Relics of War: The History of a Photograph

In 1865, Clara Barton traveled to Andersonville, Georgia, the site of the notorious Confederate prison camp, where she endeavored to name the missing and the dead. The future founder of the American Red Cross collected their relics and brought them back to her “Missing Soldiers Office” in Washington, DC, presenting them to politicians, journalists, and veterans’ families before having them photographed. Produced by Mathew Brady, the photograph depicts an altar-like arrangement of whittled spoons, woven reed plates, bits of bone, a piece from the prison’s “dead line,” and a tattered Bible. Relics of War reveals how this powerful image opens a window onto the volatile relationship between suffering, martyrdom, and justice in the wake of the Civil War.

Jennifer Raab shows how this photograph was a crucial part of Barton’s efforts to address the staggering losses of a war in which nearly half of the dead were unnamed and from which bodies were rarely returned home for burial. The Andersonville relics gave form to these absent bodies, offered a sacred site for grief and devotion, mounted an appeal on behalf of the women and children left behind, and testified to the crimes of war. Considering where and for whom the photograph was made illuminates how military sacrifice was racialized as political reconciliation began, and how the stories of Black prisoners, soldiers, and veterans were silenced.

Richly illustrated, Relics of War vividly demonstrates how one photograph can capture a precarious moment in history, serving as witness, advocate, evidence, and memory.