![Jean-Baptiste-Antoine DeVerger, "American soldiers at the siege of Yorktown," 1781, via Wikimedia.](https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/wp-content/uploads/Soldiers_at_the_siege_of_Yorktown_1781_by_Jean-Baptiste-Antoine_DeVerger-1000x610.png)
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.