Lambdin's Civil War paintings

After rooting around the Internet looking for the ACW paintings of George Cochran Lambdin (1830-1896), I think I have found the perfect waste of time.

The closest I can come to even his most famous painting, "The Consecration," is a book cover.

I learn that "At the Front" (1866) toured a few years ago and shows "a soldier deep in thought, sitting in front of his tent, his cleaned rifle at the ready just a few feet away. There's a mist in the background, and there seems to be a "calm before the storm" sense to the painting, completed a year after the war ended." No picture though.

I learn that six years ago, Christie's auctioned "a small, interior scene of a pensive Civil War soldier by George Cochran Lambdin that was estimated for $25,000 to $35,000 and sold for $189,500."

Can't even find a list of his war paintings. But ask me about the ladies. And the roses.

When you look at this U.S. Grant portrait you get a taste of what we are missing.

What this field needs is a nice, fat, comprehensive collection of contemporary ACW oil paintings, with biographies and color plates and wooden stand to hold it, like the big dictionaries have. A book like that would cast a spell deeper and longer than any re-enactment.