The Petersburg Project
  • Home
    • About Us
  • Blog and Updates
  • Petersburg Panorama 1865
  • Steeples of Petersburg
  • The Mine Explosion and its Crater
  • Petersburg in Pencil and Ink
    • Alfred R. Waud, Special Artist at Petersburg >
      • Waud Drawing of 5th Corps Fortifications
    • William Waud, Special Artist
    • Charles H. Chapin, Special Artist
    • Joseph Becker, Special Artist at Petersburg
    • Edwin Forbes, Special Artist at Petersburg
    • Winslow Homer, Special Artist
    • Edward Mullen, Special Artist at Petersburg
    • Andrew W. Warren, Special Artist
    • Enlisted Artists >
      • Charles Wellington Reed
      • Andrew McCallum
      • Francis Knowles
      • James William Pattison
      • Herbert Valentine
      • Howard A. Camp
  • Petersburg Photographs --So Many!
    • Working with Photographs
    • City Point
    • City Point Wharf Explosion, Aug. 9, 1864
    • Fort Rice?? We don't think so!
    • Federal Picket Line, Jerusalem Plank Road
    • Egbert Guy Fowx, Photographer at Petersburg
    • Timothy O'Sullivan, Photographer at Petersburg >
      • Fort Morton and Baxter Road Group
      • Fort Haskell Panorama
      • Fort Stedman Group
      • Gracie's Salient Group
      • Bombproofs behind Fort Haskell
      • Camp of the 50th N. Y. Engineers
    • David Knox, Photographer at Petersburg
    • William Redish Powell, Photographer at Petersburg
    • John Reekie, Photographer at Petersburg
    • Thomas C. Roche, Photographer at Petersburg
    • Andrew J. Russell, Photographer at Petersburg >
      • "Fort Mahone" CS Batteries 25 & 27
  • U. S. Military Railroad
    • Terminus of Military R. R. at City Point
    • City Point to Clark's Station
    • Pitkin's Station to Shooting Hill
    • Hancock's Junction/Jerusalem Plank Road
    • Parke's Station
    • Warren's Station
    • Patrick's Station
  • Maps and Topogs
    • Grand Medicine Pow-wow
    • Michler's Reports from Topographical Department
    • John E. Weyss, Cartographer
    • William H. Paine, Cartographer
    • Gilbert Thompson
  • Confederate Maps
    • Confederate Defenses 1862
    • Gilmer-Campbell Maps, 1864
    • Stevens Map July 1864
    • Fields of Fire
    • Coit's map of the Crater Battlefield
  • Federal Maps
    • Army of the Potomac, Routes of the Corps to Petersburg
    • June 18, 1864-Federal Engineers Map
    • June 18, 1864, 18th Corps
    • June 21, 1864, Federal Engineers Map
    • June 22, 1864. Second Corps at Jerusalem Plank Road
    • June 29, 1864. Bermuda Hundred
    • June 30, 1864 -- XVIII Corps Map
    • June-July, Undated Federal Engineers Map-
    • July 1864 Map of XVIII Corps Lines
    • Crater, Native American Perspective of the Crater
    • August 28, 1864, Michler Map
    • September 13, 1864, Recon Map
    • September 30, 1864, Warren Map
    • October 1864, Two IX Corps Maps
    • Nov. 2, 1864, Army of the Potomac
    • 1864, Coast Survey Map of Petersburg
    • NEW 1865-1867, Manuscript Survey Maps
    • 1864-1867, Michler-Weyss, Siege of Petersburg
    • 1865-1867, Michler Map Series
    • 1871, Map of Recapture of Ft. Stedman
    • 1881, Boydton Plank Road
  • Confederate Forts and Batteries
    • Dimmock Line >
      • Priest Cap
      • French Rifle Pits
    • Fort Clifton
    • "Fort Mahone" CS Batteries 25 & 27
    • Confederate 8-inch Columbiad
    • Leadworks
  • Federal Forts and Batteries
    • Battery X
    • Fort Alexander Hayes
    • Fort Avery
    • Fort Conahey
    • Fort Davis & Battery XXII
    • Fort Fisher
    • Fort Meikel --Photographic Views
    • Fort Morton
    • Fort Patrick Kelly
    • Fort Sedgwick, better known as Fort Hell,
    • Fort Wadsworth -- the Evolution
    • Fort Willcox or Battery XVI
  • Battlefield Features
    • Aiken House
    • Armstrong's Mill
    • Avery House
    • Bailey/Johnston Farm
    • Blandford Church
    • Broadway Landing, Appomattox River
    • The Crater
    • Cummings House
    • Dams and Inundations
    • WW Davis Farm
    • Dunn House
    • Friend House >
      • View from Friend House toward Gibben complex and Petersburg
    • Gibbons Properties
    • Globe Tavern / Weldon Railroad
    • Gregory House
    • Griffith Farm
    • Gurley House
    • Hare House
    • Hare House Hill
    • The "Horseshoe"
    • Jerusalem Plank Road
    • Jones House
    • Jordan House
    • Newmarket Racecourse
    • Pegram's Farm
    • Peebles Farm, Pegrams Farm, Poplar Springs Church
    • Shands House
    • Taylor Farm >
      • The Ice House
      • Surviving Taylor Barn
    • Williams House
  • Signal Towers and Trees
    • Some Operations of the Signal Corps at Petersburg
  • Archeology
    • Geology of the Crater
    • Fieldwork -- Petersburg
    • Civil War Sinks
    • Deserted Confederate Camp
    • Gracie's Countermine
    • LIDAR Forts and Batteries
  • Articles, Papers, Presentations
    • Shiman: A Note on Maps
    • The Siege Landscape: Through Fire and Ice at Petersburg
    • "The Rebel in the Road"
    • "A Strange Sort of Warfare Underground"
    • Lost Trenches of Petersburg: June 17
    • Between the Lines
    • Combat Trenching: An Introduction
    • Lowe -- Post-War Topographical Survey
    • Civil War Maps and Landscapes -- Observations
  • Kittens, Puppies & Ponies
  • Executions!
  • Notes on Leveled Earthworks
  • Civil War Combat Trenching
  • Depot Hospital at City Point
  • Dimmock Battery 5 Photographs
  • Pontoon Bridges
  • The Great Pontoon Bridge Across James River
  • Appomattox Mill Photographs
  • Campbell Dinwiddie County 1864

