Last night I started reading a book about Abraham Lincoln’s role as commander-in-chief during his presidency. As President’s Day approaches, I am enjoying immersing myself into the stories of presidents we once had who were honest, intelligent, courageous, and humble. God, remember that? Good times.

Anyway, I have read a lot about the Revolutionary War at this point, and looked at many paintings and drawings of the figures of that time, who typically look something like this:

Bonjour.

Paintings, they are so carefully edited to glorify and beautify their subjects! In the Lincoln book I just started, pretty much every portrait looks something like this:

Ah, the dead eyes of battle.

Photography finally showed the world the truth of war.

Oh and btw did you know that most of the casualties suffered at the battle of Yorktown in 1781 were black soldiers? And that Cornwallis sent his smallpox-infected black troops to the front lines as a form of germ warfare? Yikes.