THE VOSS PAPERS

The Voss Papers · Volume One

Paintings from Remember Them

The people and events of Volume One, as the family's painters saw them. Captions give the setting and nothing more.

Voss, Ox, Eleanor and Élise

The people at the center of Volume One, and the ships that surround them.

Ox arm wrestling his father at the fireside of their Devonshire cottage. — Ox and His FatherDevonshire. Before Ox could join the Royal Navy he had to beat his father, a gunner's mate who had served in the American war. He was nineteen when he did.

A young naval officer and a young woman embrace on a windy hillside above a harbor with a ship of the line. — A FarewellVoss and Eleanor on a windy hillside, with a ship of the line waiting in the harbor behind them.

A woman in a cream silk gown and pearls stands in a red drawing room beside a desk, a bouquet of roses in a gilt frame on the wall behind her. — Madame TebieuxÉlise Tebieux in her office.

A woman in a cream gown and pearls holds a sheet of paper up to a candle, studying the pattern in it. — The WatermarkÉlise investigates watermarks by candlelight. Painted by Joseph Wright.

A gaunt wounded man lies in a ship's cabin bed under a lantern while an officer watches. — Aboard FalconA wounded Frenchman recovers after surgery. Painted by Géricault.

Two naval officers perform surgery on a thin bearded man lying on a table in a ship's cabin, a lantern at the left. — SurgeryThe same Frenchman, under the knife. Painted by Géricault, whose realism leaves nothing out.

HMS Queen Charlotte exploding at night, other ships standing off, in a gilt frame. — HMS Queen CharlotteA British first rate, lost to fire and powder in 1800. Hung in a gilt frame.

Young Scull

From a boot scraper in Richmond to a young man in Washington who knows what a bank statement is for.

A boy with a brush looks up at a man in boots who has one foot on a boot scraper at a marble step. — The Boot ScraperRichmond, 1807. Young Scull scrapes the boots of Bradford Bainbridge. Painted by Jarvis, the only artist covering the Burr trial.

A young man in a straw hat stands beside a large manure heap beside a barn. — A Business in ManureScull, a few years older, has found there is money in it.

A young officer on horseback holds up a sealed paper before ranks of blue-coated infantry. — The Bank StatementScull, now seventeen, has moved to Washington. His manure business bank statement is put to good use.

Bainbridge, the Trials and Monticello

A note-taker is present at most of the events that matter.

A man in 18th-century dress speaks to a crowded room by candlelight while a young clerk writes. — The Weeks TrialNew York, 1800. Alexander Hamilton on his feet, Bainbridge taking notes.

A man sits at a candlelit desk with a hand over his face, a letter in the other. — Hamilton Is DeadBainbridge learns of Hamilton's death, 1804.

A crowded courtroom seen from the gallery, a man in a yellow waistcoat standing in the center, a hand with a pen in the foreground. — The Trial of Aaron BurrRichmond, 1807. The hand taking notes is Washington Irving's, who really did cover the trial. Painted by Jarvis, the only artist there.

Two young men in frock coats talking in a hallway, one much taller than the other, a lawn and brick building beyond an open door. — Bainbridge and Winfield ScottRichmond, 1807. Bainbridge confers with Winfield Scott, a spectator at the Burr trial. Scott stood six feet five and was built to match. He meant to be a lawyer, and the Army was lucky he changed his mind.

An army officer in a long blue cloak and white trousers standing head bowed beside a wooden cross on a snowy field. — Captain ScottJust two years after Richmond, Scott is a captain serving under Wilkinson, whose camp at Terre aux Boeufs buried hundreds of its own men. Scott said what he thought of the general, was court-martialed at Washington, Mississippi Territory, in January 1810, and was suspended for a year. He spent it reading everything on military history, strategy and tactics that he could lay his hands on, and the year served the United States well. His great height, imposing figure and perfect uniform led Lady Butler to paint him as a god of war.

Two men at a desk of papers in a library with maps on the wall, a third man standing behind. — MonticelloVoss briefs Thomas Jefferson on an important matter. Bainbridge stands in the background.

Portrait of a curly-haired man in a dark coat and white stock against a dark background. — Bainbridge at FiftyBradford Bainbridge, half a lifetime of note-taking later.

Wilkinson and the Frontier

A general with an eye for his own advancement, and the war that made him senior.

A man on a rampart holds a raised sword and a Spanish flag while British soldiers lower the red ensign and fighting rages below. — Supervía at the BreachSupervía carries the Spanish flag in the assault on the British fort at Pensacola, 1781, while the English flag comes down. Painted by Eugène Lami, 1880.

Two men face each other in a Spanish study under a portrait of a king, a third man watching from the left. — The Oath to SpainJames Wilkinson swears allegiance to Spain at Governor Miró’s house, 1787. Painted by Ilya Repin, 1883.

