DC -- German-American Heritage Museum -- Exhibit: American Civil War w/Thomas Nast and Adalbert Volck:
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Description of Pictures: The American Civil War Seen Through the Eyes of German-American Caricaturists: Thomas Nast and Adalbert Volck
Jun 14, 2012 - Sep 30, 2012 | Washington, DC
The German-American Heritage Foundation of the USA presents a new exhibit that compares the illustrations of two German-American caricaturists: Thomas Nast and the lesser known Adalbert Volck.
Thomas Nast (1840-1902) is considered the father of the American political cartoon. He was born in Landau, Germany. The family moved to New York when Nast was still a child.
From age 15 on, he started working for different magazines. Thomas Nast was the premier illustrator and caricaturist for Harper's Weekly and his efforts were critical in gaining support for the Union cause and the policies of President Lincoln.
Among his creations were the political symbols of the two major parties in the United States, the Republican elephant and the Democratic donkey as well as the modern version of Santa Claus, and Uncle Sam.
Adalbert Volck (1828-1912) was born in Augsburg, Germany. After the 1848 German Revolution, he decided to leave the country.
Volck lived in St. Louis for a while before settling in Baltimore. He practiced as a dentist before working as an illustrator during the Civil War.
Adalbert Volck was an advocate for the South and the way it perceived the actions of the North.
As background, the role of German-Americans in the Civil War in general is described, as well as the role of the new media, which became critical to America's understanding of the conflict -- the weekly-illustrated newspaper. By comparing and contrasting these two artists, the exhibits strives to contribute to a deeper, more nuanced understanding of the polarizing controversies that led to the deadliest conflict in the history of the United States.
With the support of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany.
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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
GAHMCW_120817_004.JPG: In the pre-photographic and pre-digital era, sketches and woodprints were the only visual means of reaching the public. These original prints of Thomas Nast's illustrations are over 150 years old. They are valuable collectibles and the result of the immensely laborious and time-consuming etching and printing process when they were printed during the Civil War. The sketches of Adalbert Volck are taken from reprints of the originals in Sketches from the Civil War in North America.
Whereas Thomas Nast is said to have been "the father of American caricature" (especially for creating the now popularized images of Santa Claus, the Democratic donkey, and the Republican elephant), Adalbert Volck was largely unknown to the public during the Civil War. He lived and worked in Baltimore, Union territory. This not only mean that he had to create his drawings/sketches in secret, but also that it was impossible for him to find anyone willing to publish his illustrations.
GAHMCW_120817_023.JPG: Southern Chivalry
GAHMCW_120817_025.JPG: Throwing sick and wounded US soldiers in the road to die
GAHMCW_120817_028.JPG: Pea Ridge
GAHMCW_120817_030.JPG: Murder of two of Piatt's Soaves, 34th Ohio
GAHMCW_120817_034.JPG: Stabbing wounded Union soldiers
GAHMCW_120817_036.JPG: Rebellion
Slavery
Firing on hospitals
Driving Negroes south
GAHMCW_120817_039.JPG: Bull Run
GAHMCW_120817_041.JPG: Shooting U.S. Prisoners.
Massacre of Negroes at Murfreesboro Pike.
GAHMCW_120817_044.JPG: No quarter
GAHMCW_120817_045.JPG: The murder of Gen. Robert L. McCook.
Robert Latimer McCook
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Robert Latimer McCook (December 28, 1827 – August 6, 1862) was a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War who was killed by Confederate partisans in Alabama.
Birth and early years:
McCook was born in New Lisbon, Ohio, one of the famed Fighting McCooks. He studied law in the Steubenville office of Stanton and McCook and moved to Cincinnati, where he developed a large legal practice and socialized in local Democratic political circles. Originally a supporter of President James Buchanan, as war became inevitable, he distanced himself from the president's policies.
Civil War:
With the outbreak of the Civil War, McCook organized the 9th Ohio Infantry, a regiment primarily composed of recent German immigrants, in early 1861 and was appointed as its first colonel. After drilling his men at Camp Dennison, they took to the field in mid-June. McCook commanded a brigade in the West Virginia campaign under George B. McClellan, fighting in a number of battles, including Rich Mountain and Carnifex Ferry.
