And this program, they to scouts hurt created before and after the war including paintings of Abraham Lincoln, the irish brigade, and battle scenes. This conversation took place on line and the New York Historic Society provided the video. We are continuing our conversation that argues that objects have the power to convey historical events and to help us understand the passed. This idea inspired your book, the civil war in 50 objects. This evening, we will be looking at five objects from the book and related exhibition grouped around the theme of the art of war. These works are all very different and have very different background stories. We have the return of the 69th irish regiment, a caricature of lincoln writing the emancipation proclamation, the lincoln family by carpenter, victors painting an episode of war, as well as some prison art. First, lets look at the relationship between war and art, harold. Did war stimulate art in america . Did our change the romantic image of war . I think both, valerie. And good evening. Thank you for having me back. I think the great emphasis of american painting up to the civil war was probably history painting and landscape painting. Portraits continue in much the same way. They took on a martial air with all the military heroes portrayed. But it sends many more artists into the field, or near the fields of camp. Soldiers and artists proliferated. Artists like winslow home or went to the field to do sketches for the weekly newspapers that evolved into very successful artists. In terms of what it did to landscaping, it revolutionized the romantic attitude artists had towards the socalled american eden, the pristine landscape of the americas and the landscape was ravaged by gunfire and the land was stained by blood. It really changed the way this Great American art form was recorded during and after the war. And of course, the war kept artists busy for many years after the war on commissions from military lodges, armorys, the united daughters of the confederacy. All these people that kept clambering for pictures and statues. And statues, as we know. Lets start with our first object or painting of the evening. That is return of the 69th irish regiment. Thats from the seat of war. This was painted in 1862. You call this huge painting, seven by 11 feet, so very huge, a masterpiece of 19th century public relations. Why . Well, it made great heroes have a military unit that fought pretty well. But in the, end unsuccessfully. As did all the union troops at the battle of bull run. This was important for morale, though, because it was the irish brigade of new york. The unit that robert e. Lee later nicknamed the fighting 69th and admiration. And its early permutation, it was recruited and very important to the Union War Effort that german americans and Irish Americans that had different political points of view were both recruited and both raise their own regiments. And this one went off very early in the war. This was the spring of 1861 they went down to virginia, established themself in arlington, heights or they all build fortifications for washington. It was very irish. Colonel corcoran was the commander. He had a minister, a catholic priest, sprinkle holy water on the first cabinet fort cochrane. And they marched on very proudly to war. Corcoran was irish born. He was 33 years old, a member of the senior brotherhood. We have an image detail of that. That wont be him. We shouldnt get to that. Sorry about that. Okay. Yes. Why dont we i should point, out this fellow is not corcoran. At the battle itself where our irish regiment formed, corcoran was captured by the confederates. And he remained in prison for a full year. When he was finally released, Abraham Lincoln gave him and other officers who had been imprisoned a steak dinner in the white house. But these early recruits only worked for 90 days. And corcoran was there for a whole year in prison. Exactly. He was an exception. But after 90 days, the fighting 69th fought no more and they came back, at least this unit did. They came back in a ship to battery park. And this is what the scene depicts. The fellow waving his hat is corcorans successor, Thomas Francis maher. There he is getting a heroes welcome in lieu of michael corcoran. And these portraits were painted and individually recognized as people from the community. The 60 nassau combat, as you said, in the battle of bull run in 1861 as part of a brigade commanded by william tshirt men. What happened to them there . They did okay. They did well. They were brave. But again, the battle of bull run was won by the union in the morning. The only problem is the afternoon came after the morning and the confederates charged back and won the day. So it was a huge embarrassment, especially when these guys having done no more than participated, turned out to be a real disaster. Yes. But they did receive quite an unexpected welcome when they arrived in manhattan a week later. What sort of things does he depict in the painting . You can see the crowd surging around him are. And this is my favorite detail because i have written so often about popular prints. This is a news boy selling engravings or lithographs of colonel cochrane, who was back suffering in a prison camp. So he was a particular hero. They came back and the brigade was smart enough and wealthy enough to commission this, as you point out, this humongous painting here. Its huge. And it was displayed. It was intended, i think, for the essex street armory. After this scene, they all marched to essex street on the Lower East Side and stack their armorys. We dont know where this painting ultimately wound up, but it did have a great display at the gallery on ninth avenue. There were raver views from