77. Small Battles Loomed Large in the Revolution
By Categories: American Revolution

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In the Series Editors’ Introduction to each book in Westholme Publishing’s Small Battles Series, coeditors Mark Edward Lender and the late James Kirby Martin contend that the too-often ignored, smaller military actions impacted the course of the war for independence as much as, if not more than, the celebrated engagements that retain their indelible grip on our collective historical consciousness—Trenton, Saratoga, and Yorktown, being foremost among the latter. These more obscure encounters were typically fought at what Lender and Martin term the “grassroots level,” usually without the direct involvement of regular troops on either side, and without the presence of famed commanders such as George Washington, Nathanael Greene, William Howe, Charles Cornwallis, etc., but rather with Patriot militia opposing Loyalist units, and sometimes involving Native warriors who more-often-than-not sided with the British.[1]

Although smaller battles accounted for the predominant share of fighting, they have generally received little attention in popular narratives about the Revolutionary struggle, perhaps due to the fact that the “big names” were not present. Private Joseph Plumb Martin, in his classic memoir that represents one of the best-known primary accounts of army life then, lamented the lack of public regard for these events owing, in his opinion, to the absence of famous men. As a result, the combatants who faced off on these occasions linger in obscurity to this day. “Such circumstances and such troops,” he wrote, “generally get but little notice taken of them, do what they will. Great men get great praise, little men nothing. But it always was so and always will be.”[2]

In his majestic chronicle of the Revolution, Page Smith argues that because many of the minor engagements—to cite two examples, the Paoli massacre in September 1777 and the Battle of Waxhaws (also known as Buford’s Massacre) in May 1780—ended in disaster for the forces of rebellion, there ensued less incentive to recount them in great detail than would have been the case if the American side prevailed. But as he reminds us, the smaller actions were often as agonizingly contested as the larger ones, and those who fell in them were just as dead as the soldiers who perished in more famous battles.[3] According to Smith, there were thousands of smaller clashes—many of them between bands of Loyalists and Patriots—that involved no more than fifty men, and the records of those encounters, if preserved at all, lie buried in some local archive, comprise half-legendary tales passed on from one generation to another, or are briefly mentioned in a seldom-read newspaper. Nonetheless, these affairs embodied the grim circumstances of war endured by the great majority of Americans, for relatively few participated in the famous battles that occupy the center stage of historiography. As Smith puts it, most in the Revolutionary generation “labored in the wings and experienced in very acute form the hunger, the fear, the continual and corrosive anxiety, the bitter divisions between friends and neighbors, the scattered incidents of violence, the demoralizing effect of rumor that were part of the daily lives of Americans, patriot or Tory, during the years of the war.”[4]

The frightful aspect of America’s first civil war that was characterized by the ferocity of combat between opposing factions among the civilian population—a feature that has been attendant to other such contests here and abroad—is embodied in the bloody record of these little-known episodes, to the extent it is available to us. Friends, neighbors, family members, and relatives all became caught up in the brutality that often manifested itself in the smaller actions. This savagery may be at variance with the idyllic image of our path to independence embraced by traditional accounts and conveyed by popular memory across the generations, for as Holger Hoock points out, the perpetuation of a too-sentimental narrative of the conflict obscures the truth that it caused proportionately more suffering than any other in American history, except the Civil War.[5}

Margaret MacMillan notes that civil wars often assume the character and cruelty of a crusade because they are about the nature of society itself.[6] Thomas Brown, a Loyalist who led troops in the Southern theater from 1777 to 1781, echoed these sentiments from personal experience: “A civil war being one of the greatest evils incident to human society, the history of every contest presents us with instances of wanton cruelty and barbarity. Men whose passions are inflamed by mutual injuries, exasperated with personal animosity against each other, and eager to gratify revenge, often violate the laws of war and principles of humanity.”[7] Indeed, the violence perpetrated on both sides in the Revolution is the stuff of historical reality—the kind Henry Knox presumably had in mind when he wrote his wife in the aftermath of the first Battle of Trenton: “War, my Lucy, is not a humane trade, and the man who follows (it) as such will meet with his proper demerits in another world.”[8]

Notes:

[1] Series Editors’ Introduction, in David Price, The Battle of Harlem Heights, 1776 (Westholme Publishing: Yardley, PA, 2022), ix-x.

