One reason most Americans find greater immediacy in the Civil War than in the Revolution is that the camera came into being during the eighty-odd years between the two conflicts. However skillful his hand, the engraver could not approach the sense of intimacy the lens provides. In the absence of photographic images, the Continental soldiers tend to recede from us, to become one with the defenders of Blenheim, or of Troy.

This process of historical alienation is vividly demonstrated on these pages. Each of these portraits shows a well-known American officer who played a crucial role throughout the Revolutionary War. Can you identify them? Answers appear on page 112.