page_title: Photographers of the American Civil War
section_title: John Reekie
hierarchical_section_title: Photographers of the American Civil War / Northern photographers / John Reekie
caption_attribution_description: English: (Cropped and color-corrected by Hal Jespersen. From Library of Congress: TITLE: A burial party on the battle-field of Cold Harbor / negative by J. Reekie&#160;; positive by A. Gardner. CALL NUMBER: Illus. in E468.7 .G2 (Case Y) [P&amp;P] REPRODUCTION NUMBER: ) Dansk: Begravelse på slagmarken ved Cold Harbor
context_page_description: The American Civil War was the most widely covered conflict of the 19th century. The images would provide posterity with a comprehensive visual record of the war and its leading figures, and make a powerful impression on the populace.
  Something not generally known by the public is the fact that roughly 70% of the war's documentary photography was captured by the twin lenses of a stereo camera. The American Civil War was the first war in history whose intimate reality would be brought home to the public, not only in newspaper depictions, album cards and cartes-de-visite, but in a popular new 3D format called a "stereograph," "stereocard" or "stereoview." Millions of these cards were produced and purchased by a public eager to experience the nature of warfare in a whole new way.
context_section_description: John Reekie (1829–1885) was another little known Civil War photographer. A Scotsman, Reekie was employed by Alexander Gardner. Reekie was active in Virginia, taking views at Dutch Gap and City Point, and in and around Petersburg, Mechanicsville and Richmond. Reekie's probably best known for his scenes of the unburied dead, on the battlefields of Gaines' Mill and Cold Harbor. One of his most well-known, "A Burial Party, Cold Harbor," was included with six others of his negatives in Gardner's Photographic Sketch Book of the War. It depicts African American soldiers gathering human remains on the Cold Harbor battlefield, almost a year after the battle. This photograph is notable for being one of relatively few images depicting black soldiers at work in the war.
  
  John Reekie was an officer of the Saint Andrews Society, a Scottish relief organization in Washington D.C., as was Alexander and James Gardner and David Knox. Reekie died on April 6, 1885 of pneumonia and was buried in Glenwood Cemetery (Washington, D.C.).
caption: "African Americans collecting bones of soldiers killed at Cold Harbor (by John Reekie; issued as Stereo #918, April 1865)[45]
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