[2] Joseph Plumb Martin, Memoir of a Revolutionary Soldier: The Narrative of Joseph Plumb Martin (Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2006), 54.

[3] Page Smith, A New Age Now Begins: A People’s History of the American Revolution (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1976), 2:1124-1125.

[4] Ibid., 2:1125.

[5] Holger Hoock, Scars of Independence: America’s Violent Birth (New York: Crown, 2017), 11-17.

[6] Margaret Macmillan, War: How Conflict Shaped Us (New York: Random House, 2020), 42.

[7] Thomas Brown to David Ramsey, December 25, 1786, in The American Revolution: Writings from the War of Independence, 1775-1783, ed. John Rhodehamel (New York: The Library of America, 2001), 681-682.

[8] Henry Knox to Lucy Knox, January 2, 1777, in William S. Stryker, The Battles of Trenton and Princeton (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1898), 436.

And speaking of small things (as in books), Rescuing has been rescued:

For anyone who has, or knows anyone who has, tried without success to acquire a copy of my first book, Rescuing the Revolution, during its recent exile to the publishing wilderness (having been out of print for the last couple of years), please be advised that it has returned from Elba (for any Napoleonic-minded readers out there). My thanks to the Friends of Washington Crossing Park—the nonprofit that runs the gift shop at Washington Crossing Historic Park (WCHP) and oversees the historical/educational programming there—for publishing a new edition as a successor to the Knox Press release from 2016. This marks the Friends’ first-ever foray into this sort of activity, and credit is due to Roger Williams, Jennifer Martin, Larry Kidder, Guy Sava, and Michelle Flanagan for their contributions to this effort. I anticipate (hopefully) that signed copies of the new edition will soon be available at WCHP for purchase in person or online. It can also be ordered from Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

76. A Founding-Focused Foundation
By Categories: Uncategorized

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Say that three times fast!

No, but seriously, I don’t know how many of you are familiar with the work of the Swan Historical Foundation, Inc. (SHF), so let me suggest that this is as good a time as any—what with the impending semiquincentennial (250th anniversary) of American independence in 2026—to recognize its efforts at promoting awareness and understanding of our Revolutionary heritage.

This nonprofit is dedicated to encouraging and inspiring continuing knowledge and appreciation of the Revolution for the benefit of present and future generations. It’s named for an early member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Dr. Samuel Swan, of Somerville, NJ, who sponsored legislation that provided a pension for the widows and orphans of the first American soldiers and led to the creation of the federal Veterans Administration. His great, great grandson, H. Kels Swan—a lifelong resident of South Bound Brook, NJ, a Rutgers University alumnus, and an author who served as historian and curator at Washington Crossing State Park, Titusville, NJ (Hopewell Township)—founded SHF in 1989 and became its president.
​
​A proud partner and sponsor of RevolutionNJ, SHF is working closely with the State of New Jersey to build a new visitor center that is rising on the banks of the Delaware River at Washington Crossing State Park. Most of the artifacts in the SHF collection of 1,200 original items from the Revolutionary era (1750-1810), which are currently displayed in the old visitor center, have been on loan to the park for a number of years. The old center is slated for demolition, but a new iteration of the imposing SHF exhibit will greet visitors to the state-of-the-art facility that opens next year. (Additional items in the collection are currently on loan to other institutions or in storage.)

Besides the care, interpretation, and expansion of its breathtaking collection​, what else has SHF been up to?

Well, in 2002, it commissioned artwork by a noted local artist, Loyd Garrison, which conveys what is believed to be an accurate image of Washington’s legendary Christmas night 1776 crossing by ferry boat. More recently, SHF participated in  a 13-minute video, Crossing To Victory: Washington Recaptures New Jersey, which was made possible by a joint effort of the Mercer County Cultural and Heritage Commission, NJ Historical Commission, Mercer County Board of County Commissioners, NJM Insurance Group, and several generous individuals. The film examines some of the lesser-known events and sites at Washington Crossing State Park so critical to the success of that momentous event and the subsequent march to Trenton and victory over the Hessian garrison there.

