Barnard was one of several unacknowledged photographers who worked for Civil War photographer Matthew Brady before setting out on his own in 1863. Serving as official photographer for the Army of the Cumberland’s topographical branch of the Department of Engineers, Barnard documented notable battlefields, military works, bridges, and topographical views. His best-known works are his striking images documenting Sherman’s march to the sea. Bernard published sixty-one albumen plates from this project in 1866 in an album titled Photographic Views of Sherman’s Campaign. Like other Civil War photographers, Barnard did not have the technology to capture live combat, so he often visited sites months after the battles had ended. Barnard frequently accentuated scenes of devastation with an imposed rendering of dramatic skies—a technique that is evident here.