​THE PETERSBURG PHOTOGRAPHS


Andrew J. Russell

Andrew Joseph Russell was a photographer for the Army at Petersburg.  He was born in Walpole, New Hampshire, March 20, 1829, and raised in upstate New York.  He trained as a portrait artist and attained some local recognition painting political portraits and landscapes. Before the war, he opened an art studio in New York City and painted stage sets. When the war came, he painted a battle diorama to serve as a back drop for enlistment rallies. In August 1862, Russell returned to Steuben County, New York, to raise a company of infantry to which he was elected captain. The unit mustered in as Co. F, 141st New York Infantry, August 22, in Elmira, New York. In February 1863, the 141st was assigned to the defenses of Washington, where Capt. Russell met photographer Egbert G. Fowx who was working for the Military Railroad. Fowx took Russell on as his assistant and taught him the fundamentals of wet-plate photography. When Brig. Gen. Daniel C. McCallum was placed in charge of U. S. Military Railroad operations in Virginia, he relied on Fowx, Russell, and others to document his engineering efforts, including bridge construction, salvage, defenses, and railroad facilities, such as the roundtables in Alexandria, Virginia. Fowx and Russell also photographed quartermaster facilities, such as the bakeries, mills, and wharves at Alexandria, and the extensive cavalry remount center at Giesboro, Maryland. Russell was the only uniformed military photographer who served in an official capacity during the war. One of his more famous photographs were taken at Fredericksburg, Virginia, was of the Confederate dead behind the stone wall at Fredericksburg, taken in May 1863 during the Chancellorsville Campaign. The Library of Congress collection includes nearly 350 Civil War images attributed to Russell. Many Russell photographs remain unattributed.

In "Richmond Taken Again," an article in The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography (2002, Vol. 110, No.4), Susan E. Williams provides one of the best summaries of Russell's life and Civil War career, drawing upon military records in the National Archives.
  • Russell's photographs from Confederate Battery 25 and 27
Picture
Capt. Andrew J. Russell, stands atop the steps. Photographer and mentor, Egbert G. Fowx, leans against the pillar. Image from The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography Vol. 110, No. 4 (2002), pg. 440.
Picture
Pre-war tintype of Andrew J. Russell posed as Bohemian artist. J. Paul Getty Museum Collection.
Picture
Capt. Andrew J. Russell posed at Petersburg in one of his unattributed photographs [LC LOT 4166-E, no. 54].
Picture
LC 32433. "Chevaux de frise in front of Confederate fortifications, Petersburg, Va.," photograph by Andrew J. Russell. Taking a cue from Brady and O'Sullivan, Russell often posed in his own photos as a way to "copyright" them.
Picture
LC 32433 detail. In this image, Capt. Russell stands atop the Confederate fort in the distance, his slouching pose and uniform readily recognizable. Who was behind the camera?
Proudly powered by Weebly
Picture