The Veteran in a New Field

Winslow Homer’s "The Veteran in a New Field" (1865) is one of the artist's most direct and potent statements on the immediate aftermath of the Civil War.

The painting depicts a solitary former Union soldier, identified by the discarded Union jacket and canteen in the foreground, using an old fashioned scythe to harvest wheat. The meaning here is clear and profound: the veteran has traded his weapon for a farm tool, shifting from the destruction of war to the renewal of peace and labor. The field of wheat stretches out, vast and waiting, symbolizing the untapped potential and challenge of the post war nation. The act of cutting down the wheat with the scythe historically associated with the Grim Reaper subtly suggests that the veteran has survived the harvest of death and is now participating in a harvest of life. It’s a powerful image of national healing and the difficult essential task of reconstruction and returning to civilian life.