The Petersburg Project
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  • The Crater
  • Petersburg in Pencil and Ink
    • Alfred R. Waud, Special Artist at Petersburg >
      • In Front of Petersburg
      • Waud Drawing of 5th Corps Fortifications
      • Rives Salient ("Fort Mahone")
      • Soldiers' Wells
      • The Mine Explosion
    • William Waud, Special Artist
    • Charles H. Chapin, Special Artist
    • Edwin Forbes, Special Artist at Petersburg
    • Joseph Becker, Special Artist at Petersburg
    • Edward Mullen, Special Artist at Petersburg
    • Andrew W. Warren, Special Artist
    • Winslow Homer, Special Artist
    • Enlisted Artists >
      • Charles Wellington Reed
      • Andrew McCallum
      • Francis Knowles
      • James William Pattison
      • Herbert Valentine
  • Petersburg Photographs --So Many!
    • Working with Photographs
    • Steeples of Petersburg
    • Petersburg Panorama 1865
    • City Point
    • City Point Wharf Explosion, Aug. 9, 1864
    • Fort Rice?? We don't think so!
    • Federal Picket Line, Jerusalem Plank Road
    • Timothy O'Sullivan, Photographer at Petersburg >
      • O'Sullivan and Vest Man
      • Fort Morton and Baxter Road Group
      • Fort Haskell Panorama
      • Fort Stedman Group
      • Gracie's Salient Group
      • Bombproofs behind Fort Haskell
      • Camp of the 50th N. Y. Engineers
    • John Reekie, Photographer for the Quartermaster Corps
    • Thomas C. Roche, Photographer at Petersburg
    • David Knox, Photographer at Petersburg
    • Andrew J. Russell, Photographer at Petersburg >
      • "Fort Mahone" CS Batteries 25 & 27
  • U. S. Military Railroad
    • Terminus of Military R. R. at City Point
    • City Point to Clark's Station
    • Pitkin's Station to Shooting Hill
    • Hancock's Junction/Jerusalem Plank Road
    • Parke's Station
    • Warren's Station
    • Patrick's Station
  • Maps and Topogs
    • Grand Medicine Pow-wow
    • Michler's Reports from Topographical Department
    • John E. Weyss, Cartographer
    • William H. Paine, Cartographer
    • Gilbert Thompson
  • Confederate Maps
    • Confederate Defenses 1862
    • Gilmer-Campbell Maps, 1864
    • Stevens Map July 1864
    • Fields of Fire
    • Coit's map of the Crater Battlefield
  • Federal Maps
    • June 18, 1864-Federal Engineers Map
    • June 21, 1864, Federal Engineers Map
    • June 22, 1864. Second Corps at Jerusalem Plank Road
    • June 30, 1864 -- XVIII Corps Map
    • Undated Federal Engineers Map--June-July, 1864
    • July 1864 Map of XVIII Corps Lines
    • 18th Corps, June 18, 1864
    • Native American Perspective of the Crater
    • August 28, 1864, Michler Map
    • IX Corps, Peebles and Pegrams Farms Oct. 1864
    • Army of the Potomac, Nov. 2, 1864
    • 1864, Coast Survey Map of Petersburg
    • Army of the Potomac, Routes of the Corps to Petersburg
    • Manuscript Survey, 1865
    • Michler-Weyss, Siege of Petersburg
    • Michler Map Series 1865-1867
    • 1871, Map of Recapture of Ft. Stedman
    • 1881, Boydton Plank Road
  • Confederate Forts and Batteries
    • Dimmock Line >
      • Priest Cap
      • French Rifle Pits
    • Fort Clifton
    • Confederate Leadworks
  • Federal Forts and Batteries
    • Battery X
    • Fort Alexander Hayes
    • Fort Avery
    • Fort Conahey
    • Fort Davis & Battery XXII
    • Fort Fisher
    • Fort Meikel --Photographic Views
    • Fort Morton
    • Fort Patrick Kelly
    • Fort Sedgwick, better known as Fort Hell,
    • Fort Wadsworth -- the Evolution
    • Fort Willcox or Battery XVI
    • Hare House Hill
  • Battlefield Features
    • Aiken House
    • Avery House
    • Bailey/Johnston Farm
    • Blandford Church
    • Broadway Landing, Appomattox River
    • The Crater
    • Cummings House
    • Dams and Inundations
    • Dunn House
    • Friend House >
      • View from Friend House toward Gibben complex and Petersburg
    • Globe Tavern / Weldon Railroad
    • Gregory House
    • Griffith Farm
    • Gurley House
    • Hare House
    • The "Horseshoe"
    • Jones House
    • Jordan House
    • Pegram's Farm
    • Peebles Farm, Pegrams Farm, Poplar Springs Church
    • Shand House
    • Taylor Farm >
      • The Ice House
      • Surviving Taylor Barn
    • U. S. Engineers at the Williams House
    • Williams House
  • Signal Towers and Trees
    • Some Operations of the Signal Corps at Petersburg
  • Archeology
    • Geology of the Crater
    • Fieldwork -- Petersburg
    • Civil War Sinks
    • Deserted Confederate Camp
    • Gracie's Countermine
    • LIDAR Forts and Batteries
  • Articles, Papers, Presentations
    • Shiman: A Note on Maps
    • The Siege Landscape: Through Fire and Ice at Petersburg
    • "The Rebel in the Road"
    • "A Strange Sort of Warfare Underground"
    • Lost Trenches of Petersburg: June 17
    • Between the Lines
    • Combat Trenching: An Introduction
  • Encyclopedia
    • Glossary
    • The Battlefields
    • Siege Warfare
    • Union Lines
    • Confederate Lines
    • Combat >
      • June 30, 1864, Attack
      • Combat Entrenching
      • Trench Warfare in Civil War History
      • Chamberlain at Petersburg, June 18, 1864
  • Kittens, Puppies & Ponies
  • Executions!
  • Civil War Combat Trenching
  • Pontoon Bridges
  • Depot Hospital at City Point
  • New: Shot tower