McCook's brigade was then transferred in the late autumn to the Army of the Ohio, and took an active part in the Battle of Mill Springs in Kentucky in January 1862. There, McCook was severely wounded while leading a daring bayonet charge on the Confederate lines. His men carried the position and routed their enemy.
McCook was promoted as a brigadier general of volunteers on March 21, 1862, while still away from the army recovering from his injury. He rejoined his command before his wound had fully healed, and found that he could no longer travel long distances on horseback. He was shot in a skirmish with the 4th Alabama Cavalry near Huntsville, Alabama. Northern versions claimed he was shot by Confederate guerrillas while lying helpless in an ambulance. For southern version see . In agony from a mortal wound in the intestines, he was taken to a nearby house, where he died within 24 hours.
John Beatty wrote in his book, The Citizen-Soldier or Memoirs of a Volunteer, "...McCook was killed while lying in the ambulance defenseless. When the Dutchmen of his old regiment learned of the unfortunate occurrence they became uncontrollable, and destroyed the buildings and property on five plantations near the scene of the murder. McCook had recently been promoted for gallantry at Mill Springs. He was brave, bluff, talented man, and his loss will be sorely felt."
McCook was interred in Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio.
GAHMCW_120817_049.JPG: Southern women gloating over dead Union soldiers
GAHMCW_120817_052.JPG: Southern Chivalry:
Dedicated to Jeff Davis
GAHMCW_120817_061.JPG: Driving Negroes south
GAHMCW_120817_063.JPG: Firing on U.S. Hospitals
GAHMCW_120817_130.JPG: Germans in the American Civil War:
German-Americans influenced the outcome of the Civil War in many ways. They were the largest ethnic contingent to right for the Union. More than 200,000 Union troops were German-born, and German-Americans comprised 23.4 percent of all soldiers fighting for the North. There were major recruiting efforts aimed specifically at German-Americans in the Midwestern cities of Cincinnati, St. Louis and Milwaukee -- those cities with large numbers of recent German immigrants. Many of these German-American soldiers were part of the wave of immigration that followed the failed 1848 revolution in Germany aimed at instituting democratic reforms and rooted in a desire for German nationalism. These 48ers, as they were called, believed in economic and political freedom. They fought in great numbers for the Union cause, which most closely aligned with their beliefs.
Even more important are two German-Americans who not only influenced the outcome of the War, but also how the conflict has been viewed and mythologized. Thomas Nast's drawings gained enormous sympathy for the Union cause, while Adalbert Volck's vitriolic sketches presented the Southern point of view as a counterpart to Nast's work. To these two German-born artists, America owes some of the most iconic and enduring images portraying the events and the issues of the deadliest and most tragic conflict in American history.
German-American generals and soldiers also played pivotal roles in the war. The names Franz Sigel, Carl Schurz, August Willich, Louis Blenker, Alexander Schimmelfennig, Friedrich Hecker, George Armstrong Custer and Peter Osterhaus can be found in any history of the conflict.
GAHMCW_120817_140.JPG: Recruitment posted from Milwaukee offering new recruits an enlistment bonus and combat pay.
GAHMCW_120817_146.JPG: "Enlistment of Sickles Brigade" by Adalbert Volck. Volck depicts the mainly German immigrant recruits in New York as drunken rabble.
GAHMCW_120817_150.JPG: Graffiti by a German soldier scrawled on walls at the Blenheim House in Fairfax, Va. The house was occupied by Union soldiers, many of whom were German born.
GAHMCW_120817_153.JPG: I'm Going to Fight Mit Siegel.
Written by John F. Poole, and sung by W.H. Eagan, Ethiopian Comedian,
with usual success, at the American Theatre, 444 Broadway.
Arn [???], -- "The girl I left behind me."
GAHMCW_120817_157.JPG: "Don Quixote and Sancho Panza," by Adalbert Volck, ca 1862
Lincoln and his clueless sidekick Benjamin Butler are lampooned in this caricature.
GAHMCW_120817_160.JPG: The Civil War and the Media:
The Civil War is considered to be one of the most well-reported conflicts in history. Due to the invention of the telegraph (1837) and the improvement of the mechanical printing press (1860s), the age of mass media was born. The rise of the middle class created an increasing number of readers and a growing demand for newspapers.
