A very interesting piece, indeed.
Having seen photos of the American Civil War previously, what always struck me was how much of the photography was done as the battle raged. Carting around a large format camera and glass plates while bullets and cannon balls flew could not have been easy. Taking photos during the battles was probably an almost impossibility.
The piece also alludes to another feature of conflict photography in that the photographs of the dead were almost always Confederate. I don't know whether the photographer was paid by the North to take the photos (the fact that they didn't pay for the plates and he dies penniless suggests not) but it's clearly not impartial reportage.
Taking this type of photos in the relative infancy of photography cannot have been easy.