But there’s a lot more to the story. The vital educational role embraced by SHF is illustrated by the wide range of activities in which it has engaged over the past generation:

  • Supporting organizations with a common interest in the Revolution;
  • ​Participating in historical fairs, meetings, and conferences;
  • Giving talks and lectures to community, historical, and patriotic groups;
  • Providing financial support for historical programs in partnership with Washington Crossing State Park;
  • Loaning artifacts from its collection to other museums;
  • Offering periodic exhibits at various locations in PA and NJ;
  • Providing access for third parties to photograph artifacts in its collection for books, articles, and various publications;
  • Funding an annual short-term residential research fellowship with the David Center for the American Revolution at the library and museum of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia for scholars in all fields to work in the artifact collections of SHF, the American Philosophical Society, and other repositories in the greater Philadelphia area;
  • Organizing living history talks and demonstrations;
  • Distributing a newsletter that features articles about the Revolution and profiles of items in the SHF collection;
  • Sponsoring the Washington Crossing American Revolution Round Table; and
  • Conducting tabletop demonstrations of Revolutionary War battles.

Rev War aficionados need to appreciate the work SHF is doing to establish a firm (ahem) foundation for the celebration of our founding. Obviously, it has many partners in this enterprise, but SHF is one of those truly unsung heroes in the upcoming national project that is dedicated to commemorating our historical legacy and reminding us once again that America is more than just a place, but an idea as well.

As John Adams famously observed, “The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people.” May it always be so.

Attention Rev War Buffs:

Mark your calendar!

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, a new six-part, 12-hour documentary series from acclaimed filmmaker Ken Burns—focusing on the country’s founding and the War for Independence—will launch on Sunday, November 16 and run for six consecutive nights through Friday, November 21. It will air from 8 to 10 p.m. ET on PBS.

I Ken hardly wait.

Another JAR Article
By Categories: American Soldiery

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For those interested, here’s a link to my latest article in the Journal of the American Revolution — on the Continental Army’s first commissary general: Joseph Trumbull and the Challenge of Feeding an Army.

Anyone who shares my obsessive preoccupation with the “Ten Crucial Days” campaign—from December 25, 1776 through January 3, 1777—will appreciate the relevance of this piece to that enterprise, as Trumbull (older brother of the famous artist John) was responsible for ensuring that the Continental Army had adequate food supplies during this critical period—so that he quite literally sustained Washington’s troops at a pivotal moment in the war. Each soldier who participated in the legendary Delaware River crossing on Christmas night 1776 was given a three-day supply of cooked rations—per the commander in chief’s orders—which tells me that Trumbull was doing his job! Recall that this was at a time when the army was critically short of various other supplies, such as winter clothing, shoes, and blankets.

PUNishment alert: Hopefully, readers won’t find the narrative in the article hard to swallow. Digestible? Something to chew on? Food for thought? Content you can really sink your teeth into?

Stay warm and a happy 2025 to all.

P.S. Was at the annual Princeton battle reenactment on Sunday, where about two thousand people and a couple of horses were present—record attendance (of people, not horses)! Here’s an article about what’s happening at Princeton Battlefield State Park.

James Kirby Martin (1943-2024)
By Categories: Uncategorized

James Kirby Martin, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Houston, passed away on New Year’s Eve. I had limited exposure to the man—he coedited my book about the Battle of Harlem Heights with Mark Lender for the Westholme Small Battles Series and was kind enough to review my forthcoming work, Winning the Ten Crucial Days—but he impressed me as someone whose gentlemanly manner well complemented his admired scholarly standing as a student of early American history. The author of fourteen books, Jim was a professor at Rutgers for many years before relocating to Texas, as well as having taught at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and The Citadel. For those who are interested, you can find more information about him on his website.

I wanted to remember him here by offering the following excerpt from the preface to his 2019 volume, Insurrection: The American Revolution and Its Meaning (originally published as In the Course of Human Events: An Interpretive Exploration of the American Revolution in 1979), which is, for my money, perhaps as good an introduction to its subject as one is likely to find—a lucid, concise narrative that is comprehensive in scope and insightful in its interpretation:

The late novelist L. P. Hartley once compared the act of learning about past times to visiting foreign nations with customs, values, and ideals different from our own. Hartley’s observation is well taken. Probing deeply into earlier eras requires a commitment to keeping peoples and events in their actual historical context rather than engaging in present-minded critiques of their values and ideals, as if our own beliefs and actions are universally above reproach. In this volume I have worked to stay in context. My purpose has been to describe and explain rather than pass along critical judgments about Revolutionary era persons who did not subscribe to the same set of social and economic values that we hold dear today. If one is looking for present-minded historical judgments, they are readily available these days. Certainly, both leaders and followers in the Revolutionary generation had their blind spots. However, we need to remember that no generation has ever reached perfection in its accomplishments and that some persons during the Revolutionary era put forth a noteworthy effort in seeking to establish a better world for posterity.

