The Scot Who Shot the American Civil War

In the autumn of 1862, in the second year of the American Civil

War, Confederate and Union armies came together in a savage battle.

Antietam. In the day that is followed, a Scots-born photographer,

Alexander Gardner, captured shocking images of death and

disfigurement. Here along this Hagerstown Pike they found men

lying on the field as they fell. They were in all sorts of different

poses, rigour mortis had set in. No-one had ever seen a battlefield

before. They certainly had never seen the way a battlefield looked

when the battle was over. A century on, David Hume Kennerly, won a

Pulitzer prize for his pictures of another American war. There are

some similarities between my work and Gardner. Vietnam, I would

picture the soldier going over a blown away hillside. He has a

photograph that's very similar. David Hume Kennerly foted four

decades of American Presidents. Alexander Gardner captured the

final four years of Abraham Lincoln. No photographer got closer to

America's Great War time leader. was the first to go in tight and

focused on the eyes. The intense look into somebody's soul. From the

first battles to the final retribution. Gardner's pictures

framed the whole agonising story. That is the most amazing photo. To

tell the story in one frame is what it's all about. He really was a

great photographer. I would put him up against any photographer I've

ever seen in my life. Witness to the most turbulent decade in

American history, the founding father of photojournalism,

Alexander Gardner was the Scot Who David Hume Kennerly has come to

Washington DC in search of his predecessor. There are two

Alexander Gardners, big beard. He has a bow and an arrow. That's a

photograph in a costume out of the Old Wild West. Like a tourist photo.

This is, here is America. This is how they dress. This is the Indian

gettup, right? Absolutely. Send it back to Scotland. Alexander

Gardner's great American adventure began in New York. He arrived in

1856. It was the right place, it was the right time. The city had

fallen in love with portrait photography. Born in Paisley he was

a political radical and a man of many talents. A trained jeweller, a

newspaper editor and a portrait photographer. He found work at New

York's most famous studio. 359 Broadway. Headquarters of America's

greatest photographer, Mathew Brady and his self-styled National

Portrait Gallery. This moment in time, more is more. You could never

have too much stuff, too much gold, too many drapes. Too many frames,

too many mirrors, too many anything. It would be flor to ceiling

pictures. -- floor to ceiling picture Detective Sergeant s. --

glsh pictures. One of the people who came here was the Prince of

Wales. His visit to America. The first visit of British royalty to

America. One of the people on his itinerary would be Brady. Anybody

whose name could be in the paper, Brady wanted to come to his gallery.

The Great Hall of Por rates was only one part of the Brady

operation. Upstairs, camera operators like Alexander Gardner

would put on their jor overalls and photograph the famous. This picture

looks like Gardner wearing his every day work clothes in a way.

This is a studio self-portrait in which Gardner sits in this famous

chair that Presidents and all sorts of other political, military

leaders of the day had sat in. There he is sitting in it, in his

very typical studio dress. There is a relaxed quality and casualness.

He exhibits a great deal of self- Photographers of the 18 '50s were

not considered artists. --1850's were not considered artists.

Gardner was a camera operator under the vision of Mathew Brady. Their

job relied on long exposures and the co-operation of the sun. Your

chair, your table would be right under the sky light. You can see

the sky light here. The glasses were focusing the light down on to

the sitter. They had a big stand that clamped you in place, so that

you wouldn't move. You would stay perfectly in focus. All the time,

you have been sitting under this light just waiting and waiting. It

couldn't have been fun. Brady's studio was the most Fay nous in New

York. His methods were old fashioned. -- famous in New York.

His methods were old fashioned. Images fixed on metal plates which

were impossible to copy. Gardner wrifd the newest European

technology. Using a chemical to make glass negatives. If you wanted

one for yourself and your mother, you could do it. One for your

campaign for President and one for the newspaper, you could do it.

