BATTLE OF SHILOH, TENNESSEE, APRIL 6, 1862; BECKER COLLECTION
"Shell burst in the spot sketched [center left] killed 6 horses & wounded all the postition [sic] and tore Sergeant Tosey previously wounded in pieces," wrote Henri Lovie. He called this scene the Union's "Desperate Retreat."
BATTLE OF FAIR OAKS, VIRGINIA, JUNE 3, 1862; LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Union soldiers bury their comrades and burn their horses after the Battle of Fair Oaks. Alfred Waud, on assignment as a "special artist" for Harper's Weekly, sketched the grim scene.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
In September 1862 Alfred Waud sketched a column of Confederate troops fording the Potomac River while Union scouts watch in the foreground.
BATTLE OF ANTIETAM, MARYLAND, SEPTEMBER 17, 1862; LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Confederates set Samuel Mumma's farm ablaze to keep it from Union hands. By the time Alfred Waud made this sketch, using Chinese white pigment to depict flames, Union troops were in control of the area.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
On July 2, 1863, the Louisiana Tigers, depicted by Alfred Waud, attack the Union's XI Corps during the Battle of Gettysburg.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
In Alfred Waud's sketch of Gen. Ambrose Burnside's infamous Mud March in January 1863, Union troops slog through cold rain while attempting to cross the Rappahannock River in Virginia.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Gen. Andrew Humphreys leads a futile Union charge in this sketch by Alfred Waud of the 1862 Battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia.
HOUGHTON LIBRARY, HARVARD UNIVERSITY, MS AM 1585 (27)
Frank Vizetelly's depiction of the Southern victory at Fredericksburg, Virginia, shows Confederate troops firing down on Union soldiers.
FORT FISHER, NORTH CAROLINA, JANUARY 13-15, 1865; HOUGHTON LIBRARY, HARVARD UNIVERSITY, MS AM 1585 27
English war artist Frank Vizetelly huddled inside Fort Fisher while it was being shelled by more than 50 Union warships. His drawing of the attack ran two months later as an engraving in the Illustrated London News.
Library of Congress
As depicted by William Waud, Union Signal Corps officers along the James River in October 1864 use telescopes and torches to communicate at night.
WILLIAM WAUD, SIEGE OF PETERSBURG, VIRGINIA, SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 1864; LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Union hospital attendants collect the wounded after a skirmish in the ten-month campaign for Petersburg.
COOPER-HEWITT, NATIONAL DESIGN MUSEUM, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION/ART RESOURCE, NY
Although Winslow Homer labeled this sketch "Three Days on the Battlefield," he didn't identify the site of the soldier's weary vigil.
SITE UNKNOWN, CIRCA 1864; COOPER-HEWITT, NATIONAL DESIGN MUSEUM, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION/ART RESOURCE, NY
Sketching a wounded soldier, Winslow Homer added depth learned from the old masters and his fellow artists.
NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART, WASHINGTON, D.C.
Young former slaves traveling with the Union Army of the Potomac in 1865 share a quiet moment in Winslow Homer's study for a sketch later adapted into the painting "Army Boots."
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
A freed slave known as Dick, sketched by Edwin Forbes, takes part in Gen. Joseph Hooker's retreat after the Union loss at the 1863 Battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia.
EDWIN FORBES, SECOND BULL RUN CAMPAIGN, VIRGINIA, AUGUST 28, 1862; LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Near Bull Run, Union Gen. John Pope's Army of Virginia plods through a pummeling summer rainstorm in search of Rebel forces.
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