And he didnt and he didnt. Less move on to our next artistic work. This is an etching by ladelbert work in 1963. Were in the second year where of the civil war. Its getting difficult to circulate battlefield heroes or triumphs and thats for one practical reason, most of the abledbodied artists were fighting in the war as soldiers. So this is an interesting thing to concept as far as sculptural monuments, there were none done at the time of the civil war, no artistic works. Tell us about the artist who created this etching. Hes also an american borne in bulgaria. Unlike most of the germans that came to the United States after the revolutions of the 1840 failed, he was an racist, not antislavery man. He settled in baltimore. The surroundings and environment make the man in a way. He was a dentist by trade and was obviously a very gifted draftsman. And he made these series of antiunion pro confederate etchings throughout the civil war and published them secretly with a fake london copyright. Baltimore was occupied quite early in the war in the union and artists like his print maker was shut down, who sympathized with the confederacy. So volk operated in total secrecy. And venomous, venomous towards lincoln. Unlike macarthur, who portrayed lincoln as a device presence, this lincoln is writing an emancipation proclamation from an ink well that was held by satan who got his book on the holy bible to do it. Look at the clothed devils heads on the table, liquor on the cabinet nearby, because if he wasnt enforced by the devil, he to be drunk. So theres saint john browne, saint john browne is the evil influence over lincoln. Theres a painting of a slave rebellion in haiti. And the unusual figure that looks like a baboon right over lincoln is actually the statuette of columbia, the symbol of the country, but pulled over its head is the scottish tab that lincoln allegedly wore to escape notice on his trip to baltimore. Its a very inside joke there. But clearly not very favorable towards the proclamation. Not at all. But thes part of the series of etches from the civil war. And other sketches in that period deticket something, fake newsy, in a way. Yes. Cave live fe in vicksburg, i think weve shown that one, that was volk. A lot of antilincoln stuff. Lincoln and general benjamin butler, lincoln sneaking into baltimore. Its interesting you should mention lincoln and volk because apparently volk had a change of heart after lincolns assassination, or did he . So he said. He said he always regretted he was ever mean to that lovely man. But he went on to paint but his paintings were robert e. Lee, lee mourning stonewall jackson. He did confederateinspired paintings. He never did a lincoln painting that showed any kind of sense of having regrets what he did. Yeah. Less move on to our next image, and this is also a large painting, not quite as large as return of the 69. This is called an episode of war, the calvary charge. We called it a Hidden Treasure in the book. I know thats kind of a pun i have to keep apologizing for. Thats cute. But it is a dramatic scene. So we dont want to minimize it. And henry hidden was a youthful, well connected new yorker. Tell us a bit about him and this particular episode of war. He was a very young man, 23yearold when he joined company h of the first new york cavalry. Yes, there were calvary units from new york. A brave, young guide. He led i should say, his family were very wealthy ship builders, the webb family. So he was new york mercantile royalty to be sure. He led his men into virginia, and one day at a place called sanksters station he saw an unguarded exposed flank of general joe johnsons Confederate Army and he just led his cal valerie and broke through and created havoc and really pushed them back. Unfortunately in the his of the charge ands that what this esteem is supposed to represent, you see his head is not held upright and thats because hes just been shot through the neck. Oh. And hes dyeing. It is kind of remarkable, it doesnt diminish the dramatic nature of the canvass but it was a relatively obscure incident at the time. First of all, why was with it obscure . First of all, this skirmic was not a major battle. Second of all, there were two major events on the same day, battle of merrimack and battle of p. Ridge, which were much more important and much more well covered by the media. This could have led to a battle but johnstons army just recouped and waited for another day. But as you mentioned, val, when we started, the webb family was wealthy and they wanted to remember their relative, who was called a harry. In fact, the original title of this painting is much more dramatic, the gallant charge of lieutenant harry hidden. I dont know why it was changed to an episode of the war. It was commissioned by the family and displayed in regiments for years. You know, hes considered one of i doubt this because this is 1862, hes considered the first union cal vary officer to die during the war. Im not sure thats possible but well go for it for now. You know what i neglected to mention, if we can think back to colonel corcoran again. Its okay to make athis point now. Corcoran did get out of prison, our irish brigade hero. He got out be president en and recovered