Ohio History Journal

THE CIVIL WAR lithographs of the Ohioan

Alfred Edward Mathews in the Ohio His-

torical Society collections are representa-

tive of the contribution made by the

soldier artist to the pictorial record of

the Civil War. No war before or since

has been so fully portrayed by amateurs

and professionals in the art media of its

time--oil, water color, lithograph, wood

engraving, etching, pencil sketch, and,

lastly, photography, which was then in

its promising youth. The work of many

soldier artists who sketched in letters,

diaries, and notebooks with pen and

pencil is unrecorded. A fine example of

such work is in the Society's library in

the pen and ink sketches illustrating the

manuscript reminiscences of Henry O.

Dwight of the Twentieth Ohio Volunteer

Infantry. A few soldier artists, such as

Alfred E. Mathews and another Ohioan,

Albert Ruger, sold their sketches to litho-

graphing firms. However, their profes-

sion at the time was soldiery and not

art, and their work represents the ama-

teur's role rather than the professional's

in the pictorial record of the war.

The greatest contribution to the pic-

torial record of the war was made by

the professional war artists of the illus-

trated weekly news magazines, Frank

Leslie's Illustrated Weekly Newspaper,

Harper's Weekly, the New York Illus-

trated News, and the oldest of the popular

weekly magazines, the Illustrated London

News, which alone recorded the southern

war effort. The war artists, or "special

artists" as they were frequently called,

accompanied the armies and made on-

the-spot sketches of camp life and military

engagements.   They  dispatched  their

sketches home to their magazines, where

one or several staff artists reproduced

them on wood block. The roster of spe-

cial artists includes William T. Crane,

Frank H. Schell, William Waud, and Ed-

win Forbes of Leslie's. Forbes in 1876

published his sketches under his own

imprint in a series of forty copper-plate

etchings, Life Studies of the Great Army,

a copy of which is in the Society's library.

Alfred R. Waud, one of the greatest of

the war artists, served both Harper's and

the New York Illustrated News at differ-

ent periods. The American painter Win-

slow Homer of Harper's staff served

briefly as a war artist, and later developed

many of his sketches in oil and water-

color paintings. Frank Vizetelly was the

war artist of the Illustrated London News,

which carried the pictorial record of the

Confederate effort.

Others who contributed to the visual

record of the war were the photographers,

who with the war artists followed the

armies. In contrast to the war artists,

who had in wood engraving and lithog-

raphy quick and inexpensive media for

the reproduction of their sketches, the

photographers were burdened with heavy

equipment, a wet-plate process, a long

exposure period, and no means to repro-

duce their product cheaply. For these rea-

sons their photographic record did not

reach the public until the closing year of

the war, when Harper's carried wood

engravings of Brady photographs. Al-

though the photographs of Mathew B.

Brady and others present an important

still-picture documentary of posed gen-

erals and soldiers, buildings and equip-

ment, they lack the action and eyewitness

character of the war artists' and soldier

artists' sketches.

Alfred E. Mathews was a soldier artist

who, unlike Henry O. Dwight, sketched

with a purpose, which was to sell his

sketches. Although two of his sketches

232                                       OHIO HISTORY

appeared in Harper's Weekly, November

23, 1861, this market undoubtedly be-

came closed to him as the weeklies de-

veloped their own staffs of war artists.

Mathews then turned to lithography,

which had been the popular, cheap art

form since the 1840's. It is interesting

to note that Mathews' forty known litho-

graphic views of the war total almost

half the output of the famous "Print-

makers to the People," Currier and Ives,

who made eighty-four lithographs re-

lated to the Civil War. The poorly drawn

Currier and Ives battle scenes depict

grotesque  thick-necked  generals  and

stunted soldiers in static poses and to-

tally lack the documentary value of Math-

ews' lithographs.

Mathews' sketches were lithographed

by three Cincinnati firms, of which

Middleton, Strobridge and Company

made all but seven. This company is well

known for its lithograph of the "Funeral

Obsequies of the Late Pres't A. Lincoln"

and for the Ohio State Board of Agri-

culture certificate which was designed by

Thomas Sully. Of the other Cincinnati

firms, Ehrgott, Forbriger and Company

made four of Mathews' lithographs, and

the Donaldson and Elmes Company made

three, which appear to be the total output

of this firm. A list of Mathews' litho-

graphs in Robert Taft's Artists and Illus-

trators of the Old West, 1850-1900

(1953), compiled from  the combined

holdings of the Library of Congress and

the Denver Public Library, records

thirty-seven different views, or thirty-eight

if a variant in print size is considered.

