Original Photographs Taken on the BATTLEFIELDS During the Civil War of the United States By Mathew B. Brady and Alexander Gardner Who operated under the Authority of the War Department and the Protection of the Secret Service Rare Reproductions from Photographs Selected from Seven Thousand Original Negatives Taken under Most Hazardous Conditions in the Midst of One of the Most Terrific Conflicts of Men that the World Has Ever Known, and in the Earliest Days of Photography--These Negatives Have Been in Storage Vaults for More than Forty Years and are now the Private Collection of Edward Bailey Eaton Valued at $150,000 FIRST PRESENTATION FROM THIS HISTORIC COLLECTION MADE OFFICIALLY AND EXCLUSIVELY BY THE OWNER Hartford, Connecticut 1907 COPYRIGHT 1907 BY E. B. EATON COPIES OF THIS ALBUM MAY BE OBTAINED BY A REMITTANCE OF THREE DOLLARS TO EDWARD B. EATON HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT PUBLISHER Martyrs on Altar of Civilization BY FRANCIS TREVELYAN MILLER EDITOR OF THE JOURNAL OF AMERICAN HISTORY [Illustration: MATHEW BRADY, FIRST WAR PHOTOGRAPHER IN AMERICA He followed the Armies during the Civil War and secured these remarkable Negatives--In conference with Major-General Burnside at the Headquarters of the Army of the Potomac near Richmond, Virginia--Brady occupies the chair directly in front of the tree while General Burnside is reading a newspaper--This picture was found among his negatives] THIS is undoubtedly the most valuable collection of historic photographs in America. It is believed to be the first time that the camera was used so extensively and practically on the battle-field. It is the first known collection of its size on the Western Continent and it is the only witness of the scenes enacted during the greatest crisis in the annals of the American nation. As a contribution to history it occupies a position that the higher art of painting, or scholarly research and literal description, can never usurp. It records a tragedy that neither the imagination of the painter nor the skill of the historian can so dramatically relate.