Mathew Brady and Gen. Ambrose Burnside at Cold Harbor - June 12, 1864
3D red/cyan anaglyph created from glass plate stereograph at Library of Congress - Prints & Photographs Online Catalog at:
LOC Title: Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside (reading newspaper) with Mathew B. Brady (nearest tree) at Army of the Potomac headquarters
Date: June 12, 1864
Photographer: Mathew B. Brady
Link to glass plates: www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2018666267/
Notes: A stereoscopic portrait of Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside and two staff members, taken at the Ninth Corps headquarters at Cold Harbor, Va., on June 12, 1864. It appears that Mathew Brady has accidentally photo-bombed his own stereograph (i.e., the ghostly figure), after he instructed the camera operator to take the shot, while simultaneously seating himself opposite Gen. Burnside.
Background information comes from Gen. Burnside himself, who captioned the photo in a file held by the Rhode Island Historical Society (RIHS). I came upon this in the book, “Grant and Lee, the Virginia Campaigns, 1864-1865,” by William Frassanito, published 1983. Frassanito partially quotes Burnside’s caption, but the RIHS provides the full caption in a free download, with the soldier’s names, and so I’ve transcribed it below.
Frassanito dates this image to June 11, or June 12, 1864, and notes that Burnside is reading the D.C. newspaper, the “Daily Morning Chronicle.” In the years since Frassanito's book was published, a researcher has determined that Burnside is reading the Daily Morning Chronicle of June 11, 1864, after getting a 100% match of the paragraph layout and heavier headline font pattern in the photo to a scan of the actual newspaper. With Burnside reading the June 11 edition, June 12 seems the more likely of the two dates for this image.
I suspect that Brady was anxious to capture what was apparently a candid shot of Gen. Burnside reading the news, all the more so because Burnside had just been complaining about the newspaper coverage of his and the Ninth Corps’ performance in the recent June battles. In the Official Records, can be found a dispatch dated June 11, 1864, from Burnside to Major-General Meade, requesting that Mr. Swinton, correspondent of the N.Y. Times, receive “justice” for libeling him and his Corps (see transcript below).
About a month later, Gen. Meade issued an official order for Swinton and another correspondent “…to leave the lines, for having abused the privileges conferred upon them, by forwarding for publication incorrect statements respecting the operations of the troops, and they have been warned not to return.” One author noted that perhaps the order was issued to save Swinton from being shot by an angered Burnside.
June 11 must have been Burnside’s day to complain, as he earlier wrote another dispatch protesting the transfer of some of his best troops to the Fifth Corps. Burnside claimed, "I have now fewer men present for duty by several thousand than any other corps in the army (see transcript below).
On June 12, 1864, the Army of the Potomac, under cover of darkness, withdrew from their lines at Cold Harbor, and began an all-night march to the James River. The next day, June 13th, Burnside writes a dispatch to Chief of Staff, Gen. Humphreys to explain why he has only gotten as far as Tunstall’s Station, that his way was blocked, complaining that certain elements of other Corps did not travel all night as his troops did, “…but instead of that they hauled out by side of the road and took a good night’s rest.”
Assuming the photo date is June 12th, it seems a little odd to see Burnside apparently idle and relaxed, reading the paper, given that his entire command must break camp, pack-up and prepare for an all night march. Burnside did meet with his Division commanders that morning and he evidently felt the meeting a success, confident in the coordination necessary for such a large scale move, on unfamiliar roads, in the dark, through enemy territory.
For additional background information, below are the transcripts from around the date of this image, and lastly, an article about Mathew Brady “photographing in Grant’s Army” and coming under fire, just a couple weeks after posing here with Gen. Burnside.
