Category Artwork
A Confederate Artist’s Intimate Look at the Southern War Effort
This article by historian Steve Davis is from the Spring 2023 issue of America’s Civil War magazine. “If you are familiar with Francis Trevelyan Miller’s Photographic History of the Civil War, you’re aware that wartime photographs were not published until shortly before 1911, when that monumental 10-volume work came out. That explains why, when in the mid-1880s […]
The Sword That Spurred Ulysses Grant to Victory
This article comes from the Winter 2024 issue of Military History Quarterly magazine. “This elaborate sword was presented to Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant during the Civil War on April 23, 1864 by the U.S. Sanitary Commission Metropolitan Fair. The fair was a fundraiser for the Union Army and supported hospitals for wounded soldiers. Grant […]
This Union Sculptor Exemplifies the Mid-19th-Century Home Decor Revolution
This article by Professor Gary Gallagher was published in the Summer 2023 issue of Civil War Times magazine. “A sculpture titled The Council of War occupies a prominent place in my library. Created in 1868 by the artist John Rogers, it depicts a seated Abraham Lincoln holding a large map and flanked by Lt. Gen. U.S. Grant […]
Why Are Gettysburg Monuments Placed Where They Are?
This article by Scott Hartwig appeared in the February 2023 issue of America’s Civil War magazine. “The battlefield we see today with its orderly placement of monuments evolved over many years. The park was officially created by congressional legislation in 1895, but most of the regimental monuments were erected in the 1880s, before the U.S. […]
Painter at War: Winslow Homer’s Civil War Art
This article appeared in the September 2020 issue of Military History magazine. “The Civil War marked a major transition in American history. It also marked one of several turning points in the evolving artistic career of Winslow Homer. Born on Feb. 24, 1836, in Boston, Homer first worked as an apprentice printmaker for J.H. Bufford but quit within a […]
In His Words: The Exceptional Life of Union Engineer Gilbert Thompson
This 2021 article gives some love to the Engineer Corps. “Gilbert Thompson was an exceptional young man. Raised in the experimental, reformist community of Hopedale, Mass., he received a thorough education that included at least some artistic instruction. It was likely his skill at drawing that prompted him to join a planned company of topographical […]
Buying and Selling the Civil War
Here’s a panel discussion from this past summer’s Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College symposium. It consists of Professor James Marten, Professor Caroline Janney, and Professor Amanda Bellows, moderated by Professor Brian Luskey. It is about how advertisers sold items using Civil War images in the years after the Civil War and how those items […]
Slave Labor in 19th Century Virginia
Dr. Maurie McInnis, President of Stony Brook University, teaches this class as part of a course called “The Arts as History.” This is a really good lecture on slavery and the slave trade in Virginia. The video’s description reads, “Stony Brook University president Maurie McInnis taught a class about the slave trade in Richmond, Virginia, and enslaved […]
The Civil War and American Art
In this two-part discussion, Eleanor Jones Harvey, Senior Curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, leads us on a tour of Civil War art and artists. The description for Part One reads, “Smithsonian Curator Eleanor Jones Harvey revealed how the Civil War can be seen in seemingly unrelated works such as landscape paintings, and also examines the work […]
Student of the American Civil War 
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