A Coincidence

Likened to Buchanan: Tarleton by Joshua Reynolds

From an article in The New-York Times February 26, 1861 denying a rumor that Major Anderson was sick with fever (The New York Times Archive):

A letter from a brother of Major ANDERSON to a gentleman in this City, mentions the following curious coincidence:

“It is a very strange coincidence that my father was that ‘Captain of the Continental line’ who by mistake of his superior began the battle of Trenton, where ROBERT was so long stationed. And, as Major, he was a prisoner of war in actual jail, fed only on rice, with the small-pox for a dessert, in the very Charleston where his son of the same rank is now stationed, — the former under TARLTON, the latter under BUCHANAN. What a coincidence.”

Major Anderson as President Buchanan’s POW. American’s claimed that Banastre Tarleton had surrendering soldiers in the Continental Army gunned down at the Battle of Waxhaws.

You can read about the role of Major Anderson’s father in the Battle of Trenton at Google Books.