Alexander Gardner: The Civil War’s Photographer

A detail from the portrait of Civil War photographer Alexander Gardner, 1862, by James Gardner. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington. Public Domain

During the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London, Alexander Gardner (1821–1882) saw the work of photographer Mathew Brady. Brady was a prominent American photographer from New York. Gardner had recently become the new owner and editor of the Glasgow Sentinel, which he quickly turned into the city’s second largest newspaper. After seeing Brady’s work, he began reviewing works from photography exhibits in his newspaper, as well as experimenting with photography’s wet plate negative process.

Although Gardner was born and raised in Scotland, he visited America the year prior to the Great Exhibition. He and his brother, James, were influenced by Robert Owen, the British manufacturer and social reformer known as the “Father of British Socialism.” Despite Owen’s numerous attempts and failures to create cooperatives, often touted as “utopias,” the two brothers planned to found a cooperative in Iowa. Shortly after their arrival to the United States, Gardner returned to Scotland to raise more money for the social venture.

New York, Not Iowa

Gardner returned to the United States in 1856, but when he reached the Iowan colony, he found it unsettling for varying reasons. Tuberculosis had swept through, leaving his sister dead and his brother-in-law soon to follow. Gardner retreated back east to New York with his wife, two children, and his mother. Experienced in photography, he knew just the person to contact: Mathew Brady.

Portrait of Mathew B. Brady, 1857, by Charles Loring Elliott. Oil on canvas. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. Public Domain

The American photographer was impressed with Gardner’s portfolio and hired him to work for his Mathew B. Brady Studio. Brady was one of the photographers who introduced Imperial photography in the mid-1850s. Imperial photography used a glass plate negative with the final image being produced on sensitized paper. At times, the image was colorized by painters using watercolor or ink. Depending on the request, the sitter’s image was colorized while the background remained “photographic,” or the background was also colorized, and sometimes colorists, as they were called, created backgrounds.

Moving to D.C.

Portrait of Alexander Gardner, 1862, by James Gardner. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington. Public Domain

By 1858, Gardner had become one of the more prominent Imperial photographers, and Brady placed him in charge of his Washington studio. When the Civil War commenced, the demand for portrait photography increased dramatically. Soldiers and officers, uncertain about when they might return home or whether they would live through the war, wished to have their portraits taken for their relatives. Among those Union Army officers who sat for Gardner was David Farragut, Marsena Patrick, and William T. Sherman. Gardner also took the Imperial portraits of Secretary of the Treasury Hugh McCulloch and Secretary of State William Seward.

General Ulysses S. Grant, circa 1865, by Alexander Gardner. Public Domain

While Gardner was in Washington, Brady decided to travel to the Virginia battlelines.  There he witnessed firsthand the First Battle of Bull Run and was nearly captured by Confederates in the process. The battle, which took place on July 21, 1861, resulted in a Confederate victory leaving nearly 5,000 casualties on both sides. Seeing the destruction and slaughter, Brady made the decision to create a visual record of the war. He sent Gardner, along with approximately 20 other photographers, to capture the aftermaths of battles.

Capturing the War

View on the battlefield of Antietam, September 1862, by Alexander Gardner. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. Public Domain

Gardner became the official photographer for the Army of the Potomac with an honorary rank of captain. His first assignment was the Battle of Antietam, infamously known as the bloodiest single-day battle in American history. Two days after the battle, Gardner arrived at the battlefield with his camera equipment and portable darkroom. He decided to take photos of the seemingly countless dead strewn about the Maryland field. Brady exhibited these photos at his New York gallery. The images were so affecting, it led The New York Times to report that Brady’s images “bring home to us the terrible reality and earnestness of war. If he has not brought bodies and laid them in our door-yards and along streets, he has done something very like it.”

The New York Times, like many other outlets and individuals alike, figured that Brady had taken the photos since all of the images were credited as Brady & Co. Gardner understandably wished to receive credit for his work, which led to his separation from Brady and the creation of his own studio where his brother joined him.

