A Virginian Rifleman

A man identified as a Virginian rifleman looks over his shoulder at a redoubt while aiming his gun in this ink sketch. He is wearing a wide-brimmed hat and carrying a powder satchel inscribed with the words “Death or Liberty.” Richard St George Mansergh St George, a wealthy landholding Irishman who purchased an ensign’s commission in the British Fourth Regiment of Foot in 1776, drew this sketch from personal observations of the Continental Army around 1777 or 1778. It is an excellent contemporary depiction of the Virginia “hunting shirt,” a fringed linen shirt resembling Indigenous clothing, which George Washington ordered as provisions for Virginia rifle companies in 1775.