The Independent State of Croatia, founded in 1941, did not have the same impact on Europes demographics that Nazi Germany did. Nonetheless, the brutality of the genocidal campaign it conducted against its Serbs, Roma, and Jews is haunting. Its history and the memory thereof also contain lessons regarding the mechanics of genocide, terror, and commemoration.Read on to discover the little-known Independent State of Croatia and its genocidal campaigns, starting with the localized form of fascist ideology adopted by it, the states implementation of genocide, in addition to some of the questions surrounding the memory of that genocide.An Exercise in Contradiction: Fascism in Croatias IdeologyPhotograph of a forced conversion of Serbs in Glina, 1941. Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington DCThe proponents of fascism in Croatia harbored particular hatred for the Serbs, who they saw as traitors to the Catholic Church. This is one of the factors that sets Croatian fascism and the Ustasha, the fascist party, apart from other Axis ideologies, particularly German and Italian fascism. Additionally, the Ustashas leader and dictator of the Independent State of Croatia, Ante Paveli, saw the Serbs existence within Croatia as a threat to Croat culture. He believed the Serbs were products of Slav propaganda and were engaged in an effort to take over Croatian society for centuries.In defining the ideology for their genocide, the ministers of the Independent State (NDH) had to walk an especially thin tightrope. There was and still is no such thing as a pure Croat; Serbs, Bosniaks, Croats, Slovenes, Montegrins, Jews, and Roma had mixed and integrated for centuries. The only effective ways to define being a pure Croat were extreme Catholic fundamentalism and claiming that Croats descended from a Germanic people.This vision of racial purity contained a bizarre contradiction; it included Bosniaks, who were Muslim because Paveli believed they were merely Croats who converted to Islam under the Ottomans to preserve Croatian culture (Adriano, Cingolani, and Vargiu, 2018, p. 191).The Ustasha recruited Croat Catholic priests to supervise conversions, arrests, and even massacres. With the NDHs encouragement, priests who had lived alongside Jews, Roma, and Serbs for years turned on neighbors and friends.Surely Some Revelation Is at HandSerbian Children wearing Ustasha Uniforms assembled at Stara Gradiska Concentration Camp. Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington DCOn April 30, 1941, the NDH stripped all Orthodox Christians of citizenship, banned the use of the Cyrillic alphabet, shut down all Orthodox Christian institutions, and banned the term Serbian Orthodox faith. Anyone who could not prove sufficient aryan Croat heritage had to wear an armband.The Ustasha state made its attitude toward Jews even clearer when its ministers announced Pavelis state intended to pursue a similar policy to Nazi Germany. The state required them to wear yellow discs with the Croatian letterwhich stood for idov, or Jew (McCormick, 72).To terrorize Serbs, Jews, and Roma into conversion, Ustasha soldiers raided homes in Lika (Glenny, 486-9). These thugs emptied Serbian and Jewish homes at night, forcing families and people to arrange their affairs and belongings in mere minutes before dragging them away to extermination camps, the first of which, Koprivnica, opened in May 1941.By the end of May 1941, Koprivnica held 3,000 Serb Prisoners.In June, Paveli and Budak ordered the creation of three more camps two on Pag island in Slana, a camp for men, and Metanja, a camp for women, and one in Jadovno, a mountain town in the Velebit range.In August 1941, when Italian soldiers took over Pag, they found 791 bodies and an officer wrote in a report:upper and lower limbs were tied in the case of almost all male corpses. [] [L]ethal wounds to the chest, back, and neck produced by bladed weapons were verified on most corpses. The pits had been covered hastily with dirt and rocks, before all the victims had died, as proven by the tragic expressions on the faces of most corpses (Adriano, Cingolani, and Vargiu, 192).The Pag camps, however, were only a small ripple in a wave of violence compared to Jasenovac.Jasenovac: The Symbol of an Ongoing Information WarPhoto of an arriving inmate being forced to remove a ring at Jasenovac, unknown year. Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington DCThe facts surrounding the Jasenovac concentration camp and its related genocide are intensely debated today, with Serbian politicians exaggerating the statistics or Croatian politicians, such as former president Franjo Tudjman himself, understating them. The problem with debunking claims on either side, however, is that few objective statistics exist to define a concrete number of state-sanctioned murder victims from 1941 to 1945.Jasenovac opened in August 1941 and consisted of five camps on the border of Bosnia and Croatia. Jasenovac I and II shut down in November 1941 after the Ustasha executed all their Jewish, Serb, and Roma inmates because they lacked the extremist manpower to operate all five camps at once. Jasenovac III housed Balkan Jews, Roma, and Sinti before shipping them to extinction at Auschwitz. Jasenovac IV and V housed mostly Serb and Croat political dissidents.Jasenovac initially occupied 60 square miles of territory. By 1945, it had expanded to 130 square miles, which is roughly the size of Atlanta or Las Vegas.Wretched cattle cars full of hungry, tired Serb, Jewish, and Roma people made their way to Jasenovac in August 1941.Arriving prisoners of Jasenovac stripped of their belongings. Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington DCThe prisoners arrived at a camp built to house 7,000 people, but it never reached that capacity because people died so quickly. If they made it past the gates, they found the stench of overflowing latrine pits, unwashed bodies, blood, and decay overwhelmed all prisoners who stepped off the cattle cars.Occasionally, smokes scent came from the chimneys, and ashes landed on the dirt next to the rails and barracks. These ashes came from the camp crematorium, where the Ustasha thugs shoved living people into the furnace at a camp brick factory. Once processed and sentenced by the arbitrary and often bloodthirsty camp staff, one received a bowl and thin clothes; that is, if one was fit to work.Food typically consisted of hot water flavored with cabbage leaves. Prisoners ate grass and leaves, and in some cases, the corpses of dead animals, desperately clinging to life through anything edible they could find. Guards forbade Serb prisoners from any drinkable water. They would have to drink from the Sava River, whose once-pristine teal waters contained latrine pit waste and decomposing bodies.Prisoners forced to labor at Jasenovac. Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington DCWork itself often killed prisoners, as construction, agriculture, brick, and blacksmith work often put these tired, weary people in dangerous situations with no safeguards. Prisoners burned to death, fell off buildings, or collapsed under the weight of heavy objects.By October 1941, starvation began killing the prisoners. Day by day, they struggled to find food, some even descending to looking through feces in the latrine pits for undigested beans or cabbage leaves.Barracks were not suitable for survival either. They were hastily constructed and had several gaps in their walls and roofs, gaps that water and snow seeped through in the winter. A long list of painful, long-suffering diseasesTyphoid, typhus, malaria, diphtheria, and even the flukilled thousands of prisoners, whose bodies would be left to rot and worsen the conditions for the surviving prisoners.There were eight barracks; prisoners lived in six of them. The last two were the infirmary and the clinic. If one were sent there, it likely meant no one would ever see them alive again.Serbian Prisoners at Jasenovac. Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington DCGuards and staff at these two barracks would either wait for prisoners to die or, starting in 1942, take a group of dying inmates to the brick ovens, where people were cremated alive to make space for more prisoners.This was not the only way the Ustasha cleared the way for more inmates in Jasenovac. In the nearby area of Gradina, the Ustasha fenced off a patch of land specifically for prisoner liquidation. The Ustasha rounded up Roma and Sinti prisoners and marched them to this killing field to massacre them.After August 1942, seeing Nazi Germanys zeal for executing Jewish people, the Ustasha decided they would begin sending Jews to Auschwitz. In just one year at the single camp of Jasenovac, the Ustasha had eliminated anywhere from 8,000 to 25,000 Jews, which at the time constituted about two-thirds of Croatias Jewish population. The remainder would be Nazi Germanys undertaking. The Ustasha guards could then focus on greater Croatias Roma, Sinti, and most importantly, its Serbs.They did so until April 1945. In the process, this camp likely murdered about 100,000 people: almost 50,000 Serbs, about 20,000 Roma and Scinti, 13,000 Jews, 4,000 Croats, and 1,000 Bosniaks.The facts grow more disturbing looking closer at the demographics. Over 50,000 of these estimated 100,000 victims at this one concentration camp were women and children. During its operation, Jasenovac hosted over 50 mass graves, many of which were not even exhumed or discovered until decades later.AftermathRuins of the Village of Jasenovac, 1945. Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington DCAcross all of occupied Greater Croatia, a sum between 200,000 to half a million Serbs, Roma, Sinti, Jews, and political dissidents were murdered, over half of them being Serbs, recognized as the most populous target group in Ustasha territory. The genocide ended with the end of fascism in Croatia in the early summer of 1945. With communist partisans growing in strength, Paveli devoted his Ustasha to two things: fighting the partisans and fleeing the Balkans.A rat line was established at the Austrian border in the north with the help of priests who held Ustasha sympathies. Paveli and other higher-ups fled to Austria and then to Rome. From there, many escaped to Argentina, escaping the punishment they had dealt to countless others.As a new state, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia rose from the ashes of the Ustasha. The people of Yugoslavia were traumatized and struggled to trust each other. Titos government, on the surface, allowed each ethnicity to assert its identity and speak its language. But the reality was more complex.Photograph of Garavice Memorial Complex, Bihac, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Source: Wikimedia CommonsMonuments such as the memorial complex in Garavice, Bosnia-Herzegovina, are overgrown today and often prompt questions from the uninitiated as to their purpose. A plaque at this particular monument, with an excerpt from Ivan Goran Kovacics Jama, reveals its purpose: commemoration of massacres by the Independent State of Croatia.Similar to Germany in the post-war period, monuments to victims were constructed. However, in Titos Yugoslavia, seldom was the Ustasha discussed in schools or institutions. Consequently, with the lack of a formal, positive effort to reconcile with history, some of the communities in the region inherited a wish to settle the score while others feared another genocide.Thus, the Jasenovac concentration camp was often evoked by Serbs in the 1990s. When Croatia declared independence, even using the same coat of arms as the Ustasha on their flag, it prompted both frightened communities and communities wishing for revenge to take up arms against the new independent Croatian statewhich demonstrates this genocides long-lasting tensions and historical effects.ReferencesAdriano, Pino, Giorgio Cingolani, and Riccardo James Vargiu. Nationalism and Terror : Ante Pavelic and Ustashe Terrorism from Fascism to the Cold War. Budapest: Central European University Press, 2018.Council of Europe. Factsheet on the Roma Genocide in Croatia. Factsheet on the Roma Genocide. Council of Europe, n.d. https://www.coe.int/en/web/roma-genocide/croatia.Glenny, Misha. The Balkans : Nationalism, War, and the Great Powers, 1804-1999. Toronto, Ontario: House of Anansi Press, 2012.Jovan, Mirkovic. OBJAVLJENI IZVORI I LITERATURA O JASENOVAKIM LOGORIMA. Jerusalim.org. Belgrade, Serbia: GrafoMark, 2000. https://web.archive.org/web/20100331232624if_/http:/www.jerusalim.org/cd/izvori/jmirkovic-izvori_2000.pdf.Lukic, Dekan. You Are Going to Lose This War. The Guardian, April 3, 1999, sec. World news. https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/apr/03/3.McCormick, Robert B. Croatia under Ante Pavelic. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014.Pejakovi, Ivo , Vesna Tereli, and ino ivanovi. Slana Concentration Camp 1941. Documenta: Centre for Dealing with the Past. Documenta. Accessed February 29, 2024. https://documenta.hr/en/slana-concentration-camp-1941/.Tanner, Marcus. Croatia : A Nation Forged in War. New Haven ; London: Yale Nota Bene, 2001.Traynor, Ian. Franjo Tudjman. The Guardian, December 13, 1999, sec. News. https://www.theguardian.com/news/1999/dec/13/guardianobituaries.iantraynor.United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Jasenovac. Encyclopedia.ushmm.org. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, n.d. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/jasenovac.