Edward Mullen, Special Artist at Petersburg

Picture"Private Miles O'Reilly" a book illustration by Edward Mullen, 1864.
Edward "Ned" Mullen (sometimes Mallen or Mullin) was a well-known cartoonist and caricaturist at the time of the Civil War. He contributed numerous humorous sketches to the first Vanity Fair Magazine in New York City. He was mentioned as one of the "Bohemian Brigade" of writers and artists, including Walt Whitman, that gathered at Pfaff's Saloon in Manhattan for drinking and tom-foolery. Mullen illustrated several books, including the political satire The Life and Adventures, Songs, Services, and Speeches of Private Miles O'Reilly (1864), written by Charles Halpine. Mullen was pressed into service as a special artist for Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper in June 1864 and arrived in Petersburg by the middle of the month. He collaborated with another Leslie contributor Andrew McCallum who was an aide-de-camp on General Orlando Willcox's staff in the Ninth Army Corps. He traveled to Washington DC for a time in July to document Jubal Early's threat to the capital.

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Union Earthworks at Bermuda Hundred -- one of the first illustrations attributed to special artist Edward Mullen -- in the July 2, 1864 issues of Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper. Details include a cleared field of fire, fraise, abatis piled in front of the embrasured battery, and rifle loopholes on the parapet made with sandbags.
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Thumbnail of "Regiment of the 18th Corps Carrying a Portion of Beauregard's Line." Follow the link to find the full drawing. Courtesy of the Becker Collection. This drawing portrayed the fighting on June 15, 1864.
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Detail from "Regiment of the 18th Corps Carrying a Portion of Beauregard's Line in Front of Petersburg." Follow the link to find the full sketch at the Becker Collection.
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Woodcut of Mullen's drawing, published in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, July 23, 1864, page 276.
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Fifth Army Corps soldiers in the Petersburg & Norfolk Railroad cut south of the Crater waiting to be sent into battle on July 30. Woodcut from a Mullen sketch published August 27, 1864 in Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper. The mine explosion is suggested by smoke in the distance.
Picture"Burying the Dead Before Cemetery Hill Under a Flag of Truce, After the Repulse of the Ninth Army Corps, from a sketch by E. F. Mullen." Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, Sept. 3, 1864. Gathered southern onlookers in the background frame this macabre scene.
The U. S. Colored Troops killed during the battle of "The Crater" were buried during the brief truce that followed. This is the only sketch showing the aftermath of a failed assault. Long trenches were dug and bodies dragged into them. It is likely that white soldiers had already been buried in separate burial trenches. The crowd of Confederate onlookers in the background adds a disturbing, macabre touch to the scene.

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Details from E. F. Mullen drawing, "In front of Petersburg. Working party going through the covered way to the trenches at night." Boston University, Becker Collection CW-EM-VA-9/10/64. Woodcut (below) published Sept. 10, 1864 in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper. The drawings behind these woodcuts have not survived.
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"Siege of Petersburg -- Going to the Trenches. -- From a Sketch by Our Special Artist E. F. Mullen." Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, Sept. 10, 1864.
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Sometimes work in the trenches was more rewarding than it was at other times.... SCENES OF ARMY LIFE-DEALING OUT LIQUOR TO SOLDIERS IN THE TRENCHES- FROM A SKETCH BY OUR SPECIAL ARTIST E.F. MULLEN.
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