Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 30, 1993 TAG: 9309290032
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JIM SCHLOSSER LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: GREENSBORO, N.C. LENGTH: Long
You'd never know it, though, from a previously unpublished Civil War photo that collector Bob Zeller recently discovered.
It shows 12 Union officers on the staff of Gen. George McClellan flopped on the ground. A black servant stands with a pitcher, no doubt of beer or harder stuff. A shot glass appears in front of one officer.
"Look at this guy against the tree," Zeller says. "His eyes are glazed. See the cigar in his hand. That's a wisp of smoke coming from it. The image is that clear."
Clear, that is, except for the blurred heads of two officers.
"These two guys failed the 1862 field sobriety test," Zeller says, while examining the photo in the dining room of his Pleasant Garden home. "The exposure was for eight seconds, but they couldn't hold their heads still that long."
Zeller, 41, is having trouble holding still himself, he's so excited about the photo and two others he acquired earlier this year. Alexander Gardner, a top assistant to famed Civil War photographer Mathew Brady, took the photos after the fierce Antietam battle Sept. 17, 1862.
After an exhaustive inquiry, including searching the vast Civil War photo collection in the Library of Congress, Zeller believes the photos are never-before-published vintage original prints.
One shows a battle landmark, Burnside Bridge, with Gardner's photo wagon on it. The third is of Secret Service agents outside a tent, the same tent President Lincoln was photographed in front of the same day.
"I can't be 100 percent positive that these photographs don't exist somewhere else," Zeller says. "What I can say is they don't exist in the Library of Congress and the National Archives, and they are unfamiliar to Civil War photo historians and they are not published in any of the volumes of Civil War photos." Until now, about 95 photos taken by Gardner at Antietam were known to exist. Make that 98, with Zeller's discovery.
Zeller is a reporter who covers NASCAR racing for the Roanoke Times & World-News and its sister newspapers in Greensboro and Norfolk, Va. Away from the tracks, he's an expert on Civil War photography, specializing in Antietam photographs and artifacts, including newspapers and letters.
While stock car racers zipped around the track in Dover, Del., on Sept. 19, Zeller took the day off and delivered a lecture at the Antietam battle site near Hagerstown, Md. It was the 131st anniversary of the battle, and Zeller publicly displayed the three photos for the first time.
Zeller says American war photo journalism really began with the battle.
"Gardner went out on the battle field and shot pictures of fresh bodies, and [the photos] were put on display in Mathew Brady's studio," he says. "They were called the Dead of Antietam."
Viewers gasped. These photos wiped out any romantic notions of war and brought the bloody reality of combat home - especially Antietam, often called "America's Bloodiest Day" because more than 23,000 Union and Confederate troops were killed, wounded or captured.
But as the photo of the officers shows, the warriors found time for fun. Zeller speculates the picture was never published because Gardner considered it private. He spent lots of time with the officers. They were comfortable with him and knew he wouldn't embarrass them.
Another of Gardner's photos, often printed, shows the same officers, along with two generals, in almost the same pose, but without the booze. The servant sits in a chair.
In the photo Zeller obtained, the generals are gone and the servant is pouring.
"Gardner may well have told the officers he was taking this picture just to commemorate their friendship, that he would not try to market it," says Brian Pohanka, a Civil War photo expert from Alexandria, Va., who was consultant to Time-Life's Civil War series and the Civil War series on the A&E Network.
He calls Zeller's three photos "a very significant discovery," especially the one of the officers. While amusing, the photo stresses the war's human element.
"When you look right into the faces of the men who fought that war, it makes a connection between their time and our time," Pohauka said.
The photo was shot on Oct. 3 or 4, the days that the officers' commander in chief, President Lincoln, visited Antietam to angrily ask Gen. McClellan why he wasn't pursuing Robert E. Lee instead of hanging around the battlefield.
Perhaps the photo provides an answer.
Give the U.S. Postal Service some credit for this historic find. Last December, Zeller mailed an original but often-published print to a restorer to be cleaned and patched.
While the photo was not remarkable, it was the only one Zeller had with Brady's and Gardner's names on it. Gardner, weary of Brady getting the credit while he did all the photography, split in 1863 to start his own photography outfit.
The restorer called Zeller later to say that the photo had been ruined in the mail.
Heartbroken, Zeller contacted a dealer in Gettysburg to to see if another like it was available. The dealer had one. "I'll take it, but don't mail it," Zeller told him.
He and the man met Jan. 3 on the Gettysburg town square. The collector mentioned he had other Antietam photos he'd acquired at a recent Civil War show.
The dealer showed Zeller a large picture book titled "Incidents of the War" bound in Moroccan leather. Zeller knew that Gardner had advertised during the war prints bound in Moroccan leather, but none of the volumes had surfaced.
Six of the nine photos inside were familiar to Zeller. Three weren't. He tried to control his excitement. Before buying, he raced home to search his extensive Civil War photo books. He couldn't find the photos in any of them.
Zeller also sifted through the Library of Congress' 8,000 Civil War photos and glass negatives. He checked the collection at the National Archives. He wrote to the U.S. Army historic section. The Army said the photos were not in its files.
Zeller sent copies to about a dozen Civil War photo experts and historians, such as Brian Pohauka and Bill Frassanito, whose 1978 book is considered the definitive work on Antietam photos. All said they hadn't seen the photos before.
"What a find! Wow." wrote John M. Priest, a Maryland historian who has written a book on Antietam.
Zeller won't say how much he paid for the prints, only he had to get a loan to buy them. He declines to allow close-up photographs of the prints because he's trying to recoup some of his investment by offering reproduction rights to magazines.
He calls them "vintage original prints," meaning they were printed directly from Gardner's glass negative soon after the photos were made.
Zeller's fascination with Antietam came from growing up in Maryland and visiting the battlefield often. His passion soared in 1972 when his parents built a cabin on Elk Ridge overlooking the battlefield. He bought his first original print in 1980. He now owns about half of Gardner's known Antietam originals.
Zeller, who worked at newspapers in Jackson, Miss., and Long Beach, Calif., before coming to Greensboro in 1991, hopes to build a house on Elk Ridge and write about the war. "I have about five book ideas on Antietam," he says.
Even though he paid handsomely for the three photos and the Moroccan cover, he says original Civil War prints are undervalued. He recently paid only $175 for an original of a non-Antietam photo of some earthworks. Zeller says artists who paint NASCAR scenes sometimes fetch higher prices.
NASCAR racing and Civil War collecting may seem a contrast. Not too Zeller.
"Both are very deeply steeped in Southern culture," he says. "I think a lot of stock car fans are Southern history fans, too."
by CNB