Medieval battles were dominated by armored cavalry, but history reveals cases where archers were able to outsmart their rivals. Changing tactics only took them so far. New bow types, like the English longbow and the nomadic composite bow, increased the archers lethality. Longbows represented an equally powerful yet deadly weapon. These had a much faster rate of fire, power, and a range out to 200 yards. But longbows required years of training and good upper body strength, unfortunately.The composite bow became a primary missile weapon of many nomadic tribes, especially the Mongols. Made from several materials, including bone and sinew, these bows offered power and often even a better range than European bows. These weapons ruled the day in the following battles.The 1223 Battle of the Kalka RiverMounted Knight Source: Old Book ArtIn what would be foreshadowing, this battle introduced feudal forces and the Mongols. Both sides met on May 31, 1223, at the Kalka River (todays Ukraine) on the steppe. At this first-ever encounter, Genghis Khans Mongols probed east after defeating the nomadic Cumans. The Cumans asked their Rus allies for help. The Rus complied, calling in their feudal obligations to create a mixed infantry and cavalry force.Mongol Horse Archers Source: WikimediaAfter a brief skirmish, the Mongols retreated, pursued by the Rus coalition for nine days across the steppe. The Mongols used deadly volleys to weaken their opponents. At the Kalka River, the Rus cavalry stormed across to engage the Mongols. The remainder slogged far behind. The veteran Mongols cut the Rus off, annihilating them with archery, cutting down the lumbering knights. The Mongols then surrounded the infantry, grinding them down with constant barrages. Only a handful escaped.War of the Roses ArcheryThe Battle of Towton, by John Quarterly, circa 1878. Source: Wikimedia CommonsIn what would be the bloodiest fight in the War of the Roses, the 1461 Battle of Towton showed what superior archery plus tactics could do. The two sides, the Yorkists and Lancastrians, squared up during a snowstorm on March 29, 1461, at the village of Towton.The Yorkists placed the archers on the flanks with the wind behind them. Using the wind for better range, the Yorkists first volleyed into the Lancastrians. Stung, the Lancastrians shot back repeatedly against the wind, their arrows falling short. Snow and wind caused their miscalculation. The Yorkists advanced, grabbing fallen arrows to fire into Lancastrian lines.The Lancastrian lines, under a constant barrage, broke ranks and charged. With the Lancastrians hampered by snow, mud, and arrows, the Yorkist archers flanked their tired foes on both sides, constantly firing. With their cohesion lost, the Lancastrians broke and fled.Yorkist arrows slaughtered the retreating soldiers while others drowned. Estimates are that up to 20,000 Lancastrian soldiers died, again demonstrating the longbows terrible power and range.Archery in the Holy LandThe Battle of Hattin, by Matthew Paris, 13th century. Source: Cambridge UniversityThe Mamluks of Egypt, descended from nomadic Turkish tribes, made archery their primary martial skill. The European Crusaders learned this at the Battle of Hattin on July 4, 1187. This fight was the culmination of two months of skirmishing. Saladin, the Mamluk leader, led an army of 30,000 into Palestine, besieging one city to lure the Crusaders out.After a debate and some misgivings, the Crusader army marched to attack Saladin. During the march across arid plains, Saladins light cavalry harassed the Christians, firing arrows from a distance. The Crusaders camped on two hills called the Horns of Hattin for a tactical advantage. But the crafty Saladin slid past and surrounded his opponents.Saladins Mamluks Close the Trap Source: sina.comTo confuse and dishearten their ranks, the Mamluks set fire to any vegetation. Trapped under a hot sun, the Mamluk archers shot unremitting volleys. Any heavy cavalry charges met with such a hail of arrows that the attacks broke up. With their quicker mounts and better composite bows, the Mamluks danced out of range.In a final desperate move, the Crusaders tried to break out. This led to a collapse, including surrender or being overwhelmed. Saladins tactical use of archery played a significant role in defeating the Crusaders. Jerusalem would fall only months later.Longbows at FalkirkEnglish Longbow Example Source: PollyDotPixabayDuring this battle, the English longbow played a crucial role in blocking Scottish independence. English and Scottish forces clashed at Falkirk on July 22, 1298. The Scots used a schiltron formation (an infantry circle with pikes) to fend off the English cavalry. While good at keeping knights at bay, the tightly packed circles made for easy archery targets.As both sides took position, the English archers loosened volleys into the schiltrons. The arrow storm thinned the Scottish ranks, creating panic. Once done, the English knights charged, routing the Scots. Here, the English reversed tactics, using archery before a feudal charge.

