Matthew Harrison Brady was a photographer and war correspondent during the American Civil War. He was not a particularly good photographer, but he became well known because he was not afraid to follow the troops of the Union into battle in order to bring back photographs of their triumphs and their losses. Some of his most famous photographs were taken at the Battle of Antietam in Maryland.
Since Brady was a pioneer of the science of photography, he was called upon to take portraits some very famous and influential sitters, among them Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant (in the field), and Robert E. Lee.