Eyewitness Sketch of the North Carolina Brigade: Exhibit

August 7 – October 5, 2026

North Carolina History Center
On exhibit during regular business hours

Do not miss this exciting exhibit coming to Tryon Palace this summer!

The Eyewitness Sketch of the North Carolina Brigade will be on exhibit at the North Carolina History Center from August to October. This exciting piece of artwork is first sketch of North Carolina troops during wartime that is known to exist. It is also the second-known eyewitness artistic rendering of female camp followers during the American Revolution.

This eyewitness sketch is an important piece of North Carolina’s history and the history of the United States. Having been drawn on August 25, 1777, it will celebrate its anniversary right here at Tryon Palace, the first State Capitol of North Carolina.

Be sure to come see this exhibit and our other America 250 NC exhibits here at Tryon Palace. In addition, we will also have our Semiquincentennial exhibit, Freedom and Identity: Symbols of a New Nation, on display and open to the public from July through the end of the year. Plus be sure to take our Caswell’s Capital Tour of Tryon Palace, which explores North Carolina’s Revolutionary history and early statehood.

The Eyewitness Sketch of the North Carolina Brigade is on loan from the Museum of the American Revolution. Images of the sketch are courtesy of the Museum of the American Revolution.

The sketch was conserved due to generous contributions from the North Carolina Society of the Cincinnati, which is comprised of descendants of officers of the North Carolina Continental Line.

The display of the sketch in North Carolina was made possible by the generous support of the Richard Hampton Jenrette Foundation, the State Capitol Foundation and the North Carolina Society of the Cincinnati.

Learn more about North Carolina’s commemoration of America 250 and discover more exciting events at america250.nc.gov.

Artwork Description from the Museum of the American Revolution

This eyewitness sketch shows soldiers and camp followers of the Continental Army’s North Carolina Brigade marching through Philadelphia on Aug. 25, 1777, on their way to join the rest of General George Washington’s army stationed south of Philadelphia. These troops would go on to fight at the battles of Brandywine (Sept. 11, 1777) and Germantown (Oct. 4, 1777). The inclusion of two female camp followers, including one holding an infant, shown riding in a wagon exemplifies a direct defiance of known regulations at the time about how women following the army could use wagons. Earlier in August, before the brigade’s march through Philadelphia took place, Washington himself brought up issues of women and children slowing down his troops, calling them “a Clog upon every movement.”

Pierre Eugène du Simitière (1737-1784), a Swiss artist and collector who lived in Philadelphia during the Revolutionary War, drew the sketch and inscribed it: “an exact representation of a waggon belonging to the north carolina brigade of continental troops which passed thro Philadelphia.” The inscription also includes the words “august” and “done by,” but the rest of the writing is lost due to a missing portion of the paper. Through his artwork and collecting books, manuscripts, and ephemera, Du Simitière documented the rising American Revolution as it happened. Du Simitière also created from-life profile portraits of prominent Revolutionary leaders including Washington and he suggested the motto “E Pluribus Unum” through his rejected design for the Great Seal of the United States in 1776. In 1782, Du Simitière founded the first museum in the United States that was open to the public. 

Artwork Details

“An exact representation of a waggon belonging to the north carolina brigade of continental troops which passed thro Philadelphia” 
Drawn by Pierre Eugène du Simitière
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 
1777 
Ink on Paper
Museum of the American Revolution, Gift of Judith F. Hernstadt; Conserved with support from the North Carolina Society of the Cincinnati, 2023.16.01
(Artwork details provided by the Museum of the American Revolution.)