Gettysburg: A Journey in Time [Paperback]

William A. Frassanito (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1996 | ISBN-10: 0939631970 | ISBN-13: 978-0939631971

A unique example of photographic detective work in which the famous battle is re-created almost as if it were a contemporary news event. The reader is transported to the battlefield by the photographs and through the analysis of the photographs to the battle itself. We watch it unfold, action by action. In meticulous close-up fashion, with documentary force, we see the terrible encounters of men at war.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Fascinating reading... a remarkable book ...will delight Civil War buffs, those interested in the history of photography, and all who have ever walked over an historic battlefield. It should also provide a thoughtful lesson for historians who tend to underestimate what can be learned from a close study of photographs, for Frassanito has given us more than a book of pictures; he has produced a valuable work of scholarship.... He is perhaps uniquely qualified to do this: not only does he have a vast knowledge of early photography and of this particular battle, but he also has an intimate knowledge of the terrain and possesses a detective skill that would be a credit to Lieutenant Columbo. -- The Washington Post

The 'journey' is sobering and memorable. -- Publishers Weekly

The first definitive photo-historical record of that great battle. -- New York Post

Product Details

• Paperback: 250 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Pubns (October 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0939631970
• ISBN-13: 978-0939631971
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 7.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #620,838 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant analyses of Civil War photographs, December 6, 2003

By 

Peter V. Tamas (New Brunswick area, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gettysburg: A Journey in Time (Paperback)

If you visit the Devil's Den portion of the Gettysburg battlefield, there's a sign describing how a famous photograph came to be. The photographer claimed that it was a picture of a confederate sharpshooter who had been mortally wounded during the battle. The soldier evidently made himself comfortable before he died. The sign explains that the photograph was staged, the soldier was not a sharpshooter and that the body was dragged some 40 yards to the spot. The sign credits William Frassanito with having made this discovery after careful study of Gettysburg photographs.

This is the book that describes this and many other pictures of the Gettysburg battlefield, many depicting dead men or horses. Many of these photographs are famous in the sense that they are used frequently in civil books and now in documentaries. Frassanito demonstrates convincingly that several of these frequently used photographs are mislabeled, generally to make the photographs seem more interesting and therefore more saleable.

Frassanito was an intelligence analyst during the Vietnam War and won the Bronze Star. I feel that only from a lot of practice analyzing photographs during the war could he have developed the skill needed to make the many clever observations in this book. Clearly, his wartime experiences left their mark in other ways as well. He frequently loses the detached air of a historian and reminds his readers of the horrors the subjects of the photographs must have experience. For example, he describes how rapid decomposition bloated the bodies immediately after the battle and how in some instances forced open the corpses' trouser buttons. "Thus the trousers on the soldier seen here were most likely open before his body was dragged to this position, the dragging action forcing them down below his hips. Here then was a young man who, only three days prior... full of life...But by July 5... was just another nameless corpse, his faced pressed against the earth, his exposed buttocks, once carefully hidden in accordance with the vanities of civilization, a sign of war's ultimate glory."

This book has the potential to make you feel like an expert on the battle of Gettysburg. If you read this book, you will recognize misidentified photographs in even some of the best documentaries. Further, you will be able to find the locations most of these photos with the aid of this book, even those in less frequently visited portions of the battlefield.

I would recommend all of Frassanito's books to Civil War buffs, but this one above all. The section on the Rose Woods photographs is brilliant, more so than even the passage that earned a marker at Devil's Den.

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The seminal work on Civil War photography research, April 28, 2000

By 

Dennis J. Buckley (Harrisburg, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gettysburg: A Journey in Time (Paperback)

Many of us who are historians (credentialed or uncredentialed) have viewed Civil War photographs with suspicion. Example: "If these are Union soldiers, then why is there so little uniformity in their uniforms?" Or: "This body is described as that of a Confederate sharpshooter . . . but that's a federal issue Springfield rifle propped next to him."

William Frassanito raised such issues to the level of scholarly inquiry, and through painstaking research wrote the story of the Gettysburg photographs. We now know what and who we are looking at, and on which portion of the battlefield. This book and his companion volume on the Antietam photographs are indispensable for any serious student of the Civil War in the East.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unforgettable, treasured, often re-read classic, July 6, 2001

By 

William E. Adams (Lovington, NM United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gettysburg: A Journey in Time (Paperback)

I found this book in a Friends of the Library book sale in Hilo, Hawaii about l980, five years after it first came out. I think I paid 35 cents for it in hardcover, in perfect condition. It is the best bargain I ever found in my life. I re-read it every four years or so. I cannot imagine its owner ever parting with it, short of dying himself and having his clueless heirs simply donate his library without scrutiny. If you care about U.S. history, the Civil War, photography, the way historians think about a fresh approach to well-covered subjects, or just good writing and thinking, buy this book. It is worth whatever Amazon wants to charge you. I live now 2,000 miles from the Battlefield, and have never visited it, but if I ever get the chance, this book will go with me. It is simply, completely, brilliant. It can make you cry, if you aren't careful. It certainly makes you envy Bill Frassanito's achievement. His idea of contrasting the historical photo with an image shot from the same spot now has been copied with the Jack the Ripper crime sites as well as in his subsequent books. It was a great idea, and no one's done it better.