Rebel Works in front of Atlanta, No. 2 from the album Photographic Views of Sherman's Campaign
George N. Barnard
American, 1819–1902
1864-65
An albumen silver print photograph by George N. Barnard showing a line of Confederate field guns planted in wooden earthworks outside Atlanta, made to document Sherman’s 1864 campaign.
What arrests you is the orderly stillness of mud-caked cannon wheels and timbered embrasures set against a cleared, scarred landscape and a vast, cloud-filled sky, the scene feeling like evidence left behind after violence.
Barnard’s images are early examples of documentary war photography that made the material devastation of the Civil War visible to the public and helped establish photography as a tool for historical record and reportage.
Medium
Albumen silver print
Dimensions
10 1/16 × 14 1/8" (25.6 × 35.9 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Acquired by exchange with the Library of Congress
Accession
409.1969.40
Palette
Exhibitions
