End of the Bridge after Burnside's Attack, Fredericksburg, Virginia

Andrew Joseph Russell|Mathew B. Brady

1863 · Albumen silver print from glass negative · Photographs

Likely made in April 1863 during a truce just before the Battle of Chancellorsville, this view from the buttress of a ruined railroad bridge spanning the Rappahannock River at Fredericksburg documents a small group of Confederate soldiers and civilians. They stare across the divide at their fellow combatants and pose for the camera. Russell’s long focal-length lens compressed foreground and background elements, suggesting that the two sides were actually closer than they were. It is the only known landscape view or portrait by a Union photographer showing the enemy neither dead, incarcerated, or under visible military control.

Artist

Andrew Joseph Russell|Mathew B. Brady

Date

1863

Medium

Albumen silver print from glass negative

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1933