographic History of Alabama in the Civil War

1. Photography in Alabama during the Civil War

Chapter  The Civil War era coincided with the emergence of photography as a profession. As a result, America’s Iliad became the first widely photographed military conflict in history. Studio images became especially popular with soldiers on both sides. The volume of such pictures was so great, in fact, that it literally bequeaths for posterity a human face,or rather faces, of the war.Like volunteers everywhere,thousands of Alabamians took the time and spent the money to sit for their share of photographs. The images were, after all, a novel memento of a struggle that all participants seemed to sense was epic in nature. Civil War photographs reflect a wide range of technological development.One of the earliest processes was the daguerreotype, whereby a cameraman would capture a mirror image of his subject onto a plate of polished silver.Daguerreotypes were expensive to make and by the late s were already outdated. In its place emerged the ambrotype, followed shortly by the tintype. An ambrotype used a wet-plate solution of collodion and silver nitrate to capture a negative image on glass. Once dry, the glass could then be mounted on a dark backing to reveal the positive image. Tintypes involved a similar process, only the image was captured on a thin iron plate rather than glass, which made the final product less fragile. In  yet another technique arose: the carte de visite (“visiting card”in French). This was the simplest and least expensive form of photography at the time, entailing the creation of an albumen print (a glass-plate image pressed onto card stock coated in egg white), which could then be used to quickly reproduce multiple copies of the same image. All of these techniques required the subject to remain still for several seconds until the exposure was complete lest the image blur. It is for this reason that,with rare exceptions,no one smiles in Civil War–era pictures and also why there are no action photos of the fighting. Consequently, viewers must use caution if and when they attempt to read character into a given image. Although the finest studios were in the North, as were the most famous photographers of the period (such as Matthew Brady and Alexander Gardner), the South was hardly delinquent in producing its own high-quality images. The best places to have a  Photography in Alabama during the Civil War picture taken in Alabama were either Montgomery, with at least five studios,or Mobile,with many more, including the reputable Duffee & Sancier studio that specialized in cartes de visite.Among the state’s other studios were A. B. Avery of Tuskegee and Robinson & Murphy in Huntsville.While soldiers usually wore their actual uniform for a sitting,they also often held any number of studio props, such as muskets or a knife. Therefore, one must be cautious in drawing conclusions about equipment based solely on what is seen in a given photograph.This volume contains nearly  images of Alabamians during the Civil War. Selection of these photographs generally conforms to two criteria: one,biographical information sufficient to identify the individual in some depth and, two, a compelling story, such as a battlefield experience, that brings the image alive for a particular time and place.Unfortunately,for a great many photographs the historical record provides little more than the individual’s name, rank, and unit (and several others are unidentified altogether). Similarly, many letters and diaries offer compelling stories,but there are no accompanying photographs. Nevertheless, the images presented in the following pages give a face to most facets of Alabama’s wartime experience. Moreover, nearly every county in the state is represented.A few caveats are in order, however . The preponderance of subjects are officers. Typically men of means and letters, officers could more easily afford having a picture taken (and having it preserved by descendants) and were more likely to have left behind a written record of their service .Also,most of the wartime images are of soldiers who volunteered early in the conflict.Later enlistees did not display the same martial fervor of their  counterparts and so perhaps were less inclined to have a photographic record of an event in which they only reluctantly participated. Several from this latter group show their subjects posing in civilian attire, which suggests a reason other than obtaining a wartime memento for having...