Wounded soldiers at Camp Letterman
Collection of Fred Sherfy
This remarkable image of wounded soldiers at Gettysburg’s Camp Letterman in the fall of 1863 demonstrates the always surprising emergence of Civil War photographs more than a century and a half after the conflict.
None of the people photographed have been identified. But it captures an intriguing scene, with the man in the middle, dressed in the manner of a local farmer or resident, standing with his right hand on the head of the seated woman and his left hand on the head of the young soldier who has lost his leg in battle.
About 14,000 wounded Union soldiers and 6,000 Confederates were left behind in Gettysburg at some 60 field hospitals hastily established at farms and in homes. Camp Letterman was the largest general hospital erected there for convalescing amputees or others too badly wounded or ill to be transferred to facilities in larger cities. At its peak it had more than 400 tents; it was closed in January 1864, not seven months after the war’s biggest battle.
This image was unveiled July 2, 2023, at the new Adams County Historical Society in conjunction with the 160th anniversary of the battle. It was made by Peter S. Weaver of Hanover, Pennsylvania, in October or November 1863. Weaver is believed to have made 75 images at Camp Letterman and Gettysburg; only a dozen or so have been seen, leaving plenty of room for future discoveries.
Bob Zeller is president of the nonprofit Center for Civil War Photography, which is devoted to collecting, preserving, and digitizing Civil War images.
