Gettysburg - Harvest of Death - Location Update: 1-26-12

I am currently still comfortable with the general location I presented earlier this month, with some minor modifications to the camera location. I will still be field testing and re-shooting in the hopeful near future, but since I am three hours south of Gettysburg, and it is winter, it may be a little delayed. The area of the field in question has been rather swampy during my two previous reconnaissance trips which make tramping around, and fine tuning the spot, awkward. However, working with some additional materials from home base, I can see where the two camera locations were probably close to forty-five yards to the southwest, and forty yards to the slight northwest of my initial efforts. My calculations suggest that this will provide the visible tilt in the foreground looking toward the Thompson house, as well as the opposite tilt looking toward the south for the "Harvest of Death" view.

Images are clickable to enlarge the view.

Tighter view of field. Theorized camera locations, as well as my

previous consideration, are marked by white circles. Human figure

indicates the vicinity of the clustered bodies seen in Gardner's views.

I am more convinced now that Gardner was not bending any truth when he titled the "Field Where Reynolds Fell" image as he did. This field is within the confines of the two fences that enclose the woodlot where the general was struck down. This information was probably why Gardner would have sought out this field, even though it was not "THE" spot Reynolds went down. The importance was that it would illustrate the ferocity of the first day's fighting, and at the time of Gardner's visit there, no one in the burial crews could, in all likelihood, point to a more precise location. These images would illustrate the price paid by the Union defenders. Were these some of the only remaining Union dead yet unburied by the time of Gardner's arrival? Confederate dead were not the immediate priority and were plentiful on the southern end of the battlefield.

I will go into this in further detail when I can post my revised then and now pairings.

Previous postings pertaining to this examination can be found here and here.

Standing in the sogginess during my November 18, 2011 session.

Photo by James Anderson.

Examination of the full size stereo pairs is vital to revealing the clues.

Photo by James Anderson

Right half of stereo pair.

I theorize that the woods along the rail cut, on Oak Ridge, are on the far

 horizon, placing the Thompson house in the upper right corner of the image.

Collection of Library of Congress

Putting A Face On The Dead: A Wilderness casualty from the National Museum of Health and Medicine

    Let me state up front that I am not trained as a forensic pathologist, but the images I provide here were produced using rudimentary information I have gleaned over time while studying the cranium collection at the National Museum of Health and Medicine, now located in Silver Spring, Maryland.
    The principles of tissue depth, in this case along the median points of the skull, are the building blocks for forensic facial reconstruction. These points: vertex, glabella, naison, rhinion, sub-nasale, labrale superius, labrale inferius, mentolabial sulcus, pogonion, gnation, menton and gonion, provide us with a reasonably reliable, statistically established, method of creating the outline of a deceased's facial profile.
    This then, was an exercise for me, to apply these basics on one of the many skulls collected by Union Surgeon, Dr. Reed B. Bontecou, in April of 1866. Bontecou traveled to the battlefields of Spotsylvania County, shortly before mustering out of the service, with the intent of collecting pathological specimens, specifically the crania of dead Confederate soldiers who's remains had been lying in situ since the battles nearly two and three years prior. The Union dead had been gathered and placed in temporary cemeteries in the summer of 1865. In contrast, many of the fallen southerners had been barely covered by comrades, and their bones bleached in the sun while their uniforms decayed around them. The region had been devastated by the war, and a dramatically reduced local population had yet to make any effort to provide better treatment, especially in such remote areas as the Wilderness.
    This specific individual had received a severe trauma in the vicinity of the left ear, producing a large, fractured hole in the temporal area, but no exit wound. A good number of these skulls in this collection have the deadly projectile which ended their lives accompanying them, usually attached by wire near the entry site. This specimen does not.

NMHM collection # AFIP1000619

Site of the fatal wound. Note extra tooth growing out of left maxilla.

My initial workup over top the right profile photograph, having used

 tissue depth markers to establish the outline of the face.

The base photograph and drawing are reduced to line art.

After removing most of the base photograph and refining the

facial features we are left with what may be a faithful likeness

of this unknown soldier, killed in Spotsylvania, Virginia.

