Mounted Cavalry Officer 1862

Winslow Homer created this graphite sketch, "Mounted Cavalry Officer," during the American Civil War. Homer worked as an artist-correspondent for Harper’s Weekly, providing illustrations of battlefront scenes. Homer’s wartime sketches are poignant for their emotional restraint. Here, we see the confident pose of a Union officer on horseback. Consider the social implications of depicting military authority during the conflict. While the officer embodies power and control, the sketch also resonates with underlying tensions and the weight of command. These representations often served to bolster morale on the home front. Yet Homer's work also hints at the personal cost of war. The sketch invites reflection on the complex interplay between individual experience and collective identity in times of conflict.