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May 7, 2013
I have started to explore the Library of Congress' important collection of Civil War photographs and the work of George N Barnard
George N Barnard, Atlanta, Georgia, View on Whitehall Street, Atlanta, 1864
Barnard was summoned to Atlanta, Georgia, in September 1864, immediately after Union forces, commanded by General William T. Sherman, captured the city. Barnard was the official photographer of the Chief Engineer's Office. Much of what he photographed was destroyed in the fire that spread from the military facilities blown up at Sherman's departure from Atlanta.
George N Barnard, The bombarded graveyard of the Circular Church, Charleston, South Carolina, 1865
Barnard is best known for his 1866 book, Photographic Views of Sherman's Campaign, which contains 61 albumen prints of Civil War sites such as Nashville, the Chattanooga Valley, Atlanta, and Savannah, as well as other sites associated with General Sherman's command.
George Barnard usually worked far behind the front lines photographing bridges, railroads, and other engineering installations; famous battle sites; informal scenes with soldiers; as well as the devastation and ruins left by the war. His views of battlefields taken long after the soldiers had gone are as carefully composed as still lifes; their quietness contrasts with the viewer’s mental image of what must have happened there. Dramatic clouds added from a second negative during printing are characteristic of Barnard’s work
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