A while back, I planned to post this image to O'Hara's bio note, but then I hunted up some background on it and discarded the idea. But a couple of folks have mentioned it to me recently, so I thought I'd add it anyway, along with a bit of explanation.

This is the central British figure from John Trumbull's painting "The Surrender of Cornwallis." Matching the painting to historical events, this figure should represent Charles O'Hara, since he was the officer who actually performed the surrender. And given that Trumbull was known to make an effort to accurately represent the people in his paintings, it should therefore resemble O'Hara -- but... There's always a "but." In fact, there's a whole story for why the French and American figures in the painting are considered accurate while the British are not. Check out the art gallery at American Revolution.org to see the full image, and read their discussion of its drawbacks.

I decided not to post it after reading a printed article on Trumbull's art which reached the same conclusion via a discussion of the artist's time in England and which officers he did (and didn't) contact. Unfortunately, now that I'm trying to re-find the article to cite it, it has entirely vanished. There is a consensus, though, that this figure is simply a generic British officer, not based on any specific individual. Too bad!

A correspondent sent me the image below, which shows another version of the Yorktown surrender ceremony. As with the Trumbull painting, it seems more likely that the main British officer is based on Cornwallis (whom he resembles) rather than O'Hara. But without a contemporary painting of the real O'Hara for comparison, there's no way to be sure.

[Thanks to Caroline ("Ima Fish") for sending along the engraving.]