With the Artifacts Roadshow this weekend, perhaps this is a good time to share this fascinating blog post about using a high resolution Gardner image to find the actual names on a few of the tombstones of prisoners buried on Belle Isle during the Civil War.
From John Banks’ Civil War Blog:
Exploring photo of soldiers’ graves at Rebel prison in Richmond
On April 8, 1865, days after the fall of Richmond, Alexander Gardner captured scenes on Belle Isle, a 54-acre island in the James River opposite the former Confederate capital, where thousands of Union soldiers were imprisoned from 1862-65. Among the images Gardner shot was the poignant photograph at the top of this post of a graveyard for Union soldiers, many of whom died of disease, starvation or other inhumane treatment on the island that was home to nearly 10,000 prisoners of war at its maximum capacity. In the image, heaps of earth and crude, wooden headboards mark the final resting places of dozens of soldiers.
