Benjamin West probably began this painting soon after his arrival in London, in 1763, when West returned from Italy, where he spent three years. Following The Indian Family, a painting of about 1761, this one demonstrates the same willingness to show "the proper dress and accoutrement".[7] Thus it provides us with one of two known contemporary pictures of the British Light Infantrymen for the French and Indian War period.[8] Whereas in the Italian painting, accuracy and authenticity were intended to give a generic representation of the Indian life, the new one employed them to make a report of a recent historical event.[3]