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 Pywell, 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
    • Campbell Dinwiddie County 1864
    • 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
  • Blank Page

THE PETERSBURG PHOTOGRAPHS


Timothy O'Sullivan, Photographer at Petersburg

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Timothy O'Sullivan was born c. 1840, possibly in Ireland but likely in New York City to Irish immigrant parents. Little is known about his early life. He was entered on the confirmation roll at St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church, Staten Island, as "Tim Sullivan" in 1855.  He may have apprenticed at a daguerrotype studio on Staten Island but by age eighteen, he was working at Mathew Brady's Photographic Studio in Washington D.C. under the supervision of Brady assistant Alexander Gardner. O'Sullivan showed considerable talent and enthusiasm, and, when Civil War broke out, Brady sent him into the field with Gardner to help document the war.

Timothy O'Sullivan worked on Alexander Gardner's camera team to document the battlefield dead at Antietam in fall 1862. Gardner's and O'Sullivan's images, when exhibited in New York City, had a profound impact on the viewing public. Gardner, in particular, felt that he deserved some recognition for his work. Yet Brady viewed his master cameramen--Gardner and O'Sullivan--as mere technicians. It was Brady, whose prestige and financial backing for the cameramen, made for success. Brady took all of the credit. Public response to the Antietam photographs, however, encouraged Gardner to break away from Brady to start his own firm in early 1863. Gardner's team, with O'Sullivan as assistant, reached Gettysburg in time to capture a stunning series of photographs of unburied Union and Confederate dead on the battlefield. The Library of Congress credits Timothy O'Sullivan with 47 of these Gettysburg negatives, including some of the most graphic. Gardner credited O'Sullivan for more than half of the  negatives in his Photographic Sketch Book of the War, Part Two , and retained credit for all of the final positive prints. Gardner was an early adapter of new photographic techniques and an accomplished cameraman but his forte was the finished print that could be published and displayed. Looking through the lens of the camera, O'Sullivan had a special vision.


O'Sullivan may have been the most prolific cameraman of the Civil War. The Library of Congress curates nearly 700 Civil War era photographs attributed to Timothy O'Sullivan. Many others are O'Sullivan's work but are yet to be attributed. This is one of the goals of the Petersburg Project.

Biographical materials compiled and condensed from various sources, particularly Mark Katz, Witness to an Era: The Life and Photographs of Alexander Gardner, 1991, and Joel Snyder, American Frontiers: The Photographs of Timothy O'Sullivan, 1981.


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Detail from "Petersburg, Va. Quarters of photographers attached to Engineer Corps in front of Petersburg." (LC-B8184-7347). This camera setup was used to reproduce maps for the army. The man in this image is William Redish Pywell, who worked for Alexander Gardner and alongside O'Sullivan for much of his time on the Petersburg front.
PictureTimothy O'Sullivan posed in one of his photographs, April 1865.
During the winter of 1863-1864, O'Sullivan set up shop with the Army of the Potomac at Brandy Station where he reproduced maps for the Engineer Department and took numerous images of individual officers, unit portraits, and the winter encampment in general. He accompanied the Army of the Potomac, during the 1864 campaigns and remained during the siege of Petersburg at that time working for the army Engineer Department. The engineers were interested in the fortifications, and fortifications were a focus of much of his post-surrender work.

During the night of April 2, 1865, the Confederate army evacuated Petersburg, and the Union army marched in pursuit. Over the next week, Timothy O'Sullivan and his assistant photographed fortifications, likely starting with Fort Sedgwick on the Jerusalem Plank Road, then working north as the areas became more accessible. Afterwards, he photographed Petersburg's buildings, particularly, the mills along the river, evidently as they awaited for days for a pass to follow the armies to Appomattox Court House. By the time, O'Sullivan and his team reached Appomattox, the armies had already moved on.



Timothy O'Sullivan appears in a number of his Petersburg photographs, some of which are not attributed to him. These photographs were taken by his assistant, who thus far has resisted identification. 
  • Who was Timothy O'Sullivan's Assistant? -- "Vest Man"
  • O'Sullivan Photographs on the Baxter Road
  • O'Sullivan Photographs from Fort Haskell
  • O'Sullivan Photographs at Gracie's Salient


















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