campaign, in particular, early in 1860 a little-known Illinois lawyer

came to New York. His speech to the Cooper Union established his

manifesto. Taken the very same day, a Brady studio photograph

established his identity. His name was Abraham Lincoln. It's a

deliberate setup. False column that you see apportioned in the

background, or a table with a book on it. It wants to insert him into

this portrait-style. What is fascinating about it to me too,

Lincoln had a real sense of promotion. Lincoln said this

picture and my Cooper Union speech made me President. That is a

powerful image. Until JFK, there was no-one that understood the

power of the image, I think, as well as Lincoln did? I completely

agree. Lincoln is the first President to understand the

political importance of photography. This new visual technology that he

could use to his advantage. None of his predecessors got that. Lincoln

campaigned to restrict slavery, a policy that appealled to the

liberal sensabilities of Alexander Gardner. Back in Scotland, Gardner

had edited the radical Glasgow Sentinel newspaper. He had called

slavery "a stain on the escutcheon of the otherwise freest country in

the world." Lincoln victory tore that country apart. Slave owning

states began to leave the union. Civil war seemed inevitable.

Washington would be at the centre of that war. At the centre of

Washington was a new photographic studio. The Brady franchise had

arrived in the heart of the nation's capital. The location

itself was excellent, less away from the US capital. Less than a

mile away from the White House and from all the key buildings. It was

across from Market Square. Brady needed someone he could trust to

manage his Newark tonne operation. He choose Alexander Gardner. The

humble photographer had arrived at the very centre of American

political life. He wouldn't be the last. Time Magazine gave me the

assignment to photograph Forde. I spent a lot of time travelling

around with him, covering him for Time. Got to know the family. When

he became President, August 9th, 1974, he offered me the job as his

White House photographer. I said, Mr President, he had only been

President for eight hours, I said there are only two things I would

like. I thought about this. I want total access. I want to work

directly for you, not the White House press secretary or anybody

else. He looked at me and he said, you know Air Force One at the

weekends. Kennerly took the job. He has photographed every President

since. This picture of Clinton was taken in the Oval Office. He was

talking to families of the Pan Am 103 plane blown up over over

Lockerbie Scotland. You could see how serious he. Is he was really

affected by what he was hearing from the people who had lost their

loved ones on that aeroplane. That's what photography is all

about. Peeling back a layer of somebody's personality and ill luem

naiting that for other people. -- ill luem nait. Alexander Gardner

would also capture the character and concerns of his President. In

February 1861 a deeply troubled Abraham Lincoln arrived at Mathew

Brady's Washington studio. The man from Paisley was to take his

Can you imagine Lincoln sitting in this room and what is on his mind.

He arrived in Washington, there is controversy over that in the first

place. He is coming to the head of a country that is falling apart.

You talk about weighty issues. Here he is, possibly for some moments of

joyable solitude, nobody is calling on him, what must be running

through his head in this room is incredible to contemplate. He is

making his face available to the larger public. His face is bearded.

By the time he was elected to his inauguration he grows a period. It

may be because he wanted to look more like the Generals that he was

going to be leading. Gardner took five very similar portraits of an

impatient President. Lincoln sat very still for most of them. He

pulled his pocket watch out of Higgs pocket and must have looked

at. It in one of the pictures the watch appears. There is no record

of any interactions between Gardner and Abraham Lincoln and the

assistants while they were here. One of the assistants said he

looked care worn already. I'm sure that is a huge under statement.

4th March 1861, Lincoln was inaugurated President. 27 of the 34

states were named in the union. A month later, in Charleston Harbour,

the union stronghold of Fort Sumter was captured by rebel forces. The

first flag of the Confederates, the stars and bars, flew above the

battled fort. A civil war had begun. Abraham Lincoln calls for 75,000

troops to put down the rebellion, that many and more come to

Washington DC, all the soldiers want a picture of themselves in

uniform before this war is over. They all think it's a short war

before that time. Taking pictures of soldiers in a studio is

straight-forward. Taking pictures in the field of the approaching war

was much more difficult. An English photographer, Roger Fenton had

pointedlet -- pointed the way. Five years earlier in the Crimea he

photographed British soldiers, empty battlefields. Brady and

Gardner were determined to get closer still. To photograph all the

The United States is still gripped by the civil war. All across the

continent, 21st cent Americans reenact 19th century battles.

Behind the lines, Robert Szabo takes on the role as civil war

photographer. I will try and get a picture of you here. He uses the

same process as Alexander Gardner. Do a right shoulder shift for us.

