Army Wagon and Mule 1863 - 1864

Winslow Homer created this sketch, "Army Wagon and Mule," on blue paper, likely during or shortly after the American Civil War. Homer, embedded with the Union Army as an artist-correspondent, captured the everyday lives of soldiers, offering a counterpoint to romanticized depictions of war. This sketch invites us to reflect on the concept of labor during the Civil War. The enslaved people of the South were forced to provide unpaid labor that supported the Confederate war effort. For the Union, the labor was ostensibly 'free' through paid soldiers, although the work was often grueling and thankless. Here, the mule is a crucial but often overlooked worker in the war machine. The figure tending to the wagon may be a soldier, but could just as easily be a Black laborer, whose role in supporting the Union army was often unacknowledged. Consider how Homer's sketch subtly brings into focus the socio-economic inequalities embedded within the conflict, prompting us to confront the complex layers of identity and labor that shaped the American Civil War.