The Graphic War

Lincoln and his Generals

By Salvatore Cilella · Originally published April 2019 · p. 22

This occasional column highlights prints and printmakers from the Civil War. It discusses their meaning and most importantly, the goals of the print maker or artist. Peter Kramer was born in either Munich or Zwiebrucken, Germany, in 1820 or 1823. He was a trained painter, dabbling in watercolors and miniatures, finally devoting himself to the intricacies of lithography. He migrated to the United States in 1848 where he joined the prolific Philadelphia lithography firm of Peter S. Duval, a relationship he enjoyed until striking out on his own to set up a partnership with the Rosenthal lithography firm in 1857. A few prints bearing the company name of Kramer and Rosenthal have been noted. The following year he turned up in Germany where he was “expelled for caricaturing the king.” By all accounts, according to one author, he was “said to be a man of extraordinary talent.”1 Returning to New York just before the Civil War broke out, Kramer opened his own studio where he began doing portraits of politicians and military figures. In 1865, he produced “Lincoln and his Generals.” It is known as a vignette because it has no usual borders on all four sides. It pictures Lincoln sitting on a rock conferring with Admirals David D. Porter and David G. Farragut. Seated or standing opposite Lincoln are Sherman, Grant, Sheridan, and Thomas. According to Harold Holzer, et. al., the print portrays the commander in chief performing his duties and is “one of the few prints to portray Lincoln out of his natural milieu.”2 He sits on a rock instead of his office chair and none of the trappings normally shown in a mid-Victorian print are present. With the war nearly won, not so much by the Navy, but by the four generals depicted here; Kramer placed the two admirals separated from the main conversation, causing them to appear to be merely onlookers rather than participants. Lincoln continues to dominate the scene as “all eyes are turned” toward him. The print was originally issued uncolored, in black and white, but hand colored examples have been noted. Kramer turned the print over to Alphonse Brett, who had a lithography shop in Boston as early as 1852, and in New York; the latter well into the 20th Century. Brett is credited as the printer; the New York publishers, Jones and Clark, and C. A. Asp, in Boston, are unknown. Because of the print’s realistic depiction of the heroes of the rebellion, the print was photographed, reduced and sold as a carte-de-visite with a new title: “Lincoln and his Generals Before Richmond.” Civil War scholars will recognize the profile of Lincoln as Brady’s famous photograph that later became the portrait for the Lincoln penny.3 Endnotes: Harry Peters. America On Stone: The Other Printmakers to the American People. New York: Doubleday & Co., 1931, 255. 2. Harold Holzer, Gabor Boritt, Mark E. Neely, Jr. The Lincoln Image: Abraham Lincoln and The Popular Print, New York: Scribner Press, 1984, 134. Holzer et. al. used this print as the cover image of their book. 3. Ibid. 1.

Salvatore Cilella is retired after 43 years in the museum field. His last position was President and CEO of the Atlanta History Center. He is the author of several articles and books. His most recent books are Upton’s Regulars: A History of the 121st New York Volunteers in the Civil War (U. Press Kansas, 2009) and The Correspondence of General Emory Upton, 1856–1881 (U. Tennessee Press, 2017) edited. He is currently editing the intimate love letters between Emory and Emily Upton.