Existing comment:
Documenting the Civil War:
By 1861, more than 6,000 professional photographers were operating across the nation. Most stayed near cities and towns, content with the steady business of photographing the customers who came through their doors. Only a handful had the equipment, expertise, or desire to actually take pictures on battlefields.
Famed photographer Mathew Brady tried but failed to secure photos of the war's first great battle -- Bull Run, July 21, 1861. However, in the following years, Brady and others pushed the bar ever upward, securing pictures of battlefield carnage and even of actual combat. |