The War in Virginia, Lieutenant General Grant in a Council of War at Massaponax Church. 1864.
date: label: Date made
content: 1886
name: label: depicted
content: Grant, Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson)
label: maker
content: Inger, Christian
notes: label: Description
content: General Ulysses S. Grant, was born Hiram Ulysses Grant at Point Pleasant, Ohio, in 1822. After attending West Point, he gained distinction fighting as a captain in the Mexican-American War. When the fighting ended, he was assigned to isolated frontier posts, where his heavy drinking interfered with his duties, leading him to resign in 1854. At the outbreak of the Civil War six years later, he immediately enlisted in the Union Army, and was promoted to brigadier general in July of 1861. In July of 1863, he captured Vicksburg, an event often seen as a turning point in the war, and was given command of all Union armies in March of 1864. Brutal engagements with Confederate forces at the battles of Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor decimated Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, and the Virginian surrendered his battered force to Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. After the war, Grant’s fame carried him to the White House, and he served two terms of Presidency, from 1869 to 1877.
label: Description
content: This 1884 print by Christian Inger shows Grant, surrounded by his generals at a council of war in Massaponax, Virginia, shortly his promotion to general-in-chief. The men sit on church pews removed from the nearby Baptist church. Grants sits at the base of two trees, easily recognizable by the characteristic cloud of cigar smoke rising above him. The other generals are identified by a list on the bottom margin of the print, and include Sherman, Hancock, and Meade. Behind the men, Union soldiers care for the officers’ horses, and rows of cannons are displayed in the far background, ready for transport.
label: Description
content: This print was based on a photograph by Timothy H. O’Sullivan (1840-1882), who managed to capture the composition from the second floor of the nearby Massaponax Baptist Church. His image was printed by Scottish-born photograph Alexander Gardner (1821-1882).
label: Description
content: The creator of the print, Christian Inger (1814-c.1895), was born in Germany and immigrated to America in 1854. He settled in Philadelphia, where he was employed by P.S. Duval from the mid-1850s to the mid-1860s. Between the 1850s and 1870s, Inger also created lithographs for the prominent firms of Herline & Hensel and Thomas Sinclair. In 1859, he also established his own firm with his son, Egmont. Inger’s work included portraits, facsimiles of paintings, Revolutionary War and Civil War scenes, and birds-eye views of Philadelphia and the 1876 Centennial Exposition.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
topic: label: Subject
content: Horses
label: Subject
content: Civil War
label: Subject
content: Uniforms, Military
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Domestic Life
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content: American Civil War Prints
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content: Art
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content: Domestic Furnishings
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Harry T. Peters "America on Stone" Lithography Collection
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: DL.60.2609
label: catalog number
content: 60.2609
label: accession number
content: 228146
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Lithograph
label: Object Type
content: Lithograph
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: image: 22 3/4 in x 19 7/8 in; 57.785 cm x 50.4825 cm