For the last year
or more Mr. Rogers has been at work mainly on groups of this latter
class and character. Thus he has given us 'The Returned Volunteer, or
How the Fort was Taken,' being a group of three gathered in a
blacksmith's shop, the characters consisting of the blacksmith himself,
standing with his right foot on the anvil block, and his big hammer in
his hands, listening eagerly, with his little girl, to a soldier who
sits close by on his haunches, narrating 'how the fort was taken,' We
have also another group of three, 'The Picket Guard,' spiritedly
sketched, as in eager, close, and nervous search for the enemy; the
'Sharpshooters,' another group of three, or rather of two men and a
scarecrow, illustrating a curious practice in our army of deceiving the
enemy; the 'Town Pump,' a scene in which a soldier, uniformed and
accoutered, is slaking his thirst and holding blessed converse beside
the pump with a pretty girl who has come for a pail of water; the 'Union
Refugees,' a pathetic and noble group, consisting of a stalwart and
sad-faced East Tennesseean or Virginian, who accompanied by his wife,
who leans her head upon his bosom, and by his little boy, who looks up
eagerly into his face, has started off from home with only his gun upon
his shoulder and his powder-horn by his side, to escape the tyranny of
the rebels; 'The Camp Fire, or Making Friends with the Cook,' in which a
hungry soldier, seated upon an inverted basket, is reading a newspaper
to an 'intelligent contraband,' who is stirring the contents of a huge
and ebullient pot hung over the fire; 'Wounded to the Rear, or One More
Shot,' in which a soldier is represented as dressing his wounded leg,
while his companion, with his left arm in a sling, is trying to load his
gun to take another shot at the enemy, at whom he looks defiantly; 'Mail
Day,' which tells its own story of a speculative soldier, seated on a
stone and racking his poor brains to find some ideas to transcribe upon
the paper which he holds upon his knee, to be sent perchance to her he
loves; 'The Country Postmaster, or News from the Army,' which, though a
scene from civil life, tells of the anxiety of the soldier's wife or
sweetheart to get tidings from the brave volunteer who is periling his
life on the battle-field; 'The Wounded Scout, or a Friend in the Swamp,'
representing a soldier, torn, and bleeding, and far gone, rescued and
raised up by a faithful and kind-hearted negro--which we think is one of
the best, if not the very best, of Mr.
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