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Photograph of initials carved into a rock by a cavalry soldier under the command of Colonel George Armstrong Custer located several miles south of Medora, North Dakota in the Little Missouri National Grasslands.
Theodore Roosevelt National Park
1949-11-13
A troop of senators, as Confederate soldiers being led by an officer on horseback labeled “Trusts,” march down a street past the house with “Barbara Fritchie” labeled “Dingley Tariff” leaning out the window, waving a flag labeled “High Protection.” Caption: “Who touches a hair on yon swelled head / Dies like a dog! March on!” he said.
The reference-point of cartoonist Pughe’s cartoon is the famous poem by John Greenleaf Whittier, “Barbara Fritchie.” The legend about the old lady is almost certainly apocryphal — the Union patriot who waved her stars and stripes as occupying Confederate forces rode by her house in Frederick, Maryland.
Black and white illustration of a Red Cross Nurse holding a victory statue and a dead soldier lying on a tomb commemorating Quentin Roosevelt and others.
Sagamore Hill National Historic Site
1918
A poem regarding “doing what you ought,” etc.
Sagamore Hill National Historic Site
1918
A poem regarding deceased soldier sons.
Sagamore Hill National Historic Site
1918
George F. Hoar, Carl Schurz, David B. Hill, and former Massachusetts Governor George S. Boutwell place their “Anti-Expansion Speech” at the feet of a huge American soldier holding a rifle and the American flag, while opposite them Filipinos place guns and swords at the soldier’s feet. Caption: The American Filipinos and the Native Filipinos will have to submit.
Pughe’s cartoon is a diplomatic portrayal of a rather diplomatic cessation of hostilities and American military withdrawal from the Philippines, where insurrection had raged, with brutality on the “Filipino” and American sides almost from the moment of Spanish surrender in 1898. Senator George Frisbie Hoar (R-MA), the most prominent Congressional opponent of the “pacification” by American troops, had demanded investigation of American atrocities. In 1902 an American Marine was tried for the murder of 11 Filipinos; and an American general was convicted of ordering the death of all males over 10 years old on one of the Philippine islands (he was verbally reprimanded, returned to the United States, and discharged). On July 4, 1902, President Roosevelt ordered the full and complete pardon and amnesty to all Philippine citizens and rebels. This cartoon appeared between the surrender of the last rebel leader and the announcement of United States troop withdrawal.
A Union soldier from the year 1861 sits on the ground, exhausted from carrying a rifle, his bedroll, and the weight of so much additional equipment. Standing next to him is a soldier from the year 1902 holding a rifle and carrying only what he needs in battle. Caption: Old soldier–So that’s your new uniform. Well, I hope you’ll make as good a record in it as I did in mine.
Pughe’s cartoon is an obvious reference to the United States Army’s newer uniforms issued at this time. The Spanish-American War revealed many challenges inherent in many standard-issue uniforms, armaments, and gear, some as old as the Civil War itself, as indicated by the cartoon. Heavy old woolen uniforms were impractical, to say the least, in Cuba’s hot and humid tropical summer. There were more reforms than this cartoon suggests. Because of the “embalmed beef” scandal, provisions were subject to stricter regulations. Spanish troops used German Mausers with smokeless gunpowder, putting American troops with “traditional” weapons and powder at a distinct and deadly disadvantage. Such sweeping reforms were ordered by the Army Department at this time.
Secretary of War Elihu Root holds up a lantern to illuminate a scene in an “Anti-Canteen Saloon” where soldiers have gone to drink and socialize in the absence of a canteen on the army base. It is over-run with drunkenness and violence. Caption: What the W.C.T.U. has effected by abolishing the army canteen.
Reformers argued, eventually with success, that Army canteens, even if liquor was dispensed there, had advantages over saloons and such establishments off military bases.
