Alexander Gardner's 'Sketch Book,' on display in Toledo, showed power of war photos

John Reekie's photo of the dead at Cold Harbor

Curator Ed Hill looks through one volume (Photos Toledo Museum of Art)

Alexander Gardner and a cadre of fellow Civil War photographers had a huge impact on the way Americans looked at war through their compelling compositions, notably of the dead.

The Scotsman took haunting images at Antietam and included photographs by others of the fallen in his seminal “Gardner’s Photographic Sketch Book of the War,” a two-volume work featuring 100 photographs.

The familiar “A Harvest of Death” by Timothy O’Sullian depicts a half dozen dead Union soldiers at Gettysburg, their boots removed and their pockets picked.

“Such a picture conveys a useful moral,” Gardner wrote. “It shows the blank horror and reality of war, in opposition to its pageantry.”

A rare copy of Gardner’s sketchbook is on display through July 5 at the Toledo (Ohio) Museum of Art. “The American Civil War: Through Artists’ Eyes” uses paintings, drawings, sculpture, photographs and artifacts to retell the events of the time.

(Toledo Museum of Art)

“(Gardner’s is) one of the most important books published in American history and one of the most significant works of photojournalism,” the museum said in a press release about the exhibit. “The fragile volumes are rarely on display.”

Because of its $150 price tag in 1866 (about $2,000 today) and war fatigue, only about 200 copies of the photographic opus were published, according to an article by Middle Tennessee State University. An estimated 15 survive, including the one in the museum’s collection.

(NPS photo)

“Photographic book illustration in the 1860s was a cumbersome undertaking,” the George Eastman House says. “Lacking the ability to photomechanically reproduce photographs as ink on paper, photographic illustration required that original photographs be pasted onto boards that were then bound together with the text. These limitations help to account for the rather small number of copies of the Sketch Book that were produced and the high price of $150.”

The museum patron will recognize many of the works – because of their publication for stereo views, newspapers (as woodcuts), carte de visites and galleries.

Gardner’s September 1862 photographs of the Antietam dead were featured in the studio of his employer, Matthew Brady. A New York Times reporter wrote, “Mr. Brady has done something to 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.”

Gardner – who midday through the war emerged from the shadow of Brady and started his own studio -- wanted to create a lasting tribute to innovative Civil War photography. Forty-four of the 100 images are credited to O’Sullivan. Ten other photographers, including Gardner, produced the rest. (Unlike Brady, Gardner credited individual photographers. He took 16 of the photographs).

Alfred Waud created title page (Library of Congress)

Lincoln at Antietam, 1862 (Toledo Museum of Art)

Gardner's brother, James, took this photo (Toledo Museum of Art)

Other subjects of the albumen-silver photographs are military and civilian leaders,homes, camps, forts and general battlefield scenes. Gardner is believed to have written the text for the books. The volumes were bound in brown morocco and gilt-stamped.

The free exhibit in Toledo is meant to spotlight artists’ take on the Civil War and the impact those works still have on the public.

“These were stirring images at the time they were released, and they are equally moving now,” curator Ed Hill said. “Our country split itself in two, so the enemy could have been a brother, a cousin, a neighbor. It wasn't as easy to demonize people, yet the level of violence was still astounding."

Alexander Gardner

Battles covered in the sketchbook were largely restricted to the theater of operations of the Union Army of the Potomac. Scholars have in recent years argued that Gardner and a few other photographers may have moved corpses for staged shots -- a strict no-no today.

A kiosk in the exhibit features a slideshow presentation of all 100 photographs in the sketchbook.

Gardner, who later got into the insurance business, died at age 61 in 1882.

• Large painting of battle scene displayed

Storied Civil War painting in northwest Ohio enjoys a new window to the world at exhibit

(Click to enlarge: Courtesy of Toledo Museum of Art)

(Courtesy of Oregon-Jerusalem Historical Society)

Oh, the places it’s been.

Commissioned by aging Ohio Civil War veterans who wanted to be remembered on canvas rather than by a monument, the large painting won a medal at the 1893 world’s fair in Chicago and then adorned a wall at Memorial Hall in Toledo, garnering praise for its striking, realistic detail of an artillery battery in action.

