The Civil War Through the CameraElson, Henry W. (Henry William)
History
The Civil War Through the Camera
Elson, Henry W. (Henry William)
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Pictorial works
These are some of the men for whom waiting women wept--the ones who never
came back. They belonged to Ewell's Corps, who attacked the Federal lines
so gallantly on May 18th. There may be some who will turn from this
picture with a shudder of horror, but it is no morbid curiosity that will
cause them to study it closely. If pictures such as this were familiar
everywhere there would soon be an end of war. We can realize money by
seeing it expressed in figures; we can realize distances by miles, but
some things in their true meaning can only be grasped and impressions
formed with the seeing eye. Visualizing only this small item of the awful
cost--the cost beside which money cuts no figure--an idea can be gained of
what war is. Here is a sermon in the cause of universal peace. The
handsome lad lying with outstretched arms and clinched fingers is a mute
plea. Death has not disfigured him--he lies in an attitude of relaxation
and composure. Perhaps in some Southern home this same face is pictured in
the old family album, alert and full of life and hope, and here is the
end. Does there not come to the mind the insistent question, "Why?" The
Federal soldiers standing in the picture are not thinking of all this, it
may be true, but had they meditated in the way that some may, as they gaze
at this record of death, it would be worth their while. One of the men is
apparently holding a sprig of blossoms in his hand. It is a strange note
here.
[Illustration: IN ONE LONG BURIAL TRENCH
COPYRIGHT, 1911, PATRIOT PUB. CO.]
It fell to the duty of the First Massachusetts Heavy Artillery of General
Tyler's division to put under ground the men they slew in the sharp battle
of May 18th, and here they are near Mrs. Allsop's barn digging the trench
to hide the dreadful work of bullet and shot and shell. No feeling of
bitterness exists in moments such as these. What soldier in the party
knows but what it may be his turn next to lie beside other lumps of clay
and join his earth-mother in this same fashion in his turn. But men become
used to work of any kind, and these men digging up the warm spring soil,
when their labor is concluded, are neither oppressed nor nerve-shattered
by what they have seen and done. They have lost the power of experiencing
sensation. Senses become numbed in a measure; the value of life itself
from close and constant association with death is minimized almost to the
vanishing point. In half an hour these very men may be singing and
laughing as if war and death were only things to be expected, not reasoned
over in the least.
[Illustration: ONE OF THE FEARLESS CONFEDERATES]
[Illustration: THE REDOUBT THAT LEE LET GO
COPYRIGHT, 1911, PATRIOT PUB. CO.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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