By the end of the Civil War in 1865, more than 600,000 American soldiers had lost their lives, including 40,000 Virginians, and many more were wounded. Virginia’s infrastructure – including railroads, bridges, farmland, and factories – was damaged or destroyed.
Alexander Gardner, one of the most famous chroniclers of the Civil War, took hundreds of photographs like this one of the Civil War and its aftermath. Gardner took this photo in April 1865 of the ruins of a paper mill to serve as a reminder of the damage Virginia suffered during the Civil War and the massive need to rebuild following the war.
Virginia’s wartime financial losses, including the value of freed slaves, totaled nearly half a billion dollars. Soldiers’ graves and smoldering ruins were the tangible signs of a rift that went far deeper. Anger, bitterness, grief, and fear overwhelmed the nation.
The U.S. faced innumerable challenges: How would the nation rebuild? How would the Confederate states be reunited with the Union? What did freedom for slaves really mean? How would the four million newly emancipated African Americans become part of society? How would the nation heal the wounds left by four years of bitter war?
Source: Alexander Gardner, “Richmond, VA Ruins of Paper Mill; Wrecked Paper-Making Machinery in Foreground,” still image, June 1865, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, accessed September 20, 2011.
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