Edwin Forbes

(1839 - 1895)
Home State: New York
Command Billet: Newspaper Artist
Branch of Service: Civilian
Unit: Army of the Potomac

Before the Antietam Campaign:
Born John Edwin Forbes, he trained as as an artist beginning at 18, sprecializing in portraying animals and landscapes, and joined Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper at 22 when the War began in early 1862. He was with the Army of the Potomac for most of its action into the siege of Petersburg, in 1864.

In the Antietam Campaign:
He was with the Army on the Maryland Campaign. See some of his work in the Battle Illustrations gallery.

The remainder of the War:
He continued to make art for the rest of his life, with a studio in Brooklyn for most of that time. He built a considerable body of work, primarily etchings, on military subjects based on his War work, and later returned to landscapes. He published two major collections of drawings and etchings: "Life Studies of the Great Army" (1876) and "Thirty Years After, An Artistís Memoir of the Civil War" (1890).

References, Sources, and other notes:
Bio basics from Appleton's 1, with further details from William J. Cooper, Jr., in his introduction to the 1993 edition of Thirty Years After from the LSU Press. There are a number of online references to the artist as Edwin Austin Forbes, but it's not clear when or if he adopted a new middle name.

Place of Birth: New York City, NY
Death Date: 03/06/1895 Death Place: Brooklyn, NY Burial Place: Green-wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, NY

Notes

1 Fiske, John, and James Grant Wilson, editors, Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, 6 vols., New York City: D. Appleton and Company, 1887-1889, Vol. 2, pg. 498 [AotW citation 215]

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