Colonel William Alston (1756-1839) was a member of Francis Marion's Brigade during the American Revolution, and participated in the defense of Georgetown. He was a respected breeder of horses and a planter in the Georgetown region, and when George Washington came to South Carolina in 1791, he was entertained by the Alstons. As a member of the South Carolina Senate, Alston supported Thomas Jefferson's programs. This portrait by Thomas Sully (1783-1872) was copied in 1846 from an 1818-19 original by Samuel F.B. Morse.
Courtesy of the Gibbes Museum of Art/Carolina Art Association.
