Abraham Lincoln — Commander in Chief

Abraham Lincoln came to the Army of the Potomac in early October 1862. Antietam had been fought two weeks earlier — the bloodiest single day in American history — and McClellan had let Lee's army walk back across the Potomac unpursued. The President rode the field and asked when he meant to move.

McClellan did not move. Through October Lincoln wrote to him in a tone that grew drier, at one point asking what his horses had done since the battle that could have fatigued them. On November 5 he signed the order removing him from command.

The painting shows the civilian in the camp — frock coat, silk hat in hand, the army behind him — a lawyer who had never led troops, learning to command generals. He would go through several more before he found Grant.

He is a tall dark line down the center of a wide, muddy field — the only vertical the painting has, apart from the flagpole. The silk hat hangs from his fingers, which turns the most famous silhouette in American history into something more tired and more human.

The officers behind him keep their distance. The sky is wet slate, breaking to thin gold at the horizon. His face is lit from the front, as though the ground were throwing light back up at him.