Cavalry orderly, Rappahannock Station, Va.
1864
Edwin Forbes captured the quiet exhaustion of the American Civil War in this 1864 scene, showing a lone cavalry orderly waiting patiently atop his dark, sturdy horse. The soldier's slumped posture and the muted, muddy tones of the landscape perfectly convey the gritty reality of camp life at Rappahannock Station, Virginia. Instead of glorifying heroic battles, Forbes used his keen realist eye to document the mundane, weary moments between the fighting, with a row of white army tents looming faintly in the gloomy background.
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