Matthew Brady War Photographer

The following is a story of how Matthew Brady took pictures during the Civil War.

He is acclaimed of having taken hundreds of photographs of various combat actions during the Civil War. However it is not a well-known fact to most people that Matthew Brady was nearsighted.

So therefore the following is a short episode in the first major battle of the Civil War known as Bull Run.

O'Sullivan unloaded the camera at a vantage point below the smoke, close enough to a strain for washing, yet facing up the hill looking toward a stone house. Brady could hardly believe his dim eyes: there must have been 400 dead bodies lying up this long slope in front of him. With the sound of bullets whining and smacking nearby, O'Sullivan began the process of sensitizing the plates. In this heat, the coating, exposing, and developing would have to be completed within 10 minutes.

Brady looked nervously up the hill as his assistant washed the plate in the collodion solution, a mixture of guncotton and sulfuric ether and alcohol. When the plate flowed with collodion, O'Sullivan laid on the chemical excitants-- bromide and iodide up potassium-and, when that turned properly tacky, he lifted it into a tub containing nitrate of silver and iodized water. It remained in the darkness inside the wagon for four minutes. O'Sullivan then lifted it out, he drained the plate, and placed it in the lightproof folder. He then carried it dripping, to the camera.

Brady meanwhile ducked his head under and looked; he could make out forms on the ground, but little else. He walked forward to make certain they were dead rebels; at least the body in the foreground was, and the others could be called that as well. The Northern public, he was sure was not ready for pictures of Union soldiers that were dead.

O'Sullivan had the camera loaded. He tried to take his time and focus it properly. The nearsighted Brady could not do this in the proper way. O'Sullivan moved the camera slightly to get the the form in the foreground and focus properly, and grunted while he did this. Brady lifted the lens cap, counted to thirty, and ended the exposure. O'Sullivan pulled out the holder, raced back into the wagon and began to delicate business of dipping it into the developer of acids and soda. In two minutes, he ran out to the stream and held the plate underwater. Brady prayed there would be no mud to stick to the still gummy surface.

O'Sullivan just look at it as an image began to appear. The dead rebel in the foreground would be frozen in history as he was frozen in death. Brady could feel his heart pounding as a science so few now appreciated passed a milestone. "Photographed by Brady" of a nation at war. He told O'Sullivan to take the plate inside the wagon quickly and to bring out the stereo camera. The assistant heft to plate gleefully, saw his employer's warning frown, and carried his developed image inside. Brady was glad he had chosen the O'Sullivan, who followed orders and never so much is breathed on the sensitive plates.

The young Irishman was taking the next Brady photograph of the dead bodies when he suddenly let out a cry and dropped the little camera. Brady rushed over and picked up the little instrument, which fortunately had landed on a cast-off blanket; aside smearing of blood over one of the lenses, it appeared to be unbroken.

O'Sullivan was standing at his left hand, which was dripping blood. Both of them were apparently in the line of enemy musket fire. They ran as quickly as possible into the wagon, which however offered very little cover. Brady grabbed the reins while O'Sullivan fashioned a makeshift tourniquet out of a lenscloth. And only moments they were back on the road headed back towards Centerville.



It is a well-known fact that Matthew Brady did cover and photograph the first battle of Bull Run. This particular story can be found in Roy Meredith's 1976 book, The World of Matthew Brady, page 7. It covers this particular incident of this particular day at Bull Run.