# The Council of War

- By: John Rogers (born Salem, MA 1829-died New Canaan, CT 1904)
- Date: modeled ca. 1873
- Medium: painted plaster
- Classification: Sculpture
- Dimensions: 24 1/8 x 17 1/8 x 13 7/8 in. (61.3 x 43.4 x 35.1 cm)
- Culture: United States
- Credit line: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase
- Museum: [Smithsonian Institution](https://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=21142)
- Rights: [CC0 (Smithsonian Open Access)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/web/f8a69c838d225655f4a2c940658f7366.jpg
- Who can see it: Teens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

The Council of War depicts President Abraham Lincoln, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, and General Ulysses S. Grant discussing the Civil War. John Rogers made the group at the suggestion of Stanton, who described the scene as “one of the most interesting and appropriate occasions” for a sculpture. It was later praised by Lincoln’s son Robert Todd Lincoln, who considered it to be the most lifelike portrait of his father in sculpture.