Death Image Center
Directions
Researchers often study images as a way to better understand a place or time in history.
1. Look at each image in depth.
2. Briefly describe what these images show.
3. Based on what you observe, list two things you might infer or conclude from these images. Explain.
1. Look at each image in depth.
2. Briefly describe what these images show.
3. Based on what you observe, list two things you might infer or conclude from these images. Explain.
Lincoln's coffin in City Hall, New York
On April 15, 1865, only five days after the Civil War ended, President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by a popular Southern actor named John Wilkes Booth, who believed in the Confederate cause. The nation was plunged into grief over Lincoln’s murder. His funeral train was hosted by thirteen cities, including New York City, which had its chance to pay last respects to the great president on April 25, 1865.
A harvest of death, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
More than 600,000 Americans were killed during the Civil War, many more than the number of American
soldiers killed in any war before or since. In the Battle of Gettysburg, fought from July 1 to July 3 in 1863,
about 51,000 Americans died in only three days. It was the largest number of casualties of the entire war and was considered the war’s turning point.
Burying Union dead at hospital in Fredericksburg, Virginia
Deadlier than the Civil War battlefields themselves were the medical camps and portable hospitals, where countless soldiers died from infection and disease. If an arm or a leg was broken, it was amputated. Caring for the sick and wounded was a major problem, and makeshift burial grounds were often built right outside hospital tents.