General Grant Looking Over the Battlefield at Fort Donelson

  • Creator: Paul Philippoteaux (1846-1923)
  • Title: General Grant Looking Over the Battlefield at Fort Donelson
  • Date: ca. 1880
  • Description: This painting shows a snowy landscape with a soldier on horseback at center overlooking a sloping battlefield with cannon fire in the near distance and wooded hills and a river in the far distance. In the foreground is a broken tree, a dead and bleeding horse, a dead soldier in a pool of blood, and a wounded soldier being carried off by African Americans. Signed "P. (?) Philippoteaux" at lower right.
  • Historical Note: Paul Philippoteaux was a Frenchman who came to the United States in 1879 and painted historical images of the Civil War for American audiences. His first was the 27 foot high, 359 foot long Battle of Gettysburg Cyclorama first shown in Chicago in 1883. It now belongs to the National Park Service, Gettysburg National Military Park. Here, Philippoteaux portrays Union General Ulysses S. Grant surveying the capture of Fort Donelson on February 16, 1862. The first victory for the North, Fort Donelson was also the place where Grant earned his nickname "Unconditional Surrender," for the terms he gave Confederate Brig. General Simon Bolivar Buckner. The artist presents Grant as the dominant figure in the scene by placing him on horseback at the center of the composition, drawing the viewer's eye through massed diagonals of figures at the lower left and right of the canvas.
  • Institution: Chicago History Museum
  • 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 Chicago History Museum.
  • URL: http://cdm15838.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/shades
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