The Army of the Potomac – Our Outlying Picket in the Woods
June 7, 1862
Medium
figures
Classification
figures
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Gift of John Goldsmith Phillips, Jr.
Accession Number
1947-4-47
About this artwork
Research in Progress
Art Historical Context
Winslow Homer, a pioneering American realist painter (1836–1910), captured the raw tensions of the Civil War in *The Army of the Potomac Our Outlying Picket the Woods*, dated June 7, 1862. As a special artist for *Harper's Weekly*, Homer directly from the front lines, documenting Union soldiers with unflinching honesty. This work depicts outlying pickets—sentinels posted on the edges of camp—from the Army of the Potomac, George B. McClellan's key force during the Peninsula Campaign near Richmond, Virginia. Rendered in the medium of figures, likely a preparatory drawing or wood engraving sketc...