The figure in the photograph is clad in Army fatigues, boots and helmet, lying on his back in peaceful repose, folded hands holding a military cap. Except for a thin trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth, he could be asleep.

But he is not asleep; he is dead. And this is not just another fallen GI; it is Ernie Pyle, the most celebrated war correspondent of World War II.

As far as can be determined, the photograph has never been published. Sixty-three years after Pyle was killed by the Japanese, it has surfaced — surprising historians, reminding a forgetful world of a humble correspondent who artfully and ardently told the story of a war from the foxholes.

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A local historian says a photograph of a post-mortem Ernie Pyle that has surfaced is nothing new. Ray E. Boomhower, senior editor for the Indiana Historical Society’s Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History, said during an interview Sunday that a copy of the photograph has been in the collection at the Indiana Historical Society for years.