Drawing of Uniforms of the American Revolution

Jean-Baptiste-Antoine DeVerger, "American soldiers at the siege of Yorktown," 1781, via Wikimedia.

Jean-Baptiste-Antoine DeVerger, “American soldiers at the siege of Yorktown,” 1781, via Wikimedia.

American soldiers came from a variety of backgrounds and had numerous reasons for fighting with the American army. Jean-Baptiste-Antoine DeVerger, a French sublieutenant at the Battle of Yorktown, painted this watercolor soon after that battle and chose to depict four men in men military dress: an African American soldier from the 2nd Rhode Island Regiment, a man in the homespun of the militia, another wearing the common “hunting shirt” of the frontier, and the French soldier on the end.