EVERY SKETCH TELLS A STORY

TECHNOLOGICAL LIMITS prevented Civil War-era photographers from capturing subjects in motion, and sketch artists provided the most dramatic images of many memorable incidents. London-born Alfred R. Waud stood out among a talented group that included Winslow Homer, Waud’s brother William, Edwin Forbes, and many others whose works found a large audience in the loyal states. The relative absence of major illustrated weeklies in the Confederacy ( paled in comparison to or ), among other factors, created a much less dynamic market for sketch artists in the Rebel states. Another Englishman named to cover the conflict from the Union side, decided in mid-1862 to change his base to the Confederacy. During the remainder of the conflict, he produced a large body of first-hand illustrative evidence relating to the incipient slaveholding republic.