We made that trip 5 years ago! It takes a long time to make a dream a reality. Financial support for this project came from you through our Kickstarter and fundraising campaign.  Thank you for making my wish come true.

Do you want to know more about Maureen’s search for images of men and women who lived in the Revolutionary War period, then sign up for her newsletter. She’s working on a third book in her Last Muster series.

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We made that trip 5 years ago! It takes a long time to make a dream a reality. Financial support for this project came from you through our Kickstarter and fundraising campaign.  Thank you for making my wish come true.

The post A Revolutionary Trio: Eleazer Blake appeared first on Maureen Taylor.

In that month, George Washington Parke Custis, adopted son (and grandson) of President George Washington visited New York City.  In honor of the occasion there was a reception at the house of Alderman Peters attended by “the friends and companions in arms of the great Washington.” At that time, photography was still a relatively novel invention, but it’s quite possible that some of the attendees sat for a daguerreotype portrait before their death.

The following individuals were at the reunion. Their ages at the time (if known) are in parentheses. Not all were veterans. Some were well-known in New York while others were children of veterans.

Major Popham (93)

John Battin (93) of New York City

Major General Van Buren of Staten Island

Judge Miller

Judge Lynch

Thomas Lyell, Rector of Christ Church

William Mandeville

George B. Thorp

Elisha Whittlesey of Ohio

James M. Crane of Virginia

Samuel L. Waldo

Dr. John W. Francis

Isaac T. Hopper

Homer Curtis of Mount Vernon, Ohio

Jacob Hays

Dr. James E. Maney

Thomas Morris (born in 1771)

Teunis Quick (born in 1767)

A.S. Norwood (born 1770)

Philip Schuyler

Gilbert Smith (born 1772)

Sylvanus Miller

James Black of Newark, New Jersey

W. Vermilye

Joseph Weeks

Cornelius Bogert

R. Cheseborough

John W. Mulligan

Daniel B. Tallmadge

J.M. Matthews

A.L. Underhill

J.D. Beers

Judge Ogden Edwards

Geroge F. Hopkins

George Coggill

These are the only individuals named in the article, but according to the report about two hundred men who had served in the American Revolution came to pay respects to Custis.

Custis is the only known picture of any of the individuals in attendance that day.

If you know of any images of these men, please contact me at photodetective@maureentaylor.com.

Thank you for your help!

I have put together a free download of 5 Revolutionary War-Related Activities that you can explore. Click the button below to get your copy.

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He felt that history of the American Revolution was being forgotten even by individuals living in towns with key roles in the conflict. With the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Battle of Lexington and Concord approaching in 1850, there was increasing interest in documenting that war. Lossing wanted his book to be different than those currently for sale. Not naming titles or authors, he criticized them by saying “the woof of our history is too sacred to be interwoven with the tinsel filling of fiction.” He wasn’t content to use just second hand sources. He began collecting rare books and manuscripts to further his research. He kept them all in a specially constructed fire-proof building on the property of his house.

Rather than a chronological approach he sought to visit each site to view the landscape, document remnants of the war and to seek out individuals who’d lived during the conflict.  His eight thousand mile journey through all thirteen colonies and parts of Canada brought him into contact with remnants of the American Revolution. He saw “half hidden mounds of old redoubts; the ruined walls of some stronger fortification; dilapidated buildings, neglected and decaying herein patriots met for shelter or in council ; and living men, who had borne the musket and knapsack day after day in that conflict, occasionally passed under the ye of my casual apprehension.”

Harper’s New Monthly Magazine gave him a monetary advance to pursue his  project and published the first installment of the Pictorial Field- book in 1850; the first edition of the book appeared in 1853. It brought him critical success. In an article in the Boston Recorder of October 5, 1854, the Literary Gazette called him “an accomplished artist and an elegant writer.” The combination of historical narrative, travelogue and personal memoir made his books popular and widely read. At the time he was considered one of America’s finest historians, a trendsetter in the genre of historical writing. Within a decade, he’d written and published similar titles on the War of 1812 and the Civil War (of which Mathew Brady contributed photographs) using the same approach as his two volume set on the American Revolution.

Not willing to include illustrations merely to embellish the text, he sought to truthfully represent the places he visited. Together with William Barrit, the pair used paintings and photographs to place living people or historical figures in the text, recreated historical scenes as well as maps and drew from life.  He portrayed the ferryman, Mr. Tenyck who led him across Verplanck’s Point, a path followed by General George Washington on his march to Yorktown.

In small towns and hamlets he met veterans who recounted their wartime experiences. At Fort Ticonderoga, he met Isaac Rice who regaled him with stories and who supported himself giving tours of the fort. Each place and personal meeting inspired Lossing to continue his quest to locate bits of Revolutionary War history no matter how small.

Lossing wrote until a year before his death in 1891. His Field-book of the American Revolution remains important more than a century and a half after publication. His treasured collection is owned by various institutions such as the New York State Library, Vassar College, Syracuse University, the Clements Library and Princeton.

I have put together a free download of 5 Revolutionary War-Related Activities that you can explore. Click the button below to get your copy.

Download “5 Revolutionary War-Related Activities”

You can buy your copy of The Last Muster books by clicking here.

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