Doughboys

DEFINITION

A sculpture term, it refers to the depiction of a lone figure on a battlefield or one charging with a bayonet to represent the bravery of many soldiers. These sculpted figures originated with the Civil War, and the name came from the British, who said that the gold-colored buttons on American uniforms looked like dumplings or doughboys. Many small communities had doughboy monuments, but three nationally known sculptors made the genre a fine art: Martin Milmore, John Quincy Adams Ward, and Randolph Rogers. Also creating doughboys were Avard Fairbanks, Ernest Viquesney, Joseph Mora and Humberto Pedretti. Sources: Donald Martin Reynolds, "Masters of American Sculpture"; AskART database