Rubuta ci gaba don wannan sakin layi - A cikin 1860, Alfred Waud ya zama mai zane ko "mai zane na musamman" (mai zane-zane mai cikakken lokaci) don "New York Illustrated News". A watan Afrilu na shekara ta 1861, jaridar ta sanya Waud don rufe sojojin Potomac, babban rundunar sojojin Tarayyar Virginia. Ya fara nuna Janar Winfield Scott a Washington, DC, sannan ya shiga fagen don yin Yaƙin Bull Run na Farko a watan Yuli. Waud ya bi wani kamfen na Union zuwa Cape Hatteras, North Carolina a watan da ya biyo baya kuma ya shaida yakin Hatteras Inlet Batteries
Ka yi haƙuri. A wannan kaka, ya zana aikin soja a yankin Tidewater na Virginia. Waud ya shiga "Harper's Weekly" a ƙarshen 1861, yana ci gaba da rufe yakin. A shekara ta 1864 ɗan'uwan Alfred, William Waud (wanda har zuwa wannan lokacin yana aiki tare da "" Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper ""), ya shiga Alfred a kan ma'aikatan "Harper's" kuma sun yi aiki tare a lokacin yakin Petersburg.