A-flank march across country during a thunderstorm.
1876
Edwin Forbes captures the sheer misery of Civil War marching in this gritty 1876 illustration. You can almost feel the squelch of the mud under the soldiers' boots as a long column of troops, horses, and heavy artillery slog through a pouring thunderstorm. Forbes, who actually traveled with the Union Army as a sketch artist, didn't paint glorious battles here; he showed the exhausting, wet reality of moving troops 'across country.' The scene is split into two views, emphasizing the endless line of men and wagons struggling against the elements, a far cry from the romanticized war portraits of the time.
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