and went the back into the service and he h inanything mussly was killed when his Service Horse fell on him. I dont like horses. A know a lot of people do. They petrify me. So all power for henry hidden for doing all of this. That is well, henry hiddens claim to fame is the first union cal calvary officer killed in action, like our suv guy last week. Yes. What are some of the images that stand out for you . The first images of war are pretty bucolic, even though the hands are turning red. But this is bayonet, rifles, confusion, trees shorn of leaves. Its not romantic at all. Its tough and its scary. Youve got these foreignborn artists who are really revising the idea of war. Be so far i think weve done all except for carpenter, theyre all foreignborn artists and they are, of course, america was kind of speaking with fiern accent at the time anyway. They say 40 of the union army spoke with some kind of foreign accent, which was remarkable. That is remarkable. So were down to our last five artworks or artistic impressions of war. Right. This is Point Lookout sketches, water color drawings by john jacob only enhauser. About 212,000 con fed rids and 360,000 union men were taken prisoner and a majority of these were actually in prison for a duration of the war. For those men who were Strong Enough to endure the starvation and exposure, sickness and all around hellish circumstances, weve learned that creativity helped them survive. Yes. So the artist of these questions, john jacob o bhxt enhauser was the artist of one such soldier. Tell us about him. You know, im assuming he was foreign born but certainly germanamerican in some way. He was a folk artist and candymaker before the war, confectionary it was called. Austrian by descent, settled in baltimore. Woke up early and saw action in the First Richmond light artillery. But he survived in the war for some time but it caught up with him in 1864. And he was captured at petersburg. And he was imprisoned at a hot and steamy camp on the southern shore of maryland called Point Lookout, where at its peak, 20,000 men were keld in pretty tough circumstances in about 23 acres. So it wasnt really as crowded as andersonville or elmira, but a pretty tough situation. By the way, prisoners were exchanged at the beginning of the war but by 1864 general grant said no more exchanges because in prison soldiers hurt the Confederate Flag more than ours because we could always replenish. But he was gifted. I think he probably sold some of these to fellow prisoners because we have evidence some of them wrote home saying theres a very clever artist here. You can see hes a folk artist at best. He was captured by a black soldier, by the way. And what makes his pieces remarkable is he shows africanamerican soldiers guarding him, which for a southerner must have been a deep kind of humiliation, nice retribution at this point. I think we actually have that in the next slide. Its interesting too because he was so he painted so many artworks and such a huge, huge body of work that it was thought it was the work of more than one person but it seems to just be his. At New York Historical society, the art collection, is a portfolio of 40 water colors and here just a kind can of selection of them. What do they depict just in general . There are so many. Well, it depicts africanamerican guard selling some extras to a prisoner. Maybe a potato or, you know, an extra ration. And on the left it shows a group of ladies who are touring the camp as if its a tourist attraction and you have a soldier uninhibitedly bare chested washing his shirt, which is bug infested, and hes saying to the ladies, why is this camp so lousy . Which even then had a double meaning. So they all had voiceboxes and, you know what do you call it, minstrel dialect for the africanamericans. You know, as this soldier says, the bottom rail is on top now, which is about the summation of omenhausers existence. The africanamerican garz are in control. So society has turned upside down for him. He was in prison until not only until the end of the war, he was in prison until two months after the war. He wasnt let go. He would not sign the loyal toij loyalty oath that was required of prisoners to be demobbed. And 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 that his artistic impressions do endure and that is a wonderful thing. So were ready for our q a. Our first question is and we do see a slide of all of the objects together again. Did lincoln ever see the volk etching . And if so, what was his reaction . Excellent question. We have no idea. I would suspect not. Again, although much many claims have been made about the popularity and influence of admiral volk in his time, i never believed it. I think there was such strict censorship in unionoccupied baltimore in 1863 for and until the end of the war that his works would not have circulated. Although although the Newyork Historical Society copy has a real early Acquisition Day as i recall. But theres no evidence. He saw plenty of nasty caricature in his day but no evidence that he saw volk. Next question. One of our viewers this evening believes that lincolns pfoot i on the constitution. Is that correct . No, it really is the bible. If you look at the image