Gardner’s Photographic Sketchbook of the War

These photographs of the aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg appear in the two-volume work Gardner's Photographic Sketch Book of the War (1865–66). Gardner's publication is egalitarian. Offended by Brady's practice of hiding the names of his field operators behind the misleading credit “Brady”, Gardner specifically identified each of the eleven photographers in the publication; forty-four of the one hundred photographs are credited to Timothy O'Sullivan. Gardner titled the plate Field Where General Reynolds Fell, Battlefield of Gettysburg. But the photograph, despite its commemorative title, tells a much more common story: six Union soldiers lie dead, face up, their stomachs swollen, their pockets full, and their boots stolen. As Gardner described the previous plate, aptly titled The Harvest of Death, this photograph conveys ‘the horror and reality of war.’