Web Author's Notes:
This photo was titled "Chickasaw Bayou, Mississippi, The poison spring. Battlefield of Chickasaw Bayou" by the photographer William Redish Pywell. Although the published date on the photograph is February, 1864, it is assumed to have been taken at the time of or shortly after the battle in December, 1862. It appears to show a wagon, limber or caisson partially submerged in water at the bottom of what is assumed to be either Chickasaw Bayou or McNutt Lake (see maps). Amazingly, there also appears to be the body of a soldier lying in the mud beyond and just above the wagon wheel (see zoomed section below). If this photo is correctly identified, it may be the only known image of the Chickasaw Bayou battlefield at or near the time of the battle. The terrain certainly matches the various descriptions of the bayou and surrounding landscape.

Photograph taken by William Redish Pywell and courtesy of the Library of Congress