Rare Photo of NH Revolutionary War Vet Featured in New Books |
HISTORY MATTERS
Historians are press agents for the dead. We keep our clients in the news. Some are heroes, some are villains. Some, like Captain George Fishley (1760-1850), are best known for a simple twist of fate. Fishley, as far as we know, is the only
It was ten years ago that antiquarian Peter Narbonne stumbled across the rare daguerreotype of Fishley tucked against the back wall in a glass cabinet on the second floor of the Portsmouth Historical Society. It showed an 89-year old man in a large “cocked hat” like those worn in the Revolution.
Sure enough, a little research proved that Fishley fought at
MORE ON CAPTAIN FISHLEY
George Fishley had his portrait taken by Francis W. Ham who set up shop in the city’s Congress Hall in 1848. The two known original portraits were likely taken during a Whig convention on the Fourth of July. Fishley died on Christmas Day in 1850.
In his elder years, Captain Fishley was a popular local figure in parades and patriotic celebrations. He was one of the few surviving veterans to attend the opening of the
A number of historians found my articles about George Fishley on the Internet, and he has begun to regain some of his nineteenth century notoriety. At this writing, ten years after he was rediscovered on a shelf at the John Paul Jones House, the Captain is now featured in two new books.
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Don’t tread on me
“I had never heard of George until I saw your article,” says Joseph M. Bauman of
Bauman first became interested in “dags” of veterans of the Revolution in 1977, but only began collecting in earnest when he came into a small inheritance a few years ago. He purchased the only other known original photo of Fishley from a dealer in 2005 for $1,500 “after a lot of dithering,” he says. He has spent from $350 to $3,000 for a single image in his very rare collection. Bauman collects only “camera-originals,” not copies.
“I've been fascinated with the Revolution almost all my life, and I'm an old fellow,” Bauman says. (He is 66.) “When I was a boy our family lived near
As a reporter for the Deseret News in
Bauman’s lively account of the eight veterans in his private collection is homage to the common man. These were largely ordinary but highly patriotic men who, stirred by the drums of war, served under harsh conditions for small pay. Private Fishley and his companions were often marched through impossible terrain without even shoes or shirts. Bauman’s account brings the reader onto the battlefield. The author then tracks their long lives as many descended into poverty. Don’t Tread on Me is a labor of love, seven years in the making. It is a unique intimate view of these all-but-forgotten soldiers and sailors. And it is a perspective almost never seen in traditional history books that focus, instead, on the same famous leaders.
“My research process was simply to dig out every scrap of information I could and see how they fit together,” Bauman says. “These fellows were all celebrities, at least in their home towns by the time they were old, because they were the last of what I consider the truly greatest generation.”
Bauman elected to create an e-book after contacting a number of traditional print publishers. Don’t Tread on Me is available as a download on Kindle at Amazon.com and on the Nook on BN.com for $2.99.
“I'm disgusted with the high-handedness of the literary establishment and prefer to go the independent route, regardless of whether I sell a lot of books,” Bauman says. “It's satisfying that somebody is reading it, and nobody would be if I kept pounding my head on that particular brick wall.”
“When you look at these eight men together, they give an impression of the young country going off vigorously in all sorts of directions,” he says. “They are an important part of the American story.”
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What are the odds?
The odds of a Revolutionary War veteran being photographed were minimal. First, he had to survive. As many as 300,000 men may have participated in the War for
Veterans then had to live to a ripe old age. It was another 60 years after the war before the first commercial photographers began setting up shop and shooting portraits. Even a 10-year old drummer or fife player who signed up in the final hours of the conflict would have been in his seventies. Most vets were much older, enlisted earlier, and were photographed later in the 1850s or 60s.
Maureen Taylor began searching for survivors after seeing her first Revolutionary War-era character in a portrait at
“It’s been a fascinating pursuit of the past,”
And even when they did, the photographs have been scattered into attics, sold off at flea markets, thrown out, lost, damaged, or destroyed. Many bear no identification, so we don’t know who is depicted. Or if we do, background details are difficult if not impossible to track down.
“I search online card catalogs, Web sites, and do a lot of library research as well,” she says. “I spread the word through lectures, articles, and flyers that it is possible that a person could own a picture of their Revolutionary War ancestor as long as they lived past 1840.”
The buzz is in, and the word continues to spread. George Fishley is back in the news. And responding to
“It’s amazing!” she says. And she’s right. We are looking into the eyes of men and women who saw the Founding Fathers, witnessed the birth of a nation, and died in the new
Copyright © 2012 by J. Dennis Robinson, all rights reserved. Robinson’s history column appears in the Portsmouth Herald every other Monday and exclusively online at his independent Web site SeacoastNH.com. Robinson is the author of