At the time they were known as “Specials:” the special artists and correspondents that publications such as Harper’s Weekly and the New York Illustrated News sent out to the field to cover the events of the American Civil War. Perhaps the most colorful and talented of those characters was Alfred Waud.
Alexander Gardner, the famous photographer, captured the essence of his character in a photo he took of Waud at Gettysburg. We see him seated on a rock, sketchbook on his knee and his keen eye fixed on the subject of his sketch. I’ve always loved that photograph. George Augustus Sala of the London Daily Telegraph described him as, “full of loud cheery laughs and comic songs, armed to the teeth, jack-booted, gauntleted, slouch-hatted, yet clad in the shooting jacket of a civilian … ” That sure piques my interest!
Alfred Rudolph Waud was born in England in 1828. He studied art at the School of Design at Somerset House in London and then went on to become a scene painter for the theater. Clearly, such a character needed more excitement than that. In 1850, Waud immigrated to the United States. He learned the art of drawing on woodblocks for the engraving process while in Boston. Then, in 1860, he landed a job as an illustrator for the New York Illustrated News. The following year the war broke out, and he was sent to cover the action.
Though the art of photography flourished during the Civil War, cameras still couldn’t capture movement and they couldn’t be reproduced in the newspaper. Illustrating the newspaper was still the realm of skilled artists and engravers. Recording rapidly unfolding events requires a quick pencil, economy of line and a good memory. Try bringing a sketchbook to a football game and you’ll get the idea.
In Waud ’s sketch “Entrenched Guns of Stevens’ Battery at Gettysburg, July 2, 1863″ you really get the sense that he was there. The line work is efficient and poetic. There’s movement and urgency. His use of Chinese white water-based paint or gouache to accent smoke adds noise to the drawing, especially on brown paper. In the foreground, two gunners crouch behind an earthen berm for protection while another yanks the lanyard of the cannon. You can almost see the gun jump as it discharges. No doubt that Alfred Waud was up there where the lead and iron flew through the air. The amount of concentration required to record such a scene with a pencil is hard to imagine, though.
It took guts too. Just before the battle of Gettysburg, a friend and colleague of Waud was ambushed by some Confederates and killed. Alfred Waud buried him himself. One of his most famous sketches depicted the epic conclusion of the Battle of Gettysburg: Pickett’s Charge. The only other sketch artist on the field that day, Edwin Forbes, took shelter in the rear. Waud stayed at the front and got the scoop.
That’s one very special artist indeed.
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