-------------------------
Rhode Island History
Volume 37: 1
February 1978
Ambrose E. Burnside and Army Reform, by Donna Thomas
“Burnside captioned this wartime photograph: “Taken without my knowledge. Mr. Brady had finished with us and I sat down on a sack of oats to read a paper some one had handed me. When he (Mr. Brady) told the operator to take us. He came and sat in the group. You will recognize the other two as Richmond and Goddard with one of the little orderlies (Jarvis) sitting on a box. Rub this out please after reading it.” Mathew B. Brady, who with his staff of cameramen documented the Civil War in thousands of photographs, is seated directly facing Burnside.”
---------------------------
HEADQUARTERS NINTH ARMY CORPS,
June 11, 1864-6.30 p. m.
Major-General MEADE, Comdg. Army of the Potomac:
My attention has just been called to a letter written by Mr. Swinton, correspondent of the New York Times, and now a follower of this army. The paragraph marked with pencil in the inclosed paper* is plainly a libel upon the Ninth Corps, as well as upon myself. He speaks of some dispatches which had been received from me during the morning, which would indicate that he had learned their contents from the telegraph operator or otherwise. The official reports show a loss from two small divisions of this corps of over 1,000 men during the assault, and the divisions established themselves close upon the main line of the enemy, ready for another assault. I beg that this man immediately receive the justice which was so justly meted out to another libeller of the press a day or two since, or that I be allowed to arrest and punish him myself. This is not his first offense.
I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, A. E. BURNSIDE,
Major-General.
---------------------------
HEADQUARTERS NINTH ARMY CORPS,
June 11, 1864.
General SETH WILLIAMS, Assistant Adjutant-General:
Your dispatch in reference to regular troops is received, and the troops will be sent to the Fifth Corps to-morrow morning, if you will inform me where they will find them. Please say to the commanding general that I am very sorry that he has found it necessary take away from this corps some of its best troops upon the eve of an important movement, portion of which forms the provost guard of the corps, which is so necessary in a march. I have now fewer men present for duty by several thousand than any other corps in the army.
A. E. BURNSIDE, Major-General
--------------------------
General LEDLIE:
HEADQUARTERS NINTH ARMY CORPS,
June 12, 1864.
The general commanding desires to see his division commanders at headquarters as early as convenient this morning. By command of Major-General Burnside:
D. R. LARNED, Captain and Assistant Adjutant-General.
(Same to Potter and and Willcox.)
---------------------------
HEADQUARTERS NINTH ARMY CORPS,
Tunstall's Station, June 13, 1864–10.30 a. m.
Chief of Staff:
We arrived here this morning at daybreak and found that Captain Peirce had ordered the general trains of the Second, Sixth, and Fifth Corps over the road by Saint Peter's Church, which was the route we were ordered to take instead of ordering them by New Kent Court-House, as was the distinct understanding with me. The delay would not have been so great had these trains traveled all night as our troops did, but instead of that they hauled out by side of the road and took a good night's rest. They were just starting out as I arrived here, and the last of the Second Corps ambulances are just now leaving this place. The road is very narrow and completely blocked, so that my command cannot pass until they are out of the way. I have just returned from the road, where I have been endeavoring to urge the trains along. I hope to make Jones' Bridge some time this afternoon.
I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant.
A. E. BURNSIDE, Major-General of Volunteers.
P. S. Our command and pickets were withdrawn without the knowledge of the enemy. The last reports make the enemy firing at one of our battery epaulements after our pickets were a mile off.
---------------------------
Cleveland Morning Leader
Cleveland, Saturday Morning, June 25, 1864
Photographing in Grant's Army.
Mr. Brady, the New York photographer who has been here the past fortnight taking pictures of the generals and their staffs, scenes, batteries in action etc., yesterday took some pictures of the execution, and afterward of a battery. While doing the latter, a shell struck pretty close which wounded the horse he was riding. He did not seem to mind it however, but finished his work. Some of the pictures I have examined are very fine, and will prove of great historic value in future times.
