Golden Thread A Soldier's Artwork

This is a wonderful thread and I went to the Amazon links and got the books.

I had to purchase the Reed sketches one for Kindle--it's very special. Glad the thread has been helpful to you.

The Omenhauser drawings/paintings have fascinated me since I first saw them in an old Time-Life book on the Civil War.

Here's a portrait of John Jacob Omenhauser.

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Me too, Patrick. Glad you're enjoying them. Robert Know Sneden had some architectural training and was a draftsman and mapmaker before the War. He was born in Canada, but emigrated to New York at age 19. In 1861, he enlisted with the 40th New York Volunteers and was captured in 1863. He was sent to Richmond and then to Andersonville in Georgia. He surreptiously made sketches at the various camps where he was imprisoned and after he returned home, created some 1,000 watercolor illustrations of the War. Here are several of his watercolors.

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View of the Malvern House in Malvern Hill, Virginia. General's Head Quarters.

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Excellent images and very surprised that they have survived. What a treasure! I had found one the railroad car batteries doing research on my floating battery models. Wonderful you found one in color!
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Excellent images and very surprised that they have survived. What a treasure! I had found one the railroad car batteries doing research on my floating battery models. Wonderful you found one in color!
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Terrific photo, Tut11, thanks for sharing.

The riverboat scene is just wonderful! Do you know who the artist is?
 
Having a blast with these, thanks 18th! I genuinely adore so-called amateur work because it's just, plain who someone is. Sneden for instance takes a lot of hits for his maps and art- but if it's so awful why are we so vastly familiar with his name? It's because he got to us.

And think about this. Just got through a book- long story, where the author of a letter, in a cavalry regiment, apologizes for the grubby, disreputable quality of his paper. He said paper doesn't do well ( paraphrasing ) in saddlebags, fording the Rappahannock. You had to be a very determined kinda artist, to get an image from there to 2018.
 
@18thVirginia does post #2 say "pop a cap"?

Yes, it does. There's a link in post #8 to an explanation, but I'll quote it here.

The references you have found refer to discharging a cap-style firearm with no powder in the chamber, so as to produce a sound without actually firing a bullet. The term "pop a cap" from there took on a figurative meaning, as modern cartridges took over and the original meaning of "cap" was lost to most firearm users.
 
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