By World War I, however, “Battery H 1st Ohio Volunteers Light Artillery in Action at Cold Harbor” had largely slipped out of public view and went into storage after interest in such artifacts waned. The painting suffered damage while it was stored in a damp basement storage room at the city’s zoo and in a garage. 

About 25 years ago, an historical society across the Maumee River in Oregon, Ohio, received the oil painting after a complicated sequence of events. It was restored in 2002 and has since presided over the second floor of an old school building housing the society’s collection of Civil War and other artifacts.

Until now.

Military artist Gilbert Gaul’s six feet by 10 feet creation is on loan and is the centerpiece of the Toledo Museum of Art’s exhibit, “The American Civil War: Through Artists’ Eyes” (through July 5). The free exhibit “uses paintings, drawings, sculpture, photographs and artifacts to retell the events of the time.” It includes famed photographer Alexander Gardner’s sketchbook.

How the Gaul painting got to the museum has added another small chapter to its interesting history: Workers had to remove it through a second-floor window of Brandville School, home to the Oregon-Jerusalem Historical Society.

That’s because the main stairway was reconfigured after “Battery H” was returned in 2002, making it impossible to go through a door.

Last November, workers removed the canvas from its impressive, gilded frame. Both pieces were covered and taken out via an exterior lift.

“We had a party that day. We had cups of chili and everyone could walk around …. and watch the whole thing,” society President Connie Isbell told the Picket.

Isbell tells the story of a soldier’s great-grandson who one day brought in a photo of his ancestor to see whether he could identify him in the painting.

“It took us only a few minutes,” said Isbell. “There was not a doubt about it.”

David Brown last year told The Press that he believes Iraneaus A. Geren is the man wearing the bandana in the center of the painting, near a caisson wheel.

The unit saw action at the battle that ended in a major defeat for Union forces. “They were able to gallop into battle right now and they were the first onto the field,” Brown told The Press. “They were in action before the infantry was.” One battery soldier died in the fight.

Brig. Gen. George Armstrong Custer had encouraged the battery to get to the front, according to the article.

A Toledo chapter of the Grand Army of the Republic commissioned the painting for $2,000. The artillery battery had about 265 soldiers, about half from northwest Ohio.

The artist was William Gilbert Gaul (1855-1919), a well-known painter of military scenes, especially of the Civil War. While “Battery H” is not one of his more famous works, people have been mesmerized by its rich detail in depicting a scene from combat at Cold Harbor, Virginia, in June 1864.

Workers prepare to move painting from historical society (Courtesy of OJHS)

An article describes Gaul’s style as “usually denoted as realism with some hints of romanticism.” The artist primarily worked in Tennessee and New York City, with the Civil War, the West, Native Americans and pastoral scenes among his legacy. The Tennessee State Museum has many of his works. He was among the artists featured in “Battles and Leaders of the Civil War.” His work fell out of favor later in this life, but his reputation has been restored in recent years.

The painting belonged to the Toledo Soldiers’ Memorial Association, which kept its large collection of Civil War artifacts at Memorial Hall. Future President and then-Gov. William McKinley attended the unveiling of the painting in 1894.

A local judge at the time spoke of the pride in having the painting in Toledo, calling it “a memorial of those days of blood and courage, a symbolism of sacrifice and heroism which shall thrill future generations with patriotic pride.”

“Battery H” fell onto hard times within decades of its triumphant debut.

A 2002 Toledo Blade article detailed how many of Toledo’s historic items had faded from view, many of them disappearing or enduring damage. The painting and other Civil War items were moved to various locations; Memorial Hall was demolished in 1955.

Frame is removed (Courtesy of OJHS)

Many artifacts were displayed at the Toledo Zoo and the military items eventually were moved to the basement. A society volunteer told the Blade that the painting, once the glory of the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, was propped against a wall in damp darkness.

“It had a great big scratch and there was a little bit of water damage,” Isbell said of the painting before its restoration. “It was not in real good shape.”

But these are much better days for “Battery H.” The Toledo Museum of Art approached the historical society about borrowing the treasured painting and has agreed to provide an official appraisal in return, said Isbell.

