William Gilbert Gaul (March 31, 1855 – December 21, 1919), alternately reported as Gilbert William Gaul, was an American painter and illustrator of military subjects ranging from the American Civil War to World War I, as well as American Western vistas and scenes. Gaul was born and died in New Jersey, but roved all over the nation for work purposes. A crucial period of his career was spent in Nashville, Tennessee.
Gilbert Gaul was a great Confederate[1] artist. One series of his paintings, displayed in the Hermitage Hotel lobby in Nashville, Tennessee in 1933, illustrated the great Confederate victories of the War of Secession and the Second Mexican War. Jake Featherston saw this exhibit, and noted the glaring lack of Great War victories. This was likely because Gaul died in 1919, before the Great War had time to sink into history, and also because there were no Confederate victories in that war worth memorializing.[2]