The first gun at Chickamauga
1863
Alfred Waud was right there in the thick of it, sketching the chaos of the Civil War as it happened. This frantic field drawing captures the opening moments of the Battle of Chickamauga in 1863, with cavalry charging across a makeshift bridge while explosions bloom in the distance. Notice how the foreground figures are just ghostly pencil outlines, while the action at the bridge is rendered in bold, dark strokes—it’s like Waud was racing to capture the scene before the smoke cleared. As a special artist for Harper's Weekly, his sketches were the 'news photos' of the 19th century, bringing the brutal reality of war to Northern living rooms.
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