1861, April - Alexander Simplot’s drawing is published by Harper’s Weekly
Quoting from Encyclopedia Dubuque:
“[Alexander’s}…drawing of volunteers boarding the steamer Alhambra at the harbor of Dubuque in April 1861, was the first sketch of the war published by Harper’s Weekly.”
An accounting of Alexander Simplot’s career from WisconsinHistory.org :
“Simplot grew up in Dubuque, Iowa, and graduated from Union College in Schenectady, New York, in 1858. When the war broke out in 1861, he accompanied a crew of journalists calling themselves "The Bohemian Brigade" and went south. At first he traveled into Missouri with a fruitless expedition led by Gen. John C. Fremont. But one of Simplot's acquaintances was on the staff of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and helped Simplot gain permission to travel with Union troops in the spring of 1862.
Simplot followed Grant up the Tennessee River and depicted the federal victories at Fort Donelson and Fort Henry. He next went downstream to catch the battle of Island No. 10, opposite New Madrid, Missouri, where the 8th and 15th Wisconsin Infantry regiments and 5th, 6th and 7th Wisconsin Light Artillery batteries were heavily engaged. He then rejoined Grant's staff for the Battle of Shiloh, Tennessee, in April 1862, where many Wisconsin troops had their first taste of combat, and depicted the siege and capture of Corinth, Mississippi, in May.
Simplot was the only war artist to capture the thrilling battle of the Confederate and Union flotillas before Memphis in June, and his sketch of gunboats approaching the city has been widely reproduced. Simplot became very sick during his travels in the South and was forced to return to Dubuque in the summer of 1862. After the war he married and became a photo engraver in his native city, where he died in 1914.”
Alexander Simplot (1837-1914)
Image source: WisconsinHistory.org. Alexander Simplot drawing, various sketches of people’s faces
Below is an article I found by Gary McQuarrie :