In the Society's collection of thirty-five

different views are three which are not

listed in Taft, bringing the total known

views of Mathews' lithographs to forty.

(A short-title list of Mathews' lithographs

in the Society's collection is given at the

end of this article.)

Mathews sketched the war from a com-

batant's viewpoint. He saw the line-up of

troops opposing each other across a field;

the emplacement of batteries, cotton bales,

rifle pits; soldiers on the march and in

battle. His sketches are pictorial state-

ments of regimental maneuvers, bivouacs,

and materiel, and they lack the emotional

impact which Alfred R. Waud, Edwin

Forbes, Winslow Homer, and others

achieved in their sketches. However,

Mathews' detailed documentation of regi-

mental units, equipment, and terrain is of

historical and documentary interest and

must have had strong appeal to the regi-

mental loyalties of many participants and

their families. Several of his sketches

were lithographed with variations in de-

tail and legend to represent different

military units, and were doubtlessly de-

signed by the artist or the lithographer

to widen their sales appeal.

Twenty of Mathews' sketches appear

in Battles and Leaders of the Civil War,

published by the Century Company in

1887-88 and 1894, many of which bear

the name of the Century staff artist who

adapted them for reproduction. Although

Mathews is given credit in the table of

contents of each volume with the phrase

"after lithograph of war-time sketch by

A. E. Mathews," he is not included in the

listing of the artists. It may be said that

the Century staff artists faithfully repro-

duced Mathews' sketches, though now

and then making minor changes. In the

Century Company reproduction of one

of Mathews' sketches of "The Siege of

Vicksburg," a general in the foreground

has his right arm raised instead of his

left as in the original Mathews sketch,

and to this sketch the Century artist

boldly added his initials, E.J.M.!

Mathews was born in Bristol, England,

in 1831, one of seven children of Joseph

Mathews, a book publisher, who in 1833

brought his musically and artistically

talented family to live in Rochester, Ohio.

COLLECTIONS AND EXHIBITS                               233

A biographical account of Mathews' life

and works is given in Taft. Taft drew on

a manuscript biography of Mathews pre-

pared by a brother and upon other

Mathews materials in the Denver Public

Library's Western Collection, which has

a substantial collection of his Civil War

lithographs, as well as an outstanding

collection of his western lithographs,

which established Mathews as one of the

foremost pictorial artists of that region.

Little is known of Mathews' boyhood

in Ohio other than that he learned the

trade of typesetter on the New Philadel-

phia Ohio Democrat, which was edited

by his brother Charles. Another brother,

William  T. Mathews, was a portrait

painter of presidents--Lincoln, Hayes,

Garfield, and McKinley--and is listed in

several "Who's Who's" of American ar-

tists, while his brother Alfred is not.

Another brother was a physician. At

twenty-five Mathews was an itinerant

bookseller and artist, selling books and

sketches in Maine, Vermont, and New

Hampshire.

When the Civil War broke out, Math-

ews was teaching school in Alabama.

He described his escape from the South

in a dramatic thirty-five page pamphlet,

published in 1861 in New Philadelphia,

Ohio, which is in the Society's collections.

It bears this imposing descriptive title:

Interesting Narrative; Being a Journal of

the Flight of Alfred E. Mathews, of Stark

Co., Ohio, from the State of Texas, on

the 20th of April, and His Arrival at

Chicago on the 28th of May, after Tra-

versing on Foot and Alone a Distance of

Over 800 Miles Across the States of

Louisiana, Arkansas and Missouri, by

the Most Unfrequented Routes; Together

with Interesting Descriptions of Men and

Things; of What He Saw and Heard;

Appearance of the Country, Habits of the

People, &c., &c., &c.

In September 1861 Mathews enlisted

in the Thirty-First Ohio Volunteer In-

fantry, serving with Company E, and

later with Company I. Prior to his en-

listment in the Thirty-First he had served

two months with Cotter's Independent

Battery Light Artillery until it disbanded

in September 1861. Some biographical

data suggests that he did military maps

during his service, as well as his on-the-

spot sketches for the lithographs.

