"The Veteran"

Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Only three years passed since this man was illustrated in "The Contraband." Eyes and uniform are now dull. "The Veteran" no longer wears his equipment belt.  Instead, he wears crutches, upon which he must walk following his amputation. His weary salute marks an end to his service. The drum from the doorway is now gone. There is no longer a need to rally.

In the Army, Black soldiers received equal medical care from Union doctors, medics and nurses, but the conditions of the time significantly hampered the ability to ward off infection and loss of limb following injury (Shotgun's Home of the Civil War, n.d.). Research from Brigham Young University indicates that after the war, there existed great disparity between care that Black and White veterans received from the Pension Bureau (a predecessor to the Veterans Administration) for chronic medical conditions originating during the war (Salt Lake Tribune, 2010). Additionally, conditions for Black prisoners of war held by the Confederate Army were harsh and often fatal, leaving much worse outcomes for Black veterans and would-be veterans (Georgia Stories, (video, n.d.).

Along with the hardships, participation in the Civil War yielded these benefits to Black American soldiers: recognition of emancipation and greater cause for claim to citizenship, greater literacy and the earning of respect from many White Americans involved in the war. After the war, many Black veterans settled in the North, but many, with new skills and confidence, headed to the Western States and Mexico. 

Courtesy of Donald R. Shaffer, 2012