Civil War Oddities #47

Bavarian emigrant Thomas Nast was just twenty-one years old at the outbreak of hostilities, but he had sketched some of Giuseppi Garibaldi’s battles for Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper. Switching to the staff of Harper’s Weekly, the artist was on numerous battlefields and in many camps. Within a decade after the end of hostilities, he gained national fame from his attacks on the Tweed Ring in New York City. Today he is chiefly remembered for having created both the Democratic donkey and the Republican elephant.