76 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



When Captain Leslie was found among the fallen, Dr. 

 Rush, on ascertaining his name from his servant, begged 

 permission of General Washington, to devote himself to the 

 dying youth, who was already past consciousness ; " for," 

 added he, " I was, when a student in Edinburgh, received 

 almost as a son in the family of his father, Lord Leven and 

 Melville, and I have often, when he was a child, dandled 



that young man on my knee." This admirable 



painting fully entitles the artist to "a distinguished place 

 among historical painters, and is alone sufficient to establish 

 his fame with posterity. It is as full of life as a scene of 

 death can be. In one of our interviews in the Gallery, 

 where the artist often discoursed to me and answered my 

 inquiries, I put this question to him, as we happened to be 

 standing near the finished picture of the Battle of Prince- 

 ton, "Suppose, sir, that your paintings in this gallery 

 were doomed to destruction, and you were allowed to save 

 only one, which should it be ? " He promptly replied, " I 

 would save this painting of the Battle of Princeton." 



While Colonel Trumbull's application for a pension was 

 pending at Washington, he was at a loss for a proper docu- 

 ment to prove that he had ever served in the army during 

 the Revolution. For, strange as it may appear, there were 

 no proper records to be found. Having heard that General 

 E. Mattoon of Amherst, Mass., was in the campaign on 

 Block Island, against the British army that occupied New- 

 port, and Colonel Trumbull, having himself served on that 

 occasion, as aid to General Sullivan, the American Com- 

 mander, a correspondence ensued between them and Gen- 

 eral Mattoon, fully confirmed the fact of Colonel Trumbull's 

 service, as is fully narrated in his autobiography. This 

 interesting coincidence brought these two veterans together 

 in my house in the summer of 1838. Colonel Trumbull 

 then painted an excellent portrait of General Mattoon, 

 which was very acceptable to his children and friends, 



