3-D Civil War Photos astound visitors to the Civil War Trust Website!

A history resources article by Mary Harrsch © 2013

I belong to the Civil War Preservation Trust and in this month's issue of their Hallowed Ground Magazine, they had a special feature "Gettysburg Aftermath in 3D" that included 3D images that you can see with the simple style of red/cyan 3D glasses.

There was a link to a special feature on their website that includes a bunch more 3D civil war pictures at:

http://www.civilwar.org/photos/3d-photography-special/.

As it so happens I had a pair of cardboard 3D glasses that I got at a Photoshop conference I attended in 2008 so I pulled them out and they worked beautifully.  I find the images have so much more impact when viewed in stereoscopic 3D!  There is a link on the page to order a free pair of 3D glasses so I ordered another pair as my Photoshop freebies were a bit damaged.

One of my favorite 3D images of the Civil War was this
 one of men standing on the deck of the Union ironclad warship,
the U.S.S. Monitor. Image courtesy of the Civil War Trust.
Note: It will appear in 3D if you request your free glasses!

My favorite images were those of a group of Union officers having breakfast at Brandy Station and one of two men standing on the deck of the U.S.S. Monitor, the first ironclad warship commissioned by the U.S. Navy during the Civil War.

Out of ammunition, a soldier battles for his
life with his empty rifle on this monument at
Gettysburg National Battlefield near
Gettysburg, PA.  Photo by Mary Harrsch  © 2008

For those of you unfamiliar with the Civil War Preservation Trust it is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to preserving endangered American Civil War battlefields and promotes educational programs and heritage tourism initiatives to inform the public of the war's history and the fundamental conflicts that sparked it.   To date they have preserved 110 battlefields in 20 different states.  Their efforts have preserved portions of famous battlefields like Gettysburg, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville as well as less well-known sites like Rocky Face Ridge in Georgia, Bentonville in North Carolina and Malvern Hill in Virginia.  The trust was instrumental in the conservation of over 1800 acres at Brandy Station where those officers I mentioned in the 3D photo may have met their fate.

Their website is rich with maps and free GPS-enabled applications for your smartphone that will guide you through a site when you visit.  There are also links for educators to order classroom materials including bundles of 3-D glasses and to contact individuals who will prepare custom slide shows for presentation.

I wish these wonderful tools had been available when I visited Andersonville, Chattanooga, Shiloh and Stone's River back in 1993!

By the way, if you don't want to wait for your free 3D glasses to come in the mail and feel creative, Chris Kemila shows you how to make your own 3D glasses with red and blue sharpies and pieces of cellophane on YouTube. These will work with older 3D movies and even the recent animated movie "Coraline" if you purchase it in red/blue format but to use these on the Civil War images that are made with red and cyan, however, you would need to adjust the hue setting on your monitor (unless you have a cyan sharpie!!)

Related articles

• Balls Bluff preservation efforts from CWT
• HOLOVISION: A Life Size Hologram
• Richmond National Battlefield Park acquires 251 acres

I see Amazon has entire books of these types of 3D Civil War Images!