closely, he helps us by saying bible. Good. You would know the answer to this better than i, how many other paintings and prints of the civil war are there in the societys collection . Oh, youre putting this on me, val. You looked through hundreds. I mean there are literally hundreds. I would say there are dozens and dozens. And were going to see a nice grant portrait next week, which were saving for our grand focus penultimate session. So nice military portraits and interesting prewar paintings, including a lovely painting of an africanamerican man thinking of emancipation. And east lynn johnson paintings that are prewar but very important in depicting slavery in washington, d. C. Before the war. Its a great collection. We dont even know whats in the storerooms, by the way. Exactly. And in the printroom alone, there are just so many, so many prints to choose from. Be duplicate, triplicate, multiple impressions of sometimes the same image. So i would put it at least in the hurpndreds, if not make may thousands. With a print collection and photographs, definitely. Exactly. Was lincoln mistrustful of the irish 69th since they were democrat . No, certainly not at the beginning. He worked very hard to get ethnic regiments and ethnic generals, fromme segal among the germans and corcoran was the poster boy of irish patriotism. When things began to get a little rough in terms of his relationship with the irishamerican community and irishamerican voters is when the emancipation proclamation was issued and the rash out for the war expanded from just preserving the union to eradicating slavery as well. Not that inc. Willen had illusions he had political supporters in the irish community. He knew the irish were democrat. But in 1861 he did not want the fight against the succession to be a republican war only. So he was willing to accept all parties to the service. The next question i know the answer to this one. You said the return of the 69th was exhibited at the midler gallery on 9th avenue it was actually 9th street, right . 9th street, okay. Our viewer said the Far West Side of manhattan what was a wasteland, which it was good correction. Thank you. There was no art gallery over there. I was surprised to hear it was on 9th street actually, around there. It was the goukie gallery and knoedler took it over. Thats why i was thinking 9th avenue, because of all of the Art Galleries there. Were painting presentations different in the 19th century . Presentations . Yeah, presentations. Im not sure i know what that means. I would say there are unveilings, if we take a literal sense, were certainly big deals and after the war much, much fanfare attended the unveiling of paintings and as you point out, val, much of of the civil war statuary, except for lincolns statuary, was done from 1890 on when there was enough money in the south to collect for those enormous commissions. There were a lot of veterans who loved having those reminders around. There were a lot of veterans including robert e. Lee, who didnt think there should be any civil war paintings or art of any kind. He just wanted there to be no visual record that glorified war, which is interesting when we think about the people who are insisting his statures endure. Exactly. What, if any, was the relationship between the irish 69th and 1863 draft rioters . They were they were back in service at gettysburg and the troops that were drawn from the ranks of the army of the potomac at gettysburg, mostly those who were fairly well rested and not been engaged in much of the battle, were the buns wones tha brought back to quell the riots. I have not checked into the psychology of the response of the veterans or for those serving in the 69th and their attitudes towards the draft riots. I would suspect that they were repelled by them because they were a proud and organized brigade and still fighting for the union. Although as we noted in that episode, many of the draft rioters were in fact irish. So theres that connection too. Absolutely. But there were the irish who did not want to enlist or be drafted as opposed to the 69th, who would enlist it. Okay. Next question, how many how did so many paintings from the civil war era survive . Well, they were preserved by their original patrons. Mostly union leagues, armories, regimental headquarters, clubhouses, the united daughters of the confederacy, sons of the confederate veterans, all of these organizations that champion these mementos and commission them and pay for them and held their meetings in front of them. Those of you who have sieve the 7th regiment armory, its filled with civil war art and art from other american conflict. Army and navy clubs all over the country. They were preserved because they were put into institutional settings really early. Not many were done for private collections, and thats why they survived. And one such painting, the nellic painting, which was up there on the right. How accurate is that painting and are there all real characters that are depicted in it . Yeah, my understanding is some portraits were based on survivors and inevitably the calvary charge is based on subscriptions of the survivor that the artist was privy to collected by the family for his use, but obviously there