Gettysburg's Harvest of Death - The Conclusion

     Next month will mark the one year anniversary since I first began posting my findings regarding the most elusive of photographs taken at Gettysburg. In May of 2011, Scott Hartwig, the supervisory historian with the Gettysburg National Military Park, first brought public attention to this location on the Park's Blog. Personally, I was impressed with his presentation and in-depth research. Scott focused on one of two images looking north east, the "Gibson" stereo view. Curious, I looked at the somewhat broader view taken by Timothy O'Sullivan, and immediately made note that it revealed, in the upper right corner, the Thompson House, known also more famously as "Lee's Headquarters." That November, I took a trip to Gettysburg for the Remembrance Day Commemoration, and set aside some time to visit Scott's site and provide additional support by photographing a modern view that included the house. I quickly saw that Scott's camera location was simply too far away to be precise to the 1863 images, however, he was certainly looking at the correct overall features. Unbeknownst to me at the time, Garry Adelman had challenged Scott's findings that had been published in the October 2011 issue of Civil War Times Magazine. Adelman's challenge appeared as a letter to the editor in the same magazine's December issue, and declared the location "unsolved" and still open for discovery.

     Upon returning home with my findings in November, I began what would be my first of a series of posts that sought to add further support to the work of Scott Hartwig. My assertion that the Thompson House was visible, and thus supported Scott's work, was quickly shot down by Mr. Adelman, and a form letter of sorts made its way around Civil War web addresses, titled

 "GARRY ADELMAN’S PLEA FOR PATIENCE WITH ALL THINGS HARVEST OF DEATH".

     This began my debate with Garry that eventually inspired his creating a thirteen episode presentation on the Gettysburg Daily Blog, wherein Garry and his associate Tim Smith took to task numerous people's theories as to the now notorious "Harvest of Death" location. The series wrapped up with several installments devoted to refuting Mr. Hartwig's and my examinations. I continued my research, looking further into details the images held, and all the while, with admitted misturns along the way, I made continued posts to this blog site, adding details that added up to supporting the location as the actual site. My one problem though continued to be the distance that I live from Gettysburg, requiring at least six hours of travel time in a day for each visit and no luxury of affording overnight accommodations. Thus I would bring my work home each time and see how the day's efforts fit. Gradually, over several return visits, I made my way along the landscape and arrived at the location that brought all the pieces together, although it is approximately 123 yards west of my initial, heavy concentration of study. It is also, as I had detected, nearly 190 yards closer to the Chambersburg Road than Scott Hartwig's estimation. However, this is what it takes to fine tune something that has been plagued from the outset by 1863 images that are far from sharp in detail, but still full of revealing information.

     Thus I present what will rest as the final, and correct, installment of my blog posting regarding these photographs. The challenge of having to adjust by a foot or yard, left or right, up or down or tilted, and in any direction is unnecessary and unwelcome, as this posting presents the final clue that makes this the true location, on the battlefield of July 1, 1863, and provides the source of Alexander Gardner's inclusion of General John Reynolds in the title, "Field Where General Reynolds Fell". The monument to this incident stands at a short 100 yards or so to the west of where these bodies had fallen. 

     The final clue rests in the wooded horizon line in both O'Sullivan's and Gibson's images: 

 

"The Field Where General Reynolds Fell", from O'Sullivan's stereo negative, similar

 to the full plate version that appears in the 1866, Photographic Sketch Book of the War.

The camera is looking at approximately 64 degrees NE on center. The Thompson House

is at upper right. The Chambersburg Pike runs, barely perceptible, along the center of the rise. 

 The approximate same view today, looking roughly 64 degrees North East.

Note the clearer line of the Chambersburg Road and the Thompson House.

 Also, a strip of trees obscures the southern edge of the rail cut, along with

 a motel, blunting the visible edge of the 1863 views.

