Thanksgiving Day in the Army - After Dinner: The Wish-Bone

Thanksgiving Day in the Army - After Dinner: The Wish-Bone by Winslow Homer is a significant wood engraving created in 1864. This print captures a quiet, intimate moment amidst the brutal reality of the American Civil War, reflecting Homer’s role as one of the era’s foremost pictorial reporters. As a master of the wood engraving technique, Homer supplied images to popular weekly illustrated magazines, allowing prints of his insightful wartime observations to circulate widely across the United States.

The scene depicts Union soldiers gathered in a rudimentary shelter following their Thanksgiving meal. Two figures are intensely engaged in the traditional act of breaking the wishbone. During the conflict of 1864, this customary ritual takes on a deeper, more poignant meaning, symbolizing the deep-seated hopes of the soldiers for good fortune, peace, and perhaps most importantly, a safe return to home and family. Homer’s observational style emphasizes the camaraderie and quiet contemplation of the men, contrasting the domesticity of the holiday tradition with the harshness of military life.

This influential work demonstrates Homer’s skill in using the high-contrast requirements of wood engraving to establish mood and draw attention to the emotional core of the scene. Images like Thanksgiving Day in the Army - After Dinner: The Wish-Bone became key documents illustrating the lived experience of the common soldier, often finding their way into the public domain through widespread periodical publication. This enduring example of American cultural history resides in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art.