Virginia Civilians After the Battle of Cedar Mountain

A Virginia family group—including a squirming child who appears here as a blur—poses in front of their modest farmhouse in the aftermath of the Battle of Cedar Mountain that took place on August 9, 1862. During the fighting, Confederate general Charles S. Winder was mortally wounded by a Union artillery shell and brought to this house, where he died several hours later. The distinction between the home front and the front lines was not always clear during the Civil War. Since so many battles took place in Virginia, the women who lived there witnessed more fighting than did the women in other Southern states. This glass-plate image was one of a several made after the battle by famed photographer Timothy H. O'Sullivan.