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Our Generals

Our Generals
Artist
Major & Knapp Lithography Company, active 1864 - c.1881
Sitter
Joseph Eggleston Johnston, 3 Feb 1807 - 21 Mar 1891
Ambrose Powell Hill, 9 Nov 1825 - 2 Apr 1865
William Joseph Hardee, 12 Oct 1815 - 6 Nov 1873
Braxton Bragg, 22 Mar 1817 - 27 Sep 1876
Thomas Jonathan Jackson, 21 Jan 1824 - 10 May 1863
Sterling Price, 20 Sep 1809 - 29 Sep 1867
Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard, 28 May 1818 - 20 Feb 1893
James Longstreet, 8 Jan 1821 - 2 Jan 1904
Robert Edward Lee, 19 Jan 1807 - 12 Oct 1870
Date
1866
Type
Print
Medium
Lithograph with tintstone on paper
Dimensions
Image: 29 × 22 cm (11 7/16 × 8 11/16")
Mat: 45.7 × 55.6 cm (18 × 21 7/8")
Sheet: 35.8 × 27.6 cm (14 1/8 × 10 7/8")
Topic
Robert Edward Lee: Male
Robert Edward Lee: Military and Intelligence\Army\Officer\Civil War\Confederate Army
Robert Edward Lee: Education and Scholarship\Administrator\College administrator\President
Braxton Bragg: Male
Braxton Bragg: Military and Intelligence\Army\Officer\Civil War
Braxton Bragg: Military and Intelligence\Army\Officer\General
Braxton Bragg: Science and Technology\Engineer\Civil engineer
Thomas Jonathan Jackson: Male
Thomas Jonathan Jackson: Military and Intelligence\Army\Officer\General
Thomas Jonathan Jackson: Military and Intelligence\Army\Officer\Civil War\Confederate Army
Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard: Male
Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard: Literature\Writer
Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard: Military and Intelligence\Army\Officer\General
Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard: Military and Intelligence\Army\Officer\Civil War\Confederate Army
Joseph Eggleston Johnston: Male
Joseph Eggleston Johnston: Military and Intelligence\Army\Officer\Civil War\Confederate Army
Ambrose Powell Hill: Male
Ambrose Powell Hill: Military and Intelligence\Army\Officer\Civil War\Confederate Army
Sterling Price: Male
Sterling Price: Law and Crime\Lawyer
Sterling Price: Military and Intelligence\Army\Officer\Civil War
Sterling Price: Politics and Government\US Congressman\Missouri
Sterling Price: Politics and Government\Governor\Missouri
Sterling Price: Politics and Government\State Legislator\Missouri
James Longstreet: Male
James Longstreet: Business and Finance\Businessperson
James Longstreet: Politics and Government\Diplomat
James Longstreet: Politics and Government\Government official
James Longstreet: Military and Intelligence\Army\Officer\Civil War\Confederate Army
James Longstreet: Military and Intelligence\Army\Officer\Major General
William Joseph Hardee: Male
William Joseph Hardee: Literature\Writer
William Joseph Hardee: Military and Intelligence\Army\Officer\Civil War\Confederate Army
William Joseph Hardee: Military and Intelligence\Army\Officer\Mexican War
Portrait
Credit Line
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Restrictions & Rights
CC0
Object number
NPG.84.364
Exhibition Label
Music profoundly influenced the Civil War. Martial tunes rallied troops and galvanized the home front. Sentimental ballads expressed the yearning of separated loved ones. Spirituals promised freedom to the enslaved. Confederates found their theme song in “Dixie,” while the North embraced “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” with lyrics by Julia Ward Howe, whose portrait hangs nearby.
After the war, music helped promote the myth of the “Lost Cause” by memorializing Confederate military leaders as valiant heroes, rather than defenders of slavery. This lithograph—advertised as “certainly the best and most expensive music frontispiece published”—covered piano compositions such as the “Gen R. E. Lee Polka,” dedicated to the Confederate States Army commander, shown in the centrally placed portrait, and each of the prominent generals whose portraits encircle his. The music was written by Charlie L. Ward of the Fourth Kentucky Regiment, the so-called “balladeer of the Lost Cause.”
La música tuvo una gran influencia en la Guerra Civil. Las melodías marciales animaban a las tropas y levantaban el ánimo en el frente interno. Las baladas sentimentales expresaban la nostalgia de los seres queridos separados. Los espirituales prometían libertad a los esclavizados. Los confederados encontraron su tema en “Dixie”, y los norteños adoptaron el “Himno de batalla de la República”, con letra de Julia Ward Howe, cuyo retrato se expone cerca.
Tras la guerra, la música fomentó el mito de la “causa perdida”, presentando a los militares confederados como héroes valerosos, y no como defensores de la esclavitud. Esta litografía (promovida como “el mejor y más costoso frontispicio de música jamás publicado”) introduce piezas para piano como la “Polka del Gen. R. E. Lee”, dedicada al comandante del Ejército Confederado, ilustrado al centro, y piezas para los prominentes generales que lo rodean. El compositor es Charlie L. Ward, del Cuarto Regimiento de Kentucky, conocido como el “baladista de la causa perdida.”
Data Source
National Portrait Gallery
Exhibition
Out of Many: Portraits from 1600 to 1900
On View
NPG, East Gallery 111