The historical society loaned the painting to the Tennessee State Museum in 1993, but Isbell acknowledges its prominence at the exhibit in Toledo will bring it to a much larger audience. (The Toledo Museum of Art had about 346,000 visitors in 2014 and saw an uptick when the Civil War exhibit opened earlier this month. The historical society in Oregon is open only on Thursdays and by appointment).

“We are going to have a big party when it comes back,” she said.

COMING SOON:  Other items in the Toledo Museum of Art’s Civil War exhibit.

Andrews Raid soldier's Medals of Honor donated to Ohio VA clinic, Ga. museum

People on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line are now able to see a Medal of Honor awarded to an Ohio infantryman who took part in a daring Union effort to disrupt rail traffic between Atlanta and Chattanooga, Tenn., during the Civil War.

How is that possible?

Southern Museum

Wilson W. Brown received one Medal of Honor a year after the April 12, 1862, Andrews Raid, also called the Great Locomotive Chase. Brown received a second medal in 1904 (photo, left) after a redesign. He died in 1916 at age 77.

The medals and a key to a Confederate prison cell were the subject of a feud between two cousins until 2013, when an agreement was reached, according to the Toledo (Ohio) Blade.

The agreement provided for the cousins to each donate one medal.

Last Friday, Linda Schwartz presented the 1863 Medal of Honor and the key to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ Toledo Community Based Outpatient Clinic.

She told the Toledo Free Press she preferred that location over a museum, given the military connection between Brown and the clinic patrons.

“I just know what a great place it is,” Schwartz said, according to the newspaper. “Plus, in the reading of [Brown’s] story, he was injured after that event. He went back into service, he was injured and he was treated by the veterans. And he said if it hadn’t been for them he would have lost his leg, he would have died, and that was one of his big events in his life that he wanted to share with everyone.”

Ed Ward, also of Ohio and a great-grandson of Brown, and his family went a different route.

Wilson W. Brown

They donated the 1904 version last Saturday to the Southern Museum of Civil War & Locomotive History in Kennesaw, Ga. The museum, steps away from where the railroad chase began, houses one of the locomotives, the General, and related exhibits.

“Our family wanted to donate this cherished family artifact to the Southern Museum for many years, and we are proud it will be displayed just feet away from the General locomotive,” said Ward, in a statement released by the museum. “We are gratified the Medal of Honor will be used to educate future generations about the Great Locomotive Chase, and the sacrifices so many made during the Civil War.”

James Andrews and his band of raiders tried to destroy much of the Western & Atlantic Railroad and communications as they rushed northward. They achieved little success and eight of the nearly two dozen captured participants, disguised as civilians, were later hanged in Atlanta as spies. Andrews was among them.

Brown, part of the mission because he had been a locomotive engineer, was among the first recipients of the Medal of Honor. He escaped captivity and took part in other battles during the Civil War. The Logan County native served in the 21^st Ohio Infantry.

Brown manuscript was donated to Southern Museum in Kennesaw, Ga.

The Great Locomotive Chase, the Southern Museum points out, actually began on foot.

Western & Atlantic Railroad conductor William A. Fuller was shocked to see a group of men steal the General while passengers and crew were enjoying breakfast at the Lacy Hotel in Big Shanty, now called Kennesaw.

Fuller and a couple others ran north after his train. He didn’t yet know it had been taken by the Union commandos. The conductor ran across a handcar and three trains and traveled 86 miles -- along with Confederate horsemen who had been reached by telegraph -- after the raiders. The Union men were captured later that afternoon near Ringgold, Ga.

In addition to the medal, the Ward family donated a letter Brown received in 1906 from William A. Fuller Jr., son of the Confederate conductor, and a handwritten account of the raid that Brown penned in 1909.

“We are honored to receive this rare Medal of Honor given to a true American hero,” said Richard Banz, executive director of the Southern Museum.

In 2012, the Medal of Honor awarded to Sgt. John M. Scott for his part in the raid was donated to the museum.

Medal presentation at Southern Museum in Kennesaw, Ga.

Tombstone mystery solved in Ohio

Questions over how tombstone of soldier ended up in museum brings together two branches of an Ohio family. • Article