The Thirty-First Ohio Volunteer In-

fantry was mustered in at Camp Chase

and left Columbus at the end of Septem-

ber 1861 for Louisville, where it was

stationed for over two months at Camp

Dick Robinson. Mathews' earliest sketch

is of a camp religious service, "Rev. L. F.

Drake, Chaplain 31st Ohio Volunteers,

Preaching at Camp Dick Robinson, Ky.,

November 10th 1861." This view, which

shows several ladies seated in buggies

and a gentleman in a top hat in attend-

ance at the military service on a bleak,

wintry-looking day, presents a relaxed

social aspect of the war. The Thirty-First

left Camp Dick Robinson in the middle

of December for Somerset, Kentucky, and

then in January they were dispatched to

the assistance of General George H.

Thomas of the Army of the Ohio at Mill

Springs, but arrived too late to participate

in the engagement, which Mathews pic-

torialized in a sketch, "The Battle of

Logan's Cross Roads, Fought on the 19th

of January, 1862." This view shows the

death of the Confederate General F. K.

Zollicoffer and identifies the "Secession

forces," the Union forces, and General

Thomas L. Crittenden's staff. Another

sketch pertaining to this battle, "Union

Forces Crossing Fishing Creek," a tribu-

tary of the Cumberland, shows the troops

of the Seventeenth, Thirty-First, Thirty-

Fifth, and Thirty-Eighth Ohio Volunteer

Infantry and Captain Hewett's Kentucky

Battery, commanded by General Albin

Schoepf, being guided across Fishing

Creek with a rope, en route to attack the

234                                            OHIO HISTORY

rebels under Crittenden and Zollicoffer.

The picture is worthy of Grandma Moses

for its minutiae of detail.

Mathews' lithograph of "The Battle of

Wild Cat, Oct. 21st, 1861," is identified

as "Sketched on the Spot." Although the

Thirty-First Ohio was at Camp Dick Rob-

inson at this time, it may be presumed

that Mathews viewed some of the skir-

mishes there, as the Wild Cat region was

only sixty miles southeast of Camp Dick

Robinson. The military engagements at

Wild Cat and Logan's Cross Roads suc-

ceeded in driving the Confederates out

of the Cumberland Gap and opened up a

path for the Union forces into eastern

Tennessee.

Early in March the Thirty-First arrived

in Nashville, Tennessee. (The writer is

indebted to Mr. R. M. Tangeman of

Columbus for his map of the route of

the Thirty-First Ohio Volunteer Infan-

try.) Here Mathews made two sketches,

"Female Seminary, Nashville, Tenn[.],

Barracks of the 51st Regt. O.V." and

"The First Union Dress Parade in Nash-

ville." The latter presents another leisurely

view of the war, showing a delegation of

top-hatted gentlemen in the foreground

and groups of ladies viewing the parade

from the balconies of buildings in the

background. Later in March the Thirty-

First left Nashville for Savannah, Tennes-

see, in the southwest theater of the war,

where they engaged in the first great

battle of the war--the battle of Shiloh,

April 6-7, 1862. Mathews made five

sketches related to this battle, two of

which are of Pittsburg Landing on the

Tennessee River. One sketch, "Battle of

Shiloh. The Gunboats Tylor and Lex-

ington Supporting the National Troops,

by Firing up the Ravine back of Pitts-

burg Landing," shows two side-wheeler

steamers converted by wooden planks into

warships. The lithograph "Pittsburg

Landing" represents General Don Carlos

Buell's troops arriving by steamboat from

the east bank of the Tennessee River in

twelve river packets to reinforce General

Ulysses S. Grant's troops, who with the

aid of the gunboats repulsed General

Albert Sidney Johnston's attack at Pitts-

burg Landing, or Shiloh, in what has

been described as one of the most savage

engagements of the war.

Other sketches of the battle of Shiloh

include "The Battle of Shiloh. Charge

and Taking of a New Orleans Battery by

the 14th Regt. Wisconsin Volunteers[,]

Monday, April 7, 1862" and two small

ones, "Shiloh Church" and "Shiloh

Spring." In the latter sketch a soldier

on horseback has a sketch pad or map

board tucked under his left arm. Per-

haps in this view Mathews sketched

himself.