was no photography at war at that point. Theres photography, but its not action photography. So most of this, again we said earlier or i said it wasnt romanticized but its somewhat invented. Its just not a very pleasant glorification. Were back to lincoln, in your wheelhouse, with this question. Did he enjoy art in were there Many American art museums during his life . Yeah, there werent many. The big breakthrough for American Art Museum hes is 1870, five years after the war when the metropolitan, museum of fine arts in boston and Art Institution of chicago are all founded. But there were plenty of galleries. Lincoln was not an habituae of Art Galleries to be sure. He always commented he was a very different judge of artistic manners, mostly in relation to critiquing pictures of himself that he was compelled to praise or acknowledge when they were being painted. On the other hand he led artists and sculptors have their go at him a lot during the war. He would think he was otherwise engaged. And he never sat still like gilbert stewart, who had to be painted during the jump, while he was working, usually doing his correspondence. But he was solicitous, liked joking with artists. He led carpenter hang out for six months painting the emancipation painting and other pictures. I will say one exception i know of is when the first major painting of ulysses s. Grant was brought to the capital for display and he invited lincoln to see it. And he had not met grant at that point. I think part of him felt obliged to pay tribute to it and another part of him said, if i dont go and pay homage of this painting, people are going to think im afraid of grant running for president. So he went up to capitol hill to look at. It may be the only picture i know of not of himself that he had a gander at during the civil war. Emancipation proclamation painting, he told carpenter, as good as it can get, the caricature is perfect. Are there any societies in lincolns life yes. New york museum of art. I dont know what the instillations were like during the war. But ill bet there was some there were National Academy of design was operating during the war. And every season they would hang paintings and we know from the record these included war paintings so thats kind of like museums. Newyork Historical Society founded 1804 as a museum and library but very different than the colossal encyclopedic museums like the net, as we know. Another lincoln question. Did lincoln ever visit any of the questions . Was he concerned about the conditions . He visited camp hospital. That would be as close as he got to seeing confederates who were under restraint. So he famously, when he went to visit the wounded at campsites, he would make it to the tent 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 will shake mine. Almost always they were drawn to him and shook his hand, and so he didnt visit prisoner of war camps to my knowledge but he did visit hospital camps were the wounded were as good as in prison. Were up to our last question now. Are you aware of any africanamerican artist who depicted this era . Yeah. There were some. One i hate to go back to lincoln as my fallback, but there was a painting named david bowser who painted lincoln in other scenes. So, yes, there were africanamerican artists that worked. Not many. But lincoln was, you know, a particularly evocative and attractive subject. So he did attract at least bowser and others. Lea Matthew Pryor was another africanamerican artist who painted lincoln and im sure there were wartime artists, battle artists as well. Well, it looks like were out of time. Harold, thank you once again for your wonderful insights and anecdotes, for being such a great partner in this series. And thank you to our audience for being with us and for your support. Good night. Good night. Youre watching American History tv. Every weekend on cspan3, explore our nations past. Cspan3, created by americas Cable Television companies as a Public Service and brought to you today by your television provider. Week nights this month were featuring American History tv programs as a preview of whats available every weekend on cspan3. 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 a conversation hosted by Thomas Jeffersons monticello. It focuses on how depictions of slavery in jeffersons life have changed over recent decades. Watch tonight beginning at 8 00 eastern. And enjoy American History tv this week and every weekend on cspan3. Next on the civil war, historian harold holdser and Valerie Paley of the Newyork Historical Society talk about artifacts featured in their joinl publication, the civil war in 50 objects. In this series they talk about artifacts related to ulysses s. Grant and benjamin butler. This took place online and the Newyork Historical Society binded the video. Good evening, and welcome. Tonights topic is modern major generals. First i want to remind everyone tonights program, which is being recorded, will last approximately 45 minutes. This will include 15 minutes for questions and answers. Please submit your question by the q a on your zoom screen during the time. We will respond to as many possible during the final part of the
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