The men who fought on



African-American sailor
African-American sailor

African-American sailor, ca. 1780, mostly likely serving in a navy. (Newport Historical Society, P-999. Text: PBS Online and WGBH)

Charles Asgill
Charles Asgill

Capt. Charles Asgill. British soldier trapped in the Huddy affair. 1786 engraving after a drawing by August or Jean-Baptiste de Lorraine. From History of the War with America, France, Spain, and Holland (London: J. Fielding, 1786-1787) (New York Public Library)

Joshua Barney
Joshua Barney

Captain Joshua Barney. Whig. Based on a miniature by contemporary French artist Jean-Baptiste Isabey. (Darlington Digital Library, University of Pittsburgh)

Captain John Barry
John Barry

Captain John Barry. Whig. Painted in Philadelphia, possibly by Gilbert Stuart. (U.S. Naval History & Heritage Command photo)

Daniel Boone
Daniel Boone

Daniel Boone. Whig. Chester Harding's 1820 portrait of an elderly Boone painted from life. (Massachusetts Historical Society)

Marquis de Bouillé
Marquis de Bouillé

General François Claude Amour, Marquis de Bouillé. French. Based on a ca. 1797 portrait by Henri Grévedon, (Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Div. of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public Library)

Joseph Brant
Joseph Brant

Joseph Brant  (Thayen-danegea). Mohawk, loyalist. Probably painted by Charles Bird King for History of the Indian Tribes of North America, Thomas McKenney and James Hall, 1836–1844. It was based on an 1806 portrait of Brant, then 64, from life by Ezra Ames, when Brant traveled through Albany. Brant died the next year. (Library and Archives Canada.)

Molly Brant
Molly Brant

Molly Brant (Konwatsi' Tsiaienni). Mohawk, loyalist. Detail of conceptual portrait by Ontario artist Sara Tyson for a 1986 Canadian postage stamp. (Canada Post Corporation, Author's collection)

Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke

Edmund Burke, MP. British. From the studio of Joshua Reynolds, ca. 1769.

(©National Portrait Gallery, London)

Guy Carleton
Guy Carleton

Sir Guy Carleton. North American commander-in-chief. British. Unknown artist. (Library and Archives Canada, Acc. No. 1997-8-1)

George Rogers Clark
George Rogers Clark

Virginia Lieutenant Colonel George Rogers Clark, 1779. Whig. The only images of Clark taken from life were painted when he was in his 60s. This portrait came from technology that reverse-aged him. (George Rogers Clark National Historical Park and the Center for Missing & Exploited Children)   

Alured Clarke
Alured Clarke

Major General Alured Clarke. British. Print based on portrait by William Beechey, 1794. (Library and Archives Canada, MIKAN #3665037)

George Clinton
George Clinton

New York Governor George Clinton. Whig. From a 1790s painting by Joseph Wright. Engraved by Cornelius Tiebout, 1804. (Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public Library)

Eyre Coote
Eyre Coote

General Eyre Coote, about 1763. British. Attributed to Henry Morland. (©National Portrait Gallery, London, NPG 124)

Luis de Cordoba
Luis de Córdoba

Admiral Luis de Córdoba. Spanish. Unknown 18th-century artist. Namesake of Cordova, Alaska. (Museo Naval de Madrid)

General Charles Cornwallis
Charles Cornwallis

General Charles Cornwallis. British. (Correspondence of Charles, First Marquis Cornwallis, vol. 1, by Charles Ross, 1859)

James Henry Craig
James Henry Craig

Captain-General, Governor-in-chief of Canada James Henry Craig, ca. 1810–1811. British. Gerrit Schipper, artist. (Library and Archives Canada, Acc. #1990-317-1)

Duc de Crillon
Duc de Crillon

General Louis des Balbes de Berton de Crillon, duc de Crillon. French, Spanish. Unknown  date and artist. (Österreichische Nationalbibliothek)

Jean Claude Michaud d'Arcon
Jean Claude Michaud d'Arcon

Jean-Claude-Éléonore Michaud d'Arçon. French. Colonel and chief engineer at Gibraltar. (Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Estampes et photographie, N-2)

Edward Marcus Despard
Edward Marcus Despard

Lieutenant Colonel Edward Marcus Despard. British. By "Barlow," published in 1803 by Thomas Tegg. (©National Portrait Gallery, London, NPG D2267)

Andrew Deveaux
Andrew Deveaux

Colonel Andrew Deveaux, loyalist,  on a 1980 Bahamas postage stamp, with the house he built in the Bahamas in the background.

