Civil War Veteran Jacob Miller, a Man Who Was Shot Right Between the Eyes

Civil War veteran Jacob Miller, a man who was shot right between the eyes and lived for 17 more years. It is the kind of image that turns a line in a history book into something you can actually see.

Photography has only existed since 1839, which means the camera-recorded past is a narrow window — and every surviving frame from it is a small act of preservation, whether the photographer knew it or not.

News photographs from this period traveled by wire and print, and a single strong image could shape how millions of people understood an event. This picture is one of the frames that did that work.