Headquarters Christian Commission in the Field, Germantown

A photograph taken in September 1863 shows a field camp set up by members of the U.S. Christian Commission, an organization devoted to offering spiritual comfort and supplies to Union soldiers and sailors during the Civil War. The photographer on the scene was James Gardner, but the image was later printed by his brother, Alexander Gardner, who used it in his two-volume book Gardner's Photographic Sketch Book of the War (1866).