That is beautiful. Look up. Maybe that way. I think we have it. Let

me see what it looks like at the camera. Taking photography out of

the studio, and on to the battlefield, was a technical and

logistical challenge. It was very difficult to take pictures during

the civil war period shall for many different reasons. On the technical

level, we have the glass that is clean we will pour some collodion

on it now. Pour a nice puddle in the middle. Work it around from

corner and corner. Everyone has their own technique. This happens

to be mine. Keep your position, guys. I will get the camera focused

and we will take it in a few minutes. There was a war going on.

Alexander Gardner had to get from point a to point b at any moment.

Cho have run into Confederate forces. He wanted to make sure

there was good intelligence to tell him he could go to point a and

point b without being in danger. Stand very still for me. Do not

move at all. When I tell you, it should be four second exposure. All

right, here we go. Do not move at all for me. Right, now. Very good.

I got it. Thanks guys, you can relax. I will develop this.

Alexander Gardner only had minutes to develop the plates. If there was

a problem where they wanted to take a shot and the dark room was way

off, you are having to run back- and-forth to the dark room to get

the plates developed in time. We are working in the dark room here

under red safe light. It's red glass, basically, filtering the sun

light. The reason we are able to do that, the collodion is only

sensitive to blue light, which is why you don't see clouds in the old

pictures. I will take the developer and pour it over this plate so it

flows clean and evenly over the plate. We move it back-and-forth a

little bit. OK it has developed now. We will just rinse it and put it in

a tray here and pour nice clean water over it. We will do that a

couple of times before we take it outside to fix. It Gardner's base

would have been in Washington. If he ran out of supplies he would

have to wire back to Washington DC to get plates out there or

chemicals if he needed them. We I will pour some fixer on this

plate. We have a little bit of stuff on the surface here. That

will wipe off for me though. Very difficult doing this stuff in the

field. It's coming up. It's not the best plate. OK. So we got a plate.

The guys don't look too bad. I will admit. I would throw this plate

away. I'm a perfection with this stuff. This would be a reject to me.

We have an image. We have guys on there. It looks pretty good.

first test for the new war photographers game in July 1861,

four months into the war. Confederate troops were camped at

the railway junction of Manassas, just west of Washington. On July

21st, the first land battle of the civil war began. The battle of Bull

Run. Lincoln's Union Army was overwhelmed. So was America's most

famous photographer. Mathew Brady went to the battle of Manassas. He

got there as the battle was coming to somewhat of a close. He was in

for a big surprise. Everybody came out for a little Sunday jaunt to

see the little battle. They were in for a huge surprise. Brady ran into

Federal Troops fleeing back to Washington DC. It overturned his

wagon. He lost a lot of his stuff. After he came back, the day after

the battle, he came back almost certainly to this very room here

and had this photo recorded. You can see a sword he acquired during

his trip. Proudly saying, Brady returned from Bull Run. He came

back proud of what he had done. Just that he went to the

battlefield, and came back, and survived the ordeal. He was proud

of that particular accomplishment. Brady's adventure showed it was

unwise for photographers to act alone. Much better, much safer, to

be embedded with the military. Alexander Gardner had no ambition

to be a neutral observer. He proclaimed himself as the official

photographer of the Union Army of the Potomac. He had a deal worked

out with the military that they could go where they pleased and

document the war. The military got something back out of. It with

Alexander Gardner, those pictures where he copied maps for the

engineers. Photography was developing fast. The new fashion

was for photographs taken by special twin lens cameras. Two

images, a left and a right, were brought together by a viewing

device to create an illusion of three dimensions. War photography

was also charging forward, driving closer and closer to the action.

Alexander Gardner and others were trying to get out on to the

battlefield to record journalistic imagery. In June they will record a

fresh field hospital. Dead horses, they were looking for that recipe,

a Union victory, the proximity to Washington DC where they could get

out where what they really wanted. Men dead, on the field where they

fell. That chance arrived in September 1862. Confederate General

Robert E Lee led his Army north into Maryland to the little town of

Sharpsburg on the banks of Antietam Creek. On 17th September, the

battle of Antietam began. It ended in a bloody stalemate. By night

fall, 23,000 men were dead or injured. No single day since has

claimed so many American military For Alexander Gardner, this was the

battle that would bring his photographs to the attention of the

world. It was the battle that gave birth to photojournalism. This was

where Alexander Gardner and his assistant wrifd their cameras first.

