Just in time for America’s 250th birthday, the real-life photos of real-life Revolutionary War soldiers are coming BACK to the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum.
What? Photos of actual men who fought in the Revolution? How can that be? The war ended in 1783, and no one was making daguerreotypes in this country until the 1840s! The word ‘photograph’ wasn’t even coined until 1839!
True. But we’ve got ’em and you can see ’em. On March 28 – the museum’s Revolutionary War Day – “The Twilight of Revolutionaries and the Dawn of Photography,” features 15 rare daguerreotypes of Revolutionary War veterans, will be on display in the museum’s Gist Gallery.
How can this be, you still ask? Well, these are photos of Patriot veterans as old men, and this chance to see actual photos of them is the next best thing to taking a ride on a time machine.
Each portrait is a high-quality scan of the original daguerreotype. Below each portrait will be a label detailing the service of the veteran. The details for most veterans come from their applications for government assistance through the Pension Act of 1832.
This collection is the fruition of a 30-year project begun by W.C. Smith III – a board member of the Palmetto State Military History Foundation, a nonprofit organization that supports the museum – who meticulously gathered each photograph from various sources. His is one of the largest, if not the largest, such collections in existence.
The collection first appeared in the Gist Gallery in 2023. Then it went on tour, traveling to other interested public institutions. The grant from the South Carolina American Revolution Sestercentennial Commission supporting this project requires that it be made available to the public until at least 2033. It is also supported by South Carolina Humanities.
The Relic Room considered it a priority to have these pictures on display during this special anniversary year.
The portraits in this exhibit are of veterans who served primarily in the Southern Theater of the Revolution. Most were either born in South Carolina or spent the rest of their lives here. All but one fought here for our independence. Some were in the Continental Army, but most served in the militia.
Of course, few veterans of that war lived long enough to be photographed. Those who did had been young, often teenagers, during their military service, and as a result served in the lowest ranks. Some of those you will see in this exhibit:
- Nathaniel Whittington – Born in 1762, in Cheraw, he joined the South Carolina militia in 1778. At various points in the war, he served under Brig. Gen. Francis Marion – the Swamp Fox himself. In at least one battle, he fought against the most infamous British commander, Banastre Tarleton. He died on April 4, 1851, in Marion.
- Theophilus Wilson – Born on Dec. 15, 1765, in Fairfield District, S.C., his was a staunchly Patriot family. Not only did his four brothers serve in the war, but so did his father. Theophilus, the youngest, enlisted at age 16 as a substitute for his father, John. He served as a wagoneer, overseeing the secure movement of critical supplies, and caring for the horses and wagon. The army was desperate for wagoneers because it could not pay them as well as private merchants could. He died in Fairfield in 1853.
- Darby Reagan – A native of Georgia, he served in the Georgia militia as a private in the spring of 1781. He joined the Siege of Augusta between April and May, and was wounded there at least twice – suffering a “wound in the head from a sword” and “in a leg from a bayonet.” He died in 1851 in Spartanburg.
Come see them, and the other 12. Unless you saw them when they were here before – and even if you did, you should come again and bring your friends – you have almost certainly never seen anything like these images.
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