Confederate Spy Photography

A CONFEDERATE SECRET SERVICE PHOTOGRAPH OF THE FIRST INDIANA HEAVY ARTILLERY

This remarkable photograph is here published for the first time. It is but one of the many made by A. D. Lytle in Baton Rouge during its occupancy by the Federals. With a courage and skill as remarkable as that of Brady himself this Confederate photographer risked his life to obtain negatives of Federal batteries, cavalry regiments and camps, lookout towers, and the vessels of Farragut and Porter, in fact of everything that might be of the slightest use in informing the Confederate Secret Service of the strength of the Federal occupation of Baton Rouge. In Lytle's little shop on Main Street these negatives remained

in oblivion for near half a century. War photographs were long regarded with extreme disfavor in the South and the North knew nothing of Lytle's collection, which has at last been unearthed by the editors of the "Photographic History." The value of Lytle's work to the Confederate Secret Service is apparent from this view, clear in every detail, of the Federal artillery drilling on the Parade Grounds of the Arsenal. The strength of the force, the number of the guns, the condition of the men, are all revealed at a glance. Many other " Lytle " photographs—gunboats, camps, infantry and cavalry—appear in the present work.