Civil War Scenes from the South

Many battles of the Revolutionary War were fought here in New Jersey, with our local iron mines and forges providing munitions. Despite the carnage of battle, we were fortunate in that Sherman's "hard war" tactic, the wholesale destruction of civilian infrastructure, had not yet become a common military objective. Below is a special collection of photographs and text assembled from the Shorpy.com website showing the aftermath of such tactics.

Richmond in Ruins

Richmond, Virginia, in April 1865 showing the burned district along the James River. From photographs of the main Eastern theater of war and fallen Richmond compiled by Hirst Milhollen and Donald Mugridge.

"As the sun rose on Richmond, such a spectacle was presented as can never be forgotten by those who witnessed it. All the horrors of the final conflagration, when the earth shall be wrapped in flames and "melt with fervent heat," were, it seemed to us, prefigured in our capital. The roaring, crackling and hissing of the flames, the bursting of shells at the Confederate Arsenal, the sounds of the Instruments of martial music, the neighing of the horses, the shoutings of the multitudes, gave an idea of all the horrors of Pandemonium. Above all this scene of terror hung a black shroud of smoke through which the sun shone with a lurid angry glare like an immense ball of blood that emitted sullen rays of light, as if loath to shine over a scene so appalling. Then a cry was raised: "The Yankees! The Yankees are coming!" - Richmond resident Sallie Putnam

Upon evacuation of the city, the Confederate government authorized the burning of warehouses and supplies, which resulted in the destruction of factories and houses in the business district. Before the charred ruins of Richmond had cooled, General Robert E. Lee, with the remnant of his army, surrendered to Ulysses Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865.
[From Embattled Capital, on the National Park Service's Richmond National Battlefield web page. http://www.nps.gov/archive/rich/ri_bats.htm]

http://www.shorpy.com/node/2464?size=_original

Confederate Arsenal

April 1865. Ruins of the State Arsenal at Richmond showing stacked and scattered ammunition. From photographs of the main Eastern theater of war after the fall of Richmond, compiled by Hirst Milhollen and Donald Mugridge.

http://www.shorpy.com/node/2456?size=_original

Burnt District

April 1865. "Burnt District, Richmond, Virginia. Ruins in the State Arsenal yard." Half of a wet-plate glass stereograph.

http://www.shorpy.com/node/2507?size=_original

Circular Church, Charleston

April 1865. Charleston, South Carolina, after bombardment by the Federal Navy. View from roof of the Mills House, looking up Meeting Street at ruins of the Circular Church, damaged in an 1861 fire. From photographs of the Federal Navy and seaborne expeditions against the Atlantic Coast of the Confederacy, 1863-1865. Right half of a wet-plate glass negative stereograph.

After the Bombardment

"Charleston, South Carolina, after the bombardment. Meeting Street, looking south, showing St. Michael's Church, the Mills house and ruins of the Circular Church." Wet-collodion glass-plate stereograph.

http://www.shorpy.com/node/2088?size=_original

Circular Church, Charleston

View of ruined buildings through porch of the Circular Church at 150 Meeting Street, Charleston, South Carolina. April 1865. Wet collodion glass plate, half of stereograph pair. Photographer unknown. While much of the damage shown here is from shelling by the Federal Navy, the Circular Church itself was heavily damaged by fire in 1861.

http://www.shorpy.com/node/633?size=_original

Broad Street

1865. Charleston, South Carolina, after bombardment by the Federal Navy. Broad Street, looking east with the ruins of the Cathedral of St. John and St. Finbar. Half of a glass-plate stereograph, photographer unknown.

http://www.shorpy.com/node/2271?size=_original

Ex Cathedral: 1865

"Charleston, South Carolina. Ruins of the Cathedral of St. John and St. Finbar (Broad and Legare Streets) destroyed in the fire of December 1861." From photographs of the Federal Navy and seaborne expeditions against the Atlantic Coast of the Confederacy, 1863-1865. Glass plate negative, left half of stereograph pair, from Civil War photos compiled by Milhollen and Mugridge.

http://www.shorpy.com/node/2960?size=_original

Sudley Ford

Winter of 1861-1862. Federal cavalry at Sudley Ford, Virginia, following the battle of First Bull Run (July 1861). Half of a glass-plate stereograph pair taken by George N. Barnard and compiled by Milhollen and Mugridge.

http://www.shorpy.com/node/1948?size=_original

Shorpy.com is the 100-year-old photography blog that brings our ancestors back, at least to the desktop. The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a boy who worked in an Alabama coal mine near the turn of the century. http://www.shorpy.com/shorpy

Photos & text used with permission - Copyright © 2008 Shorpy.com

The following photos are from the same period, but not from Shorpy.

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