Alexander Gardner is one of the principal photographers responsible for capturing the horrors of the Civil War and the adventure of the expansion into the American West, not only for posterity but for his contemporaries, shaping public opinion. His relationship with Abraham Lincoln was also central to shaping the presidents re-election campaign and legacy. How did a Scottish schoolboy become a pivotal figure in American history?Alexander Gardners Life Before PhotographyPortrait of Robert Owen, by W.H. Brooke. Source: National Museum of Wales, CardiffAlexander Gardner was born in Paisley, Scotland, on October 21, 1821. His family moved to Glasgow when Alexander was still young, and his father died soon thereafter. Alexander proved to be an eager learner, demonstrating proficiency in astronomy, chemistry, and photography. Despite his studiousness, he dropped out of school at the age of 14 and worked as an apprentice jeweler for seven years.New Harmony, by Robert Owen, 1838. Source: Mary Evans Picture LibraryGardner admired the New Harmony community in Indiana, a socialist-inspired commune founded by Robert Owen and Fanny Wright. Owen was a Welsh Socialist who began the cooperative movement, envisioning self-sufficient communes where workers collectively owned the operations in which they labored. In 1850, Alexander and his brother James traveled to the United States to purchase land in Iowa for a collective society of their own.After the siblings secured their property, Alexander returned home to solicit donations and members. He appropriated funds to purchase the Glasgow Sentinel, a weekly newspaper. Gardners political editorials galvanized the publication, which became Glasgows second most circulated paper within three months.How Gardner Became a PhotographerM.B. Brady at the Worlds Fair in London, c. 1853. Source: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.Gardner visited Londons Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace in 1851. This was the first time many visitors saw a photograph in person. For Alexander, it was his first introduction to Mathew Bradys renowned images, which ignited his passion for the emerging art form. Brady was one of the earliest and most famous photographers in America. He studied with inventor Samuel Morse and then opened his own studio in New York in 1844.Gardner developed a strong interest in photography, reviewing exhibits in the Glasgow Sentinel and taking pictures of his own. By 1852, Gardner stepped back from the paper, pursuing his newfound obsession instead.In 1856, Gardner immigrated to America with his mother, his wife Margaret, and their two children. They first went to the Iowa commune, soon discovering that some residents had tuberculosis, and Alexanders sister, Jesse, perished from the affliction. Gardner then moved to New York, where he met his idol, Brady, for whom he began working.Portrait of Alexander Gardner, c. 1863. Source: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.Brady admired Gardners work with the challenging wet-plate negative technique. This process required a glass plate covered in collodion to be treated in silver nitrate. When ready, it was immediately placed into a camera to take the picture while the plate was still wet. Practitioners needed access to chemicals, a portable darkroom, and other equipment to capture and process the image. Yet it created more detailed pictures with an exposure time of only a few seconds, gradually eclipsing the older, slower daguerreotype method.During Gardners early years of employment, he may have invented imperial prints, large 21-by-17-inch photographs magnified with coloring by hand. Prominent subjects commissioning their portraits in this style paid between $50 and $500. Over time, Bradys eyesight deteriorated, and in 1858, he selected Gardner to manage his gallery on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC.Early Photography of the Civil WarPrivate William B. Haberlin of Battery B, Pennsylvania Light Artillery in uniform with shoulder scales and great coat, c. 1861-1864. Source: Library of CongressDemand for photography boomed when the Civil War broke out, as deploying servicemen sought portraits to give to their loved ones. Relatives of a soldier marching to an uncertain fate desired an authentic memento they could cherish. Quick and inexpensive photography, such as the wet-plate negative style used by Gardner, met the new mass market.Matthew Brady observed the First Battle of Bull Run and decided to photograph the war itself. Gardners