Major Jonathan Cass (1753-1830)
Oil on panel, 29.75 x 23.25 inches, within original, black painted frame.
Jonathan Cass responded to the April 1775 Lexington Alarm, fighting at Bunker Hill and subsequently receiving a commission as an officer in the New Hampshire Continental Line, fighting in numerous actions through the entire Revolutionary War (one of which is depicted in the background), including Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth and the siege of Yorktown.
A founding member of the New Hampshire Society of the Cincinnati, he left his home in Exeter to return to military service as a captain in the US Army in 1791, serving with distinction in Anthony Wayne’s Indian campaigns, during which he was promoted to major in 1793. He resigned in 1800 and settled with his family on 4000 acres of military bounty land in the Muskingum Valley of present-day Ohio. According to one contemporary, Cass “had the look of one born to command, in height he was nearly or quite six feet, of perfect form, without superfluous flesh, …piercing…eyes, and commanding brow”, all of which are captured in this colorful portrait, probably painted in Ohio or possibly New Hampshire by an unidentified, itinerant artist.
Price: $24,000.00