Postmaster, or News from the Army,’ which, though a scene from civil life, tells of the anxiety of the soldier’s wife or sweetheart to get tidings from the brave volunteer who is periling his life on the battle-field; ‘The Wounded Scout, or a Friend in the Swamp,’ representing a soldier, torn, and bleeding, and far gone, rescued and raised up by a faithful and kind-hearted negro—­which we think is one of the best, if not the very best, of Mr. Rogers’s works; and lastly, a group called ‘The Home Guard, or Midnight on the Border,’ in which a heroic woman, accompanied by a little girl, is represented as stepping out, pistol in hand, to confront the assailants of her humble home.”

In 1862 Mr. Rogers removed his studio to the corner of Fifth Avenue and Twenty-sixth Street, where he still remains.  He has followed up the earlier productions named above with “The Bushwhacker,” a scene representing a Tennessee loyalist dogging the footsteps of the Southern army; “Taking the Oath and Drawing Rations,” the best and certainly the most popular of his works,—­a group of four, representing a Southern lady with her little boy, compelled to take the oath of allegiance in order to obtain rations for her family.  A negro boy, bearing a basket for his mistress, leans on the barrel watching the proceeding with the most intense interest.  The woman’s face is wonderful, and it expresses eloquently the struggle in her breast between her devotion to the South and her love for the boy before her, and the officer tendering the oath almost speaks the sympathy which her suffering has awakened in him.  The other works of our artist are “Uncle Ned’s School,” “The Charity Patient,” “The School Examination,” “The Council of War,” “The Courtship in Sleepy Hollow,” “The Fugitive’s Story,” “Challenging the Union Vote,” and “Rip Van Winkle.”

The process by which these exquisite groups are produced is exceedingly simple, but is one requiring considerable skill and delicacy of manipulation, and although the casting could readily be done by competent assistants, Mr. Rogers conscientiously gives his personal attention to every detail of the process.  The artist takes a mass of wet clay of the desired consistency and size, and fashions it roughly with his hands to something like the proper shape.  “It is sometimes necessary to make a little frame of wire upon which to lay the clay, to hold it in its proper place, the wire being easily made to take any form.  The rough figure is then finished with the molding stick, which is simply a stick of pine with a little spoon of box-wood attached to each end, one spoon being more delicate than the other.  With this instrument the artist works upon the clay with surprising ease.  The way in which the works are reproduced is as follows:  When the clay model is complete, a single plaster cast is taken for a pattern, and is finished with the most scrupulous care by Mr. Rogers himself.  This cast is used as a pattern for making whatever number