The Wounded Drummer Boy

American artist Eastman Johnson is best known for his genre paintings, or scenes of daily life, which portray distinctly American subjects. During the Civil War he traveled with the Union army, and he based this painting on an incident he witnessed at the Battle of Antietam in 1862. In this iconic image, an injured youth—determined to drum through the fight—is seen hoisted on the shoulder of a comrade, literally rising above the smoke and human carnage.