Tag: by Reekie (John)

Wikipedia says: 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.).