Crest of Pine Mountain, Where General Polk Fell, from the Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated),

2005

<p>In this work, Kara Walker appropriated several sketches from<em> Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War</em>, most of which would have accompanied a written account of events. These illustrations were meant to interpret the various conflicts, making them more accessible to the public. Published on July 16, 1864, to accompany Theodore R. Davis’s illustration <em>Crest of Pine Mountain Where General Polk Fell</em>, the following is an excerpt from the summary of events:</p><p><em>We have here, in the first place, a sketch of Pine Mountain, lately occupied by General Howard's corps, after its evacuation by the enemy— the result of one of Sherman's flank movements. It is a high knob, from which a splendid view of the country and a good idea of the position of the different armies may be obtained. It was on the crest of this mountain that Lieutenant-General Polk was killed, June 14, by a shell from the Fifth Indiana Battery—the battery of the gallant Captain Simonson, who was himself killed the next day. The different corps of Sherman's army have their signal stations on the top of Pine Mountain.</em></p><p><strong>Sophia Taylor<br>Princeton Class of 2020</strong><br>(prepared for the course AAS 349 / ART 364, Seeing to Remember: Representing Slavery Across the Black Atlantic, Spring 2017)<br></p>

<p><strong>Student label, AAS 349 / ART 364, Seeing to Remember: Representing Slavery Across the Black Atlantic, Spring 2017:</strong> </p> <p>During the Civil War, the primary means for documenting and sharing information was through illustrated journals. Created in 1857, one such journal, <em>Harper’s Weekly</em>, became the most read publication during the War. In a series of fifteen prints, Kara Walker reimagined and reappropriated several sketches taken from Alfred H. Guernsey and Henry M. Alden’s Harper’s <em>Pictorial History of the Civil War</em>, a collection of maps, portraits, and scenes from the journal published in 1866 to commemorate the Civil War. <br>Using an image taken from a series of three sketches documenting the progress of General Sherman’s campaign in Georgia, this print depicts the battle site of Pine Mountain, where General Polk was defeated and killed. In addition to this reprinting, Walker incorporated two large silhouettes, drawing on both the longer tradition of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century portraiture and her own signature use of solid black silkscreens. Walker uses these intricately designed silhouettes to suggest an alternative, or missing, perspective to an otherwise accepted history. </p> <p>Obscuring more than they reveal, the silhouettes render the identities of the two figures mostly ambiguous. From this outline, Walker highlights specific features, such as the protruding lips of both figures, strategically revealing certain pieces of information about their identities—in this case, their race. Here, Walker acknowledges, and asks the viewer to recognize, our collective literacy of racial stereotypes. In this way, the silhouettes both reflect our memory of the Civil War and the legacy of America’s racial history and draw a connection to contemporary America. </p> <p><strong>Sophia Taylor<br>Princeton Class of 2020</strong></p>