Lincoln, the irish brigade and battle scenes. This conversation took place online and the New York Historical association provided the video. So, were continuing our conversation in this series that argues that objects have the power to convey historical events and to help us understand the past. This idea inspired Harold Holzers book. The objects of which were taken from the collection of the New York Historical society. This evening, well be look iin at five objects from the book and related exhibition grouped around the theme of the art of war. So these works are very different and have different background stories. We have the return of the 69th irish regiment caricature of lincoln riding the emancipation patriotically informati proclamation. Victors painting an episode of war and some prison art. Lets look at the relationship between war and art. Did war stimulate art in america and did art change romantic image of war . I think both, valerie, and good evening. Thanks for having me back. I think the great emphasis of american painting to the civil war was probably history and landscaping. Portraits were continuing the same way, of course, it took on a martial heir with all the military heroes who were portrayed, but a, it sent many more artists into the field or near the field to camp. Ar atists like Winslow Homer went to do sketches for the weekly newspapers and evolved into very successful artists, but in e terms of what it did to landscaping, it revolutionized the romantic attitude artists had toward this of the americas. The landscape was ravaged by gunfire and the land was stained by blood, so it really changed the way this Great American art form was recorded. During and after the war. It kept artists busy many years after the war from military lodges, armories and the united daughters of the confederacy and all these patrons that kept clambering and statues, as we know. Well, lets start with our first object or painting. Of the evening. That is louis langs return of the 69th irish regiment from the seat of war. A masterpiece of public relations. Why . Well, it made great heroes of a military unit that fought pretty well, but in the end, unsuccessfully. This was important because it was the irish brigade. The unit that robert e. Lee n e named the fighting 69 in that admiration. But early, it was recruited. Very important to the Union War Effort that german and Irish Americans would have different political points of view, were both recruited and both raised their own regiments and this one went off early in the war. In virginia. Established it in arlington heights, where they built fortifications for washington. It was very irish. I mean colonel who was the commander had the, had a, a minister, a Catholic Priest sprinkle holy water on the first canon and they marched off proudly to war. Corkren was irish born. 33 years old. Member of the finian brotherh d brotherhood. We have an image. Thats not going to be corkren, so we shouldnt get to him yet. Sorry. Yes. Why dont we i should point out, this fellow is not corkren because tat battle of bull run itself, where our irish regiment fought very bravely, he was captured by the confederates and remained in prison for a full year. When he was finally released, Abraham Lincoln gave him and other officers who had been imprisoned, a state dinner in the white house, but when the union, these early recruits only were for 90 days, so and he was there for a whole year in prison. Yes. Exactly. He was an exception, but after 90 days, the fighting 69th fought no more. They came back, at least this unit, came back in a ship to battery park. And this is what this scene depicts and the fellow waving his hat is corkrens successor, Thomas Francis mar. And there he is. Getting a heros welcome in lieu of michael. And these portraits were painted of other individually recognized people in the Irish American community. In the battle of bull run in 1861 is part of the brigade thats commanded by william t. Sherman. What happened to them there . They did okay. I mean, they did well. They were brave, but again, the battle of bull run was won by the union in the mortganing. The only problem is that the afternoon came after the morning and the confederates charged back and won the day. It turned out to be a real disaster. They did receive quite an unexpected welcome when they arrived in manhattan a week later. What sort of things does louis lang depict in the painting . Well, you can see the crowd surging around mar. Ive written so often about popular prints. This is an image of a news boy selling engravings or lithographs of colonel cork ren, who is back suffering in a prison camp, so he was a particular hero. They came back and the brigade was smart enough and wealthy enou enough, put town paintings. It was displayed. Intended i think for their essex street armory. After this scene, they all marched to essex street on the Lower East Side and stacked their arms and we dont know where this painting ultimately wound up, but it did have a great display of the gallery on 9th avenue and it won rave reviews for the critics. So it ultimately became a bit of an artistic curiosity. Why . Well, two years after this scene, the city erupted in draft riots a as we discussed in an earlier program, and so many 