connection with Allan Pinkerton, director of the intelligence agency that became the Secret Service, saw this proposal reach Abraham Lincoln, who agreed.Brady sent Gardner and several other employees across the country, each working with a personal darkroom to process their images quickly. The team meticulously photographed Union camps and the outcome of battles. By November, Gardner became an honorary captain on General George McClellans staff.What Photography Meant in the Civil WarAntietam, Maryland. The field where Sumners corps charged. Bodies of Confederates in front of the Dunker church by Alexander Gardner, 1862. Source: Library of CongressGardners captainship provided him the opportunity to document the bloody aftermath of Antietam. Fought on September 19, 1862, Antietam was the single bloodiest day in American history. The battle saw more than 23,000 casualties and was also a turning point in the Civil War, as it halted Confederate General Robert E. Lees first invasion of the North. It also provided President Abraham Lincoln with the opportunity to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.Two days after the battle, Gardner entered the field and captured some of the most iconic wartime images ever taken. Over the course of two visits, he took roughly 120 images of the battlefield. Bradys New York gallery exhibited over seventy of Gardners images.Dead by the Church, by Alexander Gardner, 1862. Source: Wikimedia CommonsThrough the new medium of photography, the American public was first introduced to the carnage of battle. Readers, thousands of miles away, could notice every gruesome detail in astonishing clarity. The New York Times wrote of Gardners work at the New York Exposition: It is a thunderbolt that will crash into some brain.As practitioners of an art form, photographers acted as journalists, capturing and sharing subjects they chose, often with an unspoken message behind them. The North and South used their images for propaganda and for observation of enemy positions to develop wartime strategy.Gardner and Brady Go Separate WaysTitle Page Lithograph of Gardners Photographic Sketch Book Of The War, by A.R. Ward, 1866. Source: Library of CongressA rift arose between Gardner and his employer. Brady credited all his teams images as Brady & Co. As such, Gardner received little public recognition for his contributions. Brady was also in debt and perhaps unable to pay his workers. By the end of 1862, Gardner left Bradys studio. He was already an established artist with influential connections in political and military circles. In 1863, he began his own enterprise in Washington, DC, with his brother James and other former Brady photographers.Gardner traveled with the Army of the Potomac and documented several other important Civil War battles, such as Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and the siege of Petersburg. He mainly worked alone, only collaborating with a team for the massive engagements of Antietam and Gettysburg. Many of his works showcased the scale and violence of the conflict. When not on the battlefield, he took portraits of civilians, soldiers, and politicians in the nations capital.Gardner and his team published a two-volume book entitled Gardners Photographic Sketch Book of the War in 1866. It included one hundred photographs and detailed, poetic descriptions of each. Eleven photographers contributed to the book, and Gardner credited each one. He took only sixteen of the images himself but used his background as an editor to construct the narrative.Pictures of President Abraham LincolnAbraham Lincoln, three-quarter length portrait, seated and holding his spectacles and a pencil, by Alexander Gardner, 1865. Source: Library of CongressGardner took 38 pictures of Lincoln, more than any other photographer, as portraits, in the field, and at both inaugurations. The portraits functioned to promote the presidents national image and reelection campaign. Lincoln visited Gardners gallery twice and took an interest in the methodology of camera operation. Gardners images of Lincoln, captured from 1861 to 1865, demonstrate the Presidents involvement in military affairs and the stress exerted upon him over the course of the war.One of Gardners works could be the last image taken of the president, just five days before his assassination. Gardner also photographed the seven people charged with plotting to kill Lincoln, as well as the presidential funeral. He was the only photographer permitted to record the execution of the four conspirators sentenced