David Gilmore Blythe (1815-1865)

Portraying the departure of the Thirteenth Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers at the Pennsylvania Station in 1861, David Gilmour Blythe’s Union Troops Entraining exemplifies his enthusiastic support of the cause. Indeed, for the last five years of his life, Blythe’s production would consist almost entirely of Civil War paintings. Following Lincoln’s call for volunteers, the Thirteenth Regiment assembled, and Blythe, although too old to join himself, followed. One member of the regiment wrote of Blythe, “He was a welcome guest at any mess he fell in with in constant wandering around.” (as quoted in D. Miller, The Life and Work of David G. Blythe, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1950, p. 80) With his brother Andrew enlisted in the Union Army, Blythe was eager to depict the spirit of the soldiers, as evidenced by his Union Troops Entraining. The present work captures the artist’s optimism for the war. In the foreground, a young man leaves his father and mother for the noble cause. Crowds of volunteers stretch as far as the eye can see, bidding loved ones farewell. Dorothy Miller writes on the effects of this particular event at the station, “The blare and throb of the music, the uniforms, and the emotional farewells seem to have stirred [Blythe] deeply, for months later he painted Union Troops Entraining.” (The Life and Work of David G. Blythe, p. 79)