The battle of Shiloh forced the Con-

federate army to withdraw to Corinth,

Mississippi, and by the end of April the

Thirty-First Ohio was moving with Union

forces toward Corinth. There is great

similarity between the view "On the

March from Hamburg to Camp Before

Corinth," in which soldiers of a number

of Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota,

Michigan, Missouri, and Ohio regiments

are shown fording a creek with supply

wagons, and the view of "The 48th Regt.

Ind. Vol., on the March from Hamburgh

to Camp Before Corinth, April, 29th

1.862." This is one of several examples

of either the lithographer's or the artist's

intention to broaden the potential market

for a lithograph by varying the design

only slightly, or reproducing it exactly,

and then changing the legend to show

other regiments. The lithograph "Hos-

pital Varian, Hamburg, Tenn." is a hand-

some scenic view of rows of hospital tents

in a stylized forest and several wounded

soldiers in the foreground. This view

too may have had strong home appeal,

as 3,500 sick and wounded were reported

238                                           OHIO HISTORY

to be in the Hamburg sick camp follow-

ing the battle of Shiloh. However, the

sketch has a mood of comfort and quiet

rather than confusion and tragedy, which

one might expect in an overcrowded sick

camp. The siege of Corinth, April 29-

May 30, is recorded in two of Mathews'

lithographs: "Encampment of Gen. Pope's

Army Before Corinth. May, 1862" and

"The 31st Regt. Ohio Vol., (Col. M. B.

Walker.) Building Breastworks and Em-

brasures Before Corinth, Miss., May,

1862." On May 30, Union forces occu-

pied Corinth and forced a Confederate

retreat. The Thirty-First moved to Hunts-

ville, Tennessee, then to Decherd, guard-

ing mountain passes until General Brax-

ton Bragg's campaign into Kentucky

opened.

In September or later Mathews sketched

the defensive action near Cincinnati

against the anticipated attack of General

Kirby Smith in two lithographs, "The

100th Reg't Ohio Volunteers, in Line of

Battle" and "The 103rd Reg't O.V., in

Line of Battle at Fort Mitchell," showing

the state of entrenchments in front of the

fort on Thursday, September 11, 1862.

Mathews' handsome view of "The 121st

Reg't Ohio Volunteers, Crossing the Pon-

toon Bridge at Cincinnati," dated Septem-

ber 19, 1862, presents a fine view of the

city's river front. A similar view, not in

the Society's collection, is entitled "The

21st Reg't Wisconsin Vol., Crossing the

Pontoon Bridge, at Cincinnati." It is

dated September 13, 1862. In this view

the sole difference is the turn of the gen-

eral's head and the drawing of his head-

gear.

Early in October the Thirty-First saw

the action but did not participate in the

battle at Perryville on October 8, 1862,

which Mathews sketched under the title

"Battle of Perryville," showing the Con-

federates confronting the Union forces

of the Twenty-First Wisconsin across a

field of corn. Mathews' lithograph notes

that the Wisconsin regiment lost forty-one

men killed and one hundred and one

wounded. Following the engagement at

Perryville, which was the last Confederate

attempt to gain Kentucky, Buell was re-

placed by the Ohioan, General William S.

Rosecrans. From Perryville the Thirty-

First Ohio Volunteers marched again to

Nashville, joining Rosecrans' forces mov-

ing southeast toward Murfreesboro, Ten-

nessee, where they met Bragg's Confed-

erate Army of Tennessee at the battle of

Stone River, which lasted from Decem-

ber 31, 1862, to January 3, 1863.

Mathews made four different sketches

of this battle, in which 3,685 Ohioans

were killed, wounded, or reported missing

out of 13,000 casualties inflicted by the

Confederates, whose losses totaled over

10,000 men. Of this fiercely contested

conflict, General Crittenden is quoted as

saying that he did not think "two better

armies, as numerous and so nearly

matched in strength, ever met in battle."

