World of the Common Soldier

(Articles, Published and Unpublished)

John U. Rees
136 North Sugan Road,
New Hope, Pa. 18938
Phone: (215) 862-2348
Email: ju_rees@msn.com
Article List: http://tinyurl.com/jureesarticles

Brother Jonathan’s Images

(List 17 of 17)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/236989726/Articles-List-Brother-Jonathan-s-Images

Welcome to the military artwork series, Brother Jonathan’s Images. We will be following
the same premise as Redcoat Images moderated by Dr. Greg Urwin (now nearing 1,900
installments). Greg began this new series, originally called Continental Images, in August 2010
with two contributions. His Redcoat Images project continued on and eclipsed the newcomer.
Our small consortium thought that artwork showing the soldiers and uniforms of the fledgling
republic’s military forces is well worth disseminating and we now continue with Dr. Urwin’s
blessings.
 The series will cover the period 1753 to the end of 1799, the first date denoting George
Washington’s rise in military service and the latter coinciding with his death after serving as
commander-in-chief and first president of the United States. Images will include militia, officers
(including foreign volunteers), and soldiers of the Confederation and early Republic. The
narratives will focus on clothing and officers’ careers, but other pertinent information will be
presented as well.
Guest contributors will be considered, and anyone with information, images, or artwork
sources they wish to share please email John U. Rees at ju_rees@msn.com . With that in mind,
we hope to make this an informative and entertaining, as well as a collaborative effort.
Our first installments will begin with Greg Urwin’s Continental Images Nos. 1 and 2, renamed
Brother Jonathan’s Images to reflect the wider umbrella. Our initial contribution, No. 3, will
immediately follow.
______________________

Brother Jonathan’s Images Consortium

John U. Rees, ju_rees@msn.com
Neal T. Hurst
R. Scott Stephenson
Matthew C. White

“The British were very civil, and indeed they generally were after they had received a check from
Brother Jonathan for any of their rude actions.” Connecticut soldier Joseph Plumb Martin writing in his
1830 memoir of the October 1776 Battle of White Plains.

“It will give you great pleasure to hear that we gave Brother Jonathan a good trimming the other day …
we marched [at night] … in two columns, so as to be able to beat up his Lordships [Maj. Gen. William
Alexander, Lord Stirling’s] Quarters at day Break, the Right Column under Lord Cornwallis in which I
had taken was to command an advanced Squadron fell in with just a little after day Break & we drove
them Above the distance of eight Miles from height to height till at last Brother Jonathan thought better
to go quite off, we killed I believe a great many (though I cant say I saw many… as we push[ed] on so
quick,) …” Capt. Thomas Stanley, 17th Light Dragoon Regiment, writing of the Battle of Short Hills on
26 June 1777, from “Camp near New York July 15 1777.”
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Brother Jonathan’s Images (Relaunch introduction, July 2012)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/175344617/Brother-Jonathan-Image-series-Introduction-July-2012

Brother Jonathan’s Images, No. 1. (Gregory J. W. Urwin)

Colonel Henry Beekman Livingston, 4th New York Regiment
Artist: Charles Willson Peale
Year: Circa 1778-1780
Collection: Smithsonian
http://www.scribd.com/doc/175414586/Brother-Jonathan-No-1-Colonel-Henry-Beekman-
Livingston-7-22-2012
Brother Jonathan’s Images, No. 2. (Gregory J. W. Urwin)
Captain John Gassaway, 2nd Maryland Regiment
Artist: Charles Willson Peale
Year: Circa 1781-83
Collection: Smithsonian
http://www.scribd.com/doc/175419675/Brother-Jonathan-No-2-Captain-John-Gassaway-7-22-2012

Brother Jonathan’s Images, No. 3. (Matthew C. White)

Captain Charles W. Peale, 4th Battalion Philadelphia City Associators
Artist: Charles Willson Peale
Year: Circa 1777-78
Collection: American Philosophical Society
http://www.scribd.com/doc/175423051/Brother-Jonathan-No-3-Charles-Willson-Peale-7-22-2012

Brother Jonathan’s Images, No. 4

(Contributor: Stephan P. Zacharias)
Lt. Col. James Innes, Williamsburg Volunteers and 15th Virginia Regiment
Artist: Charles Wilson Peale
Year: 1774 -1777
Collection: Virginia Historical Society
http://www.scribd.com/doc/175454391/Brother-Jonathan-No-4-Col-James-Innes

Brother Jonathan’s Images, No. 5.

Brigadier General Otho Holland Williams
Artist: Charles Willson Peale
Year: 1786
Collection: Private
http://www.scribd.com/doc/175454771/Brother-Jonathan-No-5-Brigadier-General-Otho-Holland-
Williams

Brother Jonathan’s Images, No. 6.

