Port Hudson: The Most Significant Battlefield Photographs of the Civil War by Lawrence Lee Hewitt

Abstract

Reviewed by: Port Hudson: The Most Significant Battlefield Photographs of the Civil War by Lawrence Lee Hewitt Carol Degrasse (bio) Port Hudson: The Most Significant Battlefield Photographs of the Civil War. Lawrence Lee Hewitt. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2021. ISBN 978-1621904830. xi, 352 pp. $49.95. The photographic history of the American Civil War—although extensive—has only recently begun to receive the meticulous attention it deserves, particularly in terms of engaging with the historical and geographical context of extant images. Although broad photographic collections of the “decisive” Civil War battles have been compiled, few have undergone the type of comprehensive examination that Lawrence Lee Hewitt accomplishes in Port Hudson: The Most Significant Battlefield Photographs of the Civil War. Hewitt not only provides an expansive visual record of the Battle of Port Hudson, he also decisively corrects the many inconsistencies and inaccuracies associated with these photographs. Hewitt’s book—the product of four decades of research and collecting—takes on greater historical significance when one considers that military occupation and natural erosion have markedly changed the terrain, further complicating the visual record of the battlefield and surrounding landscape. This notable distinction sets the book apart from earlier collections that examine Civil War battle-fields in which the landscapes have been accurately preserved or restored. Here, Hewitt makes a concerted effort to correct topographical inaccuracies by supplying revised maps that depict the photographs’ proper orientations. Perhaps more importantly, he also painstakingly strives to provide proper attribution of the photographs, amend erroneous captions, and include photographs omitted from earlier collections, including those of Black troops and some of the first known “action shots” of any Civil War battle. The book contains 173 of the most representative photographs of Hewitt’s massive collection, covering a diverse range of subjects that include military and civilian spaces taken both during and after the siege. The photographs—some published for the first time—are arranged in chronological order to depict the topographical changes that occurred during battle as well as after its conclusion. Hewitt’s first two chapters provide historical context for those that follow— first, foregrounding Civil War photography both as an art and a business venture and second, providing a brief but thorough historical context for the Port Hudson battles. The other chapters are arranged chronologically, each focusing on one or more of the seven photographers whose works this volume includes. Each chapter contains biographical information on the artists, along with accounts of the photographic techniques they used at Port Hudson. William D. McPherson and his partner, A. J. Oliver, are given two chapters, with the duo’s [End Page 326] photographs of Port Hudson during and after the siege appearing separately. Apart from its sheer abundance, McPherson and Oliver’s work merits a second chapter for its uniqueness. For example, the pair’s work demonstrates some of the earliest attempts to produce combination printing as well as night-time and time-lapse photographs. Hewitt even suggests that some of McPherson and Oliver’s photographs are the first to show troops “engaged” in battle, although to do so, he extends the meaning of engaged to include photographs simply taken while the siege was under way. One of Port Hudson’s defining characteristics is that Hewitt does not simply present the photographs with a historical and geographical emphasis. Instead, he skillfully weaves the historical and geographical information into a narrative that also delves into photographic history and technology, battlefield archaeology, and cartography. The Port Hudson collection will likely never attain the level of recognition of photos of other battle sites; however, this type of in-depth visual study will provoke new scholarship on other Civil War battles and on Civil War photography as a whole. Carol Degrasse Southern Methodist University Carol Degrasse CAROL DEGRASSE is a PhD candidate at Southern Methodist University in Dallas and a 2021 NEH Summer Scholar. She has published on Rebecca Harding Davis, Emily Dickenson, Henry David Thoreau, and effective pedagogical practices. Her dissertation, “Visualizing Identity: Photography and Social Performances of Race in the American Nineteenth Century,” challenges widely accepted theories of race, visual culture, and performance by examining the roles played by aesthetics in framing social identities of...