George Augustus Eliott
George Augustus Eliott

George Augustus Eliott, general and governor of Gibraltar. British. Detail from Joshua Reynolds portrait, 1787. (The National Gallery, London, NG111)

Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin, whig envoy to France. Bust by Jean-Antoine Houdon, 1779. (Philadelphia Museum of Art)

Bernardo de Gálvez
Bernardo de Gálvez

General Bernardo de Gálvez. Spanish. 2014 Carlos Monserrate copy of 1783 portrait by Mariano Salvador Maella. (US Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Location of original uncertain, possibly a private collection in Malaga, Spain)

 

 

Matías de Gálvez
Matías de Gálvez

General Matías de Gálvez (Bernardo's father). Spanish. By Andrés López, ca. 1783-1784. (Museo Nacional de Historia, Mexico City)

 

 

George III
George III

King George III. Thomas Gainsborough, ca. 1781. (Royal Collection Trust, RCIN 400935)

Simon Girty
Simon Girty

Simon Girty. Fanciful drawing of "Girty, the Renegade" from an 1896 Ohio history textbook. (W. H. Venable, Tales from Ohio History for Home and School, Norwalk, Ohio: The Laning Printing Co., 1896, p. 129, Google Books)

Mordecai Gist
Mordecai Gist

General Mordecai Gist, ca. 1774, whig. By Charles Willson Peale. (Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore)

Johannes de Graaff
Johannes de Graaff

Johannes de Graaff (1729–1813). Dutch governor of St. Eustatius who surrendered to Rodney. By A. L. Brockman, 1834, after an earlier (unlocated) portrait. (New Hampshire State House, Concord. Details)

Comte de Grasse
Comte de Grasse

Admiral François Joseph Paul de Grasse, Comte de Grasse. French. Presumably shows Grasse during Battle of the Saintes. Printed in London Magazine, August 1782. (Library of Congress)

Catharine Greene
Caty Greene

Catharine "Caty" Greene, whig, as she might have looked in 1782. Portrait by Malcolm Fraser in 1898. We don't know if Fraser imagined what she looked like as a young woman, based his illustration on an earlier portrait, or extrapolated from the Frothingham portrait below. (Century Magazine, 15:3, January 1898)

Catharine "Caty" Greene
Caty Greene

Caty Greene. Portrait from life, 1809, when she was 55. Portrait attributed to New York artist James Frothingham. (Telfair Museums, Savannah) 

Nathanael Greene
Nathanael Greene

Major General Nathanael Greene. Whig. Statue sculpted by Henri Schonnardt in 1931 is on the steps of the Rhode Island State House. (State of Rhode Island, Secretary of State)  

Nathanael Greene
Nathanael Greene

Nathanael Greene. Miniature, oil on wood, 1792, by John Trumbull. The well-connected son of the Connecticut governor and an aide of Washington's, Trumbull undoubtedly had met Greene 16 or 17 years before the painting. (Yale University Art Gallery)

Nathanael Greene
Nathanael Greene

Nathanael Greene. Whig. 21st-century beer label from a company in one of the cities named after Greene. (Natty Greene's Brewing Co., Greensboro NC)

Admiral Luc Urbain de Bouëxic, comte de Guichen
Comte de Guichen

Admiral Luc Urbain de Bouëxic, comte de Guichen. French. (Antoine Maurin, lithographer, Biographie Maritime…, vol. 3, by M. Hennequin, 1837)

David Hartley
David Hartley

David Hartley. Diplomat and MP. British. (New York Public Library, Science Photo Library)

Samuel Hearne
Samuel Hearne

Samuel Hearne. Loyalist, explorer, and Hudson's Bay Co. factor. Unknown artist and date. (Darlington Digital Library, University of Pittsburgh)

Samuel Hood
Samuel Hood

Admiral Samuel Hood. British. From a portrait by James Northcote, 1784. (The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public Library)

