Cavalry Charge

While still at work on "George Washington at Valley Forge" (1974.9), Shrady entered a competition for a monument to General Ulysses S. Grant. It was eventually erected in Washington, D.C., in 1922, twenty years after the competition, and two weeks after the artist's death. "Cavalry Charge” is one of the subsidiary groups of this monument to Grant. Depicting a cavalry squad on the battle field, it stands to the right of the central figure, Grant on horseback, at the far north end of the platform, while an artillery company is placed at the south end. Each detail, from the leader's raised sword to the fallen trooper’s pained expression, is faithfully reproduced in keeping with Shrady’s adherence to accuracy. The artist observed numerous military maneuvers in order to achieve this high degree of realism. This example is the only cast made from the quarter-size final model for the monument.