historyThe Public Domain Review1860s · New York, USA
A Civil War surgeon photographed wounded soldiers and traced each bullet's path in red
During the American Civil War, surgeon Reed Bontecou photographed wounded soldiers at Harewood Hospital and drew a red arrow on each picture to trace the path of the bullet that hit them. The photographs documented how severe each injury was, which helped determine the level of post-war pension payments. The soldiers shown were wounded at places such as Gettysburg, Petersburg and Fort Stedman in 1863 to 1865. Bontecou later developed a first-aid packet of antiseptic bandages that soldiers could carry and use to dress their own wounds on the battlefield. Medical photographs like these were rare at the time and show the war's injuries in a sober, clinical way.
These images were used as evidence in pension decisions, so the camera became part of how the nation measured what the war had cost its soldiers. They are a direct record of wounds that written accounts could only describe.
Image: The Public Domain Review