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, louis lang donated it to the H Historical Society 25 years after this scene. The great thing is that is when it was discovered in storage, it was restored magnificently in time for exhibition for the civil war in 50 objects. Absolutely. Yes, and it was found in tatters. To make it one gorgeous unit on the fourth floor. Please come and see it when we reopen. Lets move now the our next painting, object. And that is the lincoln family. In 1861. This is in black and white so it has a photographic quality. Its oil and canvas, but there are no photographs of the lincoln family all together. Why . We really dont know, but mary lincoln did not like she did not like to be photographed with her husband. Says because it was because she was so much shorter she looked doll like and didnt like the comparison. She was a little bit fatter, too. Well, not in this picture and ill explain that. So lincoln was photographed with tad. This is a riff on that famous photograph and as you say, this is painted in black and white for a simple reason, and gray. Because its a preparatory piece to serve as a model for a popular print. So carpenter didnt bother to add color, because it would have not been reproduced and engraved. Its interesting because theres such Public Interest these days and actually in the last sempblry of artistic depictions of the first family, but not in this time and place. That only sort of became more the thing after lincolns assassination. But in any case, thats where this painting comes in. Tell us more about this and its artist. So, carpenter was a new yorker from upstate new york. Homer, new york, near syracuse, but he had a gallery in new york city. And he decided he wanted to paint the First Reading of the emancipation proclamation before the cabinet and got letters of introduction and went to the white house. Pretty 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 and tad looking at this photograph album that looked very much like a bible, and no one ever, ever corrected that impression because it was, in 1865, lincoln of course dies. Hes still working on his emancipation engraving. The painting is done and hes pretty wellknown, so he goes to a new york engraver. Jc derby. And hi woe works with another publisher to do a lincoln family. And carpenters price was 500, which was a pretty good fee, but he decides to write to mary lincoln, whos his buddy at this point, and she suggests all of the other models, this handsome picture of robert. Who was then at harvard. A picture of willie, who died in 1862. Hes the middle Child Holding the sword and thats why its very specifically the family in 61 and when carpenter suggests a mary, she suggests one that was taken before she gained weight. So, shes the one who chose this very sort of flattering. What was produced, it was a popular print of thelingen f lln fam lincoln family. They were seld m seldom together. Robert wrote he never had ten minutes alone with his father during the entire war. Willie died 11 months into the presidency and mary said she was fortunate if lincoln came to the bedroom to talk about the events of the day at 11 00 at night. So the civil war drove them apart. It did not bring them together. This picture was meant to say they were together. Maybe to reassure americans that lincoln had had a happy and united family. And so, carpenter, the painter,life. And the painter never really got the credit that he deserved for originating that powerful idea of showing a man. He did get 500 for it, but he claimed he only sold the physical the intellectual property, he still owned the physical canvas. However, the studio went bankrupt and sold it to a new yorker named warren crane. And carpenter was not happy. And it was crane who gave it to the Historical Society years later. He said he was going to add color, and that was his ploy to get it back. But he didnt and he didnt. Lets move on to our next artistic work and this is an etching of writing the emancipation proclamation. Were at the middle of the second year of the civil war. It was getting difficulty for the confederacy to circulate morale prints. Most of the abled body artists were fighting in the war as soldiers. This is an interesting thing to contemplate right now is monuments to the confederacy are being pulled down. There were none that were done at the time of the civil war. No artistic works. So tell us about the artist who created this etching. So hes also a hyphenated american. Unlike most of the germans who came to the United States after the revolutions of 1848 failed in europe, he was an arch consecutive and a racist. He settled in baltimore and the surroundings and the 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 copy right. Print makers were shut down who sympathized with the confederacy. He was not influential at the time but venomous towards lincoln. Unlike carpenter who portrayed lincoln writing almost as a divine presence, this lincoln is writing the emancipation proclamation from an ink well thats held by satan and hes got his foot on the holy bible to do it. Look at the devils heads on the table, theres liquor on a table nearby. If he wasnt influenced by the devil, he had to be drunk. Theres a picture of john brown as st. John brown. John brown is the evil influence