Rebel Cassion Destroyed by Federal Shells. At Fredericksburgh, May 3, 1863. Eight Horses Killed.

Andrew Joseph Russell

May 3, 1863 · Albumen silver print from glass negative · Photographs

This photograph is as close to a spot-news battlefield view as was technically possible during the Civil War. Made just hours after a fierce fight above Fredericksburg, Virginia, the haunting picture shows the destruction by heavy artillery shell of a Confederate caisson (a two-wheeled vehicle for artillery ammunition) and its team of eight horses. On the afternoon the Union Sixth Corps captured Marye’s Heights (during the second battle of Fredericksburg), Andrew Joseph Russell crossed the Rappahannock River with his friend and superior officer General Herman Haupt, commander of the United States Military Railroad. Reconnoitering the field, they discovered this gruesome carnage blocking the road. Russell posed Haupt on the left and General William Wierman Wright, a civil engineer then in charge of the Union’s Aquia Creek & Fredericksburg Railroad, on the right. Both men survey the situation adding an apt note of contemplation to the already dramatic scene.

Artist

Andrew Joseph Russell

Date

May 3, 1863

Medium

Albumen silver print from glass negative

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Purchase, Vital Projects Fund Inc. Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 2019