    Of course, we do not know if he had facial hair or precisely what age he was. A more professional working of the specimen can yield many more tell-tale clues to these details. Perhaps one day the funding may become available to the Museum to help put a face on all the unknowns that reside in the drawers of the collection. No matter what the circumstances that brought this man's life to an end, all should be accorded the dignity of recognition as a human being. I hope this may be some encouragement toward that goal.

A photograph taken of human remains during Dr. Bontecou's trip to Spotsylvania County

in April of 1866. Bontecou had a photographic team accompany him on this journey. For

 further information, I will suggest an article I wrote for the March/April 2009 issue of

Civil War Times Magazine, introducing my studies of these images and the route taken

by Bontecou and his entourage. I continue to work on a book length manuscript as well.

    In September 1865, Northern journalist John T. Trowbridge toured the war-torn Spotsylvania region with a local guide, and witnessed the same unburied bodies Dr. Bontecou would find nearly a year later. From his book The South: A Tour of Its Battlefields and Ruined Cities, he describes his macabre encounter in the Wilderness region:



    "And what appalling spectacle is this? In the cover of thick woods, the unburied remains of two soldiers -- two skeletons side by side, two skulls almost touching each other, like the cheeks of sleepers! I came upon them unawares as I picked my way among scrub oak. I knew that scores of such sights could be seen here a few weeks before; but the United States Government had sent to have its unburied dead collected together in the two national cemeteries of the Wilderness; and I hoped the work was faithfully done.

    "They was No'th Carolinians; that's why they didn't bury 'em," said Elijah, after a careful examination of the buttons fallen from the rotted clothing.

    The buttons may have told a true story: North Carolinians they may have been; yet I could not believe this to be the true reason why they had not been decently interred. It must have been that these bodies, and others we found afterwards, were overlooked by the party sent to construct the cemeteries. It was shameful negligence, to say the least.

    The cemetery was nearby -- a little clearing surrounded by a picket fence and comprising seventy trenches, each containing the remains of I know not how many dead. Each trench was marked with a headboard inscribed: "Unknown United States soldier, killed may, 1864."

    Elijah said that the words United States soldiers indicated plainly that it had not been the intention to bury Rebels there. As a grim sarcasm on this neglect, somebody had flung three human skulls over the paling into the cemetery, where they lay blanching among the graves."

Gettysburg - Harvest of Death - some new considerations on location... and some doubt... perhaps. Revisions made 1-21-12.

There are some things to take into consideration with my prior theory posted on 1-12-12, as well as that of Scott Hartwig's, which worked off of the same approach, but at a distance from my own theorized camera position. I have made revisions to this post after some additional examination of postwar images.
There are many elements of the 1863 images that could have supported either proposal, but ultimately one major issue that could derail both.

There appear to be the correct landscape features seen from the field, looking northeast toward the Thompson house. Structures that appear faintly in the right hand distance of the "Field Where General Reynolds Fell" image, look enough like the Thompson house and a structure on the opposite side of the Chambersburg Pike to be convincing. There appears to be an orchard, also on that south side, running on a diagonal of the downward slope, all where they should be, but...

Detail, showing structures on horizon, and orchard on slope?

Rail fence dividing fields, runs across bottom.

Even the slight rise and fall of the foreground of that same image, when viewed in stereo, can be attributable to what appears to be a significant grading of the middle of the field, supported by contour lines in the "Warren" map of 1868, that are dramatically changed by the 1995 USGS surveys. A ditch that feeds a pond below the site, not notated in 1868, has also altered the terrain. But...

Right hand side of stereo pair.

Detail of 1868 Warren map. Red dot between McPherson's Woods and

trees on Seminary Ridge, indicates my theorized camera location.

Overlay of detail from Warren map over 1995 USGS map, indicating

seeming changes in contours of field between ridges, with dates in red.

Click this and all images for larger viewing.

Unaltered detail from the 1995 USGS topographic map.

The real concern for mine, and Scott Hartwig's theories, may very well be in the left hand horizon tree line on Oak Ridge, which does not appear to have been as deep as it is today, at least not by the time of the 1868 Warren surveys. It is the assumed strength of that woodline being there in 1863 that both Scott and myself placed our bets. Today, a gap shown in the Warren map has grown in, on the north ridge extension, along the rail cut. Were there trees there in 1863, but deforested by 1868? That is a tough call. Other maps are not so precise. Someone out there should know this information. They do not look to be dissimilar today with what appears in the 1863 photograph. On the other hand, the gap may not have caused a discernible difference visually at a 466 yard distance. Height of trees and density are all unknown factors. Coincidental, if not the same location? Perhaps?