A rank of men walking in the Inaugural Parade
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1905-03-24
Puck, the eponymous mascot of the magazine, looks at both sides of an issue. On the left, “The result of abolishing the canteen” shows soldiers drunk on whiskey, in a stupor, and engaged in a barroom brawl. On the right, “The canteen as it is” shows soldiers sitting around a table, eating and drinking beer. There was a public debate about the morality and practicality of government-managed drinking establishments on military bases.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1900-06-20
Uncle Sam stands at center, gesturing to the left toward American soldiers boarding ships to return to America after defeating the Spanish in the Philippines, and gesturing to the right toward a group of matronly women, one labeled “Daughters of the Revolution,” who have just arrived to educate the peoples of the Philippines. Caption: Uncle Sam–You have seen what my sons can do in war – now see what my daughters can do in peace.
Ehrhart’s cartoon perfectly illustrates the United States’ stated intention toward the Philippine Islands after Spain’s surrender in the Spanish-American War, moreover, President McKinley’s goal of “Christianizing” the natives. He declared this goal after he was reluctantly persuaded to declare war and the post-war reality was different, as rebels led by Emilio Aguinaldo fiercely resisted the American occupiers in what would be several years of bloody guerrilla battles. The cartoon intended to portray noble intentions, yet was somewhat patronizing — among the women uplifters is a domestic servant with a carpet-beater, implying that natives lacked basic customs of cleanliness.
John Bull, the symbol of Great Britain, shovels British soldiers into the “British Empire Shute.” They end on the shoulders of “Oom” Paul Kruger who sits on a rock with a rifle across his lap, on soil labeled “Dutch Republic.” Overwhelmed by the soldiers, he has dropped his copy of the Bible that he was reading.
By 1900 the notable failures of the British Empire to defeat the “Farmers” (Boers) in South Africa were reckoned to result in British defeat or an outright campaign of attrition. The latter strategy, recorded by Winston Churchill and others, was adopted with reasonable success despite much of world opinion on the side of the longtime Dutch settlers. Oom Paul was a beloved leader who rallied his followers in the South African Republic and the neighboring Orange Free State. Their language and identity was “Afrikaans,” closely related to Dutch. Paul Kruger and his followers were quite religious, and had support around the world from Christian and missionary groups, hence the Bible falling from his lap in this symbol-laden cartoon.
Private Hubbard Pryor after his enlistment into the 44th Regiment Infantry U.S. Colored Troops during the Civil War.
Theodore Roosevelt Island National Memorial
1863
Members of the United States Colored Troops at Port Hudson, Louisiana. The men stand in uniform clutching their rifles.
Theodore Roosevelt Island National Memorial
1863
Civil War soldiers sit on the rocks of Mason’s Island, later called Theodore Roosevelt Island, watching a Georgetown ferry transport wagons and horses across the Potomac River. One man is fishing. The Alexandria Aqueduct Bridge is visible in the background in its second incarnation as a canal and roadway.
Theodore Roosevelt Island National Memorial
1864
Soldiers in the 1st U.S. Colored Infantry train during the Civil War.
Theodore Roosevelt Island National Memorial
1863
Drawing of the 20th United States Colored Troops receiving their colors on Union Square during the Civil War.
Theodore Roosevelt Island National Memorial
1861-03-05
Portrait of five men standing in front of tent; one man holds a flag.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1898-07-08
Civil war soldiers sit on the rocks of Mason’s Island, later called Theodore Roosevelt Island, watching a Georgetown ferry transport wagons and horses across the Potomac River. One man is fishing. The Alexandria Aqueduct Bridge is visible in the background in its second incarnation as a canal and roadway.
Theodore Roosevelt Island National Memorial
1864
Theodore Roosevelt is touched by G. M. De Rochambeau’s letter and fondly remembers De Rochambeau’s elder brother. Roosevelt states that the Government will not allow him to send troops to France, but hopes his four boys and son-in-law will be going to France once they finish training in the army.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1917-06-01