over lincoln. Theres a painting of a slave rebellion in haiti. And the figure thright over lincoln is the symbol of the country. Pulled over its head is the kind of scottish tam that he wore on his trip to baltimore. Its an inside joke. Not very favorable towards the proclamation. Not at all. This is part of a series call sketches of the civil war in north america. Other sketches depict something fake newsy in a way. Yeah. Cave life in vix becksburg. I think weve shown that. Southern women melting church bells to make cannons for their cause. Lincoln sneaking into baltimore. Its interesting you should mention lincoln and volk because parentally volk had a change of heart. He said he always regretted that he was men to that lovely man. But he painted he went onto paint but his paintings were of robert e. Lee and lee mourning stone wall jackson. He did confederateinspired paintings. He never did a lincoln painting that showed any kind of sense of having regretted what he did. Yeah. Lets move on to our next image. And this is also a large painting, not quite as large of return of the 69. This is called an episode of war, the cavalry charge. We called it a Hidden Treasure in the book. I know thats kind of a pun i have to keep apologizing for. Its cute. Anyway, it is a dramatic scene. We dont want to minimize it. And this is a henry was a youthful, wellconnected new yorker. Tell us a bit about him and this particular episode of war. Well, he was a very young man, 23 years old when he joined company h of the cavalry. And he a brave young guy. He led his i should say, he was a his family were very wealthy shipbuilders, the web family. He was new york mercantile royalty. One day at a station he saw an unguarded, exposed flank of general Joe Johnstons army and he broke through and created havoc and really pushed them back. Unfortunately, in the midst of the charge, and thats why thats what the steam is supposed to represent. His head is not held up right. Thats because hes just been shot through the neck and he will die. But it is kind of remarkable. It is it doesnt diminish the dramatic nature of the canvas. But it was an obscure incident in its own time. Why was it obscure . First of all, this little skri skirmish was not a major battle. There were two events going on on the same day. They were much more important and much more more well covered by the media, of course. This could have led to a battle, but johnstons army just waited for another day. But as you mentioned when we started, he the web family was wealthy and they wanted to remember their relative who was called harry. The original title of this painting is much more dramatic than the charge of lieutenant harry hidden. I dont know why they changed it to an episode of the war. But it was commissioned by the family and displayed in regiments for years. You know, hes considered one of the i doubt this, because this is 1862. Hes considered the first Union Cavalry officer to die during the war. Im not sure thats possible. But well go with it for now. And you know what i neglected to mention, if we could think back to the colonel corcoran again. He did get out of prison. He recovered. He went back into the service and he was killed when his horse fell on him. So what the battle of bull run could not do to colonel corcoran. I dont like horses. They terrify me. He was the first cavalry officer killed in action sort of like our guy last week. Yes. He gets it. You do mention, though, that this painting casts a new life on the harsh realities of war. What are some of the details that stand out for you . Well, the first images of war were pretty but callic. But this is handtohand combat. Its swords, bayonets, rifles, confusion, its not romantic at all. Its tough and scary. And i you know, youve got these foreignborn arrests who are revising the idea of war and so far i think weve done all except for carpenter, theyre all foreignborn artists. And they are of course america was kind of a speaking with a foreign accent at the time any away. 40 of the union army spoke with some kind of a foreign accent which is remarkable. That is remarkable. Were down to our last of five artworks or artistic impressions of war. And this is Point Lookout sketches, these are water color drawings. During the four years of the civil war, about 212,000 confederates and 436,000 union men were taken prison. A majority of these were actually imprisoned for the duration of the war. For those of the of those men who were Strong Enough to endure the starvation and exposure, sickness and allaround hellish circumstances, weve learned that creativity helped them survive. The artist of these sketches was one such soldier. Tell us a bit about him. Well, what we know is he was im assuming he was foreign born, but certainly germanamerican in some way. He was a folk artist and a candy maker before the war, confectioner it was called. Austrian by decent, settled in baltimore. He saw some action in the First Richmond wide 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 imprisoned at a hot and steamy camp on the southern shore of maryland called Point Lookout where at its peak, 20,000 men were kept in pretty tough circumstances in about 23 acres. It wasnt really as crowded as andersonville but a pretty tough situation and, by the