So! Today I wanna talk about something that not many people know and there is very little information about but I'm still excited.
So, let me put this in your mind first: Who says that Kinloch and Hamilton were really John's only lovers?
Yes, this is exactly where I'm going ladies and gentlemen.
(Also, in regards of the last chapter, there really isn't proof that Henry Lee and John were more than close friends. Laurens here was excited over a surprise assault on Johns Island that he and Henry Lee had planned in December of 1781. If done correctly, it could be one of the daring of the whole war, so that's why he was so excited about the letter. I kinda just wanted to see how you guys would react to that and to mentally prepare you for this chapter, whoops, my bad, it was totally worth it though)
With that behind, let's start with this chapter!!
See this copy of the portrait of John Laurens set in a fancy frame decorated with jewels? Well, it belonged to Major William Jackson. And it's kinda weird because, how often do you get a portrait of your army comrade in a frame like this??
There is really not much information about Jackson in reality, just a few notes on him and Laurens. But even from this information, we can know that they spent quite a lot of time together. Jackson was captured at South Carolina along with Laurens and sent to Philadelphia. When they both were exchanged, Jackson became Laurens' staff officer.
When Laurens was sent to France, Jackson accompanied him as his secretary. (He is the source of many anecdotes of Laurens' diplomatic skills and other stories about Laurens listed in "Anecdotes of the American revolution") Jackson stayed in France after Laurens left, and took over his job. He returned in February 1782. All in all, they spent over a year in close contact, from the capture in May 1780 to Laurens' return to America in summer 1781.
As Laurens and Jackson were in close proximity most of the time, there wouldn't be many letters from that period, if any; there are probably some letters from the period of summer 1781 to summer 1782. Though, John did sent him a letter right before his final battle.
The portrait that started all this speculation was commissioned by Jackson from Charles Willson Peale, the original artist, in 1784, after Laurens' death. It bears the same motto as Laurens' grave: "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori"
Also! During the time this was happening, Laurens and Hamilton were still kinda going through their 'break up period' which I'll probably talk about, some day, eventually. (And no, Eliza didn't have anything to do with that, leave the baby alone...well, maybe just a tiny little. But it didn't start because of her in any way).
During this ' break up period' Alexander had his rebound relationship, which was Eliza (it was only at the beginning, he did learn how to love Betsey with time <3), and John, who is already know for doing this kind of shit (coff coff Martha Manning coff coff) probably would've done the same.
And I'm not saying that William Jackson was Laurens' lover, but he could have been. And I'm not saying that he was Laurens' rebound affair, but hey, it could have also been.