25 Horrifying Images of The Civil War

Troops of the 96th Regiment, Pennsylvania Infantry, drill at Camp Northumberland near Washington, D.C. Tasked with defending the nation’s capital until March 1862, they would later participate in the major battles of Antietam and Gettysburg, among other engagements.

Wounded Union soldiers awaiting treatment at a Union field hospital at Savage Station, Virginia. The soldiers fought at the Battle of Savage Station in 1862 as part of the Seven Days Battles during the Peninsula Campaign.

The First National Flag of the Confederacy – as opposed to the familiar X-crossed banner commonly called the Confederate flag – flies over this Union stronghold in Charleston Harbor after it surrendered to the Rebels following bombardment by the South Carolina Militia, in what are considered the first shots of the Civil War.

Union troops occupying Confederate bunker defenses outside Atlanta, a vital transportation and manufacturing hub for the Rebels, circa 1863.

The Union Army in fortified positions on a hillside during the siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi, in 1863.