Lt. Colonel Richard Cary (Neal Hurst)
Artist: Charles Willson Peale
Year: 1776
Collection: Private
http://www.scribd.com/doc/175455267/Brother-Jonathan-No-6-Lt-Colonel-Richard-Cary

(Brother Jonathan’s Images, No. 7)

Major Joseph Bloomfield, 3d New Jersey Regiment (John U. Rees)
Artist: Charles Willson Peale
Year: 1777
Collection: Private
(Including “The Blues offered again to fight …”: Contemporary Use of the Term “Jersey Blues”)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/179477933/Brother-Jonathan%E2%80%99s-Images-No-7-Major-
Joseph-Bloomfield-3d-New-Jersey-Regiment-Artist-Charles-Willson-Peale-Year-1777-Collection-
Privatel
(Brother Jonathan’s Images, No. 8) (Gregory J. W. Urwin, with John U. Rees)
Captain Samuel Blodget, Jr., 2d New Hampshire Regiment or New Hampshire Militia
Artist: John Trumbull
Year: circa 1786
Collection: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/240639514/Brother-Jonathan-s-Images-No-8-Captain-Samuel-Blodget-
Jr-2d-New-Hampshire-Regiment-or-New-Hampshire-Militia

Brother Jonathan’s Images, No. 9

Virginia Rifleman (John U. Rees)
Artist: Richard St George Mansergh St George, 52d Regiment of Foot, 1777
Year: 1777
Collection: Harlan Crow Library, Dallas, Texas (purchased from the estate of Arthur E. Bye,
Bucks County, Pennsylvania)
Contents
1. Background
2. Virginia Rifleman, 1777
3. “Chosen Men Selected from the Army at large …”: Rifle-Armed
Companies, Battalions, and Regiments, 1775-1779.
Appendices
A. “A Quantity of Tow Cloth, for the Purpose of making of Indian or Hunting
Shirts …”: Proper Terminology: Hunting shirt, Rifle Shirt, Rifle Frock …
B. Letter by Jesse Lukens, describing Pennsylvania riflemen and service at the siege of Boston,
1775.
C. Capt. William Dansey, 33d Regiment, describes two encounters with rifle troops.
D. Morgan’s Rifle Corps: Selected Documents Not Included in the Narrative
E. “We returned them a very brisk fire …”: A Rifleman’s View of Two Campaigns
F. “He was in that noted Battel in the Bukwheat field with Morgan …”
Riflemen’s Pension Service Narratives, 1775-1779
G. The Rebels (Sung to the tune, Black Joak), originally published in the Pennsylvania Ledger, 1778
https://www.scribd.com/doc/245356391/Brother-Jonathan-s-Images-No-9-St-George-s-Virginia-
Rifleman-Artist-Richard-St-George-Mansergh-St-George-52d-Regiment-of-Foot-1777-Collection

Brother Jonathan’s Images, No. 10

Verger’s Rifleman (John U. Rees)
Artist: Jean-Baptiste-Antoine de Verger, Sublieutenant, Royal Deux-Ponts Regiment.
Year: 1781
Collection: Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection, Brown University.
Contents
1. Background
2. Virginia Rifleman, 1781
3. “Joined Gen’l. [Daniel] Morgan … about 36 hours … before the Battle at the
Cowpens”: Riflemen in the Carolina Campaigns, 1780-1781 (sources)
4. “My riflemen, their faces smeared with charcoal, make the woods resound
with their yells …”: The Marquis de Lafayette’s 1781 Summer Virginia Campaign
5. “The American riflemen insulted the outposts, whilst a body of continentals
advanced …”: British Accounts of the Green Spring Action
6. “My brave boys give them one more fire …”: Riflemen Pension Narratives, 1781 Virginia
Campaign
https://www.scribd.com/doc/293382911/Brother-Jonathan-s-Images-No-10-Verger-s-Virginia-
Rifleman-1781
Brother Jonathan’s Images, No. 11
“An American Soldier” (John U. Rees)
Artist: Friedrich Konstantin von Germann
Year: circa 1778
Collection: Braunschweig Municipal Archives, Lower Saxony
https://www.scribd.com/document/353945221/Brother-Jonathan-s-Images-No-11-An-American-
Soldier-Artist-Friedrich-Konstantin-von-Germann-Year-Circa-1778

Brother Jonathan’s Images, No. 12 (John U. Rees)

“Short skirted, according to the dress of our soldiery.”: An Overview of Continental Army Early-
War Regimental Coat Design, and Comparison with Late-War Attributes
(With contributions by Henry M. Cooke IV, Matthew Keagle, and Dean Nelson)
Contents
1. New England, 1775.
2. Regimental Coats, 1777, and the von Germann Drawings
3. Coats Without Lapels
4. Coat Construction Specifications, 1778, 1779, and 1780.
Addenda:
a. “Uniform coats … made without lining, the lappells without button holes, and sewed down to the
bodies of the coats …”: Regimental Coats for the New Jersey Brigade, Autumn 1779 (Plus cutting
down hats into caps, and docking coats on campaign.)
b. Post-War Regimental Coats, circa 1785 and 1799
https://www.academia.edu/42634247/Brother_Jonathan_s_Images_No._12_John_U._Rees_Researc
h_File_Short_skirted_according_to_the_dress_of_our_soldiery._An_Overview_of_Continental_Ar
my_Early-
War_Regimental_Coat_Design_With_contributions_by_Henry_M._Cooke_IV_Matthew_Keagle_a
nd_Dean_Nelson_
or https://tinyurl.com/Contl-Army-coats

Brother Jonathan’s Images, No. 13 (John Hannigan)

Captain Judah Alden, 2nd Massachusetts Regiment
Artist: Thadeusz Kosciusko
Year: circa 1779
Source: Location of original unknown. Image from Justin Winsor, A Memorial History of Boston
(Boston: James R. Osgood, 1881), v. 3, p. 99.
https://www.academia.edu/49128992/Brother_Jonathan_s_Images_No_12_Captain_Judah_Alden_
2nd_Massachusetts_Regiment_John_Hannigan_