Photography was just coming into vogue during the Civil War era and was particularly useful for recording history -  but sculpture still reigned.

 See the collection of nationally significant images at http://picturingamerica.neh.gov/  The above relief sculpture  by great local artist and architect Levi Scofield in Cleveland at the Soldiers and Sailors Monument - rivals the dramatic work of Augustus Saint-Gaudens - the Shaw Memorial in Boston.

Scofield created four large reliefs for the Soldiers and Sailors Monument - a panel featuring the women who served as nurses during the war (including Clara Barton who later founded the American Red Cross) is fittingly the first panel: