Thure de Thulstrup: Battle of Spotsylvania (1887)

          In the time between the Revolutionary war and the Civil War advancements in both science and engineering were made producing better, quicker, and more accurate weapons. One such innovation of the time was the rifling of weapons. Becoming common practice on muskets, the process of rifling involved adding grooves to the inside of a weapon, putting a spin on the bullet, similar to the way a quarterback spirals a football (“Rifle”). This technique allowed soldiers to fire from an unheard of 800 yards and to fire these shots with surprising accuracy. (“Rifle”) Before, soldiers were able to only fire at a couple hundred yards at best. The Gatling gun was also invented during this time, a weapon capable of firing 3,000 rounds per minute. Solving the problems of loading, reliability, and sustained firing, the Gatling gun devastated the soldiers of the civil War, mowing down men with intense speed (History.com) Other technological contributions were the use of the locomotive in transporting men and weapons, the use of iron clad ships at sea, and lastly, a change from Napoleonic War tactics to “modern” tactics (Histroy.com) Described as the first modern war, the Civil War was the first war that utilized a moving campaign strategy and used a unified command (“Civil War”). But with all this progress came an exponential increase in deaths; By the end of the war 620,000 men had been killed, not accounting for those injured and wounded (Civil War).

            Thure de Thulstrup accurately and vividly depicts the atrocities of the Civil War in his depiction of the Battle of Spotsylvania. Growing up out of the United States for the first 25 years of life, Thulstrup had graduated from the Swedish Military Academy and served in the Swedish and French army. During his service he served as an artillery officer and later put in service in the Franco-Prussian War (“Thure De Thulstrup”). Unlike Trumbull, Thulstrup had not only seen combat up close; He had been a part of the combat. Likewise, while Trumbull displayed war as a heroic or almost knightly pursuit, Thulstrup painted only the grave realities of warfare. Trumbull tried to display the progression of America, while Thulstrip painted the truth. While Trumbull painted a picture with a clear villain and hero, Thulstrup painted a scene where the line between hero and villain is blurred, making everyone nothing more than a survivor fighting for life. Despite the fact that the Northern Army is clearly the victor in this battle, for the most part, the faces of the men have an equal look of determination and fear. To the right of the center, there is a Union Soldier ripping the standards from a fallen Confederates hands. Despite the fact that the Confederate has fallen to the ground, he still holds a firm, tight grasp on the flag, trying with all his might to prevent his inevitable defeat. These features display the determination with which both sides of the war fought. This proved to be a contributing factor to the high death toll of the Civil War. Once a side loses morale, they give up. But when both sides have strong morale and support for their cause, they fight to the death. In this battle alone, 30,000 men were killed (The American Battlefield Protection Program). So much gunfire was exchanged between the two sides, that an oak tree with a diameter of 22 inches, was “cut down” by the flying bullets (History.com). According to soldiers, entire logs were reduced to hickory logs, and several oak trees were literally shot down. It was also reported that the air was dense and thick with smoke from the artillery fire (Galloway). Thulstrup accounted for this fact by adding excessive amounts of gun smoke in the air and by having only one faint tree in the background of the battle. With the eye of a real soldier, Thulstrip managed to portray war at its rawest form.