his name is harry mcardle. as a child, harry's a whiz with a paintbrush or sketch pad. would we describe him as a prodigy? >> i mean, probably. he was a very prolific painter. >> as a teenager, he immigrates to america and attends the maryland institute of the arts, where he creates this award-winning sketch of a failed royal coup. >> the level of detail that he got into this was really fantastic. >> the fine detail, the shading. it's so intricate. when civil war breaks out, mcardle puts his talents to use for general robert e. lee. >> he joined the confederate army, and he was a mapmaker. >> after the war, he moves to texas, where he begins painting portraits of veterans. there, he becomes fascinated with heroes of an earlier war, the texas fight for independence from mexico. >> he had this vision to depict the exploits, the revolution, the heroes. >> historian sam ratcliffe specializes in texas battle paintings. what does mcardle mean to texas? >> he was really the first artist to try to thoroughly research the sweep of the texas revolution. >> why the revolution? >>