Images from the Civil War Battlefields The American Civil War was the first major conflict that was photographed extensively, bringing shocking and often horrific images to the front pages and into people's living rooms. Photography was extremely popular in the US at the time, and many photographers did not hold back from snapping even the most graphic of post-battle images to illustrate the horrors of war. Several of the images in this gallery are graphic in nature and may be disturbing. After the Battle of Antietam, 1862. A soldier looks upon a Union grave, while the Confederate corpse remains unburied where it fell. "The Horrors of War. A Union soldier killed by a shell at Gettysburg, July 3, 1863. His arm was torn off, and can be seen on the ground near his musket, and entirely separated form his body. The shell also completely disemboweled the poor fellow, and killed him so quick that he never knew what struck him. Think of a battlefield covering nearly 25 square mi...