Detail of map #12 from Warren's 1868 map set. Location of gap in trees on Oak Ridge

 is indicated in red. Red dot marks proposed camera position for Gardner/O'Sullivan.

Full map set in the collection of National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

Closer view of the trees on Oak Ridge from a location closer to the

orchard on the south side of Chambersburg Pike, approximately

150 yards north east of suspected 1863 camera position. 

Modern aerial view, indicating in red, the wartime gap in the trees on Oak Ridge.

Would the gap have effected the 1863 view? Very strange how the modern and

1863 image in question seem to align in numerous ways. Is this the deciding factor?

This, primarily, and perhaps other challenges to the theorized location, warrant further scrutiny.

Gettysburg - Harvest of Death - Location Found, January 11, 2012, perhaps... Supplements added: 1-13-12. Questions abound. Revised posting 1-18-12.

One of the most elusive group of Civil War battlefield photographs has been the image known as “The Harvest of Death” and its companion images, showing the same bodies from a near opposite angle. The group was made in the days following the battle, most probably July 5, 1863. There have been three prevailing theories as to the precise location of this ghastly scene. Since 1975, historian William A. Frassanito has felt comfortable in his belief that the group of photos was taken somewhere near the Rose Farm and the Emmitsburg Road. The greatest challenge has been in trying to locate a piece of land where all terrain features cooperate, in both directions, to make the theory work. Granted, doing this has been made even that more difficult by over a century’s growth and/or removal  of wood lines and other obstructions, as well as potential modifications to the landscape surface. The mission has continued for another thirty-seven years as numerous investigators have scoured the battlefield landscape to find the right combination of elements.

Gardner caption, "View in field on right wing."

Library of Congress collection.

Last May, Gettysburg National Park Service Historian Scott Hartwig published his own theory, located in an area below the Chambersburg Pike, near McPherson’s Woods that seemed to work, and was much more in keeping with the original captioning of the published images by photographer Alexander Gardner. It runs along the Park Service road, Reynolds Avenue South.

Most recently, historian Jerry Coates has spent considerable time investigating an area south of Gettysburg, and west of the Emmitsburg Road. This theory stayed more within the confines of the original Frassanito analysis, but was supplemented by a more in depth study of the uniforms the dead are wearing and attempting to use this criteria to narrow down the numerical potential as to who they might have been and thus the field of battle these men would have been engaged on in July 1863. He has come up with very similar terrain and some good arguments.

However, my own investigative work has concluded that of all these prevailing theories, the one that seems to come the closest is Scott Hartwig’s on the first day’s battlefield. But, although very well founded and assembled with sound judgment, Hartwig’s theorized location has its faults and can be termed with the old expression, “Right church, wrong pew.”

What all the prevailing theories lacked was a concrete feature or landmark that would anchor the image to an indisputable location. My examination of the series of images has discovered what appears to be that necessary clue. The clue has been available in plain sight to all that have looked at the glass negatives for the stereo pairs, and quite possibly the 8 X 10 glass negative, although that full image is not printed or available online presently by the Library of Congress, but is referred to by William Frassanito and shown in cropped form on page 227 of his Gettysburg: A Journey In Time. In many prints of the image entitled “Field where General Reynolds Fell”, the full image has been cropped and has thus removed the landmark feature. The landmark looks like none other than the residence of Mrs. Mary Thompson, known more famously as “Lee’s Headquarters”. In the upper right hand corner, again invariably cropped out in published formats, the house is easily discernible along the horizon line. It is understandable that it could be easily overlooked as just another shadow in the line of trees, but when magnified, and compared to wartime images of the structure, it becomes more than obvious. In utilizing the Thompson house as the anchor for this image, it becomes far easier to establish a camera position, and thus, possibly prove that Gardner’s original captioning was spot on as to the vicinity of the battlefield.

Is this the home of Mrs. Mary Thompson, "Lee's Headquarters,

as seen in an enlargement of one half of a stereo glass negative?

Annotated copy of the previous enlargement showing key elements.

Find these same elements in the image below for comparison.

