This is one of the six strange ink drawings that has been included in the group of preparatory drawings for the Disasters of War, although they are very different in conception, composition, technique and style from those made in red chalk. The ink washes customarily have various overlapping coats, ending with the surface application of pencil lines (red chalk, pencil or white chalk). Gassier expressed some doubts about the authorship of part of this drawing: “Some details are clumsily drawn, suggesting another hand: most of all, the leg of the soldier on the far left. Only a few traces of the first red-chalk sketch are visible, which could indicate that this composition was taken up by a different hand at some later time.” Gassier’s comments should be nuanced, however, as the traces of red chalk are not underneath the wash, as he supposed, but instead, on top of it.