critics. It was pretty famous in its day. It ultimately became a bit of an artistic curiosity. Why . Two years after the scene, the city erupted in draft riots, as we discussed in an earlier program. So many irish and Irish Americans participated that it became kind of politically incorrect to celebrate the early Irish American contributions to the Union War Effort. So this painting just deteriorated and it, thank goodness, the artist donated it to the Historical Society 25 years after the scene. The great thing is that, when it was finally discovered in storage, it was restored magnificently in time for exhibition in the civil war. Absolutely. Its a great feat of conservation to pull together and make a gorgeous unit on the fourth floor in our visitors center. Please come and see it when we reopen. Lets move now to our next painting, object. And thats the lincoln family in 1861 by francis carpenter. This is in black and white, so it has a photographic kind of quality to it even though it is oil and canvas. But there are no photographs of the lincoln family altogether. Why . We really dont know. Mary lincoln did not like to be photographed with her husband because she was so much shorter. And she thought she was looked dull like in comparison. She was a bit fatter as well. Not in this picture. I will explain that. Lincoln was photographed. This is a rift on that famous photograph. This is painted in black and white for a very simple reason, and great, it is a preparatory piece that serves as a model. Carpenter didnt bother to add color, because it would have reproduced poorly. There is such Public Interest these days and the last century. And that only sort of became more the thing after lincolns assassination. In any case, thats where this painting comes in. Tell us more about this and the artist, francis carpenter . He was a new yorker from upstate new york. Home, or near syracuse, but he had a gallery in new york city. He wanted to paint the First Reading of the emancipation proclamation before the cabinet. You got letters of reproduction, went to the white house. It was open season. Lincoln liked him. He let him work there for six months. But while he was there, he made sketches of the family and he commissioned the famous photograph of lincoln looking at this photograph album that looked very much like a bible, and no one ever corrected that impression. The painting is done, and he is pretty wellknown. So he goes to a new york engraver, j c derby. He works with a another publisher to do a lincoln family. Carpenters prices 500 dollars, pretty pricey. But he decides to write to marry lincoln, his body at this point. And she suggests all the other models, this handsome picture of robert, who was then at harvard, a picture of willie who died in 1862. He is the middle Child Holding the sword. Thats why it is the family. And when carpenter suggests to mary, she suggests one that was taken before she gained weight. So she is the one who chose this very sort of flattering image. This was produced is a popular print. Not only where they never photograph together, they were seldom together. Robert was at harvard in harvard law. He wrote he never had ten minutes alone yuck died 11 months into the presidency. Mary said she was fortunate lincoln came to the bedroom to talk about the events of the day at 11 00 at night. The civil war drove them apart. It did not bring them together. The civil war this pictures to show they were together, to reenter that lincoln had a happy life. He never really got the credit he deserved for knitting that picture together. The ultimate indignity was that he did get 500 dollars for it, but then he claimed he only sold the intellectual property. He still owned the physical canvas. However, the studio went bankrupt eventually and sold it to a new yorker named warren crane. Carpenter was not happy. Crane allowed him to come to his house to see it, but not to return it to him, and it was crane who gave it to the Historical Society years later. He said he wanted to add color. That was his ploy to get it back. But he didnt, and he didnt. He didnt. Lets move on to our next artistic work. This is an etching writing the emancipation proclamation in 1863. We are in the middle of the second near the civil war. It is getting difficult for the confederacy to circulate the artwork of battlefield triumphs. That was for one practical reason. Most of the able bodied artists this is an interesting to contemplate right now. Essential monuments were being pulled down. There were none that were done at the time of the civil war. Nor to stick works tell us about the artist who created this etching. He is also a hyphenated american unlike most of the germans who can came to the United States after the revolutions of 1848. Failed in europe he was an arch conservative and races. Not an anti slavery man. He settled in baltimore, and the surroundings and environment make the man in a way. He was a dentist by train was obviously very gifted craftsman. And he made the series event tie union pro confederate etchings throughout the civil war. Our new the civil war and published them secretly with a fake lyndon copyright baltimore was occupy quite early in the war by the union, and artists like him, print makers were shut down who some with the confederacy. So he was operating until secret. He was not influential at the, time it venomous towards lincoln. Unlike carpenter who provided portrayed lincoln he is writing the emancipation proclamation from and think well that is held by satan, and he has his foot on the holy bible to do it. Look at the devils heads on the table. There is liqueur on the cabinet. On the table. If he wasnt influenced by the devil he had to be drunk. There is a picture