An Artist's Story of the Great War

Edwin Forbes was born in New York City in 1839. He worked as a sketch artist for Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper joining the staff at age 22. In 1861 he was attached to the Army of the Potomac, and was one of the youngest and one of the few artists who covered the entire war. Most of his illustrations were of the daily life of the soldiers, but he also depicted battle scenes including the Second Battle of Bull Run, and Hooker's Charge at Antietam. As a young man, Forbes was a student of Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait, and from 1861 to 1882, exhibited at the National Academy of Design. Originally he started his career as an animal painter and then did some genre and landscape, but after the Civil War, drew primarily upon his sketches from that period for his paintings and etchings. Late in his career, his right side was paralyzed, and he learned to paint left handed. His drawings won a medal at the Centennial Exposition of 1876. Forbes died in 1895.