Object Details
- depicted
- Grant, Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson)
- Lee, Robert E.
- Botticher, Otto
- Maurer, Louis
- Hatch and Company
- Description
- This print depicts a meeting between Grant and Lee near Appomattox Courthouse on April 10, 1865, one day after Lee’s surrender. In the center of the scene, the two generals sit on horseback, amicably conversing with one another. They are flanked by two groups of Union officers on horseback, many of whom are identified at the bottom of the print. Large numbers of assembled troops are visible in the background. Also featured in the background is a two-story house, presumably the McClean House, where Lee signed the terms of surrender. Below the illustration, a caption clarifies that the print was based on an “Original Picture by Lieut. Col. Otto Botticher in the Possession of General Chas. G. Halpine of New York.” The artist, however, was not present for this historic event, and the scene is purely imaginary, as Grant and Lee only met inside of the McLean House to discuss the terms of surrender.
- Otto Botticher was a Prussian immigrant artist who served as an officer in the Civil War. From 1853-1854 he partnered with Thomas Benecke as a portrait painter and lithographer. Prior to the Civil War, he produced several paintings and lithographic plates of military subjects with the aid of daguerreotypes and ambrotypes, early forms of photography. His work displays precision and excellent attention to detail, indicating that he probably had formal draftsmanship training. He enlisted along with his sons, in New York City on July 22, 1861, the day after the First Battle of Manassas, in the 68th New York Volunteers Infantry (Cameron Rifles) and by August he was given the title of Captain. He was captured by Confederates March 29, 1862 near Manassas, Virginia and was in at least 2 prisoner of war camps – Libby Prison in Richmond and Salisbury Prison in North Carolina – before being paroled during a prisoner exchange. He participated in the battle at Chancellorsville, and was wounded at Gettysburg on July 1, 1863. He chronicled his activity during the early years of the war and his time in Confederate prison camps in a series of sketches.
- Louis Maurer (1832-1932), a German-born lithographer, designed this print after Botticher’s original painting. Maurer settled in New York in 1851. He worked under T.W. Strong, Currier & Ives, and Major & Knapp before beginning his own firm, Maurer & Heppenheimer. The lithograph was printed by Hatch & Co., a New York printing shop. George W. Hatch, Jr, was the son of an engraver and partnered with Charles Severyn in 1853, forming Hatch & Severyn. In 1855, George’s brother Warner joined the company and it was renamed Hatch & Co. The firm produced chromolithographs, certificates, and advertising. It reorganized as Hatch Litho Co. in 1887 but was out of business by 1889.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Credit Line
- Harry T. Peters "America on Stone" Lithography Collection
- 1865
- ID Number
- DL.60.2606
- catalog number
- 60.2606
- accession number
- 228146
- Object Name
- Lithograph
- Object Type
- Lithograph
- Physical Description
- paper (overall material)
- ink (overall material)
- Measurements
- image: 13 3/4 in x 26 in; 34.925 cm x 66.04 cm
- overall: 18 in x 27 3/4 in; 45.72 cm x 70.485 cm
- place made
- United States: New York, New York City
- depicted
- United States: Virginia, Appomattox Court House National Historical Park
- See more items in
- Home and Community Life: Domestic Life
- American Civil War Prints
- Art
- Domestic Furnishings
- National Museum of American History
- depicted
- Horses
- Subject
- Patriotism and Patriotic Symbols
- Civil War
- depicted
- Uniforms, Military
- Subject
- Architecture, Historic Residences
- related event
- Civil War
- Surrender by General Lee
- Record ID
- nmah_324911
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746b5-0e65-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