After Stone River the Union army ad-

vanced southeast to Chattanooga. A mem-

ber of the Thirty-First Ohio, S. A. Mc-

Neil of Richwood, Ohio, in his Personal

Recollections of Service in the Army of

the Cumberland, wrote, "It was peach

season when we started on the march up

the valley and across the mountain ranges

into the Chickamauga valley." The

Thirty-First Ohio was engaged in the

battle of Chickamauga, September 19-20,

1863, and in the siege of Chattanooga,

September 24-November 23, 1863. In

the lithograph "Lookout Mountain, near

Chattanooga, Tenn.," Mathews has de-

picted against the background of Lookout

Mountain a wood-burning locomotive of

the Nashville and Chattanooga Rail-

road pulling boxcars filled with soldiers

through a desolate battle area strewn

with stumps and carcasses of dead mules.

The lithograph bears the date 1864. On

COLLECTIONS AND EXHIBITS                               241

the lithograph "The Army of the Cumber-

land in Front of Chattanooga" the legend

identifies by numerals and letters bat-

teries and divisions of Generals John M.

Brannan, James S. Negley, and Lovell H.

Rousseau of Major General George H.

Thomas' army corps. Another sketch,

"Chattanooga and the Battle Ground,"

identifies "The Eagle's Nest." The Thirty-

First remained at Chattanooga for some

time, and following reenlistment were

given a thirty-day furlough, during which

new recruits brought the regimental

strength to about 800 men.

By May the Thirty-First Ohio had

started on Sherman's march to Atlanta

and to the sea. Mathews, however, did

not reach Savannah. His three-year en-

listment was up in September, and he

was mustered out on September 22, 1864.

What Mathews did after that until the

close of the war is not known. His regi-

ment saw action in the campaigns of the

Carolinas, before it was mustered out at

Louisville, July 20, 1865.

Mathews made four sketches of the

siege of Vicksburg, May 22 - July 4,

1863. As the Thirty-First was not en-

gaged at Vicksburg, it may be assumed

that he went there on furlough or on

military assignment, as the following two

lithographs are copyrighted 1863: "The

Siege of Vicksburg. Major General U. S.

Grant, Commanding. Representing the

Position of Maj. Gen. John A. Logan's

Division of Maj. Gen. J. B. McPherson's

Army Corps," and "The Siege of Vicks-

burg, the Fight in the Crater of Fort

Hill, After the Explosion, June 25[,] 63."

Following the war Mathews exhibited

at Kilgore Hall in Steubenville, Ohio, on

January 18, 19, and 20, 1865, a pano-

ramic canvas entitled "A. E. Mathews'

Grand Topographical Work of Art," pre-

senting the principal battles of the West--

Vicksburg, Stone River, Lookout Moun-

tain, and Missionary Ridge-and also

Sherman's campaign through Georgia.

The Steubenville Daily Herald, January

19, 1865, described the panorama as a

"large collection of historical paintings,

occupying more than 5,000 feet of can-

vas" which were "very accurate, elegant,

instructive and meritorious." It is not

known what happened to this panorama

or to a similar panorama of the Rocky

Mountain area, which Mathews exhibited

in 1868 in the West. Regarding his Vicks-

burg sketches, the Herald on January 20

carried a testimonial letter dated August

9, 1863, from General Grant to Private

A. E. Mathews, in which Grant states:

"Sir--I have examined the Lithographs of

views taken by you of the 'Siege of Vicks-

burg,' and do not hesitate to pronounce

them among the most accurate and true

to life I have ever seen. They reflect

great credit upon you as a delineator of

landscape views."

In the spring of 1865 Mathews

followed the westward migration to

Nebraska, where he sketched four views

of Nebraska City, and in November he

was in Denver. His western lithographs

are highly prized for their detailed obser-

vations of life in the early West. He

published his work in Pencil Sketches of

Colorado (1866) and Pencil Sketches of

Montana (1868), both exceedingly rare

Western Americana, and in a lesser book,

Gems of the Rocky Mountain Scenery

(1869). With the exception of several

business trips east, Mathews spent the

years until his untimely death in 1874,

at the age of forty-three, in the West.

The Society's collection of thirty-five

different views of Mathews' lithographs

includes a group of twenty-nine which

were identified by a typed label as "Pic-

tures and Sketches of the Civil War.

Presented to the Society by A. E.

Mathews, 27 July 1928." As Mathews

died in 1874 and no other A. E. Mathews

has been identified with his family, the

242                                           OHIO HISTORY

source of this group remains a mystery.

