Another Forbes' Culp's Hill Sketch vs Painting

Gettysburg Greg

First Sergeant
Joined
Jun 6, 2010
Location
Decatur, Illinois
I'd like to add a second thread on the subject of Edwin Forbes' on scene sketches on Culp's Hill. In the first thread I pointed out that Forbes modified his painting to reflect the fight on July 3rd instead of serene scene in his July 4th drawing. He also made some interesting changes to his other Culp's Hill sketch when he created a painting based on it. I'll post three images below to make my point. The first is Forbes' painting based on his on scene sketch. The view is from the Confederate perspective looking up towards the Federal breastworks. The two tiered rock in the bottom center has become known as Forbes' Rock and the rock seen at the top of the hill on the right is the same one we were discussing in the previous thread.
The second image below is the original unedited sketch done by Forbes at Gettysburg, along with his notes. This is the part I find interesting so bear with me. :D High up in two of the trees are riflemen firing on the Union line. Near the top of the large tree on the right, Forbes has noted "sharpshooters in trees" next to one of the "snipers". I find the sharpshooters in the trees add to the interest of the scene, however, when Forbes completed his painting based on the sketch, he left out both tree dwellers. He must have had his reasons.
And finally, in the bottom image, I put the same area of the sketch and painting together to point out the difference.
culps-hill-painting-by.jpg


[/ATTACH]
forbes1.jpg
forbes combo.jpg
 
I figure the Confederates at this location might be either from the 10th Louisiana or 14th Louisiana of Williams' (Nicholls) brigade, although O'Neal's Alabama brigade also charged through this area around mid-morning of July 3, and later in the forenoon Walker's Virginia (the "Stonewall") brigade was sent against these same trenches.

As for Confederates in the trees, I can't see how they could have survived for long at this short range, but there were other instances on this battlefield where Confederates climbed trees to improve their vantage point, and I recall one Confederate was killed in a tree not far distant and was found dangling there after the battle by a local citizen. One Federal referred to them as "tree frogs."
 
I always enjoys these types of threads. I hope you don't mind, but I thought I would add some photos of these rocks.

The first one is a view looking up the hill, you can see both of the large rocks in the Forbes' painting in this view. The angle is not quite the same as in the painting, but the lower rock is in the center and the upper/higher rocks are to the far right.
Forbes Rock.jpg


Here is a closer view of the lower rock, taken from a slightly different angle.

Forbes Rock - Lower.jpg


Here is a closer view of the upper rocks.

Forbes Rock - Upper.jpg
 
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