The Revolutionary War ended long before photography was a refined process, but the gap between the two historic events was still enough to allow some of America’s true patriots—literally American patriot troops—to sit for a photo.
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America became and independent nation in 1783 when the U.S. and Britain signed the Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War. The history of photography began much later, and the earliest surviving photo dates back to 1826. a 43-year difference. Still, there were veterans of the war who both survived the war and lived long enough after to sit for a photo.
Since the average life span of a man at that time was around 40 years, it’s safe to say these Revolutionary War veterans are lucky to have lived that long, but they had to wait even longer. The Reverend Elias Brewster Hillard tracked down the six men and with the help of photographers Nelson and Roswell Moore photographed the last six surviving Revolutionary War veterans… 83 years after the Treaty of Paris.
Hillard traveled to the homes of these remaining centenarians, conducting interviews and preserving their stories in his 1864 book, “The Last Men of the Revolution.”
1. Samuel Downing
Samuel Downing was born on Nov. 30, 1761 and died on Feb. 18 1867, aged 105, but was 102 when Hillard interviewed him. He enlisted in New Hampshire and served under Gen. Benedict Arnold at the Battle of Saratoga, saying Arnold was a fighting general, one who treated his soldiers well, and as brave a man as ever lived.
He lamented the fact that generals in the Civil War weren’t as gentlemanly as they were in his time.
2. Rev. Daniel Waldo
Daniel Waldo was a clergyman who served in the American Revolutionary War and later became Chaplain of the House of Representatives. He was a Connecticut colonist drafted at age 16 in 1778 and captured by the English in 1779. Confined in a New York prison, he was later released in exchange for captured British soldiers.
He also lived to be more than 100 years old.
3. Lemuel Cook
Lemuel Cook was born on Sept. 10, 1759. At 105, Cook would be the oldest surviving Revolutionary War veteran photographed. He joined the Continental Army only by convincing the recruiter he would serve for the duration of the war. He was also the last veteran of the war.
He was in the Army at Brandywine and at Yorktown, under the command of Washington, the Marquis de Lafayette, and le Compte de Rochambeau. He remembered Washington ordered his men not to laugh at the British after the surrender, because the shame of surrender was bad enough.
4. Alexander Milliner
Alexander Milliner claimed to have served in George Washington’s Life Guard. He was a Quebec native who not only served as drummer boy at the Battles of White Plains, Brandywine, Monmouth, and Yorktown, he was also on the crew of the USS Constitution back when the ship was the latest technology in naval warfare.
He remembered that General Washington once patted him on the head and referred to Milliner as “his boy.”
5. William Hutchings
A native of what is now called Maine, who enlisted at age 15, Hutchings served in coastal defense batteries along the Maine coast. He was taken prisoner at the Siege of Castine, the only action he saw in the entire war.
The British released him because of his young age. He died in 1866, at the home he lived in for almost 100 years.
6. Adam Link
Adam Link joined the Army in 1777 and served for five years on the frontier in Virginia. He was from Hagerstown, Maryland and enlisted in the Pennsylvania militia on three separate occasions.
At 16, he was part of a unit whose job was to defend the Western Frontier–back when that frontier was still in Pennsylvania. The hard drinking, hard working farmer lived to the ripe old age of 104, dying shortly after his photo with Hillard.
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