Aerial map placing approximate location of bodies, and field

of view for both camera directions. Other features within the

north east direction of O'Sullivan's photograph are annotated.

One side of Gibson's stereo view with the Union burial crew.

Note the sliding scale effect created by the crew, illustrating how the

terrain beyond drops and rises toward the horizon line and woods.

Not attempted to stand on the precise location of the burial crew

members, nor the exact angle of Gibson's camera,  the digitally

 duplicated figure at center does demonstrate the "sliding scale"

 effect against the dropping and rising background, toward the rail cut today.

An enhanced section of Gibson's stereo view. Note the difference

in color of the rising slope (south side of cut), and the continuation

beyond on the north side of the cut. The darker, wood's edge beyond,

begins at roughly 297 ft from the south side of the cut, coming to a

corner and turning nearly due south at the right edge of this detail.

 

A further enlargement in gray scale, with annotations of the space.

 Click on this, and any image, for larger viewing

The yellow line, marked with the blue arrow at center, indicates

the approximate 297 ft opening that existed in 1863, from the south

 side of the rail cut, to the wood's edge. The land rises nearly fourteen

 feet inside that gap, creating the space we see above as a lighter gray band.

  This feature can not be found elsewhere on the battlefield.

Looking roughly 121 degrees south east from the rail cut crossover.

Note the gradual rise of the ridge to the left of the rail cut.  

 Looking roughly 306 degrees north west along the rail cut, behind

the Thompson house site, aka Lee's Headquarters.

"A Harvest of Death" from Gardner's Sketchbook. Same bodies, but viewed

  from the opposite side, and a 135 degree, clockwise turn to the south.

The approximate same view today, looking roughly 200 degrees South West. 

For questions regarding the horizon line, see this previous post on the subject.

A section of the 1895 "Cope" map showing the area around

Reynold's Woods and the Thompson House. I have placed a red

 X on the approximate location of the bodies for both 1863 images.

 

 

My thanks go out to my friend James Anderson for his assistance during my investigative trips.

 

Retraction - Enlargement of Gettysburg Image? Not this time...

     Despite appearances, further scrutiny has shown that this image from Gardner's Photographic Sketch Book of the War, Plate 36, is not an enlarged print of the left half of the stereo negative as seen below it. The error, stated here in the now edited, prior post, was heavily based on the assumption that Gardner and crew would have had to actually change out cameras to produce each format. What is now more clear is that Gardner's "field camera" had to have been fitted with an interchangeable lens board that could switch from the duel stereo lenses, to the single lens for a full plate image on 8" X 10" in contrast to the 4" X 10" of the stereo negatives. This interchangeable camera would have also required a removable "septum" that divided the images when set up for use with stereo lenses. Most stereo cameras of the mid 19th century were manufactured as dedicated stereo format.

     By easily switching out the lens board at the front of the camera, the relative framing of the subject matter would have remained the same, only this time with a centered optical axis that would rest between the duel axes of the stereo lens pair. The resultant images are deceptively similar, and in most cases examined, have some very slight changes in the placement of some objects, primarily in the distance, outside of the field of focus. The clincher in the two images below rests in the two trees in the upper right. This does not preclude that there were no enlargements made from stereo negative in other cases, but here, as believed and stated before, it is not the case.

     This does not alter the conclusions of other postings regarding this series of Gardner images, particularly the material presented with the "Harvest of Death" image and its obvious doctoring of the upper third of the image, as presented in the prior post as well.

 

 

The photograph below, taken in May 1864 in Fredericksburg, shows what appears to be a lens board for one of the interchangeable cameras, in the lower right foreground.

 

 

     To illustrate an interchangeable lens board camera, I am providing a link to another website that shows a reproduction wet plate camera based on one manufactured in the 1870s, after the Civil War. It does however demonstrate a similar arrangement to what Gardner and crew would have had to use for the process of taking both stereo and full plate images from a fixed position without producing easily discernable changes in the stationary subject matter of the photographs.