These developments led to a dramatic increase in the number of newspapers and their circulation. In 1860, there were between 2,500 and 3,000 publications in the United States. Harper's Weekly alone had as many as 200,000 subscribers. Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, an English language newspaper with a widely distributed German edition (Frank Leslies Illustrirte Zeitung), had approximately 64,000 subscribers.
The Civil War also created a new role in reporting: the war correspondent. Dispatches could be sent directly from the field, providing readers with timely news from the battlefields. Illustrators sent their sketch drawings of battle scenes to the newspapers where they were turned into wood engravings and printed.
In addition, the development of photography contributed to the multifaceted documentation of the Civil War. The numerous pictures taken through the lens of Mathew Brady made him the most famous photographer of his time. Brady's work remains the most remarkable source of Civil War pictures.
Whereas the North enjoyed a wide circulation of newspapers and magazines, the South was short on printing supplies and artists. Southern magazines published roughly a few thousand copies per week, compared to the hundreds of thousands in the North.
The two most popular weekly newspapers in the North, Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper and Harper's Weekly, featured illustrations and cartoons. Many of these had the war as their main topic to both meet the increasing demand of the public and to serve the cause of the Union.
GAHMCW_120817_174.JPG: Civil War photographer Mathew Brady (center, in front of the tree) at the Virginia headquarters of the Army of the Potomac with Major General Burnside [right], December 1862.
GAHMCW_120817_177.JPG: "Reads the papers," Harpers Weekly, April 13, 1861. This cartoon by an unknown artist depicts the overwhelming number of newspapers published at that time, leaving the reader puzzled about news from the war.
GAHMCW_120817_182.JPG: "Our Best Recruiting Sergeant":
Harper's Weekly, known as "America's picture paper," found itself in a challenging position. The publishers strived to inform their readers about the battles fought during the Civil War, but for the most part lacked the technology. Photography was in its infancy, and the bulky equipment and heavy photographic plates used to produce pictures were too cumbersome to carry across the battlefields. This created demand for illustrators, and Thomas Nast was their best man for the job. Nast understood war, having already followed the Garibaldi campaign during the Italian War in 1860. Nast regularly visited battlefields, but also often worked from sketches other artists had sent in.
His drawings frequently appeared as centerfolds in Harper's Weekly and presented not only a detailed view of the war effort, but also included illustrated sidebars to tell complex stories. He was a truth-seeker with a keen eye for detail, and he was a passionate supporter of the Union.
His unwavering political support for Lincoln's cause is especially embodied in his emotional drawing "Compromise with the South," where he criticized the proposal of the Democratic Convention of 1864. Nast shows what such a compromise would entail -- making peace with the South would negate all the death and sacrifice of the brave soldiers.
Nast's illustrations of the Civil War attracted a high level of attention and won support for the Union, so much so, in fact, that President Lincoln called Nast "Our best recruiting sergeant."
GAHMCW_120817_191.JPG: Thomas Nast between 1860 and 1875, taken by Mathew Brady
GAHMCW_120817_198.JPG: Compromise with the South.
In Memory of the Union Heroes of a useless war.
Dedicated to the Chicago Convention.
GAHMCW_120817_204.JPG: Thanksgiving-Day
November 24, 1864.
United We Stand.
Scene of Nast's drawing "United We Stand," Harper's Weekly, December 3, 1864. The original picture contains eight images illustrating the fight for the cause of the Union.
GAHMCW_120817_212.JPG: The Shrine of St. Nicholas -- "We are all good children"
GAHMCW_120817_216.JPG: Uncle Sam: "Look here, stranger, there is no law in this country to compel you to stay."
GAHMCW_120817_218.JPG: Thomas Nast: The Father of American Caricature:
They say, "the pen is mightier than the sword." That was certainly true in the second half of the 19th Century, when America stood at a watershed moment, and one man's pen captured the historic and dramatic events with masterful strokes. Thomas Nast was born to German parents in Landau, Bavaria and came to New York at the age of six. He dropped out of school early to help support his immigrant family. Drawing on his artistic talent, the 15-year-old found a job as a draftsman for Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper before moving to Harper's Weekly in 1859. Early on, Nast found himself drawing scenes from the battlefields of the Civil War, illustrating victory and defeat, and detailing the life and suffering of the soldiers during the course of the war. Following and illustrating the war changed Nast and his style. By the early 1870s, he had become more satirical, using cartoonish images and symbols to communicate his views to a wide spectrum of readers.
