Although he would have preferred to remain in Washington after finishing the Schoolcraft paintings, Eastman returned to his regiment in Texas in June 1855. Past his prime at age 48 and in failing health, he was soon back East on sick leave. In October, he was promoted to major and transferred to the Fifth Infantry. He served a short stint with the Quartermaster General’s Office in Washington, but for the most part, Eastman spent the final years of his military career on the move.

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With the onset of the Civil War in 1861, Eastman was promoted to lieutenant colonel and named mustering and disbursing officer for Maine and New Hampshire. After suffering a sunstroke that left him permanently impaired and prone to apoplexy, he served for one year, beginning in January 1863, as military governor at Cincinnati. He then served as commandant of the military prisons at Elmira, New York, and Fort Mifflin, Pennsylvania. Appointed brevet brigadier general in 1866, he took charge of the Harrodsburg Military Asylum in Kentucky, remaining there until 1867.

Although frail in body, General Eastman returned to painting with renewed enthusiasm after the war. During his last years, he received a commission from the War Department to paint nine scenes of Indian life, based on his Minnesota sketches, for the House Office Building in the nation’s capital. His final commission, also for the government, specified 17 paintings of American forts for the House Committee on Military Affairs. On August 31, 1875, Eastman was completing a painting of West Point when he slumped over at his easel and died.

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