A Gallant Color-Bearer

This was the first of 404 covers that Nast created for Harper’s Weekly, drawn less than two months after he joined the publication. The accompanying text told the story of how a thrice-wounded New York soldier held on to his regiment’s flag even when unconscious, marking him as a hero. Nast painted a watercolor of this scene in which the faces were far more lifelike than his engraver was able to translate onto woodblocks.