Overshadowed by the surrender of General Lee s Army on April 9th 1865, the battle of Fort Blakely near Mobile Alabama is the last major battle of the Civil War and tends to be overlooked by historians. Thousands of African American troops took place in the battle, and there were rumors that black troops killed some Confederates after they surrendered. This painting portrays an incident that was witnessed by a United States Colored Infantry officer who sees a black soldier hand his canteen to his prisoner. The Confederate, who had been the soldier s former master, drank from the canteen, and had a friendly talk with his
captor. Such incidents as this were just a beginning in a healing between the two southern cultures that would take generations.