ePub The Nigger Bible by Robert H. Decoy in History

Description

Captain Adolph G. Metzner's stunning visual diary of sketches; > drawings; and watercolors depict his world during three years of > service with the First German; Thirty-second Regiment Indiana > Volunteer Infantry campaigning in the Western Theater during the Civil > War. Metzner chronicled the day-to-day life of a soldier's world; at > first with humor; and later; with a stark reality of life and death on the battlefield. > Metzner was born on August 16; 1834; in a village in the southwestern > corner of Baden-Württemberg; Germany. In 1856 he immigrated to the > United States; establishing himself as a druggist in Louisville; > Kentucky. Four months after the start of the Civil War; the young > druggist traveled to Indianapolis to assist in organizing a German regiment. > > Once encamped with the Thirty-second; Metzner immediately began to set > his impressions down on paper; recording the regiment's activity with > details as vividly descriptive as any written word and creating a > series of caricatures of his associates with a tinge of comical > exaggeration likely influenced by the subject. With the initial loss > of comrades at the battle of Rowlett's Station; Kentucky; on December > 17; 1861; Metzner's art changed. From that point on his work showed > the turmoil and struggle the men experienced through Shiloh and > General Braxton Bragg's invasion of Kentucky to Stones River; Chickamauga; Chattanooga; and culminating with the move on Atlanta. > > After being wounded at Chickamauga; Metzner returned to Indianapolis; > and his artwork went into storage with the remainder of his war gear. > He did; however; create one postwar oil painting; a beautiful 18 ½ x > 23 ¼ oil on canvas that appears to be a culmination of his study of > man; horse; and motion. The end result shows the depth of one who has > witnessed war; or who has "seen the elephant;" as Civil War veterans called it. >