Samuel Hood
Samuel Hood

Samuel Hood. Detail from the James Northcote portrait, 1784. (National Maritime Museum, Greenwich)

Richard Howe
Richard Howe

Admiral Richard Howe. British. By John Singleton Copley, 1794. (National Maritime Museum, Greenwich)

Capt. Joshua Huddy
Joshua Huddy

Capt. Joshua Huddy. Whig. A fanciful 1901 drawing from Our Greater Country by Henry Davenport Northrop. It shows Huddy being led from jail to the scaffold where he was hung. (Library of Congress)

Edward Hughes
Edward Hughes

Admiral Edward Hughes. British. (New York Public Library Digital Gallery)

Hyder Ali
Hyder Ali

Hyder Ali. Mysorean leader. (Maistre de la Tour, MMDLT, The History of Hyder Shah, revised by Golam Mohammed, London: W. Thacker, 1855)

Hyder Ali
Hyder Ali

Hyder Ali. Mysorean. A fanciful ca. 1885 portrait; contemporary descriptions say Hyder was clean-shaven. (James Grant, Cassell's Illustrated History of India, London: Cassell & Co., ca. 1885. Author's collection)

William Irvine
William Irvine

General William Irvine.Whig commander of Fort Pitt. Based on a 1784 portrait by B. Otis who based his on a portrait by Robert Edge Pine. (Published in An Historical Account of the Expedition against Sandusky… by Consul Willshire Butterfield, 1873)

James Jackson, South Carolina
James Jackson

Lt. Col. James Jackson. Whig. (Library of Congress)

John Jay
John Jay

John Jay. Whig diplomat. Detail of U.S. stamp issued in 1958, based on 1794 portrait by Gilbert Stuart.

John Jay
John Jay

John Jay. Whig. A younger portrait. (Library of Congress)

Admiral Richard Kempenfelt
Richard Kempenfelt

Admiral Richard Kempenfelt. British. Published in 1785, three years after his death, in History of the War with America… by John Andrews, 1785 (Library of Congress)

Lapérouse
Lapérouse

Captain Jean François Galaup, Comte de Lapérouse. French. (Library and Archives Canada)

John Laurens
John Laurens

Colonel John Laurens. Whig. Only known portrait. (National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution)

Alexander Leslie
Alexander Leslie

Major General Alexander Leslie, 1789. British. (John Kay, A Series of Original Portraits and Caricature Etchings, 2:1, Edinburgh: Hugh Paton, 1842. Author's collection)

Alexander Leslie
Alexander Leslie

Major General Alexander Leslie, by Thomas Gainsborough, ca. 1783–1787. British. (Private collection in Scotland)

Alexander Leslie
Alexander Leslie

Alexander Leslie, by Allan Ramsay, 1753. (From Allan Ramsay: A Complete Catalogue of His Paintings by Alastair Smart and John Ingamelis (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999)

Francis Marion
Francis Marion

General Francis Marion. Whig. Probably a fanciful drawing. (In The Centennial Book of American Biography by James Dabney McCabe, 1876)

Mohawk man
Mohawk man

Mohawk man. A fanciful British print from first half of 19th century. The original caption says it shows the warrior with a scalping knife. (Darlington Digital Library, University of Pittsburgh)

James Murray
James Murray

General James Murray, ca. 1770. British. Artist unknown. (Library and Archives Canada, Acc. No. 1997-227-1)

Horatio Nelson
Horatio Nelson

Capt. Horatio Nelson. British. Painted in 1781 by John Francis Rigaud. (National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London. Caird Fund)

Frederick North
Frederick North

Frederick North. British prime minister. From a 1775 painting by Nathaniel Dance-Holland. (Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public Library.)

