The Petersburg Project
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  • 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
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LC 01829 detail. Camera wagon and photographer. Is this John Reekie?

​THE PETERSBURG PHOTOGRAPHS


John Reekie, Photographer at Petersburg

PicturePhotographer John Reekie, from an image showing officers of the St. Andrews Society, November 1865. Katz, Witness to an Era (1991), page 231.
Photographer John Reekie (1829-1885) and his wife Margaret were living in Washington DC, 7th Ward, according to the US 1860 census. Both were born in Scotland, possibly in or near Refrewshire outside of Glasgow--he in about 1829 and she about 1832.The couple emigrated to America in the mid-1850's. A Georgetown directory of 1858 listed Reekie's occupation as stone-cutter. The couple settled where they knew others from their Scottish community. These included soon-to-be noted Civil War photographer Alexander Gardner and his associate David Knox, both Renfrewshire in origin, residing in the District of Columbia. ​Gardner, Knox, and Reekie were all officers of the St. Andrew’s Society in DC, a group devoted to promoting Scots’ contributions to America and helping recent immigrants settle into a new life. Alexander Gardner began working for Mathew Brady when the Civil War broke out and then set up his own studio. In the need for assistants, he drew fellow Scots Reekie and Knox into his stable of technicians. The two men may well have learned the craft of photography from Gardner. Reekie and Knox were credited, among other photographers in Gardner's employ in Gardner’s Photographic Sketch Book of the War (1866). Reekie may be best known for “A Burial Party, Cold Harbor,” that depicts the gathering of bones of the dead from the Cold Harbor battlefield. Reekie continued to work with Gardner after the war on several Western expeditions. After Margaret died, John Reekie married Elizabeth Wilding in 1881. John Reekie died April 6, 1885, from pneumonia and was buried in Glenwood Cemetery, Washington, DC, beneath a simple oblong stone etched “J.R.” Elizabeth is interred next to him as “E.W.R.” His mentor and patron, Alexander Gardner, is buried just a few hundred yards away. --DL
​
John Reekie is buried in Glenwood Cemetery (Section G, Lot 219), Washington, D.C.

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A biography on the St. Andrews University website states, "​John Reekie b. about 1829 fl in 1882 Appears in US census, 1860, living in 7th Ward Washington City, aged 31, born in Scotland. Associate of Mathew Brady and Alexander Gardner, qv. His work appears in AG 's Photographic Sketchbook of the Civil War, 1866. He figures in a group photograph with AG, 'Officers of the St Andrews Society ', illustrated in D. Mark Katz, Witness to an Era. He was a Freemason, and one of the committee to 'consider and report proper action in regard to the death of our late Brother [ie Alexander Gardner] ' in 1882 Lit: Joseph M Wilson, A Eulogy on the Life and Character of Alexander Gardner..., Lebanon Lodge, Washington, 1883; D. Mark Katz, Witness to an Era. The Life and Photographs of Alexander Gardner, Viking, New York, 1991, p. 231.
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"A burial party on the battle-field of Cold Harbor / negative by J. Reekie ; positive by A. Gardner. Summary."
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"Aiken House, in front of Petersburg, Va., near headquarters Army of Potomac" photographed by John Reekie, Feb. 1865. [http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.35118]
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LC 00475. "[James River, Va. Point where Army of the Potomac crossed in June 1864 (Wyanoke Wharf?)]" The label is likely spurious. The image shows a corduroy road crossing a flooded stream, a stockaded camp on the right, and a lone rider. In the distance is a long, low ridge. Photograph by John Reekie.
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