(L–R) Allan Pinkerton, President Abraham Lincoln, and Maj. Gen. John A. McClernand at Secret Service Department, Headquarters Army of the Potomac, near Antietam, Maryland, Oct. 4, 1862, by Alexander Gardner. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. Public Domain

Gardner would be credited with capturing some of the most memorable and devastating images of the Civil War, as he chose, much like Antietam, some of the most important and bloody battles, including the battles of Fredericksburg and Gettysburg, and the siege of Petersburg.

Lincoln and the Assassination

Created on Feb. 5, 1865, the “Cracked Plate” photograph by Alexander Gardner was the last formal portrait of Lincoln to be taken before his assassination in April 1865. Public Domain

Shortly after the surrender of the Confederate armies, President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. Gardner, however, had taken a photo, the very last formal portrait of Lincoln. It is known as the “Cracked Plate” portrait, as the glass plate broke, cutting a line across the top of Lincoln’s head. Luckily, Gardner made at least one print before discarding the plate.

Gardner was also the official photographer for the hanging of the Lincoln conspirators. The photographer had developed a close relationship with Allan Pinkerton, the founder of what became the Secret Service, which was formed on July 5, 1865. According to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Secret Service “provided Gardner unlimited access to individuals and places unavailable to any other photographer.” Gardner took photos before, during, and after the July 7 executions of Lewis Powell, David Herold, George Atzerodt, and Mary Surratt, the first woman to be executed in America.

"Planning the Capture of Booth," 1865, by Alexander Gardner. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. Public Domain

The following year, Gardner published a two-volume work entitled “Gardner’s Photographic Sketch Book of the War,” which included more than 100 photos taken by himself and fellow Civil War photographers (each photographer was credited according to their photo). The work, however, did not sell well, as Americans were war-weary and the idea of, as The New York Times noted during the war, having the bodies brought and laid “in our door-yards and along streets…[or] something very like it” was too much.

Title page of "Gardner's Photographic Sketch Book of the Civil War, Volume 1" 1863, by Alexander Gardner, featuring photographs from 11 field operators during the Civil War. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. Public Domain

Working With Indians and Railroads

Although Brady and Gardner had gone their separate ways, it was apparent that Brady held no ill will toward him as he helped establish a gallery for Gardner in the nation’s capital. Gardner’s gift for photography provided him several opportunities to capture moments in American history. These included photographing leaders of Native American nations who came to Washington to discuss and sign treaties.

A portrait of Sitting Crow, 1872, by Alexander Gardner. Augustiner Museum, Freiburg, Germany. Public Domain

In 1867, Gardner was hired as the official photographer for the eastern division of the Union Pacific Railroad with surveys stretching across Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and into California. Gardner photographed the construction of the railroad, as well as many of the Native Americans he encountered, which included the 1868 federal treaty negotiations in Laramie, Wyoming with the Oglala, Miniconjou, Brulé, Yanktonai, and Arapaho Native peoples.

His photographic work of railroad construction and the interactions with Native tribes was collected in his 1869 “Across the Continent on the Kansas Pacific Railroad.”

A Santa Fe train passing through Ellsworth, Kan. in 1867, as published in Alexander Gardner's book "Across the Continent on the Kansas Pacific Railroad." Public Domain

Shortly after publishing this work, Gardner retired from photography to found an insurance company. After his death in 1882, his work enjoyed a resurgence when Gardner’s former colleague, J. Watson Porter, rediscovered hundreds of glass negatives in a Washington house where Gardner once lived. Over the decades, more of Gardner’s work, which had once been attributed to Brady, has been properly recognized as his own.

When considering his work, specifically that of the Civil War, Gardner accurately described it, stating, “It is designed to speak for itself. As mementos of the fearful struggle through which the country has just passed, it is confidently hoped that it will possess an enduring interest.”

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