JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post
I found this engraving today in a small stack of Civil War images, and was taken by the small figures that lived inside it, particularly those standing behind the bugler. They were being called after a night without sleep, or fitful sleep; perhaps they endured a barrage themselves that night, or expected one; or perhaps they will engage in the morning. Whatever happened overnight was done, and the Sun was breaking over the long rising hill in the background, illuminating four canons and their artillery trucks, the several soldiers attending them (with one on horseback).
The bugler sounds reveille, and the soldiers are in different stages of wakefulness. No one seems to show any emotion, one way or the other, happy to have the night over or dreading the coming day.
This is a detail from the steel engraving below, published in 1892 (and dated 1887):
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