Portrait of a Miami war chief in a tan coat and blue scarf, a large silver medallion on his chest, standing in a wood. — Little TurtleLate summer, 1791. The Miami war chief learns that Wilkinson's raid has taken his daughter. A few months later he helps lead the confederacy at the Wabash.

A row of exhausted, bloodied American soldiers stand with bowed heads before a log stockade. — After the WabashSurvivors straggle in after the Wabash, November 1791. Painted by Lady Butler.

An older man in dark 18th-century dress grimaces with anger beside a candle and a window, a handkerchief crushed in his hand. — News from the WabashPresident Washington is irate after receiving the news.

A Shawnee warrior with a tomahawk raised, mid stride, in a sunlit forest. — TecumsehWar leader of the Shawnee, of the generation of warriors who destroyed a United States army of about a thousand men at the Wabash in 1791, a defeat worse than the one at the Little Bighorn that Americans remember better. The painting tells a second story: Remington, like Tissot, could make fabric move, and like Géricault he understood muscle and sinew. Tecumseh bursts from the forest mid stride, every tassel in flight. What Remington was not good at was the eastern deciduous forest. He is famous for desert cowboys.

An officer in a white wig holds a glass of water to an old man in bed by candlelight. — A Glass of WaterGeneral Wilkinson gives a glass of water to General “Mad Anthony” Wayne. This is artistic license: no record shows Wilkinson tending Wayne. But when Wayne died in 1796, Wilkinson became the highest ranking officer in the United States Army.

A heavyset officer in a white wig and gold-laced dark uniform with two stars on his chest, standing with one hand on his hip, clerks writing behind him. — General WilkinsonJames Wilkinson in his usual peacocking mode. “In all our history, there is no more despicable character.” Theodore Roosevelt, The Winning of the West

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It is the habit of this archive to let its subjects speak for themselves, and General Wilkinson has spoken for himself at such length, in so many hands, to so many masters, that little remains but to arrange the testimony. For years, including the years he was the senior officer of the United States Army, he drew a Spanish pension under the cipher “Agent 13”. He swore allegiance to Spain at Governor Miró’s house in 1787. He was cleared by every inquiry held in his lifetime, by courts that had no access to the Spanish archives. The ground at Terre aux Boeufs, where six hundred and eighty-six of his own men died, was chosen at a rent this archive believes he shared in. Theodore Roosevelt, who spent years on the history of the frontier and had no sentimentality about it, closed his account of the man in a sentence this archive has not been able to improve on: “In all our history, there is no more despicable character.”

An older officer in a gold-laced blue uniform with stars holds a sheet of paper up to a candle. — The Right WatermarkWilkinson holds a sheet to the candle. It had to carry the correct watermark.

A line of Black militiamen under live oaks, with two officers in front of them. — Captain Leger's CompanyAt Mobile, West Florida, General Wilkinson inspects Captain Leger’s grenadier platoon after the company reconnoitered the Spanish fort. The men were selected for their uniform height and appearance, and Wilkinson was impressed. Captain Leger is highly competent and believes in well turned out soldiers. Like all of his men, he is one of the gens de couleur libres, Louisiana’s free people of color, who served in the colonial militia as a matter of course.

Washington, 1812 to 1814

The President fretting over a war, and the city that paid for it.

An older man with white hair, one hand to his temple, beside a candle and a map of the United States. — MadisonThe President, fretting over the war. The map is dated 1812.

A group of onlookers on a hill watch smoke and fire rise over a distant town and river. — Washington BurnsThe city burned by the British, as seen by Bainbridge and Scull from the hills.

A wounded Shawnee warrior in fringed buckskin raises a tomahawk, a smoky battlefield behind him. — Tecumseh FallsTecumseh dies in a clearing, 1813. Remington caught all the motion, and was no doubt relieved not to have to paint an eastern forest.

Steamboats and New Orleans

A steamboat in a hurry, an earthquake, and the road to the last battle.

A young man in a green coat shouts at a steamboat captain and a firewood merchant beside a stack of firewood on a riverbank, a steamboat on the river behind. — Scull Loses His PatienceYoung Scull blows up at the steamboat captain and the firewood merchant: “Stop haggling and get the damn wood on board. We have to get to New Orleans on time.”

A river in storm, trees toppling into brown churning water, a steamboat rail in the corner of the frame. — The New Madrid EarthquakeThe first shock, December 1811, as seen from a steamboat.

A young blond naval officer stands at attention in a tent before an older general seated at a table of maps and papers. — Captain Scull ReportsVery young Captain Scull reports to General Andrew Jackson.

American riflemen fire from behind cotton bales through battle smoke, a Black militiaman with a musket in the foreground, officers on horseback at the right. — The Battle of New OrleansOne of Captain Leger’s voltigeurs, a Black militiaman, takes aim in the foreground. The Voss family insisted that the contribution of the Black militia, free men of color, not be erased. Two battalions of the city’s gens de couleur libres stood in Jackson’s line that day.

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