This is where they saw the first bodies that they were able to

photograph with their cameras. Their excitement had to be at a

fever pitch. They knew the photographs once seen in New York

would Electraify the populous. photographic camera he used was

stereo skoptic. These photos were to be seen in 3D. This is the way

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 42 seconds

Wow! It takes you right to the When I look at Alexander Gardner's

pictures that he took here on Bloody Lane, it really makes me

It's the only experience that really gave me nightmares. Vietnam

War didn't even give me nightmares, Jonestown did. I bet Alexander

Gardner must have had nightmare abouts this. It is memorialalised

in these incredible photographs that he took. The horrors and the

smells had to be the same. These were not professional soldiers,

they were young men, young farm boys, 17, 18, 19 years old. They

would join up in the same groups so that a single volley, a single

deadly volley from Union guns here could wipe out six or seven boys

from the same town. After Bloody Lane, Gardner moved on towards the

small Dunker Church. He captured the gruesome scene in pictures and

later logged the information. Gardner and his team spent four

full days at Antietam. Their final pictures were taken along the

Hagerstown Pike Road. He found Confederate soldiers lying along

this fence line as they had fall none the battle. Here he set up his

camera and took at least six different pictures from different

angles showing the bodies along this fence line, along Hagerstown

Pike. Here is one of his original stereo views. Wow! It's really...

It is gruesome. What's going through his mind, as a photographer

and and artist, is there is a sense of composition here. I have become

a huge fan of Alexander Gardner, both for having the guts to go out

and do these kind of photographs, but, as someone who was able to

capture the reality of what was happening. You know, it's amazing

the artistry of the photographer. I mean, he turns a macabre scene into

something that's totally fascinating. On top of it, he was a

great documentary photographer. One of the pictures in my Pulitzer

prize portfolio showed this lone soldier walking over a devastated

hillside. The citation from the pilt zer committee said it shows

the loneliness and desolation of war. I think Alexander Gardner's

pictures are similar. What you have are trees and all the leaves

stripped off by the gunfire and artilery. War hasn't really changed

that much, in terms of the ultimate research. The famous shot of the

Dunker with the dead in the foreground the original Brady

caption on that was printed on the back "completely silenced." What is

fascinating, to me, is that these pictures were not gruesome enough.

Gardner hired artists who hand tinted these pictures. In one of

the copies that I own, taken right here along Hagerstown Pike, he adds

blood to these soldiers. In this particular picture the blood starts

at his mouth and spreads down Back in New York, at the Brady

Gallery, Gardner's pictures of the Antietam dead had created a

sensation. They would have been exhibited, not just on the wall, I

think they were exhibited flat on tables too because a loft them were

small. So people would have been looking and looking and, sort of,

walking and looking, one at a time, one at a time. People lined up on

the block and on the sidewalk to see these pictures. It was as if

the world had turned upside down. No-one had ever seen a battlefield

before. They certainly had never seen the way a battlefield looked

when the battle was over. No-one had ever seen a dead body on the

The room got very crowded. People would come in and they wouldn't

leave. So, there were so... There was so much attention. The room was

silent because people were just frightened and fascinated. You used

to come to Brady's studio to see the faces of people you recognised.

You know, but imagine how horrible it would be to come and recognise

the face of a dead person? Here you come to the place where you want to

recognise people and now you don't want to recognise anyone. You hope

that you will never see a face that you know. It really turned

photography into something quite different and I think they were

really some of the first truly modern pictures we had made.

Gardner was using the camera to make picture that is no-one had

ever seen before. New York Times journalist described the impact of

the pictures. He credited them all to Mathew Brady. Mr Brady has done

something to bring home to us the terrible reality and earnestness of

war. If he is not brought bodies and laid them them in our door

yards and along our streets, he has done something very like it.

Gardner had taken the pictures. The Brady studio would take the credit.