way, prisoners were exchanged at the beginning of the war. But by 1864, general grant had said no more exchanges because in prison, soldiers hurt the confederate side more than ours because we can always replenish. But he was gifted. I think he sold some of these to fellow prisoners because we have evidence that some of them wrote home saying theres a very clever artist here and youll see hes a folk artist at best. He was captured by a black soldier, by the way, and he does what makes his pieces remarkable, he shows africanamerican soldiers guarding him, which were for a southerner must have been a deep kind of humiliation which is nice retribution at this point. I think we have that in the next slide. Its interesting too because he was so he painted so many artworks and its 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. And at the New York Historical society, the Art Collection has a portfolio of 40 water colors. And here, what do they depict, just in general . There are so many. Well, it depicts africanamerican guards selling some extras to a prisoner, maybe a potato or, you know, an extra ration. On the left it shows a group of ladies who are touring the camp as if its a tourist attraction. You have a soldier kind of uninhibitly washing his shirt and hes saying why is this camp so lousy. They all had voiceboxes and what do you call it, menstrual dialect for the africanamericans. But as the as this soldier says, the bottom rail is on top now, which is about the summation of the artists existence. The africanamerican soldiers are in control. Society is turned upside down for him. He was in prison until two months after the war. He wasnt let go. He would not sign the loyalty oath that was required of prisoners to be demobed and as a result, you know, 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 his artistic expressions endure and thats a remarkable thing. Were ready for q a. Our first question, did lincoln ever see the volk etching. 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 of volk in his time. I dont believe it. I think there was strict censer ship in 1863 and for and until the end of the war that his works would not have circulated. Although, although, the New York Historical society copy has a really 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 foot is on the constitution. Is that correct . No, it really is the bible. A close up if you look at a closeup of that image, he helps us by saying bible. Okay. 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 . Youre putting this on me, belle . Well you looked through hundreds. Literally hundreds. There are dozens and dozens and were going to see a nice portrait next week which were saving for our grantfocused session. So some nice military portraits and some interesting prewar paintings including a lovely painting of an africanamerican man thinking of emancipation and Eastland Johnson paintings that are prewar but very important in depicting slavery in washington, d. C. , before the war. Its a great collection. And i dont know whats in the storerooms, by the way. In the print room alone there are just so many so many prints to choose from. And multiple impressions of sometimes the same image. I would put it at least in the hundreds if not maybe thousands. Okay. With a print collection and photographs, definitely in the thousands. Exactly. Was lincoln mistrustful of the irish 69th since they were democrats . No. Certainly not at the beginning. He worked very hard to get ethnic regiments and generals and corcoran was the poster boy for irish patriotism. When things began to get a little rough is in terms of his relationship with the irishamerican community and irishamerican voters is when the emancipation proclamation was issued and the war expanded from just preserving the union to reradicating slavery as well. Lincoln knew that the irish were democrats. But in 1861 he did not want the fight against cessation to be a republican war only. He was willing to accept all parties, all ethnicities in the service. Next question, and i think well, i know the answer to this one. You said the return of the 69th exhibited on the gallery on 9th street. Because our viewer says the Far West Side of manhattan was a waste land, which it was. And there was probably landfills. Good correction. Thank you. So, yeah, there was no art gallery over there. I was surprised to hear it was on 9th street, actually. It was the old i was thinking 9th avenue because of all the chelsea Art Galleries now. Exactly. Were painting presentations different in the 19th century . Painting presentations. Im wondering what that im not sure i know what it means. I will say that there were that their unveilings, if we take the literal sense were big deals and after the war, much, much fanfare attended the unveiling of paintings. As you point out, much of the civil war statuary was done in from 1890 on when there was enough money in the south to collect for those enormous commissions. So painting unveilings were big. There were lots of veterans who loved having those reminders around and there were lots of veterans and even robert e. Lee who didnt think there should be any civil war paintings or art of any kind. He wanted there to be no visual records that glorified war. Which is interesting when we think