Robert Knox Sneden (1832 Nova Scotia – 1918) was an American landscape painter, as well as a map-maker for the Union Army during the American Civil War who was a prolific illustrator and memoirist. According to the Virginia Historical Society, Private Sneden's artwork was the largest collection of [American] Civil War soldier art ever produced.[1]
Life
Robert Knox Sneden left Brooklyn in 1861 to enlist in the 40th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment (the Mozart Regiment) of the Army of the Potomac. He served as a quartermaster. In 1861, they camped near Leesburg Turnpike.
He served on Samuel P. Heintzelman's staff, as a draughtsman on map work, from January 12, 1862. On March 22, 1862, Sneden embarked with him for the Peninsula Campaign,[2] participating in the Battle of Williamsburg, Battle of Seven Pines, Battle of Savage's Station, Battle of Glendale. Returning to Northern Virginia, he took part in the Second Battle of Bull Run. He was assigned to the defenses of Washington, first in Alexandria, then Arlington House.[2]
In October, 1863, after Battle of Bristoe Station, he was assigned to David B. Birney's division, participating in the Battle of Kelly's Ford.
He was assigned to the staff of general William H. French, during the abortive Battle of Mine Run. On November 27, 1863 Sneden was captured by Confederate troops under John S. Mosby.[1][2]
He was held at a tobacco warehouse next to Libby Prison, from November 30, 1863,[2] where he suffered from Typhoid fever.
After a small escape, they were shipped to a new prisoner of war camp in Georgia, on February 22, 1864.[2] He was held in the notorious Andersonville Prison, but continued making clandestine drawings. On December 11, 1864, he was exchanged at Charleston.[2]
After the war, although crippled from his time in Andersonville, he made a number of his war drawings into watercolors.
Archival discovery
In 1994, an art dealer approached the Virginia Historical Society, about a Civil War archive that had languished in a Connecticut bank vault. Sneden's great-great-nephew also sold his "diary", and watercolors.[2]
His works held by the Virginia Historical Society, are available at the Library of Congress.[3]
Bibliography
- Robert Knox Sneden (2000). Eye of the Storn. The Free Press. ISBN 0684863650.
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References
- ^ a b Virginia Historical Society.[1] Accessed 22 July 2208.
- ^ a b c d e f g Robert Knox Sneden. Charles F. Bryan, Nelson D. Lankford (ed.). Eye of the Storm. The Free Press. ISBN 0684863630.
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- ^ http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/description/simon052/2001040164.html