Revival History

 July 2nd, 1863, Gettysburg, Captain Bigelow's orders from Colonel McGilvery were clear, "Hold your battery in position in the Trostle farmyard at all hazards-sacrifice your guns, if necessary." Bigelow followed those orders up to the point that the Confederates were approaching the very muzzles of his guns and infiltrating across the Trostle Lane. He finally ordered his left two guns to pull out through the lone gate. The first gun overturned, blocking the gate so the driver headed straight for the wall. Bugler, Charles Reed describes what then happened, "horses jumping and the gun going over with a tilt on one side and then a crash of rocks and wheels." Dennis Morris excellently represented this event in his great diograph called, "Escape From the Deadly Corner", shown below. Timothy O'Sullivan's July 6th, 1863, photograph of the Trostle house included the area of the wall crossed over by the gun. In the cropped version on the bottom are some...

 Gordon, the man who never gave up on freedom, 1863 - This picture here shows a former African American slave called Gordon or "Whipped Peter" and the extent of the brutal whippings he received during his time as a slave.  The picture is known as "The Scourged Back" and it became one of the most important and recognisable pieces of Union material during the American civil war. It exposed the physical injuries slaves often received while being held prisoners. It inspired the populations of the Union in the civil war to continue the fight, and to aim to end slavery, which had become a stain on American society.  Gordon escaped John and Bridget Lyons cotton plantation in Louisiana in 1860. The plantation had about 40 slaves in total at the time of Gordon's run for freedom. He was chased after by bloodhounds but confused them by rubbing his body with onions that he stole and by jumping over a creek or going through a river. This messed up his trail of scent, which a...

 Wilson Chinn, a branded slave from Louisiana. Also exhibiting instruments of torture used to punish slaves,1863 Full length portrait of an African American man with a branded forehead, standing with an iron-pronged collar around his neck and wearing leg irons, other punishment devices at his feet, including a nail-studded paddle. Text on verso: The nett proceeds from the sale of these Photographs will be devoted excusively to the education of colored people in the Department of the Gulf, now under the command of Maj. Gen. Banks.