about the people who are insisting that his statues endure. Exactly. What if any was the relationship between the irish 69th and the 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 engaged in the battle, were the ones who were brought back to quell the riots. I have not checked into the psychology of the response of the veterans or those serving in the 69th and their attitudes toward the draft riots. I would suspect they were repelled by them because they were a proud and organized per good day and still fighting for the union. As we noted in that episode, many of the writers were in fact irish. Theres that connection too which was absolutely. But they were the irish who did not want to enlist or be drafted as opposed to to the 69th who would enlisted. Okay. Next question, 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, the sons of the confederate veterans, all of these organizations that champed these momentums and commissioned them and paid for them and held their meetings in front of them. Those of you who have seen the 7th regiment armory, its filled with civil war art and art from other american conflicts. Army and navy clubs all over the country. So thats they were preserved because they were put into institutional settings really early, not many were done for private collectors and thats why they survived. And one such painting, which is up there on the right, how many how accurate is that painting and are they all real characters that are depicted in it. Some portraits were based on survivors and the cavalry charged is based on description of survivors that the artist was privy to collected by the family. There was photography, but its not action photography. Most of this, again, i said it was romanticized. Were back to lincoln with this. Did he joy art and were there Many American art museums during his life . There werent many. The big breakthrough for american art museums is 1870, five years after the war when the metropolitan, the museum of fine arts in boston and the Art Institute of chicago are all founded. There were plenty of galleries. Linco lincoln always commented that he was a very indifferent judge of artistic matters, 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 let artists and sculptors have their go at him a lot during the war. You would think he would be otherwise engaged. And he was business and he never sat still like George Washington did for gilbert stewart. He had to be painted on the jump, as he put it, while he was working, usually on his correspondence. But he allowed them. He let carpenter hang out in the state dining room for six months painting the emancipation painting and others. One exception i know of was when the first page painting of grant was brought to the capitol for display and lincoln was invited to see it and he had not met grant at that point. And i think part of him felt obliged to paint tribute to him and another part of it part of him said, if i dont go pay homage of this painting, people are going to think im afraid of grant running for president. He went up to capitol hill to look at it. That may be the only painting not of himself that he had a gander at during the civil war. He liked the emancipation proclamation painting. He told carpenter, its as good as it can get. The portraiture is perfect. Were there any art museums during lincolns life, yes. And the Historical Society was in operation. Yes. 1804. I dont know what the installations were like in during the war. But ill bet there was some you know, there were National Academy of design was operating during the war and every season they would hang paintings and we know these included war paintings. Thats kind of like a museum. Thats right. New York Historical founded 1804 as a museum and a library. But very different from the museums as colossal like the met that we 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. So he famously when we went to visit the wounded at campsites, he would make time to the tents that contained the confederate prisoners and he would often say well, they would recognize him and he would extend his hand and say i will shake your hand if you will shake mine. And almost always they were drawn to him and took his hand and so he didnt visit prisoner of war camps, to my knowledge, but he did visit hospital camps where the wounded were as good as imprisoned. Were up to our last question now. Are you aware of any africanamerican artists who depicted this era . Yeah. There were some. One i hate to go back to lincoln as my fallback. There was a painter named david bowser who painted lincoln and other scenes. Yes, there were africanamerican artists at work, not many. But lincoln was a particularly e attractive subject and he attracted bowser and others. Im sure there were wartime 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. Every saturday at 8 00 p. M. 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Next on the civil war, historian Harold Holzer 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 ulysses grant. Good evening. And welcome. Tonights topic is modern major generals. I want to remind everyone that tonights program is being recorded will last approximately 45 minutes. This includes 15 minutes for questions and answers. Please submit your questions via the q a function