Illustrating the Civil War

Through Their Eyes – the “Special Artists” Illustrate the Civil War

By

Len Overcash, Sr

.
The events that began with the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 kept Americans, North and South, intensely interested in the direction the Union would take. As the Southern states seceded, information provided by the weekly newspapers filled the citizens with both fear and excitement. When Lincoln called for 75,000 troops and the two nations prepared for war in 1861, Harper’s Weekly News, Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, and the New York Illustrated News prepared to bring the conflict directly into the homes of the citizens with their “Special Artists.” Because photography at that time was still in its infancy and time-consuming, the sketches these adventurous, talented men drew allowed the reading public to see the places where history was unfolding, bringing otherwise unimaginable scenes into the homes of everyone in the nation.

Three major weekly newspapers had become fairly well established by 1860, though their early days had been difficult. Harper’s Weekly News had a circulation of 90,000 copies and Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper 100,000, and the New York Illustrated News about 40,000. The concept of a weekly newspaper gathering stories from all over the United States came to America in the 1850’s from England when P. T. Barnum, the famous showman, attempted to establish his own illustrated newspaper based in New York. Weekly newspapers had already been established in England, France and Germany by the 1840’s and Barnum wanted to cash in on the new enterprise. The newspaper quickly folded since America suffered from a lack of artists, engravers, printers and presses large and capable enough to produce newspapers in the quantity needed to allow profitable operation. Also, the main interest of most Americans at that time was in the local news. America was largely rural and isolated in small communities and a weekly paper containing only national news could not survive until an event of nationwide importance occurred to change that attitude. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 was the spark that inflamed bitter sectionalism again. The Compromise of 1850 was finished, and the guerilla war in Kansas and the events of John Brown’s raid kindled throughout the country an interest in national news.

Frank Leslie’s paper, Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, was considered the top weekly newspaper in the country by 1860 and was in the best position to cover the coming conflict. None of the three papers had enough artists to cover the entire war, so they offered anyone, especially volunteer soldiers, the opportunity to contribute drawings to their papers. Since the engravers finished the work, the quality of the sketch did not need to be the best. Many of the issues in the earliest part of the war, the preparation for the coming combat, contained drawings that were contributed by amateur artists. However, the news weeklies were always on the lookout for professional artists or art students who could provide them with quality sketches.

One problem kept cropping up in this search -- many of the young men attending art school did not want to go to the war. Instead, they found reasons to attend classes in Europe and avoid enlistment or later, conscription. The other competitor for art students was the government. Suddenly in desperate need of men who could accurately reproduce the much-needed maps for the generals, the military offered fair wages and an officer’s rank for them to enlist. So the news weeklies used the talent they had, and that talent was strong. Their “Special Artists” were men like Alfred Waud, William Waud, Henry Lovie, Alex Simplot, and Frank Schell to name a few who could bring the war into their papers. These were relatively young men; Arthur Lumley and Alex Simplot were both 24, Edwin Forbes was 22, Theodore Davis 21, Lovie and the Wauds were in their early thirties. All the “Specials” had some training in the arts. Alf Waud studied at the Royal Academy in London, his brother William had apprenticed with the English Architect Sir Joseph Parker, both Davis and Forbes studied painting under private teachers, and Lumley, Nast, and Homer studied at the National Academy of Design. Homer and Lovie were apprentice engravers at the time of the war.

Accurate sketches of the Federal soldiers life could not be drawn from preconceived ideas or by merely talking to the men, so the “Specials” observed the men up close by joining them in the camps. The life of a sketch artist was not easy, however, even in the relative peace of the camps. The Specials were subject to provisions of the Military Law that applied to both them and the correspondents. This law meant that they could be arrested or banned from the camps if those provisions were violated. Many of their published sketches were studied carefully and analyzed to see if they contained any classified information that could be used by the Confederates. The military could -- and did -- exercise control over the sketches and could insist that a sketch not be published, one of the first true uses of censorship by the government.

