| Sam Watkins, in his classic Civil War memoir Company Aytch, is not bashful about expressing his displeasure with the fact that the glory of battlefield victory was often accredited only to generals and officers. By his account, the men who did the fighting, bleeding, and dying - the privates - were often looked upon as only a mechanism to win the war or a resource to be used up. I doubt that anyone who reads Watkins’ story can finish it’s final page without feeling at least a small amount of sympathy for this young private and his comrades. Yet even so, 100 years of sympathizing with Watkins’ plight really hasn’t changed our focus. As a historical artist, my primary goal is reviving bits and pieces of the past for remembrance today. With this comes the tendency to focus only on history’s most notable figures. While names such as Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain are forever secured in historical glory, I‘m sure these men would be the first to say that the glory they achieved could never have been won without the sweat of the ordinary soldier. In many ways, there is no more important figure in the Civil War (or any war, for that matter) than the common soldier. This fact, along with my recognition for the struggles of Sam Watkins and the millions of nameless soldiers like him, binds me to include The Private to his rightful place as a Civil War legend. Over 2.5 million men fought in the Union army. For this series, I chose Private John E. Coleman of Wellsville, Ohio to represent those 2.5 million men. Several factors made him the ideal choice, the first being that he was a fellow Ohioan. For the last 140 years, we’ve pledged allegiance to our nation as a whole, and the loyalty to state which was so prevalent in the pre- Civil War days is now a thing of the past. Choosing John Coleman was a way to revive that long forgotten idea of loyalty to stately brotherhood. While John Coleman is a fellow Ohioan, he is also the great-grandfather of a very dear friend of mine. For me, history is about remembering how that which came before us has contributed to our lives today. Though this man has been gone for nearly 100 years, the legacy of his life has resulted in adding friendship to my life. This is a grateful acknowledgment to him for that contribution. But above all else, Private John Coleman represents the soldier because of what is known about him, or more appropriately, what is not known. The details of his service - what regiment he fought with, what battles (if any) he participated in, or what struggles he endured - seem to have faded away with the passage of time. Yet the lack of knowledge about him is what makes him the most excellent choice; he could have been any soldier. He could have been every soldier. This piece is a tribute and a remembrance to them all. |
| Copyright 2010, Victoria Heilshorn All rights reserved. All published materials and images are protected under copyright law. |
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| 8.5" X 11" Limited Edition Print Signed and Numbered (of 100) |
| The Private Soldier |