View of the Destruction of the American City of Columbia

Unknown artist

1865

albuminedruk

Rijksmuseum

A wide view of a city street lined with damaged and destroyed buildings, with debris and rubble in the foreground. A wooden fence runs along the middle ground, and a horse-drawn carriage is visible to the left. A ravaged Arcadia, this is what Bernard seems to have wanted to portray in his scenes full of ruins and buildings riddled with bullet holes from the American Civil War. This view of the decimated main street in the once lively city of Columbia leaves nothing to the imagination. After the war Barnard published the photograph as part of the costly edition Photographic Views of Sherman’s Campaign.