Existing comment:
The Beautiful Death: Images of Death in Battle before Antietam:
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Europeans and Americans embraced a comforting vision of death.
"We live in an age of beautiful deaths. The death of Mme. De Villeneuve was sublime."
-- From the Journey of Coraly de Gaix, 1826
"I feel gratified to inform you that she left the world in the triumfs of faith... Which gave us a great deel of Satisfaction to See her happy."
-- From an 1838 letter written in Indiana
The Beautiful Death in Battle:
Images of death in battle painted or drawn during this era highlighted key elements of the Beautiful Death -- the hero died in the arms of his friends and brothers-in-arms, the hero was at peace and beautiful in death, and the death scene had the look of deathbed tableau no matter where it occurred. These two paintings, one of British General Wolfe and one of American General Montgomery shared these elements.
In the early days of the Civil War these motifs continued. In the June 15, 1861, Harper's Weekly [sic] a woodcut was published of the death of Colonel Elmer Ellsworth. As the first Union officer to die, his death became a rally cry and Colonel Ellsworth became the first Northern martyr of the war.
"Since death is not the end of the loved one, however bitter the grief of the survivor, death is neither ugly nor fearful. On the contrary, death is beautiful, as the dead body is beautiful. Presence at the deathbed in the nineteenth century is more than a customary participation in a social ritual; it is an opportunity to witness a spectacle that is both comforting and exalted."
-- The Hour of Our Death, Philippe Aries
In this woodcut (right), from Vol V, No. 233, Harper's Weekly June 15, 1861 attributed to "Brownell, the gallant young Zouave who avenged his Colonel's death," Ellsworth is young and beautifully innocent, his friends are with him, and Brownell (soldier in front) is poised to revenge [sic] Ellsworth's death. |