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Original Watercolors of Civil War Soldier Life in the South by a Union Army Captain

Made on the Spot in Virginia, South Carolina and Florida

A collection of 19 spontaneous original watercolor drawings by Capt. John G. Fay, a Union Army officer and artist, created between 1862 and 1864 during the American Civil War. These evocative hand-drawn watercolors provide an intimate visual record of military encampments, soldier life, and landscapes in Virginia, South Carolina, and Florida, offering unique firsthand documentation of wartime experience. Capt. Fay, of the 3rd New York Infantry, was clearly a skilled draftsman and sketch artist, and has inscribed many of these watercolors with specific dates and locations, thus heightening their contextual detail and topographical value.

The watercolors depict a range of subjects reflecting the realities of Civil War soldier life, including camp quarters, soldiers at rest, picket stations, military structures, and Union-occupied Southern landscapes. Notable scenes include “Rebel Guard House at City Point, James River, Va” (April 1, 1863), “Capt. Fay’s Quarters at Light House Inlet, Folly Island, S.C.” (1863), and the finely detailed “Pawnee Landing, S.C., Battalion 3rd N.Y. Vols.” (February 1, 1864), which portrays a Union encampment under Fay’s command. Other drawings capture soldiers in leisure, bomb shelters, and the logistics of wartime transport, such as a mule-drawn supply wagon entering a camp.

Captain John Gregg Fay was born in 1839, mustered in as first lieutenant, Co. A, New York Volunteers on May 14, 1861, to serve two years; discharged May 24, 1864. A native of Eastchester, Fay lived for a time in Brooklyn but spent much of his later life in Manhattan while maintaining a real estate office in Mount Vernon. In 1891 he married a widow, Mrs. Katherine C. Ackerman, at Trinity Church, New York. His Sept. 16, 1898 New York Times obituary states that he became a lawyer shortly after the close of the war, and served as a Supervisor for the town of New Rochelle.

Captain Fay played an active role in some of the most significant campaigns of the Civil War, particularly in the Union’s efforts to capture strategic Confederate strongholds in the South. He fought in the early engagement at Big Bethel, Virginia where he was reportedly wounded, and later participated in the occupation of Suffolk, Virginia in the spring of 1862. Suffolk became an important defensive stronghold for the Union, guarding supply routes and serving as a staging area. As part of Dix’s Peninsula Campaign, he joined the expedition from White House to the South Anna River. Fay was also involved in the prolonged siege operations against Fort Wagner, Fort Gregg, and Fort Sumter during the Union campaign to take Charleston. Between August 9 and September 7, he took part in the bombardment of Fort Sumter. His service in Charleston Harbor continued through December 21, 1863, including further bombardments of Fort Sumter from October 27 to November 9.

After service on Folly Island, South Carolina, Fay was engaged in key Virginia campaigns in 1864. He fought at Port Walthall on May 7 and took part in the battles at Swift Creek (Arrowfield Church). He participated in the operations against Fort Darling from May 12 to 16, including the Battle of Drewry’s Bluff and actions at Bermuda Hundred, where Union forces attempted to break through Confederate defenses near Richmond. Throughout these campaigns, Fay witnessed some of the fiercest engagements of the war, likely playing a direct role in siege warfare, amphibious assaults, and protracted battles against well-fortified Confederate positions.

The watercolors are as follows:

1. "Late Rebel encampment / Suffolk Va July 1st (?) 1862" Depicting a loose pig, three hitching posts for tying horses and a felled tree.

2. "My friend Weaver July 24, 1862 (Camp Arthur Va)" Depicting a soldier reading a newspaper on his cot

3. "O'Hara / Co A / Aug 30 at Picket No. 6/ Edenton Road Suffolk Va" Depicting a Union soldier sleeping in his chair

4. "Kitchen of Mr. Rawlin's house / near Picket 6 Suffolk Va" Depicting a flock of chickens before a small building and shed near a cornfield

5. "Rebel Guard house at City Point James River Va / April 1st 1863"

6. "Capt. Fay's quarters at Light House Inlet Folly Island SC. -- 1863

7. "Black Island S.C." Depicting a curved road and walkway leading to a dense grove of trees with some water.

8. "Black Island S.C. Sept. 4 1863" Identified on verso.

9. "Capt. Mann's bomb proof Black Island S.C. Sept. 18 1863" Four officers inside an improvised bomb shelter with a tent between heavy fortifications.

10. "9" Camp of 3rd N.Y. Infantry Folly Island S.C. Nov. 2 / 63 Co D." A group of soldiers at leisure in front of a row of tents, with some laundry or blankets hanging from tree branches. A pair of men appear to be boxing with makeshift boxing gloves.

11. "Lieut. J. H. Curtis 3 Inf. N.Y. Folly Island, S.C. Dec. 14, 1863." Depicting a soldier seated on a barrel reading a document.

12. "Co. A. Co. G. Co. H. 3d N.Y. Vols. -- Detachment 117th N.Y. Vol. -- Co. I. Co. K. 3d N.Y. Vol. -- Quartermaster/ Pawnee Landing. S.C. Battalion 3d N.Y. Vol.s. Commanded by Capt. John G. Fay / February 1st 1864." Annotated by the artist middle left "Tent of / J. G. Fay"

13. "Pawnee Landing Feb. 23, 1864," depicting a mule-drawn covered wagon approaching an encampment next to a river, flag pole and U.S. flag, with groups of soldiers engaged in drills

14. "March IV 1864," Interior view of a soldier reading a book while resting on a cot, with numerous possessions on a shelf above his pillow, with a wash pitcher and basin at his feet and slippers on the floor.

15. View of a Union encampment near a river, depicting two docked frigates, tents, assembled soldiers at attention, a small animal yard and buildings

16. View of two soldiers walking by a pair of buildings, the structure under the flag with a sign on the facade: "ADAMS EXPRESS COMPANY"

17. View of two men standing at attention for inspection in front of their tent, a sign at the top of the tent reads "Clarke & Fay / Artists"

18. View of a barge docked at a wharf on a river, a figure carrying a pole and walking past a pulley system toward a couple of buildings, signed "J.G. Fay Aug 31 1882?" Possibly Suffolk, Va?

19. View of a row of horses tethered before a stable.

While Fay's war-time watercolors obviously represent superb visual historical evidence of the daily life of Union soldiers while in the South, they have also been contextualized as American Folk Art in a notable 1960 museum exhibition.

Pioneering Exhibition of American Folk Art

The present collection of watercolors was included in a 1960 exhibition titled "The Folk Artist Looks at the Civil War," held at the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center, Williamsburg, Virginia, April 15-July 30, 1960. The exhibition, curated by pioneering American Art curator Mary Black and featuring 70 pieces from private collections, was billed as a "socially historic show" by the curator. It included works by African American artists (notably Horace Pippin), as well as a deaf man named Andrew Carlin, and other so-called "primitive" artists.

Mary Black (1922-1992) was a notable curator of American Folk Art, instrumental in elevating the field within major institutions, including the American Folk Art Museum and the New York Historical Society. A U.S. Navy veteran who served with the WAVES during WWII, Black's curatorial career began at Colonial Williamsburg, where she worked as a research assistant (1956–57), then as registrar (1957–58), curator (1958–60), and finally as director and curator (1960–63) of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Collection. From 1964 to 1969 she was director of the American Folk Art Museum, before joining the New York Historical Society as curator of painting, sculpture, and decorative arts. Black remained with the Historical Society until 1981, when she successfully contested her dismissal on grounds of age and sex discrimination.