John R. Kelso’s Civil Wars:
A Graphic History - Episode 7
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Teacher, Preacher, Soldier, Spy, 108-11. A petition from citizens in southwest Missouri to General Halleck complained of rebels “laying waste to the whole country and subjecting women and children to destitution and starvation.” Noting “[t]hat the recent retrograde movement of our army from Springfield has been the cause of from 3,000 to 5,000 men, women, and children leaving their homes, without money and many in a suffering condition,” the citizens pleaded for 15,000 troops for protection. In a letter to Confederate General Sterling Price, Halleck charged that “you subsist your troops by robbing and plundering the non-combatant Union inhabitants of the southwestern counties of this State. They say that your troops robbed them of their provisions and clothing, carrying away their shoes and bedding, and even cutting cloth from their looms, and that you have driven women and children from their homes to starve and perish in the cold.”
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The nighttime snowstorm here and the night rain in No. 5, “A Spy in the Rain,” were challenges. After I finished each drawing, I took a white, ballpoint pen and went over the top of them. That's how I was able to get the rain and the snow to jump out. Here there are some areas where I would just go over the surface to kind of show that there was snow on top of the wagon wheel or the top of their heads. With the darkness and the snow and the smoky fire from the green wood, I had to go with the power of suggestion. I figured that if I tried to put too much in it, it was going to be too busy. So, it was very minimal in this one, but I tried to capture that sense of how cold it was. These poor women and children suffering. And Kelso in that posed position looking down, taking it all in, and promising to himself that he would make those responsible for the suffering pay.