************************
Red/Cyan (not red/blue) glasses of the proper density must be used to view 3D effect without ghosting. Anaglyph prepared using red cyan glasses from The Center For Civil War Photography / American Battlefield Trust. CCWP Link: www.civilwarphotography.org/
Mathew Brady and Gen. Ambrose Burnside at Cold Harbor - June 12, 1864
3D red/cyan anaglyph created from glass plate stereograph at Library of Congress - Prints & Photographs Online Catalog at:
LOC Title: Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside (reading newspaper) with Mathew B. Brady (nearest tree) at Army of the Potomac headquarters
Date: June 12, 1864
Photographer: Mathew B. Brady
Link to glass plates: www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2018666267/
Notes: A stereoscopic portrait of Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside and two staff members, taken at the Ninth Corps headquarters at Cold Harbor, Va., on June 12, 1864. It appears that Mathew Brady has accidentally photo-bombed his own stereograph (i.e., the ghostly figure), after he instructed the camera operator to take the shot, while simultaneously seating himself opposite Gen. Burnside.
Background information comes from Gen. Burnside himself, who captioned the photo in a file held by the Rhode Island Historical Society (RIHS). I came upon this in the book, “Grant and Lee, the Virginia Campaigns, 1864-1865,” by William Frassanito, published 1983. Frassanito partially quotes Burnside’s caption, but the RIHS provides the full caption in a free download, with the soldier’s names, and so I’ve transcribed it below.
Frassanito dates this image to June 11, or June 12, 1864, and notes that Burnside is reading the D.C. newspaper, the “Daily Morning Chronicle.” In the years since Frassanito's book was published, a researcher has determined that Burnside is reading the Daily Morning Chronicle of June 11, 1864, after getting a 100% match of the paragraph layout and heavier headline font pattern in the photo to a scan of the actual newspaper. With Burnside reading the June 11 edition, June 12 seems the more likely of the two dates for this image.
I suspect that Brady was anxious to capture what was apparently a candid shot of Gen. Burnside reading the news, all the more so because Burnside had just been complaining about the newspaper coverage of his and the Ninth Corps’ performance in the recent June battles. In the Official Records, can be found a dispatch dated June 11, 1864, from Burnside to Major-General Meade, requesting that Mr. Swinton, correspondent of the N.Y. Times, receive “justice” for libeling him and his Corps (see transcript below).
About a month later, Gen. Meade issued an official order for Swinton and another correspondent “…to leave the lines, for having abused the privileges conferred upon them, by forwarding for publication incorrect statements respecting the operations of the troops, and they have been warned not to return.” One author noted that perhaps the order was issued to save Swinton from being shot by an angered Burnside.
June 11 must have been Burnside’s day to complain, as he earlier wrote another dispatch protesting the transfer of some of his best troops to the Fifth Corps. Burnside claimed, "I have now fewer men present for duty by several thousand than any other corps in the army (see transcript below).
On June 12, 1864, the Army of the Potomac, under cover of darkness, withdrew from their lines at Cold Harbor, and began an all-night march to the James River. The next day, June 13th, Burnside writes a dispatch to Chief of Staff, Gen. Humphreys to explain why he has only gotten as far as Tunstall’s Station, that his way was blocked, complaining that certain elements of other Corps did not travel all night as his troops did, “…but instead of that they hauled out by side of the road and took a good night’s rest.”
Assuming the photo date is June 12th, it seems a little odd to see Burnside apparently idle and relaxed, reading the paper, given that his entire command must break camp, pack-up and prepare for an all night march. Burnside did meet with his Division commanders that morning and he evidently felt the meeting a success, confident in the coordination necessary for such a large scale move, on unfamiliar roads, in the dark, through enemy territory.
For additional background information, below are the transcripts from around the date of this image, and lastly, an article about Mathew Brady “photographing in Grant’s Army” and coming under fire, just a couple weeks after posing here with Gen. Burnside.