He used his growing influence successfully in a campaign against the corruption in New York's political machine, known as Tammany Hall. To vilify increasing corruption, Nast drew ringleader "Boss" Tweed with a money bag for a head.
At the same time, two other symbols found their way into Nast's art: a donkey representing the Democratic Party, and an elephant representing the Republican Party -- both are as quintessentially American today as the tall, Lincolnesque figure of Uncle Sam, another Nast staple. Nast's most cherished symbol to date, however, is Santa Claus, whom he portrayed as a jolly, old man with a round belly and white beard.
GAHMCW_120817_227.JPG: "Who Stole the People's Money?" -- Do Tell. NY Times. 'Twas Him.
Nast cartoon of the Tweed series, 1871
GAHMCW_120817_229.JPG: Thomas Nast's view of Boss Tweed as a money bag
GAHMCW_120817_234.JPG: Harper's Weekly, December 27, 1879
GAHMCW_120817_238.JPG: Harper's Weekly, January 1, 1881
GAHMCW_120817_240.JPG: Self-caricature of Thomas Nast, Harper's Weekly, December 2, 1876
GAHMCW_120817_243.JPG: Adalbert Volck:
Artist -- Rebel -- Spy:
Adalbert Volck (1828-1912) is an exception to the rule that the 48ers who left Germany were anti-slavery and supporters of the Union. Born in Augsburg, Bavaria, Volck participated in activities that surrounded the failed revolution of 1848 and was sentenced to four years of military service to the King. He chose to flee to America, settling in Baltimore, where he studied dentistry at the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, graduating in 1852. He was one of the first dentists to use porcelain in his dentistry and had a busy practice in Baltimore. Volck was a multitalented artist. He worked as a sculptor and silversmith as well as a graphic artist. He also was a great admirer of Robert E. Lee, whom he portrayed shortly before Lee's death.
Volck's work illustrates his early support for the Southern cause and his contempt for the politicians and generals of the North. Benjamin F. Butler was a particularly hated figure due to his unauthorized occupation of Baltimore early in the conflict.
Volck's activities in support of the Confederacy did not stop at graphic commentary. He carried messages across the Potomac, helped Southern sympathizers cross to the South, smuggled medicines and contraband across enemy lines, and used his Charles Street home as a refuge for Confederate sympathizers. He claimed that he had suffered numerous arrests for his clandestine activities.
Volck was no friend of his fellow German-born immigrant, Thomas Nast. In a 1900 letter, Volck states that he was motivated to create his drawings to counter the "illustrated papers of the North filled with one-sided pictures of the war filled with villainous caricatures" and singles out Nast in a clever word-play as "that nastiest of caricaturists, the notorious Nast."
Had Volck's work had the exposure that Thomas Nast enjoyed, he would certainly occupy an important position in the field of political cartooning and caricature.
GAHMCW_120817_253.JPG: Robert E. Lee in his Study. Oil on canvas by Volck c 1872.
The lithograph adopted from this portrait was to be issued to raise funds for a monument of Stonewall Jackson.
GAHMCW_120817_255.JPG: Battle in Baltimore, April 19th, 1861
Anti-Union residents of Baltimore attacked the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment as it passed through the city on its way to defend Washington.
GAHMCW_120817_258.JPG: Smuggling Medicines into the South
GAHMCW_120817_262.JPG: Marylanders Crossing the Potomac to Join the Southern Army
GAHMCW_120817_270.JPG: V. Blada [Adalbert Volck], "Writing the Emancipation Proclamation,"
Sketches from the Civil War in North America 1861-1863
GAHMCW_120817_277.JPG: Advocate for the South:
Adalbert Volck was a believer in the Confederate cause who found himself behind Union lines. He risked prosecution and arrest for distributing his thirty "Sketches from the Civil War in North America" produced from 1861-1864 under the pseudonym V. Blada. During the war he was only able to circulate his work through the subscription of two-hundred friends and supporters. But it was the republishing of the folios beginning in 1882 that gave his work the wide exposure and iconographic status that it has today.
