Bullet and Shell Civil War Projectiles Forum
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: speedenforcer on September 08, 2018, 08:38:28 PM
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I wish I could post the picture but cant. Everyone one on here knows the famous photo. I'm speaking of one of the Gettysburg photos, the one that is a close up of a dead reb, his abdomen is ripped open and his hand is blown off and is lying beside him with a canteen in the foreground and his musket is lying across his legs with bayonet attached. Yall have seen it. My question is, Is that an un-detonated 10 pound parrot round lying in the background next to his body? I never noticed it before.
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I suspect you are referring to the one below I snipped from the full image. And I'd say that it is indeed a Parrott shell. Unfortunately the graininess and size doesn't allow (me at least) the ability to discern if it is a Parrott, Read-Parrott or Read but I'd say from the shell's profile it is a Parrott or Read-Parrott. If we could find a high resolution scan of the original then we could probably tell more detail about the sabot.
The full image is here (Warning: Not for weak of stomach):
https://allthatsinteresting.com/battle-of-gettysburg-photos#6
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It is a well known fact that some of the photos at Gettysburg were staged. To me this appears to be staged as well. Although it is a real dead body I think the whole rifle laying cross his legs and the shell laying the way it is just appears to me to be staged. Opinions?
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Agreed, completely staged. The weapon is probably a prop along with the projectile. There are accounts of photographers dragging the same body around to pose in different shots at gettysburg (IE: famous home of the sharpshooter image at Devils Den). By the time they got there, many of the bodies were buried in several sectors of the battlefield.
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Do to the condition of the body I do not believe it was moved around the battlefield like the "Sharpshooter" was. I think the location of the photograph IS the spot of his demise. The photographer did take the liberty of adding props however. That's my opinion.
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Lol, no i don't think that body was drug around. Yuck
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Here's the link to an extremely comprehensive study on the Devil's Den sharpshooter photos -
http://www.jamescgroves.com/henry/summary.htm
It may have been posted on here years ago. You gotta really be interested to read the whole thing - but, if you do, you'll be convinced the body was found at DD, & then dragged downhill for the other set of pictures. The Gettysburg National Park's official position is that the body was dragged uphill - but the rangers (or at least the ones I'm aware of) disagree.