"A Limber in Action"

The present work was published as an illustration for Owen Wister's article, "The National Guard of Pennsylvania," in the September 1, 1894 issue of Harper's Weekly. "A Limber in Action" depicts the moment just after The National Guard of Pennsylvania was called into action to quell unrest surrounding the July 1892 Homestead Strike. Remington executed the present work as well as four other illustrations based on an August 1894 trip to Camp Crawford, near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

Wister details the militia's swift call to action: “The colonel of the First Regiment received his message at 2:30am; others were received at 4.45 and 8. None were received before 1.30. By 10 the First Regiment moved out with its train. So did the Third, nine men of the whole regiment roll being absent. One regiment had every officer and man present, except a field officer, who was abroad on leave...The National Guard of Pennsylvania reached its destination thirty-two hours after the first order was issued with over 92 percent, of the men present, over 96 percent being present forty-eight hours later. The strategy of the mobilization was conducted so skilfully both by the general and by the railroad that the troops appeared at Homestead neither when nor where they were expected.” (“The National Guard of Pennsylvania,” Harper’s Weekly, New York, September 1, 1984, p. 824)

The original owner of the present work, Eugene F. Aucaigne, was a bronze master for the Henry-Bonnard Bronze Company where Remington created his earliest bronze casts. Aucaigne helped transform the business into the premier bronze foundry in the United States at the end of the 19th century.