Thank you, Jim. RIP.

 

Book Signing
By Categories: Uncategorized

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For anyone who’s interested and expects to be in the area, I’ll be signing copies of my books at Washington Crossing Historic Park (PA) on December 25 (from 12 to 3 pm) during the 72nd annual reenactment of the Continental Army’s Christmas night 1776 crossing of the Delaware River.

The first crossing reenactment on December 8 did not occur because of low water levels due to the summer drought, although more than 3,000 people were present to enjoy the other activities. Based on the amount of recent rainfall, it would appear that the replica Durham boats WILL (probably) be able to do their thing on the 25th. More information is available here.

FYI, I will be giving guided tours at WCHP on the 21st and 28th, after which I expect to be absent from the park until at least March. Things slow down during the winter months, and so fewer staff are scheduled to work there.

Best wishes to all for a healthy and happy 2025!

 

 

75. Memories
By Categories: General

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The Revolution has been a source of inspiration to many and contention to others. Let me suggest that anyone wanting to explore how its legacy has been interpreted by posterity would do well to read Michael D. Hattem’s new book, The Memory of ’76: The Revolution in American History (Yale University Press, 2024).

I’d like too share the following excerpt from Hattem’s epilogue (“The Revolution in the New Millennium”):

For nearly two hundred and fifty years, the popular memory of the Revolution has served as the nation’s origin myth. It has provided heroes and stories that have helped generations of Americans create emotional connections to the nation’s founding and often equally emotional definitions of what it means to be an American. The popular memory of the Revolution has been an important vehicle through which Americans have defined and voiced their understanding.of the present and their hopes for the future. Like those of many other older societies, the American origin myth has been consistently contested, as generation after generation has reimagined the Revolution in ways that are most meaningful and useful at the time. As a result, conflicts in American politics and culture over partisanship, regionalism, race, gender, class, ethnicity, and religion have unavoidably shaped and been shaped by the ways in which Americans have remembered and fought over their Revolution. Ultimately, the long history of the popular memory of the Revolution reveals that remembering the nation’s founding has often done far more to divide Americans than it has to unite them. It also reminds us that revising the past is an important and long-standing American political tradition, while this epilogue offers a clear indication that the memory of the Revolution remains a vitally contested part of American life well into the twenty-first century.

As someone once said, history is an argument that never ends. And I think that an essential part of being an American is arguing about what it means to be an American, or—in other words—what the Revolution means today.

This will probably be my last blog post until next year, as I’m working on another article for the Journal of the American Revolution (number 11, but who’s counting?) and expect that to supersede any other literary activity for the time being.

Have a great holiday season, everyone!

74. Veterans Day
By Categories: American Soldiery

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Thinking about today brings to mind the memoir of Joseph Plumb Martin, probably the best known personal account of any left to posterity by an American soldier who served in the War of Independence. In The Battle of Harlem Heights, 1776, I wrote about one scene in particular that is depicted in his narrative, and I’d like too share that excerpt below:

