Prinsoners from the front,1866 by Winslow Homer
One of Homer's most famous and highly lauded paintings of the Civil War was Prisoners from the Front of 1866, a portrait of the Union leader Major General Francis Barlow receiving three Confederate solders in surrender.
It is a scene without exciting action or schematic devices, yet a kind of nobility and emotional drama pervades the canvas. Homer expertly characterized the range of personalities involved in the war, from the young, uncertain boy being
captured to the bearded old man, humbly submitting to his fate, to the proud challenging stance of the third man still dressed in Confederate uniform. We feel the tension between Barlow and the Confederated soldier, yet it never threatens
the stability of the image. Homer seemed to emphasize the sense of unity and spirit of a nation acknowledging a new direction.
General Barlow was not only a friend whom Homer had visited at the front at least once and probably more often than that, but was also "one of the most eminent" officers to survive the war. Barlow had a record of valorous military service
in which, particularly, "he distinguished himself at the Wilderness by leading his division in the grand charge which resulted in the capture of the rebel General Ed. Johnson's entire division" - an incident of which Homer's painting can
easily be considered a symbolic representation.