Thanks for posting the paintings!

I think everyone has valid points, I am by no means an expert, on portrait art or accurate period clothing, but I have always wondered, and this comes to cajunscot's point.

If you look at paintings of the Rev war, and paintings and tinotypes of the Civil war, most all are idealized. One easy example is the painting of the crossing of the Delaware! I know we all realize that is not at all the way it was. All the continentals decked out in fancy uniforms, nope!

A painting was contracted for, and took time to produce, it seems all the artist would need is a likeness of the individual, from there, the artist could deck the fellow out any way he liked. This isn't to say that what he was decked out in wasn't true to the time, just perhaps, a bit over the top for the sake of posterity. Then I could be completely off base. I think it better to trust in written accounts then to rely on staged portraits. They do give an idea of what was available, or at least conceivable at the time!