Private Martin illustrated the reality of the common soldier’s
relative anonymity in his recollection of an incident that followed
the Harlem Heights engagement: “A circumstance occurred on
the evening after this action, which although trifling in its nature,
excited in me feelings which I shall never forget. When we came
off the field we brought away a man who had been shot dead
upon the spot; and after we had refreshed ourselves we pro-
ceeded to bury him.” The grave was dug on the grounds of the
Morris house that served as Washington’s headquarters, where
Martin’s party endeavored, “just in the dusk of evening, to com-
mit the poor man, then far from friends and relatives, to the
bosom of his mother earth.”
As soon as they laid him in the ground, “in as decent a posture
as existing circumstances would permit, there came from the
house, towards the grave, two young ladies who appeared to be
sisters;—as they approached the grave, the soldiers immediately
made way for them.” When the women reached “the head of the
grave, they stopped, and with their arms around each other’s
neck, stooped forward and looked into it.” They “asked if we were
going to put the earth upon his naked face,” and when “answered
in the affirmative, one of them took a fine white gauze handker-
chief from her neck” and asked that it be used to cover his face,
as “tears, at the same time, [were] flowing down their cheeks.”
Once the grave was filled, they returned to the house.
Although no one there knew the man being buried, “yet he
had mourners,” Martin writes, heaping praise on this tender-
hearted duo: “Worthy young ladies! You, and such as you, are de-
serving the regard of the greatest of men. What sisters, what wives,
what mothers and what neighbors would you make!—Such a sight
as those ladies afforded at that time, and on that occasion, was
worthy, and doubtless received the attention of angels.” That
affecting moment’s indelible impression on Martin found its way
into his memoir, which was published more than a half-century
later and became one of the best-known primary accounts of
army life in the Revolution.

To any reader who has worn our country’s uniform, thank you for your service.

Upcoming Book Talk
By Categories: Ten Crucial Days

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Some of you may have already received an email about this, but I wanted to let anyone who’s interested know about a talk I’ll be giving at Historic Summerseat in Morrisville, PA—the site of George Washington’s headquarters from December 8 to 14, 1776—focusing on my second book, The Road to Assunpink Creek. This free event will be on Sunday, November 10 at 1 pm. Seating is limited, and reservations can be made by calling 215-801-0753.

73. Lots of Leutze (pronounced “loit-seh”)
By Categories: Ten Crucial Days

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Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze (1816-1868) is America’s best-known historical painting and one of the most renowned works of art in history. Here are some facts about the painter and his artistry that may be of interest to you:

— Leutze was born in Germany but came to America with his family in 1825. They settled in Philadelphia, but after his father’s death in 1831 the youth had to work to support his mother and sister, which he did by selling his portraiture. Recognizing Leutze’s talent, several wealthy benefactors elected to subsidize his artistic education by sending him across the Atlantic to study in his native land, where he enrolled in 1841 in the Dusseldorf Academy, then the preeminent school of art in Europe.

— The artist began work on this, his most celebrated painting in 1849 at his Dusseldorf studio, in the wake of the Revolutions of 1848 that he passionately supported. These included a series of republican revolts against European monarchies, beginning in Sicily and spreading to France, Germany, Italy, and the Austrian Empire, but which all resulted in failure and repression. Leutze utilized American tourists and art students in Europe as models and assistants in his creative process.

— The original version of this painting was damaged by a fire in Leutze’s studio in late 1850, when it was nearly finished, and subsequently hung in an art museum in Bremen, Germany (the Bremen Kunsthalle), only to fall victim to a bombing raid by the British Royal Air Force on September 5, 1942. This led to historian David Hackett Fischer’s droll observation that the RAF perpetrated Great Britain’s final act of revenge for the American Revolution.

— Leutze created another full-sized copy of the painting (12 by 21 feet), which was shipped to America in 1851, where it was seen by over fifty thousand people in New York before being exhibited in the Rotunda of the National Capitol. During the Civil War, it served to raise funds for the Union cause and the antislavery movement, entirely fitting in light of Leutze’s ardent abolitionist sentiments—which are reflected in the presence of a Black soldier whom he positioned in the boat next to Washington.

— In 1897, private art collector John S. Kennedy, a trustee and vice president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan, bought the painting for sixteen thousand dollars and donated it to the museum, where it remained until 1950, when the Met loaned the work out to the Museum of Fine Art in Dallas, Texas. From 1952 to 1970, Leutze’s creation was displayed at Washington Crossing State Park in Pennsylvania—renamed as Washington Crossing Historic Park in 1979—first in the local Methodist Episcopal Church and after the summer of 1959 in the park’s new Memorial Building (now the Visitor Center). By one estimate, two hundred and fifty thousand people visited every year for a decade to view Leutze’s handiwork. In 1969, the Met formally recalled its loan of the painting to the park and brought it back in time for the nation’s Bicentennial to grace the museum’s American Wing. (During its prior residency there, the painting hung in one of the European painting galleries rather than the American Wing, perhaps because it was considered a German, rather than American, work.) The regal canvas and its imposing frame reside there today, at 1000 5th Avenue, inside Central Park, opposite 83rd Street.

