Brady’s Civil War:
A collection of memorable Civil War images photographed by Mathew Brady and his assistants
By Webb Garrison
(October 2008 Civil War News)

Illustrated, index, 256 pp., 2008 reprint. The Lyons Press, 123 West 18th St., New York, NY 10011, $40 plus shipping.

Reviewer: Blake A. Magner
Blake A. Magner is the Book Review Editor of Civil War News. He makes his living as an editor, writer, cartographer and photographer of Civil War history. He is author of At Peace With Honor: The Civil War Burials of Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Review:
Here, printed for the third time, is a compilation of images by Mathew Brady taken from the collections of the National Archives and the Library of Congress.

With three printings a reader might think the publisher would get things right, but alas, in the case of Salamander Books, which holds the copyright, that is not the case. Even with the writing of Webb Garrison, author of many Civil War books, mistakes in Brady’s Civil War abound.

The volume begins with an introduction that describes the initial evolution of photography, then provides a brief biography of Mathew Brady and his business. It is then divided into 15 chapters covering everything from the civilian and military leaders, camp life, weapons and the navy to the sick and wounded and their care givers, just to name a few.

Most of the images are the same old Brady photographs that the reader has seen time and time again, although there are a number of images that this reviewer is not familiar with and wonders if they are in fact Brady photographs.

The problems arise with the photograph captions which are strewn with errors. For example, the images on the front cover and page 16 have Birney (the book says Barney) and Gibbon reversed.

The book indicates that most dead bodies photographed by Brady or one of his assistants were moved. In the image on page 217 I doubt if assistant Alexander Gardner moved nearly 20 bodies to make a more “dramatic” image. The only body on a battlefield to be categorically moved was the “sharpshooter” in Devil’s Den on the Gettysburg battlefield.

In the image on page 85 the cannon are not 12 pdr. Napoleons. The image of George Gordon Meade on page 164, describing him as a brigadier general before Gettysburg, actually shows Major General Meade photographed at Cold Harbor on June 12, 1864. Meade’s shoulder bars clearly show the insignia of a major general.

There are other captions and photographs this reviewer questions, but I’ll leave pondering those to the readers. Brady’s Civil War, physically, is well put together and the image reproduction is top-notch.

Readers interested in Civil War photography might be interested in this volume although many of the images have been seen before. The reader, however, must be warned that the text and the facts behind the photographs are at times questionable.