The Petersburg Project
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  • The Crater
  • Petersburg in Pencil and Ink
    • Alfred R. Waud, Special Artist at Petersburg >
      • In Front of Petersburg
      • Waud Drawing of 5th Corps Fortifications
      • Rives Salient ("Fort Mahone")
      • Soldiers' Wells
      • The Mine Explosion
    • William Waud, Special Artist
    • Charles H. Chapin, Special Artist
    • Edwin Forbes, Special Artist at Petersburg
    • Joseph Becker, Special Artist at Petersburg
    • Edward Mullen, Special Artist at Petersburg
    • Andrew W. Warren, Special Artist
    • Winslow Homer, Special Artist
    • Enlisted Artists >
      • Charles Wellington Reed
      • Andrew McCallum
      • Francis Knowles
      • James William Pattison
      • Herbert Valentine
  • Petersburg Photographs --So Many!
    • Working with Photographs
    • Steeples of Petersburg
    • Petersburg Panorama 1865
    • City Point
    • City Point Wharf Explosion, Aug. 9, 1864
    • Fort Rice?? We don't think so!
    • Federal Picket Line, Jerusalem Plank Road
    • Timothy O'Sullivan, Photographer at Petersburg >
      • O'Sullivan and Vest Man
      • 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
    • John Reekie, Photographer for the Quartermaster Corps
    • Thomas C. Roche, Photographer at Petersburg
    • David Knox, 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
    • June 18, 1864-Federal Engineers Map
    • June 21, 1864, Federal Engineers Map
    • June 22, 1864. Second Corps at Jerusalem Plank Road
    • June 30, 1864 -- XVIII Corps Map
    • Undated Federal Engineers Map--June-July, 1864
    • July 1864 Map of XVIII Corps Lines
    • 18th Corps, June 18, 1864
    • Native American Perspective of the Crater
    • August 28, 1864, Michler Map
    • IX Corps, Peebles and Pegrams Farms Oct. 1864
    • Army of the Potomac, Nov. 2, 1864
    • 1864, Coast Survey Map of Petersburg
    • Army of the Potomac, Routes of the Corps to Petersburg
    • Manuscript Survey, 1865
    • Michler-Weyss, Siege of Petersburg
    • Michler Map Series 1865-1867
    • 1871, Map of Recapture of Ft. Stedman
    • 1881, Boydton Plank Road
  • Confederate Forts and Batteries
    • Dimmock Line >
      • Priest Cap
      • French Rifle Pits
    • Fort Clifton
    • Confederate 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
    • Hare House Hill
  • Battlefield Features
    • Aiken House
    • Avery House
    • Bailey/Johnston Farm
    • Blandford Church
    • Broadway Landing, Appomattox River
    • The Crater
    • Cummings House
    • Dams and Inundations
    • Dunn House
    • Friend House >
      • View from Friend House toward Gibben complex and Petersburg
    • Globe Tavern / Weldon Railroad
    • Gregory House
    • Griffith Farm
    • Gurley House
    • Hare House
    • The "Horseshoe"
    • Jones House
    • Jordan House
    • Pegram's Farm
    • Peebles Farm, Pegrams Farm, Poplar Springs Church
    • Shand House
    • Taylor Farm >
      • The Ice House
      • Surviving Taylor Barn
    • U. S. Engineers at the Williams House
    • 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
  • Encyclopedia
    • Glossary
    • The Battlefields
    • Siege Warfare
    • Union Lines
    • Confederate Lines
    • Combat >
      • June 30, 1864, Attack
      • Combat Entrenching
      • Trench Warfare in Civil War History
      • Chamberlain at Petersburg, June 18, 1864
  • Kittens, Puppies & Ponies
  • Executions!
  • Civil War Combat Trenching
  • Pontoon Bridges
  • Depot Hospital at City Point
  • New: Shot tower

​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
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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.
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Pre-war tintype of Andrew J. Russell posed as Bohemian artist. J. Paul Getty Museum Collection.
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Capt. Andrew J. Russell posed at Petersburg in one of his unattributed photographs [LC LOT 4166-E, no. 54].
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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.
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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?
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Detail from 524974a NARA, showing Fowx's photography studio at City Point. It hasn't been well studied, but, presumably, Fowx took portraits of individuals at this location. Note the earthwork in the background.
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