— Since the original painting left Washington Crossing, it has been replaced by a series of reproductions that grace the Visitor Center auditorium (the first time the Met ever granted permission for a copy to be made of a painting in its collection). These have included: in 1970, an oil painting by Robert Williams commissioned by Ann Hawkes Hutton, founder and chair of the Washington Crossing Foundation’s board of directors and author of a book about Leutze and his magnum opus; in 1998, a digital copy of the original painting produced by Muralite Murals of St. Paul, Minnesota; and in 2013, a new digital copy created by Forbes Associates of Edgely, Pennsylvania, from a digital image owned by the Met.

— The painting is undoubtedly the most prominent and arguably the least accurate depiction of the legendary Christmas night 1776 Delaware River crossing by Washington’s army. For starters, the river is too wide (it’s the Rhine, not the Delaware), the sky is too light (they crossed at night), the ice is in the form of bluish chunks (Delaware River ice is typically flat and white), the flag is wrong (“Old Glory” was not adopted by Congress as the first flag of the United States until June 14, 1777—which is why June 14 is Flag Day), the boat is too small (about one-third the size of the Durham boats used to carry the American infantry across the river), and Washington looks older than age 44, which he was at the time. (His image is based on a bust by the French sculptor Jean Antoine Houdon that was created a decade later and is thought to be the best likeness we have of GW.) It seems safe to assume that the artist’s intent was to execute his canvas in the classical tradition of great historical paintings that seek to leave viewers with a dramatic impression, rather than to portray an event as it might have actually occurred.

— On the other hand, Leutze brilliantly captures the sense of fierce urgency that informed this difficult and hazardous undertaking. His image of the crossing has resonated with generations of viewers worldwide in a way that no other has because he, better than anyone else, conveys the emotions that infused the rebel soldiers and their commander-in-chief at a perilous moment in the quest for American independence, on a night when Washington decided to roll the dice on a last-ditch gamble to save his army and perhaps the revolutionary enterprise. One can clearly discern the courage, determination, desperation, and commitment to a common purpose that drove these weary but resolute warriors across an ice-choked river to their rendezvous with an uncertain fate—a motley assortment of humble citizen-soldiers crowded into Leutze’s tiny craft and all rowing together, metaphorically if not literally. Those feelings are indelibly etched in the faces and postures of these men in such a way as to rivet viewers’ attention and perhaps make them feel as if they’ve been thrust into the boat as well.

— And yes, Washington would have been standing in the boat. In fact, they all would have been (another inaccuracy in the painting). There were no seats in a Durham—or, for that matter, in a ferry boat if that’s what brought him across; and besides, on a night when the bottom of each boat was cold and wet from freezing precipitation, so would a soldier’s bottom have been if he sat in the boat.

So that’s one bottom line, but here’s another: the genius of Emanuel Leutze is dramatically captured in his universally recognized masterwork, which may well be more renowned than the event it celebrates. He forged a majestic billboard for democracy that enduringly proclaims to people from across the globe a spirited vision of freedom and the resolve to achieve it.

Get the picture?

Sources:

David Hackett Fischer, Washington’s Crossing (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004).

Barbara S. Groseclose, Emanuel Leutze, 1816-1868: Freedom Is the Only King (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1975).

Anne Hawkes Hutton, Portrait of Patriotism (Philadelphia: Chilton Company, 1959).

Peter Osborne, No Far Spot In This Land Is More Immortalized: A History of Pennsylvania’s Washington Crossing Historic Park (Yardley, PA: Yardley Press, 2014).

John Haslet and the Delaware Regiment Revisited
By Categories: John Haslet's World

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This continues the thread from my last several posts, which each included a link to an interview about one of my books with Randolph G. (Randy) Flood, host of the The Real American Revolution Multimedia Center and Consortium for Civic Education.

For anyone who’s interested, here’s a link to a video recording of the final segment in this series—a discussion about John Haslet’s World.

BTW, the above image is of a private in Haslet’s Delaware Regiment in 1776, created by Charles M. Lefferts, c.1910, for his study of uniforms in the Revolution and published by the New York Historical Society in 1926.