THE PETERSBURG PHOTOGRAPHS
Fort Stedman Group
"Works in front of Petersburg, Va. Fort Stedman," National Archives (NWDNS-111-B-335). Battery 10 (on left), Fort Stedman (center-right) viewed from no-man's land. This grove of hardwoods on Hare House hill was an important landmark on the battlefield.
Residue of Battle. Detail of Fort Stedman from the above photograph, showing a gap cut in the fraise during the Confederate assault March 25, 1865. Attackers swarmed into the fort through these two embrasures at the southwestern angle.
NARA photograph, unattributed (likely O'Sullivan), 1865. Beneath the label "Fort Stedman," the fraise was cut away in the March 25th assault.
LC 00540. "Petersburg, Virginia. Fort Stedman in front of Petersburg," photograph by Timothy O'Sullivan. View looks south into Fort Haskell.
LC00540 Left half of stereo view. Fort Haskell in distance on left.
LC 00540 detail. View of Fort Haskell in the distance.
LC 32450. "Interior of Fort Steadman in front of Petersburg, Va." photograph by Timothy O'Sullivan.
LC 00515. "Petersburg, Virginia. Earthworks [Fort Stedman] in front of Petersburg." Battery X adjacent to Fort Stedman. Image by Timothy O'Sullivan (unattributed).
This stereo image has been identified as earthworks at Fort "Stedman." Dr. Shiman has convincingly matched image details with the Army engineers' plan of Battery Ten (X) and cross-referenced these details with other photographs taken in the vicinity. It is clear that the image was taken from the rear of Battery Ten, looking toward the Confederate lines at Colquitt's Salient. When Confederates assaulted this portion of the Union lines before dawn of March 25, they first penetrated Union lines here at Battery Ten and then entered adjacent Fort Stedman. With careful scrutiny, damage from the March 25th fighting can be discovered in this photograph, along with Union efforts to repair the damage in the weeks before the image was taken. In addition, the appearance of Timothy O'Sullivan's assistant "Vest Man" (Wm. Pywell) posed in the doorway of a bombproof is sufficient (by our way of thinking) to attribute this photograph to O'Sullivan. This stereograph was taken roughly at the same time as others in the Fort Stedman series.
LC 00515 right half of stereo. Dr. Shiman delineates the details found in this photo in the page below. Assistant Pywell posed in doorway of bombproof mid-ground on left.
Location of camera for LC00515 stereo view of Battery X, site of first Confederate breakthrough on March 25, 1864
Identification of Battery X photograph by Dr. Philip Shiman 2020
LC 02857 (LC-B811-3343B), stereo view by Timothy O'Sullivan. [Petersburg, Va. Interior of Fort Steadman; bomb-proof in foreground]. Certainly in rear of Fort Stedman, not necessarily inside.
updated September 2023
