[J.E.B. Stuart] Original Pen and Ink Drawing by Edwin Franklin Townsend Presented to Stuart at the United States Military ...

Description

In the 1850s Cadets at the United States Military Academy at West Point were required to take a course in art and painting, taught primarily so that later, as soldiers, they would be able to sketch battle plans. The head of the Department of Drawing was Robert W. Weir, who joined the faculty in 1834. Among Weir's many pupils was a particularly artistically talented cadet, from the Class of 1843, Ulysses Grant. When Colonel Robert E. Lee (Class of 1829) became superintendent of the academy in 1852 he spent a lot of time with the cadets and encouraged them in their artistic studies. Cadets were often seen with sketchbooks in hand practicing the skills Robert Weir taught. It was common for cadets to exchange examples of their work with their fellow students.

Other members of the Class of 1854 were George Washington Custis Lee (Robert E. Lee's son), Thomas Howard Ruger, Oliver Otis Howard, James Deshler, Loomis Lyman Langdon, Archibald Gracie Jr., Stephen Dill Lee, and James McNeill Whistler (who did not graduate). Other drawings or paintings given to J. E. B. Stuart that we are offering were rendered by Loomis Lyman Langdon (Class of 1854), John Pegram (Class of 1854), Charles Green Sawtelle (Class of 1854), Alexander Webb (Class of 1855), Charles Geddings Rogers (Class of 1854), William Woods Averell (Class of 1855), John R. Chambliss (Class of 1853), and Mary Custis Lee.