John R. Kelso’s Civil Wars:
A Graphic History - Episode 9
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Teacher, Preacher, Soldier, Spy, 114-19. When Kelso gave Curtis a fuller narrative of his adventures, the general’s “grand old face lighted up with pleasure and approbation.” But he was also concerned. He admired Kelso’s “desperate daring,” but the young man had risked too much. The general urged Kelso not to mention anything about his capture and conviction, even to his family. He had been condemned to death as a spy. “He said that a general knowledge of that fact, even in our own army could do no possible good and might greatly endanger my life.” Now that the rebels knew him, he would be fighting “as it were, with a halter around my neck,-- denied, in case of capture, the rights of a prisoner of war.”
More on the Illustration
Here's one where we decided not to have Kelso himself visible at all. The idea of this one for me is that his life was really in the hands of the rebels. He was talking with them and trying to befriend them and figure a way to get out of this mess. But it must've just been this overwhelming feeling, with this noose hanging there, knowing that that could be your destiny within a very short period of time. Yet as I found when reading Kelso’s story, he repeatedly rose to the occasion. Bad things happened, but he learned how to survive. So for this illustration, I was thinking, just as he was thinking as he looked at the noose, about that sense of destiny. I tried to get at that with the trees and the background and the clouds and the dramatic light.
At Gillette Castle in Connecticut, they have an entryway with these large cedar trees. As soon as I read this passage, I knew I needed to go down there and take a picture of them. I was waiting for a day when there was some crazy clouds. So I went down there and took some pictures. But the photos have all these other elements in them, so I edited them out in Photoshop, and focused on the feel of the trees and the wood.