Collage of historical images and cartoons of the American Civil War

Visual Culture of the American Civil WarA Special Feature of Picturing US History

The Soldier's Dream of Home.

Currier & Ives published more than two hundred prints of the American Civil War, many of them marketed to soldiers’ families in the North to reassure them that they remained in their absent father's, son's, or brother's thoughts. This color lithograph presents a soldier asleep on the ground at camp, a letter from home beside him and a dream of returning to his wife and child above. The poem below the image reads: "Stretched on the ground the war worn soldier sleeps, / Beside the lurid watch fires fitful glare; / And dreams that on the field of fame he reaps, / Renown and honors, which he hastes to share / With those beloved ones who gathering come, / To bid their hero husband father 'wellcome home,' / Fond dreamer may thy blissful vision be, / A true fore shadowing of the fates to thee."Currier & Ives published more than two hundred prints of the American Civil War, many of them marketed to soldiers’ families in the North to reassure them that they remained in their absent father's, son's, or brother's thoughts. This color lithograph presents a soldier asleep on the ground at camp, a letter from home beside him and a dream of returning to his wife and child above. The poem below the image reads: "Stretched on the ground the war worn soldier sleeps, / Beside the lurid watch fires fitful glare; / And dreams that on the field of fame he reaps, / Renown and honors, which he hastes to share / With those beloved ones who gathering come, / To bid their hero husband father 'wellcome home,' / Fond dreamer may thy blissful vision be, / A true fore shadowing of the fates to thee."

Source: Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

Publisher: New York: Currier & Ives

Date: 1861

Language: English