Mitt Nobody excepted Brady to make the pictures that his name on it

any more that you expect Henry Forde to make all the Fordes or you

expect the conductor at an orchestra to play all the

instruments, not true. When Gardner came back from Antietam he had a

different idea about how to use the camera. I'm sure Brady never wanted

to see another dead body in his studio ever again. That was the

kind of thing that Gardner was really excited about doing. The two

men went their separate ways. Early in 1863, Gardner established his

own Washington studio. The man from Paisley would photograph what

remained of the war in his own Only five days after the Battle of

Antietam President Lincoln order his most significant order of the

war. On the 1st day January all persons held as slaves within any

snait rebellion against the United States shall be then thens forward

and forever free. Slaves held in rebel states, where Lincoln had

absolutely no control, would become free men. In theory, if not yet in

fact. To free the slaves, to put down the rebellion, the commander

in chief called for a more aggressive military strategy. A

message conveyed in person to the hesitant General McLellan.

Alexander Gardner photographed the somewhat strained meeting. This is

my favourite, the picture of Lincoln meeting with McLellan in

the tent. It was an American flag draped over the table. You can see

McLellan's clothes hanging on the back in the desk where he is doing

all of his plans. Remarkable photograph. This is one of the most

exciting pictures out of the civil war to me. Sure. Of course,

traditionally portraits were done in a studio in a highly controlled

environment. In this particular view, as you rightly point out,

Gardner is documenting a meeting between the President and the

commanding General of the Union armies. You have the tent. I guess

that is his bed there maybe. Obviously, because of photographic

limitations the exposure would have been five or 10 seconds long. That

wouldn't have been a problem for McLellan as Lincoln said he had a

case of the slows. They are looking at each other. This is an

aastonishing piece of history. McLellan was sacked. His successors

faired no better. Defeat at Fredericksburg was followed by

defeat at Chancellorsvile. With no Union victories Gardner had no

battlefields to photograph. On 3rd July, word arrived in Washington of

a major battle. It had begun two- days earlier in a small

Pennsylvania town, Gettysburg. Gardner and his team were flush

with the success of the Antietam series. They rushed to the

Gettysburg battlefield. They arrived within days of the end of

the battle. They wanted to get here in time to shoot pictures of the

dead soldiers on the field before they were buried. As he came up the

road he could see the smoking ruins from the battlefield. When he found

bodies that had not yet been buried, he had to have been excited and he

-- elated. Among his most famous photographs at Gettysburg were the

first photos he took one of them labelled A Harvest Of Death. They

are Union soldiers. The Union soldiers were buried first. These

were probably the first photos he Gettysburg was a decisive Union

After three days of battle, almost Gardner's pictures of the

Gettysburg dead are considered classics of war photography. One

image in particular called The Home Of A Rebel Sharp Shooter. Writing

some years later, Gardner imagined the final sufferings of the young

soldier. Was he Dee leerious with anger? Or did death come slowly to

his relief as the field of carnage faded before him. What visions of

love loved ones far away may have hovered above him? The composition,

the face. In many ways, it's the perfect war photograph. Perhaps, a

little too perfect. Alexander Gardner's activities that summer

At this location there was a dead Confederate soldier. You are

standing literally where his head was. Alexander Gardner and his team

found this particular spot to be very interesting because they spent

three stereo negatives and one large plate negative taking

different angles, different photographs of this body. The work

seemingly accomplished, Gardner led his men up the hill to the east.

Gardner and his team arrived here and they find these two giant

converging bolders and a make-shift breast work made of rocks. They see

the dramatic nature of this location. They probably said to

themselves, wait, there is something missing here! What

happened? Well, they brought the body that they had shot four

photographs of, he is laying on a blanket. They either pick it up or

drag this soldier, 72 yards to this spot, and lay him here in what they

call The Sharp Shooters Nest. The connection between the two

photographs was not discovered covered until the 1960s. The

photographs show it's the same uniform, the body is not bloated.

The same blanket appears in the photographs taken over there and in

this location. It made a better picture rather than an empty little

spot here. If I or one of my colleagues had done that in this

day and age we would be drummed out of the photo corp. It would be

highly unethical. Back then, autumn the rules were evolving. There is

no question it was a better photo. Moving the body to make this

composition, it almost... It takes it out of the news category into an

artistic effort. In a way, he was like a painter organising this

picture of death. That made it an interesting photograph. There have

been some really well-known photographs that have been doctored

The fot of the Soviet flag being raised over the Reichstag. He laid

smoke over the top. The hammer and sickle was put over the flag. That

was doctored up. There is another one called Grief, it was a shot of

a field of death, dead bodies asm woman looking over -- a woman

looking over leaning in. We don't do that kind of thing these days.

