Between the Covers

Large steel engraving mounted on board (44¾” x 30”). Drawn by F.O.C. Darley and engraved by A.H. Ritchie. With a vignette portrait of General Sherman below the image. Signed in the plate by Darley in the lower right corner. Three tiny nicks on the left side of the image of the American flag, a few small patches of light foxing at the bottom margin and bottom right corner of the image, the back of the board is toned, very good.

A dramatic Civil War scene from Union General William Tecumseh Sherman’s notorious campaign across Georgia in November and December, 1864, depicting the pillaging and destruction of countryside near the Atlantic coast. A Union officer on horseback surveys the horizon as Union soldiers destroy a railroad track, cut down a telegraph pole, burn homesteads, and fire upon retreating Confederate soldiers. Freed slaves assist the soldiers or flee, including an African-American family shown prominently in the foreground escaping over the railroad tracks. A monumental and moving image by Darley, one of America’s best illustrators of the 19th Century.

Item #451697