Alexander Gardner: President Lincoln and Union officers at Antietam (1862)

(Libabry of congress, USA)

A photo from the Scottish photographer Alexander Gardner (1821 – 1882). The photo shows president Abraham Lincoln and a group of Union officers after the battle of Antietam (September 17, 1862). The Union general George B. McClellan managed to stop the confederate invasion of Maryland but McClellan refused to pursue the retreating confederate army of Robert E. Lee. Disappointed by the overly cautious McClellan and his and poorly coordinated actions in the field, McClellan was relieved of his command by Lincoln at November 5, 1862. The photo shows one of the several meetings in which Lincoln tried to get McClellan back into action. Present on the photo (from left to right):

1. Colonel Delos B. Sackett, Inspector General
2. Captain George Monteith, 4th michigan
3. Lieutenant colonel, Nelson B. Sweitzer,
4. Major General George W. Morell, 1st division of the 5th corps
5. Lieutenant colonel Alexander S. Webb, Chief of Staff, 5th Corps.
6. Major General George B. McClellan, commander of the Union army of the Potomac
7. a Scout named Adams.
8. Dr. Jonathan Letterman, Army Medical Director.
9. Unknown, perhaps Joseph Avey (or Eavey), the farmer who's house is in the background
10. President Lincoln,
11. Brigadier general Henry J. Hunt, chief of artillery
12. Major General Fitz-John Porter, 5th corps
13. Unknown.
14. Col. Frederick T. Locke, Assistant Adjutant General (staff officer of Major General Fitz-John Porter)
15. Brigadier general Andrew A. Humphreys, 3rd Division of the 5th Corps
16. Captain George Armstrong Custer

Photo taken on October 3, 1862.