After years of growing tensions between Great Britain and its North American colonies, on 19 April 1775, open hostilities erupted when British regulars and Massachusetts militiamen clashed at Lexington and Concord. What followed was an eight-year struggle that ended with the thirteen British colonies gaining independence from the mother country and forming a new nation, the United States of America.
While the U.S. Army Center of Military History (CMH) has no artwork that was created during the years of the Revolutionary War (1775-83), CMH’s Army Museum Enterprise Art Collection, housed in the Museum Support Center at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, includes several pieces depicting scenes and individuals from that period. Many of these were produced by H. Charles McBarron, Jr., (1902-92), who studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and is often referred to as the “dean of American military illustrators.” Many of his works were later reproduced for print sets issued by CMH, which depicted detailed images of U.S. Army uniforms and battles of the Revolutionary War, along with other eras and conflicts.
H. Charles McBarron’s oil on board, The American Soldier, 1775, a piece in the U.S. Army Center of Military History (CMH) series, The American Soldier, depicts General George Washington (center) looking over American and British positions around Boston in July 1775 with Major General Artemas Ward (right) and an aide, shortly after Washington assumed command of colonial forces besieging the British in Boston. (Army Museum Enterprise Art Collection)
American defenders of Fort Sullivan successfully repel a British attempt to capture Charleston, South Carolina, in McBarron’s oil on board, Charleston 1776. This work is part of the CMH series, Soldiers of the American Revolution. (Army Museum Enterprise Art Collection)
General Washington admonishes Major General Charles Lee for ordering a retreat during the Battle of Monmouth, New Jersey, 28 June 1778, in McBarron’s oil on board, Monmouth 1778. (Army Museum Enterprise Art Collection)
McBarron’s oil on board, The American Soldier, 1781, shows an infantry lieutenant (right) holding an espontoon and an artillery private (left). Behind them are soldiers from the New England states. (Army Museum Enterprise Art Collection)
