Image Evaluation

I answered the questions in the Rampola book for the class presentation so I am pasting that document in first before going more in depth.

1.     There is no mention of the Author’s name in the paper the work comes from or in on the photo. Therefore I cannot evaluate his/her other works. However, based on the publication it was posted in and the known illustrators who published in the publication, the author is probably a Union supporter looking to expose the inhumane nature of the Rebel soldiers. 

2.     The work was made in 1864 at the end of April, approximately two weeks after the end of the Battle of Fort Pillow. It was commissioned by Harper’s Weekly, a New York based political cartoon magazine. During the Civil War the magazine published work with a Union slant.

3.     Harper’s Weekly was characterized as having being moderate leading up to the Civil War, and a pro-Union during the war. The illustration may not be part of a specific intellectual movement in art, however, it was part of their Civil War coverage.

4.     The illustrations available online seem to all be similar in nature to this illustration, where white southern soldiers are slaughtering black northern soldiers. 

The illustration above comes from Harper's Weekly, a northern political cartoon magazine. The illustration was published April 30, 1864, 18 days after the Battle of Fort Pillow. Two days after the Battle of Fort Pillow press was already being circulated around the Union that described the events of the battle. This illustration was presumably not made by someone who was at the Battle. Instead, it is likely the illustration was made by someone who based his work off of testimony and intended to illustrate a recreation of the massacre. 

One reason to infer this is because there is no background to the illustration other than gun smoke. Had the artist been recreating what they had seen, the background would likely have included the gunboat that was off shore and shown an unorganized chaos of Rebels chasing black soldiers who fled towards the river and tried to swim to the gun boat. However, this illustration seems to me to be portraying the black soldiers being entrapped by a line of Rebel cavalry outside of the Fort (not pictured, so I assume outside) and those men killing the black soldiers while having them surrounded. 

pOne part of the illustration that is very interesting to me is the higher ranking Union soldier at the right of the image who is left untouched in the carnage as the two Rebel soldiers slit the throat of a black soldier who looks like he had already been wounded during the battle. I find this interesting because Northern media and testimony did not focus only on the barbarism used in killing black soldiers but also of the Rebels trying to murder the white soldiers of the Union Army. Also, it seems odd that in trying to portray the barbarism, the high ranking soldier is left untouched by Southern soldiers. In fact, part of the reason that there was so much confusion on the Union side was because a Rebel sniper had killed General Booth, the head of the Union forces stationed at Fort Pillow, early on in the battle. Mismanagement by Commander Bradford, the man who took over for Booth after his death, in the secondary literature is a main reason why the Union failed to keep the Fort. However, in this illustration the higher ranked white Northern soldier is left untouched amongst the slaughter. Another aspect I find interesting about this man is that he seems to be observing all that is happening by facing the battle. If the illustration were to more accurately depict testimony given on the Battle, this man would have been fleeing to the river for dear life as well as giving some indication of surrendering.

“The Massacre at Fort Pillow” an illustration. Harper’s Weekly (April 30, 1864): 284. http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/civil-war/1864/april/battle-fort-pillow.htm