A. J. Russell, a captain in the 141st New York Infantry Volunteers, was one of the few Civil War photographers who also was a soldier. As a photographer-engineer for the U.S. Military Railroad Construction Corps, Russell was responsible for recording both the technical accomplishments of General Herman Haupt's engineers and the battlefields and campsites in Virginia. This view of soldiers and civilians below and upon a railroad bridge also shows a burned blockhouse (upper left corner) designed by Haupt and intended to protect a vital creek crossing.