Another danger was that the artists were not permitted to come and go from the Federal camps at will. They had to get passes, the same as the soldiers. However, as the artists got to know the officers and garnered their trust, the interpretation of those provisions varied widely from commanding officer to commanding officer. The political generals welcomed the artists, knowing that the published drawings would bring a bit of fame to their units -- fame that might be traded for votes during elections. After earning the trust of the commanding officers, the Specials were granted some measure of freedom to move among the camps with passes from the generals. Alf Waud was so well liked and trusted by the officers that he was offered a commission many times, but he wisely refused.

The “Specials” shared the hardships of the soldiers, lived in tents and ate military food. When the infantry marched, the Specials marched. They bivouacked and went on the picket line with the troops. The artists favored the cavalry, with their sabers and horses – dashing Knights of the saddle -- as the most favorite subject around the camps. The Infantry, especially the Zouaves with their brightly colored balloon pants, were next favored, but the Artillery, with the ponderous cannon to wrestle into position and thunderous noise when firing, were least likely to be the subject of the sketch artist. Clothing was the responsibility of each artist; the military furnished them nothing in the way of cloth. To avoid encumbering themselves with too much equipment, artists took a minimum of belongings with them. The clothing had to be durable enough to be worn for weeks, possibly months, at a time without being changed. To keep the sun from the eyes and to shade the sketchpad, artists generally wore a wide-brimmed hat. The vast majority of artists were without weapons. Only Alf Waud is known to have worn a holstered pistol. To be able to have the mobility to get quickly to – or from – the scene of battle, artists carried a large portfolio [a canvas or leather bag], worn over a shoulder with a strap. The portfolio contained everything the artist thought he would need to produce a quick sketch to send back to his newspaper. Inside were his paper, ink, pencils, crayons, charcoal pens, some watercolors and a few brushes. During a battle, the artists usually limited their sketching tools to a pencil and paper. Back at camp, the crayon and charcoal were most frequently used. Most of the artists acquired a sturdy, sure-footed horse, powerful field glasses, a saddle blanket stuffed with a change of clothing, a few rations, and any extra drawing supplies.

Every artist wanted to sketch combat, to somehow bring to the readers the smoke, noise, and fury of two armies clashing on the field of battle. The history of battle-art prior to 1861 was one of heroism and nobility, not reality. The painters designed their work as a display of their talent with brushes and colors, not what actually occurred, because the painters never experienced combat. Thus, not only were the soldiers going into battle for the first time truly unaware of the reality of war, but the artists were also. Of all the Specials, only Thomas Nast had any combat experience. He had accompanied Girabaldi’s Italian campaign and had sketched under fire.

The artists knew that the best place from which to view combat was where the shooting was taking place. However, this practice exposed them to the same dangers as the soldiers. Nor could the artist portray the entire arena of the combat, because he was limited to what he saw in front of him, and most of that quickly became clouded thickly by gun smoke. Though the sketch artist had far less trouble than a photographer with the cumbersome equipment, he still could not remain in one spot too long to draw the panorama of the battle or he faced capture or worse. Normally an attack came in waves moving from left to right, or vise-versa, the point of contact constantly changing with the fortunes of success. The generals were usually at the rear, giving orders and receiving reports. Many were in almost constant movement, exposing themselves to the same dangers as their troops to rally their forces. To portray the panorama and get a feel for the topography and pertinent locations, the artists usually wandered about the battlefield after the heavy combat had moved on and talked to the wounded or those left behind to take care of the wounded. Often officers were there looking for stragglers or trying to find their own units. From whatever sources were available, testimonies of the witnesses, and his own observations from nearby trees or buildings, the artist put together his sketch and sent it by courier or mail to the head office in New York City.

In New York, the engravers, the last link in the chain, took the sketches and artist’s notes and transformed them into the drawing that was published. The art of engraving wood was at its peak in the 1860's and was the only method that could be used for illustrations in the newspapers and magazines. The best wood available for the task was English Box wood, but most American newspapers of that time used wood from the American Box trees that grew along the Ohio Valley. American Box wood was soft enough for fine line carving because the small splinters would not break off in the process. The logs required careful inspection as the width of the rings could affect how the ink was applied during printing. Rings that were close together put down too much ink and widely spaced rings too little. The section of wood also had to be the same color throughout, or the degree of hardness of the wood would not be the same throughout and that would affect the printing. Choosing the best piece of wood was an art in itself. The American Box tree grew to only about fifteen feet in height, which meant that the diameter of the trunk averaged only about six inches across, so the square block that the engraver worked with was just five inches square. Several of these blocks were put together to make the final engraving.

The sketch was divided up into a grid-pattern of small blocks that were assigned to the engravers. The engravings were not the effort of a single person. Some engravers specialized in doing the figures, others the background, and still another did the trees and bushes. Each engraving took many hours to complete, so the men worked by the light of a kerosene lamp. To have the lamp provide enough light, but not allow heat from it to dry out the block of wood, a water-filled globe was placed between the block and the lamp. The lamp diffusd the light and also kept the heat from reaching the block of wood. The engraver also wore a mask over his mouth when at close range to prevent his breath from getting into the wood.

The last step in the process was to coat the blocks with India ink so that the grooves and cuts into the wood would be seen as yellow. Then the basic outline of the sketch was made onto them – a sketch which had to be done in reverse. The engravers had to work backwards, if the artist’s sketch showed soldiers on the left side of the drawing, the blocks had to be carved on the right side of the drawing and the soldiers facing the opposite direction, like a photographic negative. After finishing the basic outline on the blocks, a mixture made up of brick which had been ground into a fine powder, called brick-bath, was rubbed over it to help make the pencil marks stand out in the light. At this point the engravers began their work. A double-page spread could and did have as many as 60 squares to be worked on.

Once the sketch had been transferred to the block, the blocks were bolted together and a thin metal sheet was placed over the wood and electrotyped for printing on the huge presses. The whole cycle from receipt of the sketch and its accompanying notes to published illustration took approximately two weeks, unless the drawing was of such importance that the editor moved it ahead of what was already in progress, or the newspapers wanted to add an “extra” publication.

The best combat artist was Alf Waud, whose drawings are still used as the benchmark of illustrations. Waud was present during the fighting at most of the battles in the Eastern Theater of the war. He sketched the battles at Manassas, the Peninsula campaign, the bloodiest day of the war at Sharpsburg, Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg, and Grant’s 1864 campaign. The war took its toll on him. He would go several days without sleep and little food to get the material for his sketches. Exhausted from trying to produce sketches, Waud became ill after the Peninsula Campaign was over and suffered a bout of “bilious remittent fever,” though he still managed to produce as many published sketches as his four major competitors.

At the start of the war, most artists still accepted the conventional images that had been painted in the preceding decades; those in which the soldiers marched in perfect unison, wore clean uniforms, and died bloodless, noble deaths. After a few campaigns, the realities of combat were realized and many artists tried to replace this “heroic” image of war, but publishers resisted. News weekly editors wanted to prevent the portrayal of battle reality in all its gore. They believed if the casualties of war were truly displayed in the sketches, the public would turn against the war and the Union would be divided forever.

Most of the artists moved on in their careers after the war. Both Henri Lovie and William Crane died shortly after the surrender at Appomattox. Arthur Lumley, William Waud, and Joseph Becker chose other subjects than the Civil War to illustrate. Alf Waud, Theodore Davis, and Frank Schell called upon their war experiences for the Century Magazine in the 1880’s. Winslow Homer did several paintings but is noted for his landscapes and marine paintings. Edwin Forbes used his experiences in later years when he published two sets of engravings in 1876 and 1891, though he avoided the battlefield scenes and focused on the routine of army life and the soldiers in the ranks.

The Special Artists risked their health and their lives, death and/or disfigurement to sketch the American Civil War. Today most Americans see images of the war in the photographs of Mathew Brady, Alexander Gardner and others. The illustrations the Specials sketched stand as testament to the artists' steadfastness, commitment to duty, and dedication to bringing the war into the homes of the average American. Their published prints were the only way most Americans were able to see the war in the 1860’s.

END

Sources Cited:

The Image of War, The Pictorial Reporting of the American Civil War, William F. Thompson, Louisiana University Press

published in Battlefield Journal, 2004