17 September 2012 Last updated at 01:45

The Scot who shot the American Civil War

Paisley-born Alexander Gardner is regarded as one of the founding fathers of photojournalism. He arrived in the America in 1856 and within a few years the country would be engaged in civil war. Working in the New York studio of portrait photographer Matthew Brady, Gardner was on-hand to capture the conflict.

Gardner took this portrait of Abraham Lincoln when he visited Brady's new Washington studio after he was elected president in November 1860. It is Lincoln's first as president-elect. Southern slave-owning states, who were opposed to Lincoln's pledge to restrict slavery, began to break away from the union and civil war seemed inevitable.

The war began in April 1861, a month after Lincoln's inauguration. Brady and Gardner were keen to document the battles and travelled to sites with the Union army. In September 1862 they visited Antietam in Maryland, the scene of a bloody stalemate. The pair spent four days there, photographing soldiers where they fell. This was the battle that gave birth to photojournalism.

Two images of soldiers' bodies lined up on a battlefield

Gardner favoured new stereoscopic cameras and used them to photograph the battlefields. With a special viewer the left and right photos would be seen as one 3D image, giving greater depth to the aftermath of conflict.

Soldiers' bodies lying in a field in front of a church

In New York, the Brady gallery's exhibition of battlefield photos caused a sensation, with the public queuing around the block. Crediting all photos to Brady, a reviewer from the New York Times wrote: “If he has not brought bodies and laid them in our dooryards and along the streets, he has done something very like it.”

Alexander Gardner established his own Washington studio in 1863. The turning point of the Civil War came that July with the Battle of Gettysburg. Gardner's images from Gettysburg are now considered classics of war photography.

The body of a soldier lying in a rocky corner

One of Gardner's best known photographs from Gettysburg is also one of the most controversial. In Home of a Rebel Sharpshooter, the body of a young Confederate soldier lies in a rocky, lonely corner of the battlefield. But this may not have been an accurate record. It is thought Gardner, who had previously employed artists to enhance injuries caught on camera with blood red paint, dragged the body from the battlefield to the rocks to compose a more dramatic picture.

In February 1865 President Lincoln sat for another portrait session with Gardner but this would be their last meeting. Five days after the Confederate surrender in April, Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s theatre and died from his injuries the following day. Gardner's studio assisted with the manhunt for Booth and his accomplices by reproducing photographs of the gang for widespread distribution.

John Wilkes Booth was shot and killed during the manhunt but four other accomplices were tried and sentenced to death. Gardner took shots of them in custody, head-on and in profile. This is thought to be the first time "mug shots" of criminals had been taken. This photograph is of gang member Lewis Payne.

Gardner was permitted to photograph the execution of the gang - the first time such an event had been captured on camera. His photograph is a symbolic end to the Civil War. The Scot who Shot the American Civil War is on BBC Two Scotland on Monday 17 September at 21:00, and available afterwards on BBC iPlayer.

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The Scot who shot the American Civil War

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