Antietam battlefield restages 1862 photo exhibit

[October 05, 2012]  KEEDYSVILLE, Md. (AP) -- The National Museum of Civil War Medicine is recreating Mathew Brady's famous 1862 photographic exhibition documenting the Civil War's Battle of Antietam.

The display of 21 original photographs and reproductions opens Friday at the Pry House Field Hospital Museum on the battlefield near Keedysville. It will be open daily through October and weekends through Dec. 1.

The battle on Sept. 17, 1862, was the bloodiest day of combat on U.S. soil. More than 23,000 were reported killed, wounded or missing. Two days later, Brady sent photographer Alexander Gardner and assistant James Gibson to photograph the carnage.

Brady displayed the pictures of dead soldiers at his New York gallery a few weeks later. The exhibition helped drive home the terrible cost of the war in human lives.

[Associated Press]

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.