Stonewall " General Stonewall Jackson In Camp " By Vizatelly, Blockade Capture

JPK Huson 1863

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
Joined
Feb 14, 2012
Location
Central Pennsylvania
Stuck on Harper's Weekly at the moment. For one thing you have no idea how good Alfred Waud was until seeing a finished battle scene- for another, just wow, several artists who followed armies.

One was Frank Vizatelly, for some reason listed as an ' also ran ' to Henry and James, British brothers and what we would refer to today as photo journalists. Henry was also an author, newspaperman and something of character- but Frank followed armies- specifically both Union and Confederate across the pond.

With photographs of Confederate encampments so rare, at least war artists managed to hang around. You'd have to guess Frank's citizenship allowed him to be tolerated although you wonder if anyone understood his intent to sketch for both sides? Could get him hung. Can't find the promised story but Harper's seems to have begun our infuriating, American magazine trend whereby nothing is on the same page as where you started- then incomprehensively disappears? " Cont'd on page 190 " and there are no page numbers after 170? That.

Not tough, reading between the lines how it came to be here, just happy Harper's Weekly published Frank Vizatelly's work, " Stonewall Jackson In Camp ".

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" General Stonewall Jackson In Camp- from a drawing by Mr. Vizatelly, intercepted by our Blockading Fleet off Charleston "
 
The sketches by Vizatelly, Waud, Forbes etc could be incredibly detaled. Much of the detail was lost when the sketches were converted into wood block for printing in papers. Would love to see the original sketch of your post.
 
For anybody with an interest in this subject, may I recommend Harold Holzer's The Confederate Image: Prints of the Lost Cause. Since I can't find my copy at the moment (this is becoming an unfortunate trend), I don't know if this or any other Vizetelly images are in it, but I do remember there are some Confederate camp scenes. Some of the images in this book I've never seen elsewhere and the narrative is excellent as well. It may not still be in print but you can find it at used book sites.
 
The sketches by Vizatelly, Waud, Forbes etc could be incredibly detaled. Much of the detail was lost when the sketches were converted into wood block for printing in papers. Would love to see the original sketch of your post.

True of many artist's renderings, but maybe especially so of these; I've posted these in a separate thread, but since this one also features Vizetelley's work, here they are again:

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Thank you! Yes, I was a little surprised- Vizatelli print seemed far too simple The ' in camp ' artist prints generally were not- and look at his work, my goodness! Wonder how the Jackson work became pared down, Perhaps Harper's did not have permission to use it?

The artists who followed the war were incredible- just astonishing. You get lost, paging through Harper's yet the only names that followed their work into 2016 ( I mean across the board, not to those who have really dug into the topic ) are Waud and Nash.
 
I realize that some of the artwork can be fanciful, yet some include details that only someone who saw it would know. I think we are foolish to discount them so quickly. They were there, we were not. A little window into their world. Drawn, painted, sketched as they saw themselves...
 
Guessing you'll find quite a few of those images in issues of Harpers, from the first years of the war? Paging through, seems clear the publication made an effort to present Confederate images in a non-biased manner. As the war became less ' polite ' you can see this fade and leave all together.
 
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