Gettysburg: "In Company With The Army Photographer"

Charles H. Keener worked with the Christian Commission and tried to reach Gettysburg to help care for the wounded after the battle. He mentioned traveling with photographers, probably Alexander Gardner's men as they journeyed from Emmitsburg, Maryland, to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. This excerpt begins on the night of July 4, 1863. 

Keener's story about the Wentz family is rather exaggerated when compared to other sources.

After a comfortable night's rest, I was aroused by the tramping of horses, and soon found I was in the hands of the Philistines. General Stuart, with about 1,500 men, cavalry and artillery, were passing through the place on retreat.... I was thankful to escape being taken prisoner.... They left about 9 A.M....

Feeling it safe at 3 P.M., I started, in company with the army photographer, who was quite androit in escaping from the Rebs, and again took the direction of Gettysburg, reaching there at 6 P.M. We passed over the battle-field for more than 3 miles, where we had a fresh view of things as they looked two days after the battle. First we saw the smoking ruins of a house and barn; fences were all leveled; breastworks were thrown up on all sides; the road barricaded; dead horses laid about by dozen, and filled the road with a horrible stench. Though our army had held the field but 24 hours, we saw but one dead body on the road, and all the wounded were in houses and barns. The first of them we found at the house of old Mr. Bentz [Wentz], whose son had been South for 16 years, and came home on the day before the battle as a captain of a Rebel battery. His guns, during the fight, drew the fie of our batteries directly across his father's house, and some of his own shot struck the house and barn. The son was killed, but the father was so good a Union man that he would not consent either to look on the corpse or grave of his recreant son. Mrs. Jas. Bevan, in the town, kindly offered me accommodations as a member of the Christian Commission.

My first duty was to take baskets of provisions to the Seminary....

Source:

Charles H. Keener, Esq., Christian Commission Report, September 1, 1863.