I have probably read the same material as you when it comes to the accuracy of many of the Civil War Artists. The knock on Frank Leslie's group was in the accurracy of the illustrations that were so important that they had to rushed to "scoop" the competition. The goal for his "Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper" was to not only have more illustrations than the other competing newspapers but to be the most current. In doing so, the artists would first draw a rough sketch of the subject (battle scene) and then have them delivered in an almost Pony Express like manner to be turned over to the "house artists" who would fill in the blanks. This was then penciled in reverse on a wood block eventually going to wood engravers who would carve out the pencil marks and engave the scene.This was the fastest way to get it on paper back then.

To answer your question and something that I have not found much information on is how rough were these sketches and how much license did the house artists have when filling in the bare spots? This I cannot tell you.

I have a feeling that many of the scenes in this wonderful book are of a nature that did not need to be altered due to a tight deadline. But really, who knows? All these years we could have been viewing these marvelous illustrations of which a large percentage of the drawing was created from the imagination of an unknown artist in his safe studio in New York!

Sometimes it is better not to know the little secrets of such things, eh?