Taking the Oath and Drawing Rations

John Rogers

1865

Painted plaster

New York Historical

A plaster sculpture depicts a soldier, a woman, and two children gathered around a barrel. The soldier holds a book and his hat, while the woman cradles a baby. A child reaches into a basket on the barrel. Rogers considered Taking the Oath and Drawing Rations one of his finest works, and it is often referred to as his masterpiece. In this psychological study of the complex tensions that characterized the end of the Civil War and the Reconstruction era, the artist struck a chord with both Northern and Southern citizens, making it one of his most popular groups. In his previous two groups, The Bushwhacker (1949.240) and The Home Guard: Midnight on the Border (1932.96), Rogers attempted to speak to sympathies above and below the Mason-Dixon Line by depicting images of families caught up in the conflict in the border states. Neither sold