Chattanooga from the North. Outdoor mammoth albumen. [New York: G.N.Barnard, 1865]. Image 19 3/8 x 15 3/4 in., mat 22 x 18 in. Publisher’s imprint and title printed to lower margin. 

An expansive view of Chattanooga, Tennessee, demonstrating the rural environment blending into a city of industry. Two seemingly isolated structures with a fence wrapped around them are in immediate view of the photographer’s lens. The eye is immediately drawn towards the bridge stretching across the two banks, connecting them. Plumes of smoke can be seen on the opposite side of the end, surrounded by clusters of houses, standing in stark contrast to the isolated houses across the bank.

This view would have been experienced by the Union army led by General Sherman (1820-1891) as they made the bold march across Brown’s Ferry and moved into the hills north of Chattanooga. It was during this operation that Sherman’s forces made a pivotal and strategic maneuver against the Confederates. They silently constructed pontoon bridges, allowing them to cross the river for a second time, overwhelming and driving the Confederate Army of Tennessee from the Chattanooga area. 

George N. Barnard (1818-1902) was an early master of commercial daguerreotype photography and a pioneer of "news" photography, documenting events occurring around New York City. He was the only photographer to accompany General Sherman during his famous Atlanta Campaign and "March to the Sea," as the official photographer of the Military Division of the Mississippi. Barnard's images of the campaign include haunting images of battlefields, stunning landscape views, public and private buildings, railroads, various encampments, military scenes, and the general destruction wreaked by Sherman’s army. 

General Sherman’s capture of Atlanta is widely credited as securing Abraham Lincoln’s reelection in 1864. Lincoln’s victory ensured the war would continue, resulting in eventual Union victory and the universal emancipation of enslaved African Americans. In 1866, Barnard published a book of his work titled Photographic Views of Sherman's Campaign; this view is included in the landmark publication, along with other examples of the ruined city of Columbia. 

[Civil War, Union, Confederate] [Photography, Early Photography, Historic Photography, Daguerreotypes, Ambrotypes, Tintypes, Cased Images, Union Cases, Albumen Photographs, CDVs, Carte de Visites, Cartes de Visite, Carte-de-visite, Cartes-de-visite, CDV, Cabinet Cards, Stereoviews, Stereocards]