Trestle Bridge at Whiteside. Outdoor mammoth albumen. [New York]: G.N. Barnard, [1866]. 14 1/16 x 10 1/16 in., matted to 19 15/16 x 16 in. Photographer's credit and title printed to lower margin.

A well-composed view taken by George N. Barnard (1819-1902) in 1864 of an impressive four-tiered, 780-foot-long railroad trestle bridge crossing Running Water Creek at Whiteside, Tennessee. This bridge was constructed by the 1st Michigan Engineers and the United States Railroad Construction Corps during the fall and winter of 1863 for the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad Company. Taken early in Sherman's Atlanta Campaign, the view was included as pl. no. 4 in Barnard's landmark Photographic Views of Sherman's Campaign, published shortly after the war's conclusion in 1866. 

Barnard 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 re-election 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 as plate #4 in the landmark publication. 

[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]