War Views: Chevaux de frise, and breast works in the Union Fort Sedgwick, called by the Rebels "Fort Hell," showing two wounded soldiers,

April 1865

<p>Undeterred by dangerous circumstances and motivated by commercial success, Thomas C. Roche was among the few battlefield photographers to remain near the Petersburg, Virginia, front during the last days of the Civil War, producing one of the most extensive series of battlefield views. Many of his photographs are stereographs, a format that places two images taken at slightly different angles side by side on a single card. When viewed through a binocular device called a stereoscope, the two images coalesce into one, producing an illusion of three-dimensionality. Widely distributed to convey narratives related to the recent war, these stereographs serve as examples of photography’s role as a tool of mass communication.</p><p>In this photograph from Roche’s <em>War Views</em> series, the bodies of two wounded soldiers lie exposed atop the undulating lines of the temporary parapets—called breastworks—that extend into the landscape in the distance. As the caption on the verso of the photograph indicates, this view was “taken on the morning after the storming of Petersburg, Va., April 2nd, 1865” at a site called "Fort Hell" by the Confederate rebels. However, Roche might have modified the dates given to the photographs in the series in order to give the illusion that he had photographed the site soon after the battle. In reality, the production of wet plate negatives is a time-consuming process. Roche likely produced the stereographs days after the Confederate Army had abandoned the fort on April 3, 1865. <br></p>