[Note: According to Wiktionary.org, "blada" is the feminine version of a Polish word meaning "pale".]
In his illustrations of Southern life, Volck depicts Southerners as being morally superior to the North, with God looking upon them with favor. Priests and citizens bring precious objects to be melted into cannons. The pious Stonewall Jackson leads his men in prayer before battle. Slaves are well cared for and loyal servants to their virtuous masters.
The North, on the other hand, is vilified as immoral and inhuman. Union soldiers ransack Southern homes, terrorizing women and children. The Confederate soldier returns home to find his house and livelihood destroyed, and his wife raped and murdered.
After the war, Volck defended his work as true to the Southern experience, stating that he wanted to produce images "free from falsehood and vulgary... handed down to our children as representative scenes from the great struggle in which their fathers bled and their mothers suffered."
GAHMCW_120817_289.JPG: Slaves Concealing their Master from a Search Party
GAHMCW_120817_292.JPG: "Searching for Arms" by Adalbert Volck, another example of Volck's commentary on the brutal methods of the Union troops.
GAHMCW_120817_295.JPG: Prayer in Stonewall Jackson's Camp
GAHMCW_120817_298.JPG: Valiant Men "Dat Fite Mit Sigel" by Adalbert Volck.
Volck shows disgust with that he saw as the barbaric treatment of Southerners under the command of General Sigel.
GAHMCW_120817_309.JPG: The Emancipation of Slaves -- A Country Divided:
Nast and Volck reflected in their work the extremely polarized views that surrounded secession in their work. The emancipation of slaves was naturally one of the dominant topics in the Civil War drawings of both artists. Their portrayals were diametrically opposed, and were meant to harden the divisive stands on both sides.
Many of Nast's works -- both political cartoons and war illustrations -- explicitly show his strong ideal of freedom and equality for Native Americans, black soldiers and freed slaves. The figures of Columbia and Uncle Sam are often part of these drawings, underscoring Nast's belief that the American identity embraces all races. During the Civil War, he demonstrated his strong support of Lincoln's policy to free the slaves. He later advocated giving freed male slaves the right to vote.
Volck's view of emancipation was the exact opposite. He foresaw chaos and violence resulting from emancipation, and depicted the smugly superior North exploiting freed slaves and sacrificing white American society to the fervent abolitionists, greedy contractors and war mongers. For Volck, the Emancipation Proclamation was unconstitutional and threatened the Southern way of life.
GAHMCW_120817_319.JPG: Scenes of Thomas Nast's drawing "The Emancipation of the Negroes, January 1863 -- The Past and the Future," Harper's Weekly, January 24, 1863. These drawings show several small scenes depicting the slaves cruel past and their way to freedom and equality.
GAHMCW_120817_327.JPG: "Worship in the North" by Adalbert Volck.
In this drawing, Volck demonstrated an amazing grasp of the figures and events that led up to the war in his complex and detailed "Worship of the North." He shows a white man being sacrificed on an altar built of the "errant" principles of the North. Looking on at this sacrifice are a cast of nearly all the major players in the controversies that led up to secession and the subsequent course of the war. Henry Ward Beecher holds the sacrificial knife, while Charles Sumner holds a torch to shed light. Horace Greeley holds a censer for the incense filled with snakes. John Brown looks on, armed with a pike. Harriet Beecher Stowe kneels on a copy of "Uncle Tom's Cabin." John Fremont is in pioneer garb. General Henry Halleck raises the broken slave shackles, and Benjamin Butler kneels with a knapsack of stolen money at the foot of the altar which is adorned with carved busts of Lincoln as a serpent. Volck's depiction was meant to persuade Southerners that there was no room for compromise or contrition given this villainous cast of characters.
GAHMCW_120817_331.JPG: "Free Negroes in the North," by Adalbert Volck.
To Volck, emancipation meant the opportunity for the North to exploit the freed slaves. Freedom would lead to degenerate behavior and a hapless existence.
GAHMCW_120817_335.JPG: "War is Cruelty"
The American Civil War was the first modern war. Because of the technological inventions preceding it, the Civil War became one of the deadliest wars in history. Over 600,000 people died, a greater number of American casualties than in all the other wars America has fought combined.
In a total war strategy, every available resource was utilized to gain advantage over the enemy: railways, the telegraph, rapid firing guns, explosive mines, submarines and even women were mobilized to support the troops in the field.
