Howard Pyle's Civil War

The American Civil War raged not far from Howard Pyle's boyhood home of Wilmington, Delaware, where troop trains rattled south to Washington and the battlefields beyond. Crowded hospital railroad cars full of the sick and wounded and cattle cars crammed with CSA prisoners made their way north. Along the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal boys his age did what they could to help the sick and wounded who filled the canal barges. Pyle's Civil War memories went back as little in time as those of the middle aged today recalling the Vietnamese Civil War. He would have no trouble finding uniforms and weapons with which to outfit his models or visualizing the scenes his editors requested for his memory of those desperate days was vivid.

The Charge, from Harper's Monthly Magazine for November 1904.

"I Thought of You When I Was Falling." He Said Vaguely, from Harper's Monthly Magazine for November 1904.

Abraham Lincoln. Illustration for "Lincoln's Last Day" from Harper's Monthly Magazine for September 1907.

The Midnight Court Martial, from Harper's Monthly Magazine for September 1909.

They Talked it Over –– With Me Sitting on a Horse, from Harper's Monthly Magazine for November 1909.

It Was a Comrade From His Own Regiment, from Harper's Monthly Magazine for November 1909.

General [Robert E.] Lee on His Famous Charger "Traveller," from Harper's Monthly Magazine for February 1911.

>>>For the gentleman who asked me the size of the painting: It's 24-1/8 x 16 inches and can probably be seen either at the Delaware Art Museum in Wilmington DE or at the Brandywine River Museum, Chadds Ford PA. They are not far from each other if you're down that way. Better phone them first to determine the whereabouts of the painting if you want to see it. AOL lost this mail so I could not answer you directly.<<<

Howard Pyle died in Florence, Italy, on the ninth of November in that same year.

Next: Howard Pyle: An Appreciation