to death on July 7th, 1865.Gardners Life After the WarIndian church at Isletta, New Mexico, on the Rio Grande, below Albuquerque, 871 miles west of the Missouri River, by Alexander Gardner, c. 1867. Source: Boston Public LibraryGardner became the photographer of the Union Pacific Railroad in 1867. He met with an expedition party in St. Louis, charting the future route of the track, and accompanied them from 1867 to 1868. The band ventured through Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, finishing in San Francisco. He published a series of 127 photos the following year in Across the Continent on the Kansas Pacific Railroad (Route of the 35th Parallel). These images captured the construction of the railroad in Kansas, native Indigenous groups, and other early images of the American West.Gardner photographed Native American representatives visiting Washington, DC in 1866. The government also hired him to document the 1868 peace conference in Fort Laramie, Wyoming. Gardner broke from the railroad expedition to travel by rail to the site. During these sessions, Gardner took pictures of members from the Lakota, Dakota, Northern Cheyenne, Crow, Sac and Fox, Iowa, and other tribes.Lakota people and non-Indians at the Fort Laramie treaty signing, by Alexander Gardner, 1868. Source: National Museum of the American IndianGardner did the same with federal political figures, such as William T. Sherman. Sherman was a Union general during the Civil War and belonged to the Peace Commission, established in 1867, to broker treaties with American Indian Plains groups. Gardner published these pictures in another book, Scenes of Indian Country. His success won him an appointment as the official photographer of the Office of Indian Affairs in 1872.Gardner established an insurance company in 1871. He also photographed criminals for the police of Washington, DC. He spent his later years aiding charities, furnishing relief to widows, children, and the impoverished. Alexander Gardner passed away on December 10, 1882, in Washington, DC.Alexander Gardners Controversy and LegacyHome of a Rebel Sharpshooter, Gettysburg, by Alexander Gardner, 1863. Source: Museum of Modern Art, New YorkOne Gettysburg photo, Home of a Rebel Sharpshooter, shows a dead Confederate soldier who seems to be depicted elsewhere in A Sharpshooters Last Sleep. Most historians acknowledge the likely possibility that Gardner or a member of his team moved the body for another shot. This deception appears to be the only example of altering a shot across his career. Some consider the absence of corpses in certain terrain shots unusual, but these often belong to a series of images taken after the removal of the dead had already begun.As an artist and editor, Gardner made conscious decisions not only in the images he captured but in which ones he published and how. Democracy and the triumph of the working class are prominent themes throughout the book.Gardners body of work holds value not only in advancing the art and science of photography but also in historical memory. His images left a lasting impact on how citizens experience war, while the subjects and their portrayal define how the conflict is remembered. Gardners pictures of Lincoln helped facilitate Lincolns enshrinement as the face of a nation during the conflict and an American hero thereafter. Photographs of the West captured a transition period as expansion brought the Federal government, private corporations, and citizens of all classes into contact and conflict with Indigenous groups. These images and their creator deserve recognition as foundational elements of mid-1800s America.

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Stylish soulslike Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is already soaring up the Steam charts, but its also the latest game to suffer a major user-score blowback amid performance problems. The action RPG wraps itself around Chinese mythology, following the likes of Black Myth: Wukong and Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, but turns its focus instead to the Great Plague of the late Ming dynasty. While the gameplay and world are winning hearts, optimization issues have seen it fall foul of the same overwhelmigly negative fate as Capcoms Monster Hunter Wilds. Continue reading New soulslike Wuchang Fallen Feathers soars on Steam, but user reviews are awfulMORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best RPGs, Best soulslikes, Best action games

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