June 1968 | Volume 19, Issue 4 The last old soldiers of the
Revolution were fast fading away when Benson J. Lossing set out
to catch history alive—in 1,100 pictures and 700,000 words
Nobody would list Benson J. Lossing among the important American
historians. But he has an unassailable place among the most
useful servants of our historical studies. When he set out on
the laborious travels that resulted in the publication of the
two large volumes of the Pictorial Field-Book of the American
Revolution , he had two motives, one patriotic and the other
historical. He had noted with regret how little Americans knew
about the struggles and sacrifices that had given them place as
an independent nation. Citizens of Boston knew nothing of Kings
Mountain in South Carolina, where the Tory forces met defeat;
citizens of North Carolina and Georgia knew little about the
battlefields of Massachusetts and New York. Lossing roamed for
more than 8,000 miles through the thirteen original states,
traversing rough mountains, deep