The oath of allegiance to the United States was
a serious matter for secessionists in areas occupied
by Union troops. For instance in Alexandria, Virginia,
which fell under Union control at the start of the
war, citizens were required to take the oath before
they were permitted such fundamental liberties as
leaving town. A pass was required either to leave
or enter the city, and the oath had to be taken
to secure a pass. In other instances, the oath had
to be taken before obtaining a business permit to
operate a store or before voting. Sometimes citizens
were affected randomly as in the case of jury duty.
Selected jurors had to take the oath or face fines
and imprisonment. And one distraught father in Alexandria
was refused the burial of his young child in the
local cemetery until he had taken the oath.
This plaster sculpture of a mother and her young
son, titled Taking the Oath and Drawing Rations,
by John Rogers, poignantly illustrated yet another
instance for which taking the oath was a necessity—the
receiving of food stuffs for sustenance. Between
1859 and 1892, Rogers sculpted and patented approximately
eighty sculpted vignettes of everyday life and
of literary characters. He sold thousands of cast
copies for twenty dollars or less. Modeled in
1865 and patented in 1866, Taking the Oath
was one of his “most genuinely admired”
sculptures, and the one he acknowledged being
“his best work.” Its sympathetic treatment
found favor with both Northerners and Southerners.
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