At the same time, each side accused the other of hideous crimes and atrocities, many of which were either documented in early photographs or became subjects of Nast's and Volck's sketches and publications.
Bushwhackers and guerilla bands, the burning down of Southern farms by Northern troops and the total war waged by William Tecumseh Sherman proved that the Civil War never was a war fought with "chivalry and dignity." When criticized by a Confederate general for destroying Southern territory, Sherman curtly answered:
"War is cruelty and you cannot refine it."
But one German-American at least tried. Francis Lieber, a German-born lawyer, who sided with the North during the Civil War, was the first to draft legal guidelines for the Union Army. His General Order No. 100 is still known today as the "Lieber Code." This code of conduct was the first attempt to constrain and penalize the brutalities and atrocities of modern warfare.
Lieber Code
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Lieber Code of April 24, 1863, also known as Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States in the Field, General Order ? 100, or Lieber Instructions, was an instruction signed by President Abraham Lincoln to the Union Forces of the United States during the American Civil War that dictated how soldiers should conduct themselves in wartime. It was named after the German-American jurist and political philosopher Francis Lieber.
The main sections were concerned with martial law, military jurisdiction, and the treatment of spies, deserters and prisoners of war.
Ethical treatment:
The document insisted upon the humane, ethical treatment of populations in occupied areas. It was the first expressly codified law that expressly forbade giving "no quarter" to the enemy (i.e., killing prisoners of war), except in such cases when the survival of the unit that held these prisoners was threatened. It forbade the use of poisons, stating that use of such puts any force who uses them entirely outside the pale of the civilized nations and peoples; it forbade the use of torture to extract confessions; it described the rights and duties of prisoners of war and of capturing forces. It described the state of war, the state of occupied territories, the ends of war, and discusses permissible and impermissible means to attain those ends; it discussed the nature of states and sovereignties, and insurrections, rebellions, and wars. As such, it is widely considered to be the first written recital of the customary law of war, in force between the civilized nations and peoples since time immemorial, and the precursor to the Hague Regulations of 1907, the treaty-based restatement of the customary law of war.
Slavery and Black Prisoners of War:
The Lieber Code was probably commissioned by the Lincoln Administration to deal with the crisis touched off by Emancipation, which the Confederate States of America insisted was in violation of the customary rules of warfare. Moreover, Confederate officials such as Jefferson Davis had announced that the South would treat black Union soldiers as criminals, not as soldiers, subject to execution and re-enslavement upon capture. The Lieber Code defended the lawfulness of Emancipation under the laws of war and insisted that those same laws prohibited discrimination on the basis of color among combatants.
One recent author says that the Code's association with Emancipation and the problem of black Union soldiers was so close that it ought to be called not Lieber's Code, but Lincoln's Code, since it was part and parcel of the most important decision of Lincoln's presidency.
Sterner measures:
Both the Lieber Code and the Hague Regulations of 1907, which took much of the Lieber Code and wrote it into the international treaty law, included practices that would be considered illegal or extremely questionable by today's standards. In the event of the violation of the laws of war by an enemy, the Code permitted reprisal (by musketry) against the enemy's recently captured POWs; it permitted the summary execution (by musketry) of spies, saboteurs, francs-tireurs, and guerrilla forces, if caught in the act of carrying out their missions. (These allowable practices were later abolished by the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions of 1949, following the Second World War, which saw these practices in the hands of totalitarian states used as the rule rather than the exception to such.)
Such terms reflected Lieber's deep interest in the ideas of Prussian military strategist Carl von Clausewitz. They also arose out of one of the Code's central aims, which was not merely to limit the war, but to legitimate its expansion in the move to Emancipation and a more aggressive war effort.
However, the code envisioned a reciprocal relationship between the population and the Army. As long as the population did not resist military authority, it was to be treated well. Should the inhabitants violate this compact by taking up arms and supporting guerrilla movements, then they were open to sterner measures. Among these were the imposition of fines, the confiscation and/or destruction of property, the imprisonment and/or expulsion of civilians who aided guerrillas, the relocation of populations, the taking of hostages, and the possible execution of guerrillas who failed to abide by the laws of war. It authorized the shooting on sight of all persons not in uniform acting as soldiers and those committing, or seeking to commit, sabotage.
