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Historic Park. Fort Lee, New Jersey. By Jack Bredin. Photograph by Rob Bredin. ©  Click to enlarge.  ©

 

ROGER WHITTAKER:    “The Last Farewell.”

 

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Posted in Blogfinger Presents | Tagged Artist Jack Bredin, Historic Park by Jack Bredin | 3 Comments

3 Responses

1. on May 31, 2021 at 9:58 pm Blogfinger

   Fred Thank you for that fine history lesson. It helps connect Jack, his painting, the story of Fort Lee and you—-Paul Editor at Blogfinger.

   
   
2. on May 31, 2021 at 9:32 pm Fred Carl

   Jack B. lives in the house where four generations of the decedents of Johannes Schawalm lived.

   Johannes was one of the Hessian soldiers employed by the British in the Revolutionary War to help end the revolution. The British and the Hessian troops had just done the unexpected and used a fissure in the Palisades to move troops and equipment to attack Fort Lee. This was so unbelievable that General Washington’s officers had not posted lookouts on the Palisades.

   Luckily a farmer saw the advancing enemy troops and raced ahead to warn the Fort seen in Jack’s painting. Most of Washington’s troops escaped, but they had to abandon lots of valuable canons and equipment. This saved the Revolution.

   Months later in December 1776 Johannes Schawalm and his unit would be captured by General Washington’s troops in the surprise attack in the battle of Trenton. Later after a prisoner exchange he and all the troops on a ship would be captured at sea by the new U.S. Navy.

   At the end of the war, he stayed in Pennsylvania starting a small town named “Fearnot,” as he no longer had to fear war.

   Johannes has hundreds of descendants of which I am one.

   
   
3. on May 29, 2021 at 5:54 pm Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger.net

   Jack’s painting of Historic Park at Fort Lee, NJ echoes a very important moment in Revolutionary War history. In late 1776, the British and Hessians pursued Washington’s army from Fort Lee down to Trenton. It was a pivotal time that ultimately led to American victory.

   The Fort Lee historians say, “Thomas Paine, who was in Fort Lee with Washington’s army, wrote the famous words, ‘These are the times that try men’s souls’”

   And you can hear that story reflected in Roger Whittaker’s song “The Last Farewell” which was also recorded by Elvis Presley.

   Jack Bredin lived in the Ft. Lee area for many years, so that history lives in his mind and in his art.

   
   

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