All of the twenty-nine are in excellent

condition and have the wide, untrimmed

margins prized by collectors, which leads

to the speculation that these may have

been the artist's copies pulled from the

lithographer's stone. The other six views

were gifts or purchases. It is believed

that altogether they make the most com-

plete single collection of Mathews' Civil

War lithographs now extant. Thirty-two

of the thirty-five views have been on

exhibit at the Society's museum in Colum-

bus since April of this year.

A SHORT-TITLE LIST OF THE CIVIL WAR LITHO-

GRAPHS OF ALFRED E. MATHEWS OWNED BY THE

OHIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY

(1) The Army of the Cumberland in Front

of Chattanooga.

(2) The Battle of Logan's Cross Roads.

(3) Battle of Perryville.

(4) The Battle of Shiloh. Charge and

Taking of a New Orleans Battery by the 14th

Regt. Wisconsin Volunteers [,] Monday, April

7, 1862.

(5) Battle of Shiloh. The Gunboats Tylor

and Lexington Supporting the National Troops,

by Firing up the Ravine back of Pittsburg

Landing.

(6) The Battle of Stone River or Murfrees-

boro'. Position of Col. Starkweather and Col.

Scribner's Brigades on the 2d, 3rd and 4th of

January, 1863.

(7) The Battle of Stone River or Murfrees-

boro'. Representing General Palmer's Division,

and General Rousseau's Division, on the 31st

of December, 1862.

(8) The Battle of Stone River or Murfrees-

boro'. Representing Gen. Sam Beatty's Brigade

on the 31st of December, 1862.

(9) The Battle of Wild Cat, Oct. 21st, 1861.

[small view]

(10) The Camp of the 31st Ohio Volunteers

Shelled by the Troops Under Col. Basil Duke

of Gen. Morgan's Command, Nov. 21st, 1862.

(11) Camp Ready, Hamburg, Tennessee.

(12) Chattanooga and the Battle Ground.

(13) Encampment of Gen. Pope's Army Be-

fore Corinth. May, 1862.

(14) Farmington, Miss., May, 1862.

(15) Female Seminary, Nashville, Tenn[.],

Barracks of the 51st Regt. O.V.

(16) The First Union Dress Parade in Nash-

ville.

(17) Fort Anderson.

(18) Fort Mitchell.

(19) The 48th Regt. Ind. Vol., on the March

from Hamburgh to Camp Before Corinth, April,

29th 1862.

(20) Hospital Varian, Hamburg, Tenn.

(21) Lookout Mountain, near Chattanooga,

Tenn.

(22) On the March from Hamburg to Camp

Before Corinth.

(23) The 100th Reg't Ohio Volunteers, in

Line of Battle.

(24) The 103rd Reg't O.V., in Line of Battle

at Fort Mitchell.

(25) The 121st Reg't Ohio Volunteers, Cross-

ing the Pontoon Bridge at Cincinnati, Friday,

Sept. 19th, 1862.

(26) Pittsburg Landing.

(27) Rev. L. F. Drake, Chaplain 31st Ohio

Volunteers, Preaching at Camp Dick Robinson,

Ky., November 10th 1861.

(28) Shiloh Church.

(29) Shiloh Spring.

(30) The Siege of Vicksburg, the Fight in

the Crater of Fort Hill, After the Explosion,

June 25[,] 63.

(31) The Siege of Vicksburg. Major Gen.

U. S. Grant, Commanding. Representing the

Position of Gen. A. P. Hovey's Division.

(32) The Siege of Vicksburg. Major General

U. S. Grant, Commanding. Representing the

Position of Maj. Gen. John A. Logan's Division

of Maj. Gen. J. B. McPherson's Army Corps.

(33) The Siege of Vicksburg. Major General

U. S. Grant, Commanding. Representing the

Position of the Seventh Division of Maj. Gen.

J. B. McPherson's Army Corps.

(34) The 31st Regt. Ohio Vol., (Col. M. B.

Walker.) Building Breastworks and Embrasures

Before Corinth, Miss., May, 1862.

(35) Union Forces Crossing Fishing Creek.

THE AUTHOR: Elizabeth R. Martin is the

head librarian of the Ohio Historical Society.