End of the Bridge after Burnside's Attack, Fredericksburg, Virginia

Andrew Joseph Russell American
 Formerly attributed to Mathew B. Brady American, born Ireland

Not on view

Likely made in April 1863 during a truce just before the Battle of Chancellorsville, this view from the buttress of a ruined railroad bridge spanning the Rappahannock River at Fredericksburg documents a small group of Confederate soldiers and civilians. They stare across the divide at their fellow combatants and pose for the camera. Russell’s long focal-length lens compressed foreground and background elements, suggesting that the two sides were actually closer than they were. It is the only known landscape view or portrait by a Union photographer showing the enemy neither dead, incarcerated, or under visible military control.

End of the Bridge after Burnside's Attack, Fredericksburg, Virginia, Andrew Joseph Russell (American, 1830–1902), Albumen silver print from glass negative

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