Extraordinary photographs from the Civil War

The 150th Pennsylvania Infantry camp on Belle Plain, Virginia, is pictured in March 1862, three weeks before the Battle of Chancellorsville. (AP Photo/Library of Congress)

Remember on Monday when I discussed things like Daguerreotypes, Callotypes, and Tintypes? One process that I talked about thrived during the Civil War. The "wet plate process" required a glass plate negative to be sensitized and coated immediately prior to exposure. I had a couple samples with me in class - perhaps you saw one? 

This article on Civil War photographs was recently published in The Atlantic and has some extraordinary images - most of which I've never seen before - that were scanned from the original glass plate negatives held in the Library of Congress and the National Archives. They're worth a look.

Byron