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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z2hReJSKyF

These are photographs of actual Revolutionary War veterans. . . .a dour lot. One gets the impression that life today is not what they fought for. Forget democrats versus republicans, there has always been strife between whatever major parties existed at any given time. What I see in these photos are the faces of men who would not understand or approve of what their county has become.

Please, for the sake of Charles Cotton and the moderators, just enjoy the photographs and leave out the vitriol. Just mourn and be sad.

I suspect that people in general were not all that dour, but that smiling in photographs was not the fashion, especially when long exposures were required. Besides, none of those guys was exactly a spring chicken when the photographs were taken (apparently around 1850); they may have easily exceeded the life expectancy of their birth peers by more than double. They were probably feeling a bit creaky and not inclined to smile...

Thanks for posting this, TAM.

We owe a great debt to these Revolutionary War heroes. These men fought and suffered during a time that warfare was different, but the dangers and environment were very similar. Those men are truly the fathers of our country. God Bless America.

ELB wrote:I suspect that people in general were not all that dour, but that smiling in photographs was not the fashion, especially when long exposures were required. Besides, none of those guys was exactly a spring chicken when the photographs were taken (apparently around 1850); they may have easily exceeded the life expectancy of their birth peers by more than double. They were probably feeling a bit creaky and not inclined to smile...

Extremely long exposure times made smiling nearly impossible. Many people in these photos look the way they do because they are so focused on not blinking. If you blinked your eyes would blur and it would appear as if you didn't have eyes.

The Annoyed Man wrote:These are photographs of actual Revolutionary War veterans. . . .a dour lot. One gets the impression that life today is not what they fought for. Forget democrats versus republicans, there has always been strife between whatever major parties existed at any given time. What I see in these photos are the faces of men who would not understand or approve of what their county has become.

Looking at the photographs you can imagine what they would think about people today saying to take baby steps to protect the rights they fought so hard and risked so much for.

I am a photographer, and I understand why they weren't smiling in the pictures. But those are also the faces of men who saw and endured sacrifices for their nascent nation, at a time when the national future was by no means certain. They were engaged in taking on the world's preeminent superpower at the time...........and beat that superpower......in defense of some very sacred principles. Again, forgetting politicians from either party today, and forgetting the parties themselves, who among us can imagine that these men fought a revolutionary war in order to preserve the culture we live in today, in ALL of its aspects?

I certainly cannot.

And every generation since then has been convinced “the country is going to H in a hand basket”.

I suppose I am the eternal optimist but I believe this country will survive. It survived among many other things: The Revolution, Civil War, assassination of presidents, The Depression, The Cold War and a few terrible Presidents.

People are convinced we are losing our gun rights and/or we are not gaining ground fast enough, but I was 49 before we could legally carry a gun. Some generations could not legally carry a gun their entire life.

I hate to disappoint the secessionists and other Doom Sayers but I believe this country will be around a lot longer because it is the best country in the world.

I watched a discussion on the History Channel boards quite some time ago where some people were deriding the U.S.A. for everything you could think of. I had to spoil their fun by asking how many people are trying to sneak into the U.S.A. compared to how many people are trying to sneak into China?, Cuba?, Russia?, any other country?

We have our problems, some of them serious, but we have the right and some people that are brave and patriotic enough, to stand up and point out the rotting parts of the government.

As long as the people of the U.S.A. value freedom, there will always be someone to stand up and lead the defense of it.

I now relinquish the soap box.

Those guys, for whatever reasons, don't look like they'd approve much of anything....or is it just me?

This one reminded me of an article I once read: The Last Men of the Revolution. It's a great read.