The Horrors of War. Albumen photograph. Printed title to mount recto with caption.

An image taken by photographer James F. Gibson (d. 1905) in the immediate aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg. Printed after the war, the caption reads in full: "A union soldier on the battle-field of Gettysburg, torn to pieces, by a Confederate shell. The negative, from which this picture was made was taken in the Wheat field, five days after the battle. This was only one, of many thousand, such scenes at Gettysburg, after the battle."

Gibson trained under Brady and followed General McClellan's Peninsula Campaign. The Civil War was the first major American conflict since the invention of photography and images such as these were powerful in conveying the brutality of war to those on the home front in a way never experienced before. This particular view is very rare. A copy is held at the Library of Congress (LOT 4168, no. 18 [P&P]).

[Civil War, Union, Confederate, Historic Photography, Early Photography, Albumens, CDV, Carte-de-Visite, Carte de Visite, Cabinet Card, Boudoir Card]