“A Bit of War History, Civil War, 1865” by Thomas Waterman Wood (1823-1903) is comprised of three panels and can be viewed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York:
“This work, painted at the close of the Civil War, forms a narrative triptych (84.12a, b, c) of African American military service. In “The Contraband” (84.12a)—a term that referred to enslaved people who fled to Union lines at the beginning of the conflict—the self-emancipated man appears in a U.S. Army Provost Marshall General office, eager to enlist. The Recruit (84.12b) represents him as proudly ready for military service. In “The Veteran” (84.12c), he is depicted as an amputee possibly seeking his pension in the same office where he first enlisted, or returning to military service.”
Illustrations of these paintings were featured in Harper’s Weekly, May 4, 1867 along with a paragraph explaining that the paintings were “made from studies made from Tennessee during the late war, and tell their own thrilling story.”
The artist’s biography is available at “American Painters: Thomas W. Wood, N.A.” The Art Journal (1875-1887), New Series, Vol. 2 (1876) pp. 114-115.
1st U.S. Colored Cavalry 
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