A spirit in my feet said go, and I went.

"Seeking a scapegoat, some alleged that Brady’s large camera had terrified the raw federal recruits: 'Some pretend, indeed, that it was the mysterious and formidable-looking instrument that produced the panic! The runaways, it is said, mistook it for the great steam gun discharging 500 balls a minute, and took to their heels when they got within its focus!'"

Via: NYTimes
Read more here: The All-Seeing Eye By Ted Widmer

image: One of Mathew Brady's Photography Wagons near Peterburg, Virginia 1864