When did the meeting on the River Queen take place?
The meeting on the River Queen took place on the 27th of March 1865. Four men gathered including President Abraham Lincoln, General Ulysses S. Grant, and Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter.
The meeting on the River Queen took place on the 27th of March 1865. Four men gathered including President Abraham Lincoln, General Ulysses S. Grant, and Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter.
George P.A. Healy painted The Peacemakers without witnessing the actual event. He relied on prior portraits, written accounts, and details from Sherman and Porter to construct the scene.
The large life-size version of the painting burned in the 1893 Calumet Club fire in Chicago. A smaller copy measuring eighteen by twenty-four inches survived the blaze and remained hidden for fifty years until its rediscovery in 1922.
President Donald Trump placed the original over the Cabinet Room mantelpiece in 2025. The work has resided within the White House collection since 1947 when the Truman White House acquired the surviving version.
Healy included the rainbow as an invention to symbolize coming peace. The artist used this element to represent hope rather than documenting historical facts about the sky during the meeting.