From bodies piled on battlefields to the execution of the conspirators in Abraham Lincoln's assassination, Alexander Gardner immortalized some of the darkest moments of the 1860s.
In 1851, a Scottish newspaperman named Alexander Gardner happened to attend the Great Exhibition at Hyde Park in London, where he saw a display of photographs by Mathew Brady. Inspired by what he’d seen, Gardner immigrated to the United States and found a job working as one of Brady’s photographers. When the Civil War broke out, Brady dispatched Gardner and others to record the conflict as it rapidly grew in scope.
Gardner’s photos became some of the most stirring of the Civil War. Not only did he capture the bloody aftermaths of battles like Antietam and Gettysburg, but he also took some of the best known photographs of Abraham Lincoln. What’s more, Gardner also took photos of the conspirators behind Lincoln’s assassination, including the moment they were executed.
In the gallery below, look through some of Alexander Gardner’s most incredible photos. Then, read on to learn about the man behind the camera.
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An alternative title that Gardner came up with for this photograph was "A Welcome Visitor," though he ultimately called it "Newsboy in Camp."Public Domain
In addition to his portraits of President Abraham Lincoln, Gardner also took photographs of the people accused of conspiring to assassinate him. Public Domain
Atzerodt was tasked with killing the vice president, Andrew Johnson, but lost his nerve.Public Domain
Alexander Gardner's Path To Photography
Alexander Gardner was born in Paisley, Scotland in 1821, several years before the first-ever photograph was taken. Though he flitted between careers, Gardner spent much of his young adulthood focused on growing the Glasgow Sentinel, a newspaper he purchased in the early 1850s.
But in 1851, Gardner fatefully attended the Great Exhibition at Hyde Park in London, where he saw photographs taken by American photographer Mathew Brady. Not only was Gardner subsequently inspired to explore photography, but he also seemingly made an impression on Brady.
Public DomainAlexander Gardner and his camera in the 1860s.
When Gardner immigrated to the United States, the Getty Museum reports that Brady likely paid his passage.
Brady's investment quickly paid off. Gardner proved to be such a talented photographer that he was tasked with managing Brady's Washington, D.C. photo gallery. And when the Civil War broke out in April 1861, Brady sent Gardner and other photographers out into the field to capture the conflict.
Alexander Gardner During The Civil War
As one of Mathew Brady's photographers, Gardner had a front row seat to the Civil War — and some of the conflict's deadliest days. In September 1862, he witnessed the Battle of Antietam. Though the battle lasted for just 12 hours, it ended with over 20,000 casualties, making it the bloodiest in American history.
Gardner photographed the aftermath. His images of dead soldiers shocked the nation, which had never seen anything like them before. The New York Times, crediting the photos to Brady — as most of the photos taken by Brady's photographers were — wrote of the images' impacts in October 1862:
"Mr. Brady has done something to bring home to us the terrible reality and earnestness of war. If he has not brought bodies and laid them in our dooryards and along the streets, he has done something very like it."
Public DomainConfederate dead along "Bloody Lane" after the Battle of Antietam in September 1862.
Though Gardner's name was not mentioned then, the photographer continued to fearlessly document the carnage of the Civil War. He took photos of the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Battle of Gettysburg, and the siege of Petersburg.
Gardner also opened up his own studio. He went on to take photographs of Abraham Lincoln, including one of the last known portraits of the president. And after Lincoln's assassination in April 1865, Gardner took photos of the conspirators behind it. (John Wilkes Booth, however, was killed during a manhunt that April.) When David E. Herold, George Atzerodt, Lewis Powell, and Mary Surratt were found guilty, Gardner took a famous photo of their execution in July 1865.
In the introduction to Gardner's Photographic Sketch Book of the War, Gardner wrote that his work "is designed that it shall speak for itself... As mementoes of the fearful struggle through which the country has just passed, it is confidently hoped that the following pages will possess an enduring interest."
The Final Days Of A Civil War Photographer
By the time the Civil War ended, Alexander Gardner was only in his 40s. Though his days of wartime photography were over, he went on to take photos of both Native Americans and the nation's new network of railroads.
But in the 1870s, Gardner hung up his camera. He opened an insurance company and spent his final days living in Washington, D.C. Though Gardner died in 1882, his images live on.
While they weren't credited to him at the time they were taken, Alexander Gardner's Civil War photos now stand as a potent and powerful symbol of the conflict. Images of presidents, corpses, generals, and battlefields are a haunting reminder of the human cost of the conflict, which ultimately took hundreds of thousands of lives.
After reading about Alexander Gardner and his photographs of the Civil War and beyond, go inside the little-known history of the Civil War's Black soldiers. Or, discover the strange story of Wilmer McLean, the man who witnessed both the beginning and end of the Civil War on his own property.
