The rear of the column.
1876
Edwin Forbes captured the gritty reality of the American Civil War in this 1876 sketch, titled 'The rear of the column.' Instead of glorious battles, he shows the exhausting march: soldiers trudging along a dusty road, a weary mule laden with gear, and a lone figure slumped on the ground, clearly done for the day. Forbes was an artist-correspondent who traveled with the Union Army, so these scenes come straight from the trenches of history. It's a raw, unglamorous look at the daily grind of war, far from the heroic poses we usually see.