A soldier stands tall at attention in his Union uniform, buttons and buckle shining. He has a bayoneted musket at his side and a gaunt look on his face. Behind him, a hanging tapestry depicts army tents in rows. A package or canteen is just visible, tucked under his arm.

The date was Monday, Feb. 9, 1863, and Robert S. Cooper, of Buffalo Township, a private in the 137th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment, had done what many thousands of soldiers would do. In exchange for a sizeable portion of his weekly pay, the 22-year-old Butler County resident had his picture taken.

That picture and thousands like it would be sent home, commemorating the soldier’s service and preserving his memory, collectively telling a story of the nation’s sacrifice and patriotism.

What’s more, thousands of photographers, equipped with the latest photographic technology, followed the soldiers to camp and battlefield to document the largest, the most-divisive and the most-bloody conflict in American history: the U.S. Civil War.

In the minds of many Americans, both then and now, the Civil War is framed in photos. From famous generals and historic battles to the common soldier’s experience, photography told the complex story of the war, shaping our understanding and memory of the nation’s greatest conflict.

Approximately 2.8 million soldiers took up arms in defense of their nation, North or South, and more than 750,000 of them were killed in battle or died of disease. Pennsylvania provided 360,000 troops for the Union Army and another 40,000 for the Union Navy. These numbers include more than 8,600 African Americans from Pennsylvania — more than any other northern state. Of the Civil War fatalities, more than 27,000 — sons, brothers, husbands, fathers and friends — had called Pennsylvania home.

The Civil War was notable not only for the number of combatants and the scope of death, however, but also because it was the first war comprehensively documented in visual media.

The federal government employed photographers to document army life and personnel, medical facilities and procedures, military equipment and fortifications, and, of course, military action.

But many behind the lens were independent, professional photographers who saw an opportunity to capture an important historical moment. One of the best-known photographers of his day, Mathew Brady, with a huge personal investment, hired a team of photographers to take photos of famous generals, battlefield scenes and places of interest.

Many of the iconic photos of the war documented the aftermath of battle. Because photographic technology required cameras with extended exposure times and complicated processing, live-action battlefield photography was not possible. Instead, photographers arrived afterward, tramping through bloody fields, strewn with shattered equipment and bodies.

The bloodiest day in American history, Sept. 17, 1862, resulted in nearly 23,000 dead, wounded or missing at the Battle of Antietam. Among the 125,000 soldiers fighting that day were men (and possibly women) from Pennsylvania, comprising approximately 80 infantry, cavalry and artillery units.

That battle also produced some of the most-memorable photos of the war.

Two days after the battle, as bodies and debris still lay across the fields, Alexander Gardner and his assistant, James Gibson, arrived. They captured scenes that could turn the stomach.

The photos were displayed to large crowds in Brady’s New York City gallery in October, prompting one New-York Times reporter to observe that the images conveyed the “terrible reality” of war to audiences on the home front.

“If (Brady) has not brought bodies and laid them in our dooryards and along the streets,” he wrote, “he has done something very like it.” Then, as now, audiences were drawn by a morbid fascination with the sensational.

This realism is a core communication function of Civil War photography, according to public historian and Pittsburgh native Rich Condon.

“For the first time in history, the public sees the horror of war,” he said. “The images had the power to transport the viewer to the battlefield. Even today, we can still connect to the Civil War through these photos.”

Photographers were well-aware of the commercial value of sensational images and took steps to construct scenes that would appeal to the public. Often, this included placing a camera in a location that would best capture a landscape. But sometimes photographers took things a bit further.

Condon described one case, in the aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg, July 1 to 3, 1863. It had been the costliest battle in U.S. history, accounting for approximately 50,000 dead, wounded and missing.

Attempting to reconstruct a scene months after the battle, according to Condon, one photographer posed local soldiers on the battlefield as though they were dead.

“One ‘casualty’ in that photo was in fact a hospital steward from Western Pennsylvania,” Condon explained. The man, quite alive, could be seen in another photo — and in another location.

In another post-Gettysburg image, photographer Gardner and his colleagues famously carried the body of a Confederate soldier 40 yards to a position behind a stone wall. The image, “Home of a Rebel Sharpshooter,” became one of the most-recognizable images of the war — but was, indeed, a work of photographic fiction.

Although most Americans would not have access to photographers’ studios or galleries, images of the Civil War were widely circulated, both during and after the war.

Mass-produced stereographic cards could be purchased from studios or ordered through the mail. The technology uses two versions of a photograph, taken at very slightly different angles and printed side-by-side on a stereograph card. When inserted into a hand-held stereographic viewer, the result was a vivid, three-dimensional image.

While popular stereographic subjects included natural wonders and exotic places, viewers could also gaze upon scenes of life in a Civil War army camp, bleak prisons and field hospitals, and even close-up views of battlefield dead.

The illustrated press also played a role in disseminating images of the Civil War.

Because halftone technology would not reproduce a photograph in the press until the 1880s, widely circulated illustrated periodicals such as Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper and Harper’s Weekly, started in 1855 and 1857, respectively, published images as woodcuts.

With the advent of the war, these publications sent sketch artists into the field to capture action as it was unfolding. Unlike photographers, with their bulky equipment and complicated processes, artists could capture the live action of battle, according to journalism historian William E. Huntzicker.

After receiving a photograph or sketch, the publications’ engravers would first draw and then carve the image on a block of wood so that it could be inked and transferred to paper.

“Publishers boasted the images were ‘true to life,’” Huntzicker said. “And with innovative production techniques, an illustration could reach readers as soon as week after an event took place.”

Civil War photographers and illustrators captured more than military scenes, however. Photographs also document ceremonies, expose heroes and villains, commemorate prisoners of war and depict wounded soldiers, including amputees.

But to the families of the Civil War, no image, perhaps, was as precious as the image of their own soldier.

Collectors estimate that between 6 million and 8 million soldier photos were made, according to Ronn Palm, owner of Ronn Palm’s Museum in Gettysburg, a facility that houses 8,000 to 9,000 original Civil War soldier photos and memorabilia.

“Some soldiers would have their image taken several times,” Palm said. “They were proud of their service to their country.”

Those photos typically feature a single Union or Confederate soldier posing in uniform, often holding a musket, knife, canteen or other item. Some images depict African American soldiers, who could enlist in the Union army beginning in 1863, and some depict women who took on roles as nurses, as aides in camp, and — yes — as soldiers.

Butler County Historical Society executive director Jennifer Ford explained that the photo of Cooper, taken that Monday in 1863, quickly took on a new meaning for his family. Cooper died 12 days after returning to Butler County.

“Families of the Civil War probably held these photographs as dear family keepsakes, especially after a soldier’s death,” Ford said. “In fact, we know they did, because they have come down to us.”

Today, thousands of Civil War photographs and illustrations can be found in museums and archives, as well as digitally through the Library of Congress and other online repositories.

Sweeping, intimate, reassuring or shocking, the photographs of the Civil War constitute a rich visual legacy for all Americans, keeping the memory of the war and its soldiers alive.

Katrina J. Quinn is a professor at Slippery Rock University and an editor of two books on journalism history, “Adventure Journalism in the Gilded Age” (McFarland, 2021) and “The Civil War Soldier and the Press” (Routledge, 2023).