A Bit of War History: The Veteran

  • Creator: Thomas Waterman Wood
  • Title: A Bit of War History: The Veteran
  • Date: 1866
  • Description: This is the right hand portion of a triptych showing an African American man in the same location at three stages of his military career. Here, now on crutches, with his left leg amputated at the knee and wearing rumpled Union blue, he salutes outside of the Provost Marshall's Office. Inside the office is a large U.S. flag, on the wall outside hangs a rifle, ammunition belt, and mess kit. A ragged knapsack lies at his feet.
  • Historical Note: This series of three paintings by Thomas Waterman Wood (1823-1903), created in 1866, shows the progression of an ex-slave from his enlistment in the Union army to his return as a wounded veteran. Wood, who was living in Nashville in 1862, moved to Louisville in neutral Kentucky for the remainder of the war. His dignified and sympathetic portrayals of African Americans working in the fields or accepting new responsibilities prior to and immediately after the war are so unusual as to become political statements.
  • Institution: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, N.Y., Gift of Charles Stewart Smith, 1884/Art Resource, NY
  • Publisher: Digital Initiatives, James E. Walker Library, Middle Tennessee State University
  • Rights: Images reproduced on this website are intended for individual, educational use only. For research inquiries about specific objects or requests for high resolution images, contact the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  • URL: http://cdm15838.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/shades
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