Funerary Stela with Male Figure

Some believe that this image is idealized because the cavalry consisted largely of farmers and city dwellers who had little experience riding fast horses. One Union soldier wrote in October 1863, “We have considerable cavalry with us but they are the laughing stock of the army and the boys poke all kinds of fun at them. I really have as yet to see or hear of their doing anything of much credit. The editorial in Harper’s Weekly that accompanied this image proclaimed, “The army is in such splendid condition . . . [and] it is so thoroughly impressed with belief in its own success, that officers, men, and newspaper writers all predict a triumph.”