Is This the First Photographic Evidence of Slaves Emancipating Themselves During the Civil War- August 19, 1862?

At the Rector Tract Park (12223 River Road) in Remington, VA there are two tablets interpreting the site of the grist mill which sat next to the Orange-Alexandria Railroad in Rappahannock Station (now Remington, VA). Each marker has a photograph on it taken by Timothy O’Sullivan on August 19, 1862. One of these, in the second picture, shows slaves crossing the Rappahannock River just downstream of the marker. On this day General John Pope was moving the Union Army of the Virginia from Culpeper County to a more secure position across the Rappahannock River to Fauquier County after he became aware of Lee’s plan to move around his left flank.

**Slaves crossing the Rappahannock River at Cow Ford on August 19, 1862**

Below is the picture shown on the marker. It is entitled “Fugitive Negroes fording the Rappahannock (during Pope’s retreat).” In the left middle of the picture you can see a railroad bridge with a white building on the right side of the river. Union soldiers can be seen around the wagon, some on foot and others on horseback watering their horses.

This image below illustrates where the picture was taken right near but slightly downstream of Cow Ford on the Fauquier county side. The people in the picture are moving from Culpeper County to Fauquier County, the same direction as the Union Army.

These are close up images of the above photo from one of the four blog posts listed in the sources by John Hennessy the now retired Chief Historian at the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park.

**Large Conestoga wagon being pulled by four oxen**

**Young boy on horseback near the wagon**

A second different photograph shows the same scene. You can clearly see the bridge and mill in the background.

Other pictures taken the same day show the Union Army moving across both the bridge and ford. This picture was taken from the Fauquier County side and is thought to show the start of the column (ambulance wagons containing wounded soldiers) moving over the bridge. Wounded soldiers were commonly evacuated first.

The next image shows more traffic over the bridge. It is interesting to note that the bridge is clearly dual purpose. Not only can it accommodate train traffic but also wagon and foot traffic.

In one of the blog posts referenced below Hennessy also has two close ups of this image. The feet shown here moving across the bridge are not human feet but a herd of cattle. Armies commonly traveled with cattle to use as a source of meat and milk.

The next close up is from the left center of the image. A blurred image of soldiers on the move with a big dust cloud.

This image below was taken from the Culpeper side of the river. You can clearly see the bridge and mill.

A close up of the above image.

Above the bridge you can see a wagon train moving. These wagons would have to have crossed the river at Cow’s Ford.

All these images were taken on the same day, August 19th. The 20th New York State Militia crossed at Rappahannock Bridge and Cow’s Ford the next day. Colonel Gates described the passage of fugitive slaves across the ford. He wrote in The Ulster Guard in the War of the Rebellion “A great many negroes accompanied the Union army in its retreat, and some of them manifested the most extravagant and ludicrous joy when they got across the river. One party of them approached the ford a few rods below the bridge, where the water was two or three feet deep, with an ox-team drawing a wagon, filled with their worldly goods, and on top of these were three wenches, and a perfect swarm of ebony children.’”

Timothy O’Sullivan began his photography career as an apprentice in Mathew Brady’s Fulton Street gallery in New York City and then moved on to the Washington, D.C. branch managed by Alexander Gardner. When Gardner left Brady, O’Sullivan went with him, working for Gardner for a period. In July of 1862 O’Sullivan followed Major General John Pope’s Army of Virginia taking photographs at Cedar Mountain and Rappahannock Station.

A small exhibit to Timothy O’Sullivan can be found in the Farmville Visitor Center (121 East Third Street). He took a picture of the High Bridge in that city.