Soldiers playing "Football" in America, 1865

This “football” sketch, published in Harper’s Weekly in July 1865, is one of the oldest football illustrations in my bookmarks.

Winslow HOMER's "Holiday in camp – soldiers playing “Football” shows a fairly wild kind of mob football played by soldiers at the break of American Civil War.

A kind reminder that some very early kind of football was played in America as early as 1820s, way before the first “official” rugby game played between Harvard and McGill universities on May 14, 1874…

Winslow HOMER (1936-1910) was an American artist, best known for his marine subjects. This website gives his full biography and shows his complete works.

I've sourced this football illustration on MET website.

Here's a photo (source: Wikipedia) of Winslow HOMER in 1880 by Napoleon SARONY (PS: what a character!! And what a portfolio (Oscar Wilde, Nikola Tesla etc...!)

Bonus (to illustrate early American rugby) : “Old Division Football – the Indigenous mob soccer of Dartmouth soccer” a 48p text by Scott Meacham