The AFU and Urban Legend Archive
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 gettysburg photos




From: dennyzen@delphi.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: The Gettsyburg Photo Scam, circa 1863
Date: Mon, 27 Jun 94 11:43:47 -0500

Well, did you dennizens of the USofA watch the movie "Gettysburg" on TV last (& this) evening? Have you seen Ken Burns' "The Civil War"? Did you know that those haunting photos of dead soldiers littering the Gettysburg battlefield were an early example of scam photojournalism?

Yes, folks, it didn't take long after the application of photography to journalism before the photographers began hyping the results. In fact, the most famous Gettysburg photo -- the dead "sniper" in Devil's Den -- was faked.

Read "Gettysburg, A Journey in Time" by William A. Fassanito, ISBN 0-684-14696-7 for a keen analysis of the photos and how they were (mostly) staged.

The photographers arrived at the battle site several days after the battle, and after a lot of burials had taken place. Many of their pics showed the dead *after* the graves teams had gathered them and lined them up pre-burial. The same groups of dead soldiers were photographed from different angles and then presented (perhaps by the publishers, not the photographers) as being different shots of a larger carnage. Yes, the battle *was* a carnage, but why distort the evidence.

But as for the "sniper" in the Den, Frassanito shows how that body had actually been lying elsewhere on the lower hill -- it's in several other pictures -- and had obviously been move and positioned for the "sniper" shot. Tabo\loid photojournalism is born?

BTW, among Frassanito's credentials is that he worked three years as a battlefield guide at Gettysburg -- and then served in the US Army as a photo intelligence officer. So, he can read a picture.

BTW, the movie "Gettysburg" is one of the few films to depict the South's economic marvel: the Self-Healing cigar. In one scene, Longstreet chats with Lee while mouthing a severely shredded stogie. After one short camera cut, the cigar has become whole again. Seems that the secret of this product was lost during the seige of Petersburg.

t "I'm rooting for Pickett to make it this time" c --
( )_( )
\. ./
_=.=_
" -- Whenever I yell "Charge!", I reach for my Iridium Visa card.


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