-------------------------
Rhode Island History
Volume 37: 1
February 1978
Ambrose E. Burnside and Army Reform, by Donna Thomas
“Burnside captioned this wartime photograph: “Taken without my knowledge. Mr. Brady had finished with us and I sat down on a sack of oats to read a paper some one had handed me. When he (Mr. Brady) told the operator to take us. He came and sat in the group. You will recognize the other two as Richmond and Goddard with one of the little orderlies (Jarvis) sitting on a box. Rub this out please after reading it.” Mathew B. Brady, who with his staff of cameramen documented the Civil War in thousands of photographs, is seated directly facing Burnside.”
---------------------------
HEADQUARTERS NINTH ARMY CORPS,
June 11, 1864-6.30 p. m.
Major-General MEADE, Comdg. Army of the Potomac:
My attention has just been called to a letter written by Mr. Swinton, correspondent of the New York Times, and now a follower of this army. The paragraph marked with pencil in the inclosed paper* is plainly a libel upon the Ninth Corps, as well as upon myself. He speaks of some dispatches which had been received from me during the morning, which would indicate that he had learned their contents from the telegraph operator or otherwise. The official reports show a loss from two small divisions of this corps of over 1,000 men during the assault, and the divisions established themselves close upon the main line of the enemy, ready for another assault. I beg that this man immediately receive the justice which was so justly meted out to another libeller of the press a day or two since, or that I be allowed to arrest and punish him myself. This is not his first offense.
I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, A. E. BURNSIDE,
Major-General.
---------------------------
HEADQUARTERS NINTH ARMY CORPS,
June 11, 1864.
General SETH WILLIAMS, Assistant Adjutant-General:
Your dispatch in reference to regular troops is received, and the troops will be sent to the Fifth Corps to-morrow morning, if you will inform me where they will find them. Please say to the commanding general that I am very sorry that he has found it necessary take away from this corps some of its best troops upon the eve of an important movement, portion of which forms the provost guard of the corps, which is so necessary in a march. I have now fewer men present for duty by several thousand than any other corps in the army.
A. E. BURNSIDE, Major-General
--------------------------
General LEDLIE:
HEADQUARTERS NINTH ARMY CORPS,
June 12, 1864.
The general commanding desires to see his division commanders at headquarters as early as convenient this morning. By command of Major-General Burnside:
D. R. LARNED, Captain and Assistant Adjutant-General.
(Same to Potter and and Willcox.)
---------------------------
HEADQUARTERS NINTH ARMY CORPS,
Tunstall's Station, June 13, 1864–10.30 a. m.
Chief of Staff:
We arrived here this morning at daybreak and found that Captain Peirce had ordered the general trains of the Second, Sixth, and Fifth Corps over the road by Saint Peter's Church, which was the route we were ordered to take instead of ordering them by New Kent Court-House, as was the distinct understanding with me. The delay would not have been so great had these trains traveled all night as our troops did, but instead of that they hauled out by side of the road and took a good night's rest. They were just starting out as I arrived here, and the last of the Second Corps ambulances are just now leaving this place. The road is very narrow and completely blocked, so that my command cannot pass until they are out of the way. I have just returned from the road, where I have been endeavoring to urge the trains along. I hope to make Jones' Bridge some time this afternoon.
I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant.
A. E. BURNSIDE, Major-General of Volunteers.
P. S. Our command and pickets were withdrawn without the knowledge of the enemy. The last reports make the enemy firing at one of our battery epaulements after our pickets were a mile off.
---------------------------
Cleveland Morning Leader
Cleveland, Saturday Morning, June 25, 1864
Photographing in Grant's Army.
Mr. Brady, the New York photographer who has been here the past fortnight taking pictures of the generals and their staffs, scenes, batteries in action etc., yesterday took some pictures of the execution, and afterward of a battery. While doing the latter, a shell struck pretty close which wounded the horse he was riding. He did not seem to mind it however, but finished his work. Some of the pictures I have examined are very fine, and will prove of great historic value in future times.
************************
Red/Cyan (not red/blue) glasses of the proper density must be used to view 3D effect without ghosting. Anaglyph prepared using red cyan glasses from The Center For Civil War Photography / American Battlefield Trust. CCWP Link: www.civilwarphotography.org/