All images are clickable for enlarged viewing.

Photograph of Mrs. Thompson's house, attributable to Mathew Brady.

Note the white fence, chimney, and trees on either side of the building compared with

 those features in the enlarged views preceding. Is this the rock solid clue to these images?

Library of Congress collection.

Overlay with Thompson house image by Brady at 75 percent

transparency over top shadows seen in Gardner image, right horizon line.

Brady's street level image was of course taken close up, but even at

314 yards the shape of the house and surrounding trees is discernible.

Two field reconnaissance trips to the Gettysburg field have given me the evidence to support this theory. On November 18, 2011 and January 11, 2012, my investigations concluded that the dead in this series of exposures were likely killed south of the Chambersburg Pike, between McPherson’s Ridge and Seminary Ridge, and are in all likelihood, members of the 24th Michigan Volunteer Infantry who fled across this area, along with the 19th Indiana, when pressured by advancing Confederate forces of North Carolinians. This section of the field was just below the northernmost of two fence lines that ran parallel to the Pike and enclosed a field that included the McPherson Woods in its western extreme. If so, these men fell approximately 275 yards east of the spot marked where General Reynolds fell, and roughly 308 yards southwest of Mrs. Thompson’s house. The camera location is roughly 365 yards northeast of Scott Hartwig’s theorized conclusion, which was south of the lower enclosing fence, and too far south of the Thompson house to have allowed for the structure to appear as it does in scale along the Chambersburg Pike Ridge. Jerry Coates theoretical location is approximately one and three quarter miles south of the Seminary Ridge killing field.

Gardner's likely camera position as established January 11, 2012.

Click on this and all images to enlarge.

Light blue triangle indicates approximate field of view of lens.

Light tan lines indicate approximate war-era fences separating field.

Red line projects south toward camera angle for companion views of

 dead, including the famous "Harvest of Death".

Scott Hartwig's interpretation point  is indicated at lower left.

The Gardner image, note possible Thompson house upper right, along horizon.

50 percent overlay of Gardner image to modern image.

Thompson house fits directly into shadows seen in the 1863 view.

Near identical camera position, January 11, 2011. Note Thompson

 house (Lee's Headquarters) at upper right along horizon line.

Newly installed rail fence through middle of right incline is out of place.

Gardner's "Harvest of Death"

Near identical camera position, January 11, 2012.

Period maps show that in 1863, the woods that are currently at center

did not exist, whereas a woodline to the left distance in 1863, does

not exist today. However, other ground features are still present.

Setting up the shot towards the Thompson house.

Seminary Ridge is in the background. The dead would have been

lying in the field to the left of the camera on the tripod.

January 11, 2012, photo by James Anderson.

Photographing the field of the "Harvest of Death", January 11, 2012.

This broader view of the field is somewhat more revealing than the one

I was taking at the time. Photo by James Anderson.

Standing on the ground where the men of the Iron Brigade fell

near Seminary Ridge on July 1, 1863. View is looking north, with the Eternal

Peace Light Memorial at distant left, and Lee's Headquarters at right.

January 11, 2012. Photo by James Anderson.

Monument to the 24th Michigan overlooking

Willoughby's Run. January 11, 2012.

Mrs. Thompson's house as it appears today with the addition of

dormer windows expanding the second floor. It is currently, and

has long served as, the Lee's Headquarters Museum.

January 11, 2012.

An artists depiction of the 24th Michigan being pushed back toward the Seminary Ridge, to their rear.

This image, titled “Men of Iron” by artist Dale Gallon is courtesy of Ms. Anne Gallon of Gallon Historical Art Inc., 9 Steinwehr Avenue, Gettysburg, PA 17325. Their telephone number is 717-334-8666. Their e-mail address is info@gallon.com. Their web address is gallon.com.

A similar view as the Gallon painting, as the ground appears today,

with the Seminary cupola visible at just right of center above the tree tops.

The killing field, where the 24th Michigan took heavy casualties is just to

image center and left. This is the North Carolinians' view as they advanced,

pushing the men of the Iron Brigade back, reaping the "Harvest of Death."

Taken January 11, 2012.



