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Fourth Pennsylvania Cavalry [McClellan Drilling Troops, 1861]
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Oil on canvas of the Fourth Pennsylvania Cavalry [McClellan Drilling Troops, 1861.

Credit: Courtesy of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Collection of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, 1968.

This anonymous painting shows the newly formed 4th Pennsylvania Cavalry early in the war at its camp of instruction near Washington. When Lee headed for Pennsylvania in June 1863, the initial excitement of easy victory and romantic gallantry had long since given way to the grim realities of war. The Union army was still reeling from its defeat at Chancellorsville by Robert E. Lee, and President Lincoln, unhappy with its commander, Major General Joseph Hooker, was looking for his replacement.

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