Andrea Kelly
TAH Grant Lesson Plan
Civil War Art
I created this power point based on the images of our online webinar. I would do this assignment to
replace or in conjunction with 4.03 Life during the War.
Objectives:
Module Four presents students with the opportunity to examine the events surrounding the Civil War.
Students will analyze primary and secondary source documents to understand the causes, effects, and
results of the war and the aftermath or Reconstruction period.
Lesson:
I hold weekly Elluminate sessions for my students. We explored the images in this power point. In
addition to discussing and recording their answers we came up with several other observations in each
picture.
Procedure:
1. We brainstormed what we knew about soldiers during the Civil War.
2. I sent the students a file with the questions so they could anticipate what we would see.
3. Completed the powerpoint with questions.
4. Discussed what we learned. Everyone said they were shocked about the sharp shooter and had
no idea this existed in the Civil War. I also showed the pictures of Antietam Battlefield from our
recent trip to compare what it was then and what it is now.
Image Questions:
(Image 1)Winslow Homer, “War for the Union—Bayonet Charge,”
Harper’s Weekly, July 12, 1862
Discussion Questions
How likely was it that Homer witnessed such a battle?
How did he design the scene to bolster home front morale?
(Image 2)Winslow Homer,
Defiance: Inviting a Shot Before Petersburg
Oil on panel, 1864
Discussion Questions
How does this portrayal of battle differ from that in Homer’s “Bayonet Charge”?
How is the battlefield and Homer’s image of it organized around the new technology of long-range
weaponry?
(Image 3)Winslow Homer, “A Sharp-shooter on Picket Duty”
Harper’s Weekly, November 15, 1862
Discussion Question
How does this image make sense of long-distance sharpshooting, a practice Homer would later call
“as near as murder as anything I ever could think of in connection with the army”?
(Image 4)Alexander Gardner
View in the Field, on the west side of Hagerstown road, after the Battle of Antietam
September, 1862
Discussion Questions
The Antietam photographs were the first images of corpses taken in the immediate aftermath of
battle.
Why were these photographs so shocking?
Picture Answer Guide
Winslow Homer, “War for the Union—Bayonet Charge,”
Harper’s Weekly, July 12, 1862
Discussion Questions
How likely was it that Homer witnessed such a battle?
How did he design the scene to bolster home front morale?
How did his image reflect old tactics and old ideals of battle?
Winslow Homer made this while “imbedded” in the Union army for Harpers magazine. Who is winning?
Who is losing – how does the artist show that? You see the army on the left (Union) taking ¾ of page.
They are charging, swords drawn and the right hand army (Confederate) is not showing initiative and are
being swept from the page. This is part of the Peninsular (Va.) campaign of 1862. By the time it’s
published the Union has lost this campaign – military disaster (failed to take Richmond & many
casualties). Good example of an image that doesn’t represent reality but is designed to boost morale. He
is showing the mastery of the Union soldier over Confederate. Very unlikely Homer was really there.
Where was the viewer of this image? A few paces behind the Union soldier with his back to us as
though he sketched from 8 feet away. He never could have gotten that close to combat. Typically the
battlefield would be obscured by smoke and it would have been disorienting. We can see a long way
into the distance.
Everything in this picture is to show or give the impression that the South is losing. Keep in mind this
was a new type of war that was using long range weaponry. This made it even harder as soldiers also
needed to be able to defend themselves.
Winslow Homer,
Defiance: Inviting a Shot Before Petersburg
Oil on panel, 1864
Discussion Questions
How does this portrayal of battle differ from that in Homer’s “Bayonet Charge”?
How is the battlefield and Homer’s image of it organized around the new technology of long-range
weaponry?
Petersburgh battle (trench warfare) fought over months. We are behind Confederate lines (we know by
the uniforms and the black banjo player) He is taunting – he is showing that the Confederate soldier
while enduring this long battle may crack and taunt the enemy because of their frustration with the
situation. This guy’s body language shows (clenched fists) he is spoiling for a fight. The puffs of smoke
on the lower right are the sharpshooters rifle shots. Presumably if they are accurate in the next split
second he will be dead. In a way he is the hero of the image (like a monument on a pedestal) but he is
about to fall.
Notice he is unarmed. It is accurate to say that he could be killed in an instant by the way and place he
is standing and the fact that he is unarmed.
Banjo player is showing that it is the Confederate line, partly to portray the tedium--after all nobody
has time to listen to music during a real battle--and a reminder of the slave system still in place with a
fairly conventional image of black life. The guy on the rampart appears almost to be dancing to the tune
of the banjo player. He is an ironic figure because he is controlling the fellow on the rampart. Homer
was subtle and sophisticated even though he used a caricature figure in here. By the time the battle got
to Petersburg, the Union was willing to kill every soldier. This is a transitional moment for Americans to
understand warfare – people begin to understand the technology of killing and the impact this war was
having on our country.
Winslow Homer, “A Sharp-shooter on Picket Duty”
Harper’s Weekly, November 15, 1862
Discussion Question
How does this image make sense of long-distance sharpshooting, a practice Homer would later call “as
near as murder as anything I ever could think of in connection with the army”?
This is a sharpshooter who can shoot up to 400 yards away using a telescopic sight to accurately target
someone a long distance away. It raises the issue of the conduct of the war. The way the battles were
fought also changed the moral rules of battle. The sharpshooters were hated by the enemy and by their
own troops. Before the sharpshooter became important, fighting had lulls between battles but now the
soldiers could never relax because of sharpshooters. Troops and civilians thought this was murder.
Compare it to the use of drones today in the war on terrorism. The ways that new technology raises
new and troubling ideas about the conduct of war. Homer himself called this kind of combat murder.
The man almost becomes an extension of the weapon and becomes like a machine.
Ask the students if they think this is fair or unfair fighting in a war. Try to argue both sides.
Alexander Gardner
View in the Field, on the west side of Hagerstown road, after the Battle of Antietam
September, 1862
Discussion Questions
The Antietam photographs were the first images of corpses taken in the immediate aftermath of battle.
Why were these photographs so shocking?
Matthew Brady showed this in his gallery in NY. Alexander Gardner took this photo. Wet plate negative
photography developed in 1850’s – technology less than 10 years. First battlefield images of dead ever
taken. War previously had been portrayed romantically. Photograph adds ‘scientific’ reality. This
demonstrates that the photographer was there and saw this ghastly site. Photography begins to be
considered the ultimate authority of reality. There is a lack of care for the bodies – left as they fell.
People are shocked by the lack of burial and left like dead animals in the field. Their pockets have been
picked – bellies are bloated and decomposition begun. There is no sign of these corpses dying in a heroic
action taking a fort or anything. They are just dead and it looks like nothing was accomplished by their
deaths.
It is important to note to the students that there was no way to identify soldiers like dog tags. The
bodies in the picture are Confederate soldiers as the Union won this battle. There was no formal
notification to the families.