Timothy H. O'Sullivan, Photographer Following the Union capture of Fort Fisher in January 1865, Timothy H. O'Sullivan arrived to capture the fort yet again — through the lens of a camera. His remarkable series of images of the battle-ravaged fort provides a telling visual chronicle of Fisher's main structures and components. In these haunting images, the devastation wrought upon Fort Fisher by the Union naval bombardment is unmistakable. O'Sullivan began his career as an apprentice to the famous photographer Mathew Brady. In the early stages of the American Civil War, he left the Brady gallery and soon joined the studio of Alexander Gardner. O'Sullivan is recognized as one of the most important field photographers of his era. This distinction later earned him a position with the Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel, the first survey of the American West. He returned to Washington, D.C., in 1874 and made prints for the Army Corps of Engineers, and later became chief photographer for the United States Treasury. He died of tuberculosis at the age of forty-one. NORTHEAST BASTION — The "Redan Battery" (Exterior View - with Land Face extending to the right.) NORTHERN BATTLEMENTS — Land Face (Exterior View - with palisades.) THE WESTERN SALIENT — Shepherd's Battery (Interior View — with Parrott rifle visible in the third gun chamber at right.) THE WESTERN SALIENT — Second Gun Chamber of Shepherd's Battery (Interior View — showing demolished front-pintle barbette carriage, and columbiad tube.) THE LAND FRONT — Single-Gun Battery (Interior View — showing demolished front-pintle barbette carriage and tube.) THE PULPIT — (Right) Sea Face (Interior View. The magazine explosion occurred in the area pictured in the foreground.) THE COLUMBIAD BATTERY — Sea Face (Interior View. Spent rounds from the Union naval bombardment litter the open plain in the foreground.) THE COLUMBIAD BATTERY — Sea Face (Interior Detail - 3rd & 4th Traverses — showing demolished gun carriages and tubes. Note the shot damage from an apparent direct hit to the masonry revetment of the fourth traverse.) THE COLUMBIAD BATTERY — Sea Face (Exterior View - with Cumberland Battery Visible on the Right THE MOUND BATTERY — Sea Face (North Side — showing inclined railway and flagstaff.)
Timothy H. O'Sullivan, Photographer Following the Union capture of Fort Fisher in January 1865, Timothy H. O'Sullivan arrived to capture the fort yet again — through the lens of a camera. His remarkable series of images of the battle-ravaged fort provides a telling visual chronicle of Fisher's main structures and components. In these haunting images, the devastation wrought upon Fort Fisher by the Union naval bombardment is unmistakable. O'Sullivan began his career as an apprentice to the famous photographer Mathew Brady. In the early stages of the American Civil War, he left the Brady gallery and soon joined the studio of Alexander Gardner. O'Sullivan is recognized as one of the most important field photographers of his era. This distinction later earned him a position with the Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel, the first survey of the American West. He returned to Washington, D.C., in 1874 and made prints for the Army Corps of Engineers, and later became chief photographer for the United States Treasury. He died of tuberculosis at the age of forty-one. NORTHEAST BASTION — The "Redan Battery" (Exterior View - with Land Face extending to the right.) NORTHERN BATTLEMENTS — Land Face (Exterior View - with palisades.) THE WESTERN SALIENT — Shepherd's Battery (Interior View — with Parrott rifle visible in the third gun chamber at right.) THE WESTERN SALIENT — Second Gun Chamber of Shepherd's Battery (Interior View — showing demolished front-pintle barbette carriage, and columbiad tube.) THE LAND FRONT — Single-Gun Battery (Interior View — showing demolished front-pintle barbette carriage and tube.) THE PULPIT — (Right) Sea Face (Interior View. The magazine explosion occurred in the area pictured in the foreground.) THE COLUMBIAD BATTERY — Sea Face (Interior View. Spent rounds from the Union naval bombardment litter the open plain in the foreground.) THE COLUMBIAD BATTERY — Sea Face (Interior Detail - 3rd & 4th Traverses — showing demolished gun carriages and tubes. Note the shot damage from an apparent direct hit to the masonry revetment of the fourth traverse.) THE COLUMBIAD BATTERY — Sea Face (Exterior View - with Cumberland Battery Visible on the Right THE MOUND BATTERY — Sea Face (North Side — showing inclined railway and flagstaff.)