A Quiet 149th Anniversary at Fredericksburg Battlefield - December 13, 2011

One hundred and forty-nine years ago yesterday, the town and surrounding landscape of Fredericksburg, Virginia was crowded with two massive armies. Over one hundred and eighty-five thousand men participated in a slug fest that left nearly two thousand dead and close to fourteen thousand wounded. Along with the human wreckage, the town itself had been severely damaged by an artillery exchange and resulting fires. Private residences and businesses were looted and ransacked by unrestrained factions of the Union Army. In the months leading up to the battle, Confederate forces had destroyed connecting bridges with Stafford County, across the Rappahanock River, as an impediment to anticipated Union occupation. 

December 13, 2011: The view from City Dock where Union men massed prior

 to funneling through the town streets, toward a severe defeat on an open plain beyond.

Looking toward the location of the middle of three pontoon bridge crossings

that streatched along four miles of the riverfront.

The boyhood home of George Washington, Ferry Farm, is on the opposite side.

"The Sentry Box", built by Revolutionary War general George Weedon,

sustained extensive damage during the Union bombardment of December

11, 1862. It was repaired in the years following the war, and remains a

private residence and landmark within the historic district of today's city.

A little under a mile beyond the dock, across the former open plain, the

 infamous stone wall and sunken road along the base of Marye's Heights

 is a silent reminder of the horrific exchange between North and South.

Confederate defenders took shelter here and poured a decimating hail

 of lead at approaching Union brigades who were time and time again

repulsed by the withering onslaught.

The site of the Martha Stephans house along the Sunken Road.

Legend holds that she remained in her home during the battle

so as to provide aid for wounded soldiers.

The moss covered, stately entrance gate to Brompton, the former

home of the Marye family, and the heights that bear their name.

Brompton, now the residence of the president of the University of

Mary Washington, stands atop the heights where Confederate

hellfire once rained down on the approaching blue waves below.

The monument to South Carolina soldier, Sgt. Richard R. Kirkland,

who, it is said, gave water the morning after the battle to the Union

wounded in front of the stone wall, earning the nickname, "The Angel

of Marye's Heights. A commemorative ceremony is held each year here.

Your blog host casts a long shadow around 11:30 AM with the camera

 looking south, along the road. At that time, one hundred and forty-nine

years before, the wall at left (rebuilt in 2004) was lined with thousand of

 Confederate defenders who successfuly repulsed the Union attacks as

the day wore on.  Near this spot, Confederate general Thomas R. R. Cobb

was mortally wounded. A small monument marks the location where he fell.

Earlier posts on this blog provide further information regarding the Sunken Road:

http://spotsylvaniacw.blogspot.com/2010/04/sunken-road-and-captain-russells.html

and

 http://spotsylvaniacw.blogspot.com/2010/05/sunken-road-and-captain-russells.html

Legomania 1993 Presents: The Battle of Fredericksburg

I post this with tongue-in-cheek. Nothing serious here folks. As simplistic as this little film is, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to post it as we are in the anniversary days of the December 1862 battle. I came across it on the Internet, and I have nothing more to say about it. It is what it is, in the tradition of stop-motion classics of the Christmas season, Rudolph and Frosty. Take a gander.

Update to Alrich and Alsop Family Connection: From An Anonymous Tip

An Anonymous comment to our post of May 31, 2011, added 12/4/2011, points out the widow Alsop's obituary in the Daily Star, December 6, 1915. That obit clearly states that she died "peacefully at the residence of Mr. S.R. Alrich". This may indeed be a clue as to the connection with the Alrich family. That clue had remained embarrassingly unobserved by your blog host until this anonymous tip. An immediate assumption would make this "Mrs. S. R. Alrich" to be Annie, the wife of Samuel Alrich, but his middle initial was "W" according to census records. Those fine details remain still uncertain, but there is now a good indication that Susan M. Alsop was at least a friend of the Alrich family, possibly considered an "Aunt", as many times older friends of a family are called "Aunt" or "Uncle" by children, even if there is no blood or marriage connection. We shall persevere.
Our post of Jun 23, 2011, found here, provides other details in this story.
Our first post regarding this image appeared April 5, 2011, and can be found here.

The image found in the attic of the Alrich home.

Collection of Spotsylvania County Museum.

Image restoration by John Cummings.

The inscription on the back of that image.

Susan M. Alsop in her later years.

Courtesy of Jerry Alsup.