Wilderness

winderness.tif

Title

Wilderness

Creator

Richard J. LeFevre (1931 - 2000)

Date

1994

Format

watercolor and mixed media on paper

Description

Lt. General Ulysses S. Grant’s Overland Campaign was the beginning of the end of the war in Virginia. At this point, General Grant had been promoted and commanded all Union armies, but he retained Maj. Gen. George G. Meade as Commander of the Army of the Potomac. The two generals are shown conferring in the upper portion of this painting with Meade on the left and Grant on the right. The Battle of the Wilderness on May 5-7, 1864, was a typically dirty, bloody Civil War battle. This particular battle, however, was made more poignant because it was fought in the area near Chancellorsville where the two armies had fought the year before. As Grant’s nearly 102,000 Union troops engaged against General Robert E. Lee’s approximately 61,000 Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, they did so over the exposed arm and leg bones of the wounded soldiers who were burned to death when the woods near them caught fire in May 1863. The outcome of the battle was inconclusive as General Grant continued his march toward Richmond. A portrait of General Lee is shown as an inset at center left.

Source

Bequest of the Artist

Collection

Citation

Richard J. LeFevre (1931 - 2000), “Wilderness,” Ewing Gallery Permanent Collection, accessed March 28, 2024, https://ewinggallery.omeka.net/items/show/216.