Customer Reviews

Gettysburg: A Journey in Time

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Within a matter of days of the conclusion of the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1 -- July 3, 1863) photographers were on the scene to capture the Battlefield and its participants. These photographers included Alexander Gardner of Philadelphia, who began photographing the Battlefield on July 7 or 8, 1863, the famous Matthew Brady, the Tyson Brothers, portrait photographers who lived in Gettysburg, and others. Their photographs were arranged in series and sold in various formats to the American public which was eager to learn about the War.

Over the years, the photographs have been misidentified, placed out of sequence and, in some instances, forgotten. William Frassinto's "Gettyburg, a Journey in Time" (1975) was among the first books to recapture this photographic legacy, to study the scenes and the makers of the pictures, and to organize his material in a book for the modern reader. Mr. Frassinto has since published a number of sequels to this inital book as well as a study of photographers at Antietam.

The book consists of approximately 100 photographs, most of them dating from shortly after the battle in July, 1863 through 1866. There are also a number of photographs that Mr. Frassinto himself took dating from the late 1960s and early 1970s. These photos allow the reader to compare the original scenes with the current state of the Gettysburg Battlefield.

After a short discussion giving biographical information on the photographers and information on their visits to Gettysburg, Mr Frassanito presents and discusses the photographs themselves. His presentation is arranged in six groups: 1. the first day's battle (north and west of the town); 2. Cemetery Hill; 3. Culp's Hill; 4. Cemetery Ridge; 5. Little Round Top and Devil's Den; 6. the Rose Farm.

Mr. Frassanito introduces each group with a short description of the significance of the site. He then discusses each picture in detail, explaining when it was taken, what it shows, and its importance to the Battle of Gettysburg. The photographs are themselves eloquent and compelling and their effect is heightened by Mr Frassanito's commentary. I came away understanding the first day's battle and the fighting on Culp's Hill and Cemetry Hill on the Union right much better as a result of Mr. Frassanito's account and the photographs.

The most famous photographs in the book are probably those of the dead soldiers (in a few cases the photos were taken of live soldiers posing as dead for the photographers) on Little Round Top and on the Rose Farm. Most of these photographs were taken by Gardner because the dead were removed from the Battlefield relatively quickly after the battle. Gardner moved from south to north on the Battlefield and captured the few instances in which the dead had not yet been buried. The photos capture the terrible costs of the Battle.

Many of Gardner's photos have been erroneously identified over the years as originating from the first day's fighting on McPherson's ridge. Mr. Frassanito explains how he determined these photographs in fact originated on Rose Hill, on the southern part of the Battlefield. (The first day fighting was on the northenmost part of the Battlefield.) Yet misidentifications die hard. I have seen books which postdate Mr. Frassanito's which continue to attribute these photographs to the first day of the fighting.

The photos and the text in this book will give the reader a good sense of the tragedy and cost of this seminal battle. Mr. Frassanito's book remains essential for those interested in seriously exploring the Battle of Gettysburg.

I feel that Mr. Frassanito's work has been the catalyst in America's renewed interest in the Civil War. Ken Burns wouldn't have gotten anywhere without the groundwork laid by William Frassanito, beginning with this book. I highly recommend any of Mr. Frassanito's works. Tom Hahner Munhall, PA

This book by Frassanito is my favorite book in my entire 200+ book library of the Civil War. I love history, and I cannot recommend this book enough for those who tramp the Gettysburg National Military Park in search of what happened in July 1863. His careful research indicates the exact position that many famous pictures were taken from. VERY WELL DONE!

An excellent and suprisingly absorbing photo record of the Gettysburg battlefield. Frassanito using exacting research and the bloodhound qualities of a detective precisely places and orients the famous Civil War photos of Gettyburg. In the biggest coup of the study he finds that some of the most renown photos were actually made around the Rose Farm and not McPherson's Wood. As the title indicates this book does seem to draw the reader back to the instant in time frozen by the camera way back in 1863-66. Coming across this book by pure chance it was with suprised pleasure that I read and studied the poinant photos.

Mr. Frassanito has performed magic. His painstaking research has clarified the battle of Gettysburg for all time. Because of his book, I have scoured the Gettysburg battlefield, book in hand, and have revisted each site he identifies. He truly deserves recognition as one of America's all time great historian - detectives.

this is a fascinating book for both civil war buffs and those interested in early photography. frassanito is an excellent writer and his detective work is unbelievably thorough. i can't recommend this book enough!

Most history books, especially those written for the public, seek to make the events come alive in some way. The author did that in a completely unique way. Take the old photos and find the positions from which they were taken and show what the areas look like today. You can use these to walk to the very point where some photo was taken, and it really brings that history home. Also, the author works those photos into a discourse on the battle, while using his photoanalysis skills to shed new light on the contents of the photos. All in all, this book is endlessly fascinating, well worth the money, and deserving of a wider audience than it probably has.