Images of Death
July 2, 1863 - Second Day
"It was now near nightfall, and the operations of the day were over. ...I commenced the melancholy task of looking up my numerous dead and wounded. It was a sad list."
Brig. Gen. J.B. Kershaw, C.S.A.
Kershaw's Brigade, McLaws' Division
In 1863 this land was farmed by John Rose who lived in the stone house visible in front of you.
On the afternoon of July 2, Georgians and South Carolinians of Anderson's, Semmes', and Kershaw's Brigades advanced and retreated across this ground in their bloody assaults on the Wheatfield, located just beyond the woods behind you. Many Confederate soldiers fell here, the grim harvest of Union riflemen and artillerists.
The photographs in this exhibit are from a series of ten views taken here on the Rose Farm by Civil War photographer Alexander Gardner on July 5, 1863. The bloated bodies are unknown Confederate soldiers. They had been dead for three days.
Marker is on Brooke Avenue, on the left when traveling north.
Courtesy hmdb.org