of john brown, so jon brown is the evil influence over lincoln. There is a painting of a slave rebellion in height. A figure that looks like lincoln is actually the statuette of columbia, a symbol of the country pulled over its head is the kind of scottish town that lincoln edge little allegedly war on his trip to baltimore. He was a very inside joke. Not very favorable toward the proclamation. This is part of a series called gadgets from the civil war in america, some of the other images in that series also depicts something fake news type, i think, in a way. Yes. Cave life in vicksburg i think showed that one. Southern women melting church bells to make cannons for their holy cause. A lot of anti lincoln stuff. Lincoln and Benjamin Butler lincoln sneaking into baltimore but its interesting. He should mention lincoln and bulk, because apparently volker had a change of heart after lincolns assassination. So he said, right . He said he always regretted that he was ever mean to that lovely man, but he painted, he went on to paint, but his paintings were of robert lee, and lee morning stonewall jackson. He never didnt lincoln painting that showed any kind of sense of having regretted what he did. Lets move on to our next image. This is also a large painting. This is called an episode of war. The cavalry charge. I know the name of eternal leg. We called it a hidden treasure. I know its kind of upon. I have to apologize. Thats cute. laughs it is a dramatic scene. We do not want to minimize it. He was a useful, well connected new yorker. Tell us about him and this particular episode of war. He was a 23 year old. A young man. When he joined company h. At the first new york capillary. Hence the word Cavalry Units from new york. He was a brave young guy and i should say his family were very wealthy. He was new york mercantile role to be sure. He let its men into virginia. One day in a place called sank stir station. He saw an unguarded exposed flag of general jill johnstons confederate army. He led his cavalry and broke through and created havoc. Really pushed them back. Unfortunately, in the midst of the charge, and that is what this painting is supposed to represent. His head is not held upright because hes just been shot through the neck. He died. It is kind of remarkable. It was relatively obscure even in its own time. Why was it obscure . This little skirmish was not a major battle. Second of all, there were two major events going on on the same day. The battle of key ridge in the west as well, which was much more important. More well covered by the media, of course. This could have led to a battle but johnson as you mentioned, the family was wealthy and they wanted to remember their relative. It was called a harry. The original title of this painting is much more dramatic. The gallant charge of lieutenant harry hidden. Its commissioned by the family and displayed in regiments four years. He is considered i doubt this because its 1862. He is considered the first Union Cavalry officer to die during a war. Im not sure that is possible, but we will go with that for now. You know what i neglected to mention . If we could think back to the colonel again. Cork landed get out of prison. Our irish brigade hero. He recovered. He went back into the service and he was killed when his horse fell. The battle of bull run i dont like horses. I know lots of people do. They petra find me. Ill power to henry hidden for doing all this. Yes. Henry hiddens claim to fame was the first Union Cavalry which was an officer killed in action. Yes. You do mention that his painting cast a new light harsh like what are some of the details that sound out for you . The first images of war this is really hand to hand combat. Its swords. They units. Rifles, confusion. Its not romantic at all. Its scary. Youve bayonette bayonette got these artists that are revising the idea of war and so far i think weve done all, they are all born artist. Of course america was kind of speaking with a foreign accent at the time anyway. They say 40 of the union army spoke with some kind of a foreign accent. Which was remarkable. That is remarkable. So we are down to our last five artworks or artistic impressions of war. This is a water colored drawing by john jacob. During the four years of the civil war there were 212,000 confederates that were taken prisoner. The majority of these were actually imprisoned for the duration of the war. For those men who were Strong Enough to endure starvation and exposure to sickness and all around hellish circumstances, we have learned that creativity helped them survive. The artists of the sketch sketches was one such soldier. Tell us a bit about him. What we know is he was he was certainly german american in some ways. He was a folk artist and ate candy maker before the war. Confectionary, it was called. Austrian by descent, settled in boston more. I baltimore. He saw action in richmond while artillery. He survived the war for sometime but it caught up with him in 1864, and he was captured and imprisoned at a hot and steamy camp on the southern shore called Point Lookout where i did speak, 20,000 men were kept in pretty tough circumstances in about 23 acres. It was not as crowded is anderson, but a pretty tough situation. Prisoners were exchanged at the beginning of the war by 1864, general grant had said no more exchanges, because imprisoned soldiers hurt the confederate side more than ours. Its. I think you probably sold some of these to fellow prisoners because we have evidence that some of them wrote home that there was a very true artist. Here you see that hes a folk artist at best. He was captured by a black soldier and what makes this piece is remarkable for southern, or must of been a deep kind of