Gettysburg Devils Den "Faked Dead" CDV Taken By Peter Weaver

Gettysburg Devil’s Den “Faked Dead” Carte de Visite Photograph, Taken by Civil War Photographer Peter Weaver.

This carte de visite depicts a famous staged scene at Devil’s Den on the Gettysburg battlefield, showing an individual posed to appear as a fallen Civil War soldier. Rather than documenting an actual battlefield casualty, the photograph was taken months after the battle in November of 1863. Peter Weaver participated in arranging living individuals—often soldiers or local men—to pose as dead soldiers, carefully positioning their bodies to evoke the appearance of wartime death. Such images were produced to satisfy public demand for evocative battlefield scenes and played a significant role in shaping popular memory of the Gettysburg battlefield.
This image is back marked with a Sheaffer's New Gallery, Hanover, PA with a period ink inscription, "Gettysburg Battlefield".