Charles O'Hara
Charles O'Hara

Lieutenant General Charles O'Hara (as colonel, 74th Regiment of Foot), ca. 1791–1795. British. (Private collection)

Ostenaco
Ostenaco

Ostenaco. Cherokee. No period image exists of Dragging Canoe, who fought as a British ally, but Ostenaco was an older colleague. Detail from a 1762 portrait by Joshua Reynolds, painted when Ostenaco visited London that year on a diplomatic mission when he was in his 50s. Ostenaco died in 1780. (Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa)

Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau
Comte de Rochambeau

General Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau. French. Portrait from life, 1782,  (Independence National Historical Park)

George Brydges Rodney
George Brydges Rodney

Admiral George Brydges Rodney, after a portrait by Joshua Reynolds. British. (Library and Archives Canada)

Captain Josias Rogers
Josias Rogers

Capt. Josias Rogers. British. Detail of portrait by unknown artist. (Courtesy of the Clarin family, Rogers' descendants.)

Major John Ross
John Ross

Major John Ross. British. Portrait detail shows him as a lieutenant, ca. 1768, when Ross was about 24. Attributed to British painter David Martin. (James Kochan Fine Art & Antiques, www.jameskochan.com)

 

Arthur St. Clair
Arthur St. Clair

General Arthur St. Clair. Whig. Charles Willson Peale portrait, ca. 1783. (Independence National Park)

John Sevier
John Sevier

Colonel John Sevier. Whig. Miniature by James Willson Peale. (Tennessee Portrait Project, National Society of Colonial Dames of America in Tennessee)

 

Shawnee man
Shawnee man

Shawnee man. French engraving. (Darlington Digital Library, University of Pittsburgh)

Maj.-Gen. James Stuart
Maj.-Gen. James Stuart

Major General James Stuart. British commander at Cuddalore, ca. 1786. Detail from portrait by George Romney. (National Galleries of Scotland, PG-1832)

Bailli de Suffren
Bailli de Suffren

Admiral and Bailli Pierre-André de Suffren. French. Sculptor: Jean-Antoine Houdon, 1787. (Mauritshuis, The Hague)

 

Tipu Sultan
Tipu Sultan

Tipu Sultan. Mysorean. Published 1800, European Magazine. (Darlington Digital Library, University of Pittsburgh)

Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford
Benjamin Thompson

Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford. Loyalist. Unknown date. European Magazine. (Darlington Digital Library, University of Pittsburgh)

Captain James Vashon
James Vashon

Captain James Vashon. British. Mezzotint ca. 1809 by John Young, after George Watson. (From Vancouver's Discovery of Puget Sound by Edmond S. Meany, 1907)

Marquis de Vaudreuil
Marquis de Vaudreuil

Louis Philippe de Rigaud, the Marquis de Vaudreuil. French. 19th-century engraving by Adolphe Varin. (Library and Archives Canada)

George Washington
George Washington

George Washington. Whig. Plaster bust taken from Houdon's life mask. (University of Washington. Author photo) 

George Washington
George Washington

George Washington.  (Detail from 1962 U.S. postage stamp based on Houdon sculpture)

George Washington
George Washington

George Washington. An accurate portrait of him in 1794, complete with a scar on his left cheek from an abscessed tooth and smallpox scars, with a mole under his right ear. By William Williams. (Text adapted from U.S. National Library of Medicine online exhibit. Portrait from Alexandria-Washington Lodge No. 22, A.F. & A.M., Alexandria, Virginia. Photo by Arthur W. Pierson.)

Martha Washington
Martha Washington

Martha Washington. Far from being ‘frumpy’ and ‘dumpy,’ Martha was George’s match when it came to good looks. At the instigation of historian Patricia Brady, forensic anthropologists from Louisiana State University back-aged portrait of Martha when she was 65 to make an educated guess as to what she looked like in her 20s, when she and George married. Artist Michael Deas then used the image to paint this portrait to illustrated the book jacket of Brady’s biography of Martha. (www.michaeldeas.com)

 

Anthony Wayne
Anthony Wayne

General Anthony Wayne, ca. 1795. Whig. James Peale, artist. (Smithsonian American Art Museum)

Marinus Willett
Marinus Willett

Colonel Marinus Willett, ca. 1800. Whig. Unknown artist. (Albany Institute of History & Art)

Colonel Marinus Willett
Marinus Willett

Colonel Marinus Willett. Detail of portrait, ca. 1791, by Ralph Earl. (Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bequest of George Willett Van Nest)

David Zeisberger
David Zeisberger

The Reverend David Zeisberger, ca. 1761, at age 40. (Heckewelder, A Narrative of the Mission of the United Brethren, 1820)