Silent Witness

December 1, 2017

Military historian and collector of military images Field speaks loudly and wisely about the varied and revealing roles of photographers and their work in bringing the war "home" to Americans, Northern and Southern, and in providing a visual record that has informed understandings of the war thereafter. The book is studded with striking illustrations of portraits and cartes de visite, camp scenes, the dead and debris left on battlefields, life aboard naval vessels, other images from the day, and examples of photographers' work in reproducing maps--many from Field's own collection and never before printed. It attests to the remarkably mature and inventive photographic skills of men who traveled with the armies and navies to record "the war." The author's accounts of the process whereby photographers gained, processed, and exhibited their work shows their grit and also their business savvy. His approach is more encyclopedic than interpretive, but the details on photographers' lives and methods add useful knowledge to a crowded field of books on Civil War and 19th-century photography. VERDICT Readers unfamiliar with the photographic process will find this work especially instructive. Anyone wanting to "see" the war will discover it through Field's smart and telling selection of images.--Randall M. Miller, St. Joseph's Univ., Philadelphia

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