1. Creator/Author:
  2. Adalbert Johann Volck (35)

Valiant Men 'Dat Fite Mit Sigel'

Creator:
Adalbert Johann Volck
Location:
Maryland, Baltimore
Origin Date:
1861-1863
Materials:
paper
Measurements:
overall: 9 3/8 in x 12 in
Item ID:
71.2009.081.2085
Holding Institution:
Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection, courtesy of the Indiana State Museum
Available for Viewing:
No
Category:
Fine Art

Description

This etching is a political cartoon by Adalbert Volck, a Southern sympathizer living in Baltimore, Maryland, during the United States Civil War. This cartoon, one of the Confederate War Etchings series, depicts fellow German-born Union soldiers of General Franz Sigel's army plundering and burning the home of a helpless and innocent woman and her children. The woman kneeling appears to be begging the haughty soldiers to spare her children and herself. A soldier behind her holds a gun in one hand and the laces of her corset in the other. Her dress is torn leaving her partially bare. In the upper left corner of the etching a child holding a baby appears to be trying to escape the burning house. An oddly dressed man at the right side of the cartoon appears to be aiming his gun at the children. This cartoon reveals Volck's belief that Northerners were plunderers, rapists, devils, and brutes. The number 14 appears above the top left corner of the image. Original etching one of thirty published in Volck's "Confederate War Etchings." Part of the Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection, courtesy of the Indiana State Museum