Or at least should not. Gettysburg was the turning point of the war.

The northern states could now hope for a swift victory over the

southern rebels. Hope that the States would soon, once again, be

united under one President. Mitt In August 1863, that one President

made his way to Gardner's studio. This is a Gardner glass plate

negative. In the 19th century they didn't have photographic enlarging

quipt. If you wanted a big photograph, you needed a big glass

plate negative. He is a very resolute looking figure here, don't

you think? Absolutely. He is projecting a certain confidence

that the war is going to go forward to victory. I think that Gardner is

exploring the creative possibilities of portrait uer of

getting away from the false back drops. Getting away from the con

troifd studio props. The kind of stiffness that you see in the

Mathew Brady Cooper Union picture has all disappeared. He feels

remarkably relaxed in front of the camera. Also relaxed in the company

of the Alexander Gardner. Lincoln wrote to Gardner soon after that

August 1863 session. The only surviving communication between the

two men. My dear, sir, allow me to return toy my sincere thanks for

the cards and pictures which you have kindly sent me. I think they

are generally very successful. The imperial photograph in which the

head lanes upon the hand, I regard as the best that I have yet seen. I

am very truly your obedient sur vent A Lincoln. Only three months

later, Lincoln returned to Gardner's studio, with his him

secretaries, John Nicolay and John Hay. Being in a room photographing

powerful people is where it's at for me. When you sit someone down

for a formal portrait they have to be relaxed much they can't be

uptight it really goes to your personality and your relationship

with the subject. Alexander Gardner, apparently, had a good way about

him. We don't know that for a fact am you can see it in the pictures.

The relationship ended in February 1865. The last time the two men

would meet. Lincoln brought his son, Tad, to Gardner's studio. It was

the session that produced the masterpiece of presidential

photography. This photograph is what we refer to here at the

National Portrait Gallery as our Mona Lisa it's a rare photograph by

Lincoln taken by Alexander Gardner. It's known as The Crack Plate

Portrait of Lincoln. Of course the great crack that you see at the top

half of the picture. The glass plate was cracked during process.

This streak that goes across here. He made one print of this. Then

destroyed the negative. Which is... I'm glad there is a print. As a

photographer, I can understand that. It's ruined, that is it. He thought

this was a failure. What I love about this picture, Gardner hones

in on the subject is the bags under the eyes, the wrinkles here, the

grey in the beard. The war has taken extraordinary toll on him.

It's reflected here. Here he is, only a few weeks before his second

inaugural. It's an optimistic time much he has been re-elected. The

war is coming to an end. He sees the second term will be about new

beginnings. Some of that explains the smile on his face. What is

interesting to me, a lot of the pictures of Lincoln his tie is

skewed. I like that about him. He is more concerned about other

matters than the way he looks. I worked for President Ford, one of

the pictures that I took, I know his wife didn't like, he is wearing

striped pee jam yas and a bathrobe. It shows the personality of the man.

The way he was dressed. The fact that Lincoln didn't appear to care

about how he looked so much. Absolutely. Mary Todd Lincoln was

at often times critical of her husband's appearance. He was a man

who didn't get caught up in all of those kind of social niceties.

month after the cracked plate portrait, Gardner photographed

Lincoln's second inauguration. A month after that, the war was

essentially over. Gardner travelled south to photograph what little

remained of Richmond, the Confederate Capital. Back in

Washington, he was woken up with The evening of Good Friday, five

days after the official Confederate surrender, Lincoln and his wife had

been enjoying a life comedy at Ford's Theatre. The celebrated

actor and Confederate sympathieser, John Wilkes Booth made his way into

Lincoln's box. A single bullet from his pistol fatally injured the

President. He would die the next morning. There is an enormous

manhunt for John Wilkes Booth and his accomplices. You couldn't send

a picture around easily. Had you to get people to know what they looked

like. What were their names? How could you find them? They

reproduced photographs. Alexander Gardner reare reproduced those

photos. He had a popular and successful operation behind him

that knew how to take it. He had a photo of John Wilkes Booth. He was

commissioned to make the wanted pictures which were distributed.

