In Front of Yorktown

It depicts men from McClellan's Army of the Potomac, before the Siege of Yorktown during the American Civil War.

[4] The art historian Helen Cooper classifies the work as a landscape painting with some elements of "journalistic realism.

Art historian Marc Simpson notes that night scenes are technically challenging subjects, and such a work was an impressive achievement for Homer very early in his career.

[3] As the art historians Lucretia Hoover Giese and Roy Perkinson note, in this painting "soldiers instead wait, seated huddled together or alone, bivouacked in front of a lean-to, trying to sleep or staring at a fire, whose flames and sparks light up the darkness.

Peter Carmichael notes how Homer explores this theme by distinguishing between the experiences of officers and soldiers, who appear on opposite sides of the canvas.

The soldiers' expressionless faces convey a sense of anxiety and extreme fatigue as they sit alone waiting for the next phase of the journey.