The Seventy Ninth Regiment (Highlanders), New York State Militia (from "Harper's Weekly," Vol. 5, p. 329)

This image of a marching troup of New York militia, dressed in kilts, come from some early unsigned wood engravings that Homer drew for "Harper's Weekly." His biographer William Howe Downes noted that "the portentious year 1861 marks a decisive turning point...now twenty-five years of age, for several years [Homer] had been able to support himself by his black and white work. [For Harper's, Homer] went to Washington, where he drew sketches of Lincoln's inauguration, and afterwards to the front with the first batch of soldier-volunteers." The present subject must either show the troop leaving New York, or arriving in Washington.