In the Civil War:
Historians have often dismissed the role of the Code in the war effort. And while it is true that commanders such as William Tecumseh Sherman rarely if ever consulted the Code in making combat decisions, the Code played a significant role nonetheless in the war's last two years. It provided a blueprint for hundreds of military commissions charging law of war violations. And its provisions on black soldiers bolstered the Union's unpopular decision to cease prisoner exchanges so long as the South refused to exchange black prisoners on equal terms with white ones.
In Europe:
European jurists and treaty negotiators picked up Lieber's text and used it as the basis for negotiations that ultimately formed the basis of the Hague Convention of 1899, the first multilateral treaty setting out terms for the laws of land warfare. Some features of the Code are still evident in the Geneva Conventions of 1949.
Philippine-American War:
The Lieber Code was used extensively during the Philippine-American War as a justification and later a defense for actions against the native population (see J. Franklin Bell and Littleton Waller).
Numerous academics have questioned whether the acts of American forces, specifically the practice of reprisal by summary shooting of newly-captured Filipino POWs, during the Philippine-American War, were, by the standards of the day, war crimes. Instead, these scholars suggest that many of the acts were the lawful exercise of the customary right of reprisal for war crimes and atrocities committed by Filipino insurrectionist forces against American POWs, and were conducted to demonstrate to the insurrectionist forces that failure to respect the rights of American POWs would result in reprisals against Filipino POWs. Credible allegations prompting American reprisals against Filipino forces included the roasting alive of American POWs over fires, as well as the burial of living American POWs to their neck in dirt, followed by use of insects (specifically fire-ants) as means of execution.
Excesses by American forces in the carrying out of reprisals, such as extending them to non-combatants, were punished by court-martial. In addition, one unquestionable set of war crimes (under the Lieber Code and the later Hague Regulations of 1907) did take place during the Philippine-American War: the torture of certain Filipino insurrectionists, uncovered by the Lodge Committee. One particularly common means of torture was the use of what was then known as the water cure, by American forces, in one instance "...in order to secure information of the murder of Private O'Herne of Company I, who had been not only killed, but roasted and otherwise tortured before death ensued."
GAHMCW_120817_342.JPG: "Our Heroines," Women in the Civil War. Thomas Nast, 1864.
GAHMCW_120817_346.JPG: Southern Chivalry
Harper's Weekly, February 7, 1863
GAHMCW_120817_347.JPG: Jemison's Jayhawkers
by Adalbert Volck
GAHMCW_120817_353.JPG: Francis Lieber between 1855 and 1865, taken by Mathew Brady
GAHMCW_120817_355.JPG: Thomas Nast, "A Scene in one of the Battles before Vicksburg." Harper's Weekly, March 7, 1863
GAHMCW_120817_358.JPG: Abraham Lincoln: Devil or Saint?
Although every American president has been a popular target for political cartoons, Abraham Lincoln was particularly suited for caricature. His controversial and widely disputed policies as well as his physical appearance were virtually made for the pens of caricaturists. His tall and gangly stature is exaggeratedly depicted in every cartoon.
A. Lincoln was a polarizing figure in the era leading up to and during the Civil War. Being a firm believer in the importance of the Union, and vowing to defend the United States against any attempt at secession by state's rights advocates made Lincoln a very controversial figure, especially in the South.
Caricatures of Lincoln reflect these differing views surrounding his policies and action. Perhaps no caricature expresses graphically these divergent opinions of Lincoln as clearly as Thomas Nast's first published political cartoon "President Lincoln's Inaugural" from the New York Illustrated News, March 9, 1861. Nast shows Lincoln perceived in the North as fair-minded, moderate, open to compromise, and desirous of peace. He shows Lincoln in the South seen as a conquering subjugator determined to make war and trample individual rights.
The South's view of Lincoln is best expressed in Volck's "The Emancipation Proclamation." Lincoln at his desk is shown surrounded by demonic imagery: goats' heads, vultures and a little devil holding an inkwell. By depicting Lincoln as in league with the devil, Volck engages in strong war propaganda.
In contrast, Nast idealized Lincoln throughout the Civil War as the savior of the Union. After Lincoln's assassination, he even went so far as to portray him as a holy martyr and saint who had given his life for a noble cause.
