An obviously talented young man, both in painting and music, John Jameson died tragically and young in the Andersonville prison during the Civil War. He was born in Hartford, Connecticut, where his father, John Jameson, was a professional organist who later became organist at the Church of the Puritans on Union Square in New York where the family moved. The mother, Rachel, was a celebrated soprano.
When his father died suddenly in 1860, the young John Jameson took over the organist post held by his father.
His art talent was so obvious when he was a youngster that Frederic Edwin Church, having seen some of his work, took him as a student. Jameson also exhibited his paintings at the Artists’ Fund Society of New York by 1960 and when he was eighteen at the National Academy of Design and the Pennsylvania Academy.
In January, 1864, he refused a safe position as a Civil War enlistee and became a Quartermaster Sargent and fought in several major