Telegraph offices where a buzz with where they were. John Wilkes Booth

was kaugd and killed in Virginia. Booth's assassination of Lincoln

was only one part of a larger scheme that target the Union

leadership. Several of the conspirators were captured alive

and held on warp ships in Washington Harbour. More photos

were taken of this guy Lewis Payne. 10 photos taken of this gentleman.

It is rare to have multiple shots. In different poses. Handcuffs on

and off. Hat on and off. He was well covered. It's interesting that

Gardner started something that is very common now, recording people

who were suspected of crimes head on and in profile. This is

something that is either the first or very early version of that

actually being done. In the case of Davey Heral, who didn't do much on

the night. The man who was supposed to have killed the Vice-President

lost his nerve before he could commit the crime. All three men

were sentenced to hang along with one woman, Mary Surratt. She had

been found guilty of hosting and assisting the conspirators. The

execution was to take place at the Washington Arsenal. Gardner's was

the only photographic team given permission to attend. The

photographs he took on that July afternoon, in 1865, were the most

disturbing, the most shocking of his career. On July 7th 165 at 1.00

am-200pm some 50 behind us is where the scaffolding was set up to

execute the Lincoln conspirators. They had young women selling

lemonade, "get your lemonade, watch the traitors hang." It was

incredibly hot and incredibly humid. People needed something on their

stomachs to settle them down as they were about to watch an

execution. Gardner and his colleague, Timothy O'Sullivan,

positioned two cameras behind these open windows. One large plate

camera, one stereo scopic. This would be the first execution ever

The four condemned prisoners walked out under guard, they walked up the

13 stairs to the top of the scaffolding. There the order was

read for their execution. That was read by the yuen Officer. The

nooses were placed around their necks. -- Union. The umbrella was

held over Mrs Surratt's head. Then everyone stepped away. The signal

was given. The props were taken out from underneath the scaffolding.

The four prisoners dropped to their execution and deaths. This is the

moment where they pulled them out. It's motion here. It's not just a

sequence showing the events that happened. These are the work of a

great photographer. Somebody who knew how to tale story with his

camera. Even though Gardner was out on the battlefields, everybody was

already dead. This is watching somebody really die in front of

your eyes. They had the sensabilities to keep shooting away.

I give him a lot of credit for. That It take as very dedicated

professional. He is capturing a moment in history that no-one else

could have captured. He knew that. He had to make the gut decision of

just keeping the camera going and going and going, no matter how he

felt or how his stomach felt. Gardner's final image was made from

two square exposures stitched into one fan rammic photograph. -- pan

rammic photograph. This is the one that I find to be exceptional. We

have the bodies. Over here are the coffins and the graves are dug to

put them down there. They saw the graves dug when they walked out

from the building to the scaffolding. That is the most

amazing photo to me. I think that picture, to tell the story in one

frame is what it's all about, this Gardner's image of the four dead

conspirators symbolised an end to the savages of the civil war.

Gardner himself was only 43. His career was far from over. He

published a collection of his civil war photographs, in it he wrote,

"Here are the dreadful details. Let them aid in preventing such another

calamity falling upon the nation ." After the destruction of the civil

war, Gardner turned his camera towards the building of modern

America. They he travelled West to photograph the new rail roads, the

new cities. I have often thought that he needed to get out of

Washington. He needed to leave this war behind. It was a really

horrific four years of bloody conflict. I think that, by going

West, he was looking to, kind of, turn the page, both in his own life,

At the age of 58, Gardner gave up photography. He devoted his time to

charitable causes. He died three years later in Washington. In 1 81

of 82. He is buried in Glenwood cemetery on Lincoln Road. His

unremarkable grave gives no clue to his remarkable life. The great

American poet remembered him fondly. Gardner was a mighty good fella,

also mightly my friend. Guard guard was a real artist. He saw further

than his camera. His coverage, not only of people, certainly he was a

good portrait photographer, the photographs that he took on the