Far beyond the Civil War era, Abraham Lincoln has remained a symbol in political cartoons. According to Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer, there is "nothing mroe enduring [than Lincoln' in the pantheon of American cartooning."
GAHMCW_120817_367.JPG: President Lincoln's Inaugural
GAHMCW_120817_370.JPG: Writing the Emancipation Proclamation
GAHMCW_120817_378.JPG: Thomas Nast, "Abraham Lincoln: Our Martyred President," Harpers Weekly, June 10, 1865
Victory and Death:
Death levels all things in his march,
Nought can resist his mighty strength.
The palace proud -- Triumphal Arch,
Shall mete their shadows' length.
John Clare
GAHMCW_120817_379.JPG: "Passage Through Baltimore" by Adalbert Volck.
Lincoln is portrayed as fearful and cowering in disguise in a boxcar on his way to his inauguration in March, 1861.
GAHMCW_120817_382.JPG: The "Great and Good Lincoln":
"With malice towards none, with charity for all... let us drive on... to bind up the nation's wounds... to do all which may achieve and cherish a lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."
-- Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865
Thomas Nast was one of the first who had the vision of a country reconciled even before the end of the war. He had already depicted Lincoln inviting the secessionist states to a brotherly Christmas dinner in late 1864. But the reality after the war was quite different.
The "total war" which had been waged on the South at the end of the Civil War had left the Southern infrastructure and its agrarian economy in ruins. Although it was the official policy that rebuilding the South would help to reintegrate the former enemy states into the Union, the South lacked any capital of its own to invest, and the North was reluctant to channel a major portion of federal funds to the South for public works.
Volck remained unwavering in his views about the Civil War and his animosity toward the Union. He defended his Civil War sketches and, in a 1905 letter to the Library of Congress, stated that they "represent events as truthfully as my close connection with the South enabled me to get at them." Volck added that he did, however, have remorse about one thing. "I feel the greatest regret ever to have aimed ridicule at that great and good Lincoln."
During the war, many atrocities and cruelties were committed on both sides. After the war, however, Confederates were by and large treated well. Some, including Thomas Nast, thought that the Confederate leaders of the rebellion were treated too well, as his caricature of the "luxurious treatment" for former Confederate President Jefferson Davis illustrates.
This exhibition was made possible by the German Embassy, Washington DC.
GAHMCW_120817_390.JPG: Thomas Nast, "The Union Christmas Dinner", Harper's Weekly, December 31, 1864
[Note that Lincoln is inviting the Confederates to join the dinner.]
GAHMCW_120817_398.JPG: The Rebel leader, Jeff Davis, at Fortress Monroe.
Healthy -- Plenty -- Luxury
Soldiers! Look on this picture.
Shall the Rebel leaders be restored to power?
Treason must be made odious. -- Andrew Johnson
GAHMCW_120817_406.JPG: Compilation of issues from Frank Leslie's Weekly, an illustrated literary and news magazine featuring woodcut illustrations. The magazine was founded in 1852 and included a German edition from 1859-1891. These pages illustrate John Brown's raid at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, October 16-18, 1859.
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2012 photos: Equipment this year: My mainstays were the Fuji S100fs, Nikon D7000, and the new Fuji X-S1. I also used an underwater Fuji XP50 and a Nikon D600. The first three cameras all broke this year and had to be repaired.
Trips this year:
three Civil War Trust conferences (Shepherdstown, WV, Richmond, VA, and Williamsburg, VA),
a week-long family reunion cruise of the Caribbean,
another week-long family reunion in the Wisconsin Dells (with lots of in-transit time in Ohio and Indiana), and
my 7th consecutive San Diego Comic-Con trip (including side trips to Zion, Bryce, the Grand Canyon, etc).
Ego strokes: I had a picture of Miss DC, Ashley Boalch, published in the Washington Post. I had a photograph of the George Segal San Francisco Holocaust memorial used as the cover of Quebec Francais (issue 165). Not being able to read French, I'm not entirely sure what the article is about but, hey! And I guess what could be considered to be a positive thing, my site is now established enough that spammers have noticed it and I had to block 17,000 file description postings for Viagra and whatever else..
Number of photos taken this year: just below 410,000.
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