Banks's Army Leaving Simmsport, from "Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated)"
Artist
Kara Walker
(b. 1969)
Date2005
MediumOffset lithography and silkscreen on Somerset Textured paper
DimensionsSheet Dimension: 39 × 53 in. (99.1 × 134.6 cm)
Frame Dimension: 41 × 55 × 1 3/4 in. (104.1 × 139.7 × 4.4 cm)
Frame Dimension: 41 × 55 × 1 3/4 in. (104.1 × 139.7 × 4.4 cm)
ClassificationsLithograph
Credit LineStephen B. Lawrence and Bette Batchelor Memorial Acquisition Funds
Terms
Object number2019.4.4
DescriptionFrom "Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated)"; AP 3/10 (edition of 35 + 10 AP)Simmsport, Louisiana served as a base for Union General Nathanial Banks during the Red River Campaign, the Union's attempt to establish firm control in Louisiana through the occupation of Shreveport. Objectives for this campaign included freeing slaves; denying southern supplies to Confederate forces; and securing vast quantities of Louisiana and Texas cotton for northern mills. The campaign, however, was a Union failure, characterized by poor planning, mismanagement, and alleged corruption, in which not a single objective was fully accomplished.
This Harper’s illustration depicts Union troops leaving Simmsport. Superimposed on the scene, Walker overlays the silhouette of an African American man carrying a long bag used to hold picked cotton. Cotton was the principal crop produced by plantations that bordered the river area. Dependent upon the labor of slaves who planted and harvested the crop, cotton was also a major export used to support the South’s economy. The confiscation of cotton was a primary goal of the Red River Campaign, as great profits could be made from the sale of cotton as prizes of war.
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