The American Revolution

Pierre Charles L'Enfant's Panoramic Watercolor of West Point 1782

Pierre Charles L’Enfant studied at France’s Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture from 1771-1776 before sailing to America to accept a commission as a captain of engineers in the Continental Army.

He produced this pencil sketch and watercolor of West Point from a vantage point on the east bank of the Hudson River near what is now Garrison, New York in the spring or summer of 1782. The tented encampments visible in this work were integrated spaces as the Massachusetts and Connecticut regiments that occupied them at that time were at least partially integrated units.

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Polish Engineer Colonel Thaddeus Kosciuszko and Free African American Revolutionary Soldier Agrippa Hull at Fortress West Point

Sculptor Tracy H. Sugg created this bronze sculpture of General Thaddeus Kosciuszko working in his garden as he receives a dispatch from his orderly, Agrippa Hull. Sugg collaborated with the West Point Museum and Historian Colonel (Retired) James M. Johnson to ensure historical accuracy in the soldier’s uniforms. Sugg reversed-aged (to nineteen years) the bone structure of Hull from the one existing portrait of him to guide her when sculpting. 

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Agrippa Hull Company Muster Roll Card, June 1782

In the 19^th century, the War Department created individual service records for Revolutionary War veterans by transcribing data logged in regimental orderly books during the war.

This sheet from Agrippa Hull’s service record records him on duty at West Point and detached from the 12^th Massachusetts Regiment for duty with Thaddeus Kosciuszko, helping Kosciuszko manage and oversee the construction, maintenance, and improvement of the network of fortifications on and around West Point.  

Note that this document misspelled Agrippa’s first name as it only lists one “P.” Widespread spelling, punctuation, and grammar guidelines were standardized in the 1870s. Therefore, misspelled words and other grammatical errors often appear in historical documents written before the 1900s. Proper nouns, surnames, and place names were often misspelled, as they were written phonetically.

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Agrippa Hull Portrait, circa 1848

This oil on canvas, portrait of Agrippa Hull, artist unknown, is based on a lost daguerreotype by artist Anson Clark. During part of his Revolutionary service, Hull worked closely with Thaddeus Kosciuszko while detailed as his orderly during the construction of a vast network of fortifications at West Point. Kosciuszko’s close association with Hull may have influenced to some extent Kosciuszko’s thoughts on race in America. Kosciuszko later famously bequeathed his American wealth to Thomas Jefferson, stipulating that the inheritance would be applied to free and educate as many of Jefferson’s slaves as possible.

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George Washington's Personal Salt Cellars

In the 18th century salt was a valuable commodity. Those who were fortunate to afford such a luxury were financially comfortable. Salt cellars held the ground salt for diners to sprinkle onto their food at a meal. The placement of the salt cellars on the table identified who was the highest-ranking diner or diner(s) at the table, as a salt cellar would be placed in front of them for their use first, and then for passing to the others gathered at the table.

These salt cellars are from George and Martha Washington’s personal table service and are monogramed "GW" for Washington's initials. Washington’s enslaved servant William Lee would have seen to their care and proper placement when Washington dined with fellow officers or visiting dignitaries.

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George Washington and William Lee, 1780

Artist John Trumbull had served as an aide-de-camp on George Washington’s staff early in the Revolutionary War. He painted this oil on canvas full-length portrait of George Washington from memory later while in London studying with Benjamin West. In this portrait, Washington is standing near his enslaved personal and military aide William Lee, overlooking the Hudson River, in New York, with West Point in the background. The depiction of Lee in a turban adheres more closely to “orientalist” conventions then common in European works featuring Black subjects than it does to Lee’s true manner of dress and appearance.  

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Captain Lincoln’s Company, Muster Roll, June 1782

This descriptive muster roll of one of the 7^th Massachusetts Regiment’s companies was taken at West Point in June 1782 and includes at least four and perhaps as many as 14 soldiers of African or mixed racial background. The uncertainty is because of the varied and sometimes vague notations in the “complexion” column, which speaks to the varied and sometimes vague conceptions of race in colonial and Revolutionary America. The fact that this muster roll was taken at West Point in the summer of 1782 means this particular integrated company’s tents were part of the encampments visible in L’Enfant’s panoramic sketch and watercolor of West Point that is also included in this exhibit. 

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Pomp Lonnon Discharge Papers, January 1782

Discharge papers for soldier Pomp Lonnon [sometimes recorded as Pomp London] of the 5^th Connecticut Regiment. The papers were signed at Connecticut Huts, an encampment for regiments of the Connecticut line of the Continental Army on the east side of the Hudson in what is now Cold Spring, New York. Regiments encamped at Connecticut Huts were part of the West Point garrison, often manning and maintaining fortifications on Constitution Island, and sometimes detailed to West Point itself.

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