Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1882-09-07
CUSTFR'S LAST RALLY.
The Scene or the Famous Fight OF the Celebrated
Soldier Made the Subjeit For a
Realistic Painting.

artist, Mr.. John Mulvaney. has brought
to this city and placed on exhibition at
No 209 Wabash avenu his grand his
torical picture of Clusters Last Rally
1t was placed on private view last even
ing. and was seen by a number of mill
tary gentlemen and art connisseurs.
In this work, to which Mr.. Mulvaney
has devoted the last three years, he has
portrayed a tragedy in frontier warfare
which is yet fresh in public memory and
which for sublime heroism and daunt-
less endurance, is scarcely equaled ever
in the annals of a history that records
the story of Thermopyle and the charge
of the six hundred. The picture occu-
pies acanvass twenty feet long by clev-
en- feet high and depicts a scene near the
end OF the terrible massacre when Gen.
Custer rallied his few remaining troops,
between twenty and forty men, about
him, and the doomed band, surrounded
completely by their savage foes. fought
10 the death with the same steady
nerve and unfaltering courage with
which they would have marched to VIC
tory. Finding themselves completely
surrounded by the enemy the soldiers
have shot their horses before them in a
circle, half of which fills the picture in
the foreground, and behind this barri-
cade of dead and dying animals they are
making their last stand. The group of
soldiers in the foreground faces the
spectator, the men having turned to de-
fend themselves against a part of the
attacking force. Other soldiers are
facing the opposite way to repulse the
onrushiDg savages in the rear. The
mounted Indians in the background,
with their war-bonnets and lances, from
which float scarlet pennons, seem al
most countless against great clouds of
lurid smoke, and the rush of this resist
less force as it surges around the luck
less victims is happily portrayed. The
great power of the work lies in the fact
that the spectator does not see the bat
tie as an outsider from a distance but
is taken into the very midst of the con-
flict and sees and feels it all in its horri-
bic hopelessness, as the few brave men
who made it one of the grandest and
most pathetic events of American histo-
ry must have seen it. Behind them
sweeps up the fierce, red tide to the We
ry ground they hold, in the right fore
ground, its circle is drawn like a band
close to the broken ranks and its pres
ence in front is forcibly shown in the
action and pose of the soldiers, and by
the two Indian braves, naked save for
the breech-clouts and gaudily-colored
war-bonnets writhing in their painted
nakedness where they had fallen, with
their rifles still grasped in their hands,
and their faces full of savage ferocity.
OF the group of soldiers filling the cen
tire of the picture the gallant Custer is,
of course the central figure. He stands
with bare head holding a revolver in his
right hand and a sword in the left. The
body is firmly poised, the face is r~esolute
and the eyes intent, as though he had
just uttered same ringing words of cheer
to his men, perhaps his last words, for
the set faces around him show that the
time for action is brief and the time for
words has already passed. Before the
general is a magnificent horse with its
head thrown back in the agony of the
death wound just received. On his left
is the kneeling Inquire of a cavalry Off
Ger, Capt. Cook and these two faces are
strong and life-like portraits. The cap
tain's head is bound with a blood stained
handkerchief, his hat lies upon the
ground. and his buckskin overcoat is
thrown open, showing his uniform. His
brow is drawn, but the eyes are steady
in their fixed attention, and the navy
~revoler in his hand means death to some
approaching savage. In the figures
which make up the groups on either
side of the general the artist has present.
ed the various types of the American
soldier with marvellous force and vigor.
This typical idea pervades the entire
work and gives it a realistic indiyidu-
atty which appeals to the sympathy and
imagination with wonderful force, and
makes it, in its effect upon the specta-
tors, a living fact. The two figures of
Custer and Cook, already described,
are portraits embodying force and valor
of the actual mantle fighting soldier.
But, Notwithstanding the strength of
these as pieces of ~portraiture, they as
sume to the careful observer, a second
AIRY position, and the figures on either
side command and hold attention. They
are the embodiment of the fighting
army, of all its courage, of all its intelli-
sence, and of all its patriotism. No
where in the long list of battle pictures
is there to be found so grand a portrayal
of the private soldier, because no other
country furnishes such materials for its
soldiers of the rank and file. In the
left foreground is a crouching soldier in
the act of placing a cartridge in his rifle
His hand is as steady and his brain as
clear as if the work of death were only
an hours pastime. His keen, alert eyes
have selected a mark, and his attitude
indicates that neither time nor ammuni-
ton will be wasted. His fine head,
clearly-cut features, and stalwart figure
typify the best and sturdiest develop
ment through generations of honest,
brave, Woodworking American ances-
tors. Even in this supreme moment
the present duty overshadows all per-
sonal fear or hope. The face bespeaks
a great-hearted man. yet tender and
true as his prototype of the days of
chivalry who bore
A lions heart in battle.
A woman's heart in love.
Before him lies dead soldier still grasp
ing his revolver, and behind him a steady
old Irishman with gray hair, and ruddy-
face, fires over the body of a gray horse
that rolls in the agony of death. A
bullet has passed through his arm, but
it has only set his lips a little closer and
brought a deeper red into his bronzed
cheek. The figures of gray-haired men
far on in 8 life of rough pioneer adven-
ture are seen firing, crouched behind the
barTicade of dead horses, and one man,
who has Just fired, reels back with a
bullet wound in mis- breast. The re-
naming figures of the group are finely
posed, and all, in attitude, action, and
the details of genuine fighting costume,
are absolutely true to life.
On the right, just beyond Capt. Cook,
is the typical Irish-American soldier,
and one of the strongest figures upon
the canvass. He kneels upon the un-
even ground, his rifle ready cooked,
and his man selected while lie brings
it to his shoulder. The square-set Jaw
and the fixed gaze show the determine