Gettysburg: A Journey in Time

Over the years, the photographs have been misidentified, placed out of sequence and, in some instances, forgotten. William Frassinto's "Gettyburg, a Journey in Time" (1975) was among the first books to recapture this photographic legacy, to study the scenes and the makers of the pictures, and to organize his material in a book for the modern reader. Mr. Frassinto has since published a number of sequels to this inital book as well as a study of photographers at Antietam.

The book consists of approximately 100 photographs, most of them dating from shortly after the battle in July, 1863 through 1866. There are also a number of photographs that Mr. Frassinto himself took dating from the late 1960s and early 1970s. These photos allow the reader to compare the original scenes with the current state of the Gettysburg Battlefield.

After a short discussion giving biographical information on the photographers and information on their visits to Gettysburg, Mr Frassanito presents and discusses the photographs themselves. His presentation is arranged in six groups: 1. the first day's battle (north and west of the town); 2. Cemetery Hill; 3. Culp's Hill; 4. Cemetery Ridge; 5. Little Round Top and Devil's Den; 6. the Rose Farm.

Mr. Frassanito introduces each group with a short description of the significance of the site. He then discusses each picture in detail, explaining when it was taken, what it shows, and its importance to the Battle of Gettysburg. The photographs are themselves eloquent and compelling and their effect is heightened by Mr Frassanito's commentary. I came away understanding the first day's battle and the fighting on Culp's Hill and Cemetry Hill on the Union right much better as a result of Mr. Frassanito's account and the photographs.

The most famous photographs in the book are probably those of the dead soldiers (in a few cases the photos were taken of live soldiers posing as dead for the photographers) on Little Round Top and on the Rose Farm. Most of these photographs were taken by Gardner because the dead were removed from the Battlefield relatively quickly after the battle. Gardner moved from south to north on the Battlefield and captured the few instances in which the dead had not yet been buried. The photos capture the terrible costs of the Battle.

Many of Gardner's photos have been erroneously identified over the years as originating from the first day's fighting on McPherson's ridge. Mr. Frassanito explains how he determined these photographs in fact originated on Rose Hill, on the southern part of the Battlefield. (The first day fighting was on the northenmost part of the Battlefield.) Yet misidentifications die hard. I have seen books which postdate Mr. Frassanito's which continue to attribute these photographs to the first day of the fighting.

The photos and the text in this book will give the reader a good sense of the tragedy and cost of this seminal battle. Mr. Frassanito's book remains essential for those interested in seriously exploring the Battle of Gettysburg.


Brilliant analyses of Civil War photographs   December 7, 2003
 23 out of 23 found this review helpful

If you visit the Devil's Den portion of the Gettysburg battlefield, there's a sign describing how a famous photograph came to be. The photographer claimed that it was a picture of a confederate sharpshooter who had been mortally wounded during the battle. The soldier evidently made himself comfortable before he died. The sign explains that the photograph was staged, the soldier was not a sharpshooter and that the body was dragged some 40 yards to the spot. The sign credits William Frassanito with having made this discovery after careful study of Gettysburg photographs.

This is the book that describes this and many other pictures of the Gettysburg battlefield, many depicting dead men or horses. Many of these photographs are famous in the sense that they are used frequently in civil books and now in documentaries. Frassanito demonstrates convincingly that several of these frequently used photographs are mislabeled, generally to make the photographs seem more interesting and therefore more saleable.

Frassanito was an intelligence analyst during the Vietnam War and won the Bronze Star. I feel that only from a lot of practice analyzing photographs during the war could he have developed the skill needed to make the many clever observations in this book. Clearly, his wartime experiences left their mark in other ways as well. He frequently loses the detached air of a historian and reminds his readers of the horrors the subjects of the photographs must have experience. For example, he describes how rapid decomposition bloated the bodies immediately after the battle and how in some instances forced open the corpses' trouser buttons. "Thus the trousers on the soldier seen here were most likely open before his body was dragged to this position, the dragging action forcing them down below his hips. Here then was a young man who, only three days prior... full of life...But by July 5... was just another nameless corpse, his faced pressed against the earth, his exposed buttocks, once carefully hidden in accordance with the vanities of civilization, a sign of war's ultimate glory."

This book has the potential to make you feel like an expert on the battle of Gettysburg. If you read this book, you will recognize misidentified photographs in even some of the best documentaries. Further, you will be able to find the locations most of these photos with the aid of this book, even those in less frequently visited portions of the battlefield.

I would recommend all of Frassanito's books to Civil War buffs, but this one above all. The section on the Rose Woods photographs is brilliant, more so than even the passage that earned a marker at Devil's Den.