Recruits Wanted By David Gilmore Blythe

"Recruits Wanted" by David Gilmour Blythe is a satirical oil painting that captures the often overlooked, gritty realities of Civil War enlistment. Set outside a recruitment office, the scene is chaotic and darkly comic. Blythe presents a motley Union Army recruits - dishevelled and visibly unfit for service - gathered beneath a "Recruits Wanted" banner. The painting critiques the sometimes unscrupulous recruitment practises of the era, where bounties and desperation led to questionable enlistments.