The American civil war then and now
The women who dug the graves, the kids who watched the largest battle in US history – and the slaves forced to help fighters at the front. 150 years after the last shots were fired, Guardian photographer David Levene travelled across the US photographing the sites scarred by the American civil war How I photographed the American civil war in 2015
Antietam Dunker’s Church
Bodies at the Dunker Church in Antietam, Maryland, September 1862. The battle of Antietam was the bloodiest single-day battle in US history, and Dunker Church was the focus of Union attacks against the Confederates. In 1921, a storm destroyed the church, but it was rebuilt for the 100th anniversary of the battle in 1962.
Archive photograph by Alexander Gardner/Library of Congress
ThenNow
‘My family lived here during the civil war – they were farmers with 13 children. Their lives were devastated forever. There were wounded here for a year after. Bodies were left in the fields. My great uncle got paid 25 cents per skull to give them a proper burial.’
Listen to Ike Mumma, custodian of Antietam National Battlefield
Sudley Springs
Federal cavalry face children on the side of the Confederates at Sudley Springs Ford in Virginia, March 1862. The first major land battle of the civil war took place around these springs.
Archive photograph by George N Barnard/Library of Congress
ThenNow
‘These kids would have seen the largest battle in American history.’
Listen to Garry Adelman, vice president of the Centre for Civil War Photography
Slave auction house, Alexandria
The slave pen of Price, Birch & Company on Duke Street, Alexandria, Virginia, c1862. Alexandria was the second largest slave centre in the US after New Orleans. When Union soldiers entered the city in May 1861, the building was abandoned – though it was reported that a slave was still shackled to the basement floor. Today the building is home to the Freedom House museum.
Archive photograph by Library of Congress
ThenNow
‘The South figured out how to use slavery to support the war – for every soldier on the frontline, there were seven slaves backing them up. Lincoln had to dismantle that machine, and the way to do that was to promise them their freedom.’
Listen to Frank Smith, founder of the African American Civil War Museum in Washington DC
Cumberland Landing
Federal encampment on the Pamunkey River, Cumberland Landing, Virginia, May 1862. The army of the Potomac, the major Union army in the Eastern theatre of the war, launched its offensive against the Confederate capital of Richmond in 1862 by moving its forces to Cumberland Landing.
Archive photograph by James F Gibson/Library of Congress
ThenNow
‘I was raised on a civil war battlefield. When everyone else was riding bicycles, I was picking up cannonballs and bullets off the ground after the fields were ploughed.’
Listen to Kent Radwani, former president of the New Kent Historical Society
Brompton Oak
Wounded soldiers in a hospital set up at the plantation at Brompton after the battle of Spotsylvania, Fredericksburg, May 1864. More than 50,000 men lost limbs during the Civil War.
Archive photograph by Library of Congress
ThenNow
‘In a two-week cascade of conflict, tens of thousands of men were killed and wounded on both sides. Most people who walk by it have no idea what played out underneath that tree.’
Listen to John Hennesy, Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park Chief Historian
Devil's Den
Corpses at Devil's Den after the battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania, 1863. Today, it is a tourist attraction.
Archive photograph by Library of Congress
ThenNow
‘Photographers would come along with their wagons and set up on the battlefield. They'd drag bodies to different places and pose them. It was a very new medium, so everything was fair game.’
Listen to Angela Atkinson, ranger at Gettysburg National Military Park
Evergreen Cemetery
The gateway to the cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, July 1863. It was built nine years before the battle at Gettysburg, which lasted three days and resulted in 51,000 casualties.
Archive photograph by Timothy H O'Sullivan/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
ThenNow
‘The caretaker Elizabeth Thorn was ordered to start digging graves. She buried 91 soldiers while she was six months pregnant. A statue of her was erected in 2002, holding a shovel.'
Listen to Brian Kennell, caretaker, Evergreen Cemetery
Arlington House
Federal General Samuel P Heintzelman and staff at Arlington House, Virginia, c1862. Arlington was the home of Confederate General Robert E Lee for 30 years prior to the civil war, when he left for Richmond. Arlington House is now a permanent memorial to Robert E Lee.
Archive photograph by Mathew Brady/Library of Congress
ThenNow
‘My third great uncle was the head house slave here at Arlington. During the civil war the Union army took over the plantation, but the slaves remained and took care of the house.’
Listen to Stephen Hammond, descendant of the Syphax family, enslaved at Arlington House
US Capitol
The execution of confederate Captain Henry Wirz in Washington, 10 November 1865. Wirz was in charge of Andersonville military prison where 13,000 Union soldiers died. The iron dome of the Capitol building was constructed during the civil war, and is currently being restored.
Archive photograph by Alexander Gardner/Library of Congress
ThenNow
‘Across the street from the Capitol building was the Old Brick Capitol, which was used as a prison for Confederates. This Confederate being hanged was a public event.’
Listen to Barbara Wolanin, curator at the Capitol
Ford’s theatre
The president's box at Ford's theatre, photographed at the time of Abraham Lincoln's assassination in April 1865 by the actor John Wilkes Booth – five days after General Robert Lee's surrender to General Grant at Appomattox. The theatre remained closed for over 100 years until it reopened in 1968 as a national historic site and working theatre.
Archive photograph by Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library
ThenNow
‘There were threats from the public that they would burn the theatre down – that it was a house of terrible horrors.’
Listen to Paul Tetrault, Director of Ford's Theatre
Cary Street, Richmond
Burnt district in Richmond, Virginia, April 1865. With the impending fall of Richmond, the retreating Confederate soldiers were ordered to set fire to warehouses and the armoury. The fires burnt out of control, destroying large parts of the city.
Archive photograph by Alexander Gardner/Library of Congress
ThenNow
‘Richmond burned. They wanted to destroy everything of value – munitions, military equipment, ships, tobacco warehouses. The only thing still there is the kerb.’
Listen to Waite Rawls, CEO of the Museum of the Confederacy, Richmond, Virginia
Fort Sumter
Fort Sumter with a Confederate flag, South Carolina, April 1861. The Civil War started on 12 April 1861, when Confederate artillery opened fire on Fort Sumter and, after a 34-hour exchange of fire, US Major Robert Anderson and 86 soldiers surrendered to General Beauregard and the Confederate forces.
Archive photograph by Osborn & Durbec/Library of Congress
ThenNow
Mary: ‘My uncle John Doran was one of few men who saw the beginning of the war, and the end. He saw the Confederates advance across the field in what is known as Pickett's Charge.’ Rick: ‘My great great grandfather was in Pickett's charge. So Uncle John is shooting at Grandpa Dick. We say to our daughter, it only took the deaths of 620,000 American soldiers for your mother and I to get together.’
Listen to Mary (and Rick) Hatcher, site historians
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