Saint-Gaudens hired African Americans to pose for him. They were not professional models, but men the sculptor saw on the street and whom he felt had the appearances he was seeking. Saint-Gaudens made forty heads as studies, sixteen of which were incorporated into the final composition. His work on the individual physiogomies of the black soldiers took several years.

Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Head of a Soldier (all), 1883/1893, plaster, U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site, Cornish, New Hampshire, photographs by Neil Abelsma