CSA Folk Art – A Tour-de-Force of Confederate Iconography

Bartow Yankee Killers Bartow County Georgia 1861.  [Georgia], Nathan Daniels, c. 1861.  Watercolor on paper, 18” x 20” overall.  Uneven toning, water stained near center, pasted to board, nail holes around perimeter approximately ½ to ¾” from edge, colors quite crisp, very good or better.  $12,500.00

Unquestionably the most powerful image of Confederate antipathy, and suggestion of impending barbarism we have ever seen, quite dramatically rendered in water colors and signed in pencil by “Artist Nathan Daniels”.  The folk art style projects a quite effective image, certainly not professional but by no means archaic, evoking pure and simple disdain.   According to the muster roll of Company A, 23^rd Georgia Regiment, Volunteer Infantry Yankee Killers, the unit was formed in Bartow County in August of 1861.  Not surprisingly, The Bartow Yankee Killers became infamous for carrying their oversize hunting knives and Colt 1849 revolvers as recorded in a photograph of 3 soldiers from this unit held by the Georgia Historical Society and reproduced in “Georgia’s Confederate Monuments and Cemeteries”, 2006, Arcadia Publishing, page 19 (see image below right).  The soldier depicted here is clearly grasping an 1849 Colt revolver but not sporting an oversize Bowie knife suggesting the image was rendered prior to their infamy.  The medium, style and mounting / perimeter nail holes are consistent with a period recruitment or advertising poster constructed and unceremoniously affixed to a building.  Certainly curious is the implication that either the artist or subject was clearly left-handed.  Equally curious is the uncanny resemblance of John Chitwood, at center, photo below right, to the artist's subject

No genealogical records appear for the artist Nathan Daniels although the Yankee Killers muster roll does include one James Daniel enlisted as private who, conceivably, was the artist or a relative of the artist, typical for the period as proper names were routinely modified to suit circumstances.   

Edmonds, S. Emma E.- “Thrilling Adventures, Experiences and Escapes Of A Woman, As Nurse Spy…., Phila., 1864 – “A Southern clergyman declares that in the town where he now resides he saw rebel soldiers selling Yankee Skulls at ten dollars apiece.”  Other unsubstantiated claims appear in historical texts describing Yankee Skulls as being used for jewelry boxes, drinking vessels, etc.  Such period Confederate imagery as this certainly helped blur the line between fact and fiction regarding atrocities actual or perceived.  Nathan Daniels watercolor, without doubt, is a tour-de-force of Confederate iconography and dare we say a most poignant rebuke regarding the Federal trampling of States Rights.