Our Arms Victorious

Signed by Thomas Nast and published weeks after Confederate surrender, this full-page allegorical plate organizes Union victory as a classical monument. The arch bears the banner "OUR ARMS VICTORIOUS" above a shield, with battle names—Shiloh, Vicksburg, Wilderness, Stone River, Richmond—inscribed along the frieze. Below runs "VICTORY DEARLY WON." Three arched vignettes show "Homeward March" (soldiers departing), a central battlefield scene of fallen men beneath a flag still flying amid smoke, captioned "Honor to the Brave / Give me the death of those / who for their country die," and "Homeward Bound" (sailors returning). At top, a robed Columbia figure flanked by Justice holds scales; beside her crouches a shirtless Black figure.