592 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1960 



IV. LATER WORKS, 1855-75 



At the close of his duty with the Bureau of Indian Affairs Eastman 

 was ordered to the Texas frontier. On October 31, 1856, he was pro- 

 moted to major (Fifth Infantry), and in 1857-58 he was again in 

 Washington, this time on special duty in the Quartermaster General's 

 Office. Later in this year he was once more on frontier duty conduct- 

 ing recruits to Utah. From 1859 to 1861 he was in Washington. He 

 served in various capacities during the early years of the Civil War, 

 was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, First Infantry, on September 

 9, 1861, and on December 3, 1863, was retired from active service "for 

 disability, resulting from long and faithful service, and for disease 

 and exposure in the line of duty." He remained in command at suc- 

 cessive posts, however, until September 1867. He was brevetted 

 colonel and brigadier general on August 9, 1866, for services during the 

 Civil War. 



It cannot be imagined that Eastman ceased during these years to 

 draw and to paint, but no work has been located. Only one picture is 

 on record ("Buttermilk Valley, New Jersey"), which was sold to the 

 Cosmopolitan Art Association in 1857. 



After his retirement Eastman did take up the brush again and 

 painted 26 canvases for the Capitol in Washington. In March 1867 

 it was proposed in the House of Representatives that he be employed 

 to execute "paintings from his own designs for the decorations of the 

 rooms of the Committee on Indian Affairs and on Military Affairs of 

 the Senate and House of Representatives, and other parts of the Capi- 

 tol." War Department Special Orders No. 427, on August 28, 1867, 

 accordingly placed him on the active list and assigned him to duty 

 under the Secretary of the Interior. 



In the next 2 years he produced nine paintings of Indian life based 

 on his Minnesota sketches, which today hang in the room of the Com- 

 mittee on Insular Affairs in the House Office Building in Washington. 



His last commission (June 1870) was to paint for the House Com- 

 mittee on Military Affairs 17 pictures of forts, which hang in the 

 west corridor of the main floor of the central portion of the Capitol. 

 With the exception of Fort Sumter these were contemporary views 

 intended as "illustrations of the conditions of the fortifications exist- 

 ing at that period" [23]. 



General Eastman died at Washington on August 31, 1875. 



V. THE ACHIEVEMENT OF EASTMAN 



"Since we have known something of Eastman's pictures, and of 

 Indians," asserted the St. Louis IViissouri Republican on May 2, 1848, 

 "we have ranked him as out of sight the best painter of Indian life 

 the countiy has produced." 