humiliation. I think we actually have in the next slide, it is interesting as well, because he was so he did so many artworks. It is such a huge body of work. It was thought that it was the work of more than just one person. At the new york Historical Society, the Art Collection has a portfolio of 40. Here, what did they do pick in general . There are so many. It is an african guard selling extras to a prisoner. A potato or an extra ration. On the left it shows a group of ladies who are touring the campus if it is a tourist attraction. You have a soldier that is barechested, washing his shirt, which is bug infested. He is telling the ladies, why is this camp so lousy . It had a double meaning. To what do you call, it minstrel dialect for the African Americans. As the soldier says, the bottom rail is on top now, which is about the summation of the existence of the African American guards being in control. He was in prison not only was he in prison till the end of the war, he was in prison until two months after the war. He was not let go. He would not sign that was required of prisoners to be deem opt. As a result, he moved back to richmond, married, became a candy maker again. Died young of cancer, but i dont think his mind was expanded by the experience. Certainly artistic impressions of the experience of his do and your. We are ready for a question and answer period. Our first question if you see a sides of the objects together. Did lincoln ever see the etching and if so, what was his reaction . Excellent question. We have no idea. I would suspect not again, although many claims have been made about the popularity in his time. I never believed it. I think there was such strict censorship and until the end of the war, his works were not circulated. Although, the new york Historical Society has an early acquisition they, as i would call. There is no evidence. He sold plenty of caricatures in his day. One of one of our viewers believes that lincolns is on the constitution. Is that correct . No, it really is a bible. If you look at a closeup of the image, he helps this by saying bible. Good. You would know the answer to this better than i. How many other paintings of the civil war are there in the societys collection . You are putting this on me now. You went through hundreds. I would say there is certainly dozens and dozens. We are going to see a nice portrait next week which we are saving for hour session. Some nice military portraits. Some interesting prewar paintings, including a lovely painting of an African American man thinking of emancipation, and johnson paintings that are prewar but very important in depicting slavery in washington d. C. Before the war. It is a great collection. And the print room alone. There are so many prince to choose from. And duplicate, triplicates, multiple impressions. Sometimes the same image. I would put it in the hundreds. With the print collection and photographs, definitely. Exactly. Does lincoln mistrust the irish 69 his favorite democrats . Not at the beginning. He worked very hard to get ethnic regiments and generals, among the germans, and corcoran was for irish patriotism. When things began to get a little rough in terms of his relationship with the Irish American community and voters is when the emancipation proclamation was issued and the war expended from just preserving the union to eradicating slavery as well. Not that lincoln had illusions that he had he knew the irish were democrats, but in 1861 he did not want the fight against secession to be a republican or only. He was willing to accept all parties and ethnicities in service. Next question. I know the answer to this one. You said the return of the 69th was an exhibit at the gallery on ninth avenue. It was ninth street. Ninth street. Excuse me. Okay. Our viewers says the west side of manhattan was wasteland, which it was. Good correction. Thank you. There was no art gallery over there. I was surprised to hear was on ninth street actually. It was i was thinking ninth avenue. Were painting representations different in the 19th century . Painting presentations. Im not sure i know what it means. I would say that there were unveilings were certainly big deals and in the years after the war, much fanfare attended and unveiling of paintings. As you point out, much of the civil war statutory was, except for lincoln, was done from 1890 on when there was enough money in the south to collect for those enormous commissions. Painting unveilings were big. There were lots of veterans who left having those reminders around. There were lots of veterans. Even robert elite without their should not be any civil war paintings. He just wanted there to be no record, records that glorified that. It was interesting when we think about the people who were insisting that his statues and or. Exactly. They were back in service at gettysburg. The troops that were drawn from the ranks of the potomac at gettysburg, mostly those who were fairly well rested and had not been engaged in much of the battle were the ones who were brought back to quell the riots. I have not checked into the psychology or the response of the veterans or those serving in the 69 and their attitudes toward the draft rights. I would suspect that they were repelled by them, because they were a proud and organized brigade and fighting for the union. Although as we noted, in that episode, many of the draft writers were in fact irish. There is that connection as well. Absolutely, but they were the irish who did not want to enlist or be drafted as opposed to the ones who were enlisted. Next question. How did so many paintings in the civil war era survive . They were preserved by the original patrons. Mostly union leaks, armorys, regimental headquarters, clubhouses. The united daughters of the confederacy. The sons of confederate veterans. All of these organizations that championed needs mementos and commissioned them and paid for them. Held their meetings in front of them. For those of you have seen the regiment armory, it is civil war art, and art from other american armynavy clubs from all over the country. They were preserved because they were cooked into institutional settings very early. Not many were done for private collectors. The no like painting, which is up there on the right. How accurate is that painting . Are they all real characters that are depicted in it . Yes. My understanding is that some portraits were based on survivors and that inevitably the cavalry charges based on descriptions of the survivors collected by the family for his use. On obviously there is no photography of war at that time. There was photography, but not action photography. We said earlier, it wasnt romanticized, but it was somewhat invented. Just not a very pleasant offended vacation. Back to lincoln. Did he enjoy art . Were there many art american museums during his life . And were not many. The big breakthrough for american arent museums is 1870. Five years after the war when the metropolitan, museum of fine arts than boston and and chicago earl founded. There were plenty of galleries. Lincoln was not a gore of art galleries. They commented that he was a different judge of artistic mostly in relation to critiquing pictures of himself that was he compelled to praise or acknowledge when they were being painted. On the other hand he let artists and sculptors have their go at him alone. You would think youd be otherwise and gauged and he was busy, and he never sat still like George Washington did. He had to be painted on the jump, as he put it, while he was working on his correspondents. But he allowed them entree, and he was very solicitous. He let carpenter hang out in the state dining room for six months painting the emancipation, and other pictures. I will say that when exception i know it was when the first major painting of Ulysses Grant was brought to the capital for display, and lincoln was invited to see it, and he had not meant grand up to that point. I think part of him felt obliged to pay tribute to him. Another part of him said, if i do not go pay homage at this painting, people will think i am afraid of grant running for president. He went up to capitol hill to look at it. It might be the only painting of him not of himself that he had a look at. He told carpenter, its as good as it could get. The portrait is perfect. To the followup question, were there any american arent museums, yes. The Historical Society. I dont know with the installations were like during the war. I will bet there were some National Academy of design was operating during a war, and every season they would hang paintings. We know from the records that these included war paintings. That is kind of like a museum. Thats right. New York Historical founded in 1804 as a museum and library. Very different from the museums as colossal and encyclopedic that we now know. Another lincoln question for you, harold. Did lincoln ever visit any of the prisons . Was he concerned about the conditions . He visited camp hospitals. That would be as close as he got to seeing confederates who were under restraint. He famously, when he went to visit the wounded at campsites, he went to those camps that contained confederate prisoners and would often say they would recognize him and he would extend his hand and say i will shake your hand if you would shake mine. They were drawn to him and took his hand. He did not visit prisoner of war camps to my knowledge, but he did visit hospital camps where the wounded were as good as the prisoners. We are up to our last question. Are you aware of any African American artists who depicted the sarah . Yes. There were some. I had to go back as to lincoln as my fall. Back it was a painter named david browser who painted lincoln and other scenes. Yes, there were African American artists that work. Not many. But lincoln was a particularly evocative and attractive subject, so he did attract at least browser and others. Matthew prior was another African American artist. Im sure there were wartime artists as well. It looks like we are out of time. Harold, thank you once again for your wonderful insights and anecdotes. You make such a great partner in the series. Thank you to our audience for being with us and for your support. Good night. Good night. Weeknights this month where featuring American History tv programs as a preview of what is available every weekend on cspan three. In 2015 for our american artifacts series, we traveled about 45 minutes west of new orleans to visit whitney plantation in wallace, louisiana. To learn about the history of slavery in america. Following is the conversation hosted by Thomas Jefferson samantha cello. It focuses on how depictions of slavery and jeffersons life have changed over recent decades. Watch friday, beginning at eight eastern. Enjoy American History tv this weekend every weekend on cspan three. Next, on the civil war, historian harold hoser and Valerie Paley talk about artifacts featured in their joint publication, the civil war in 50 objects. In this program they discuss objects and images related to Union Army General Ulysses Grant and Benjamin Butler. The conversation took place on line in the new york Historical Society provided the video. Good evening. Welcome to this next topic. Modern meter generals. First i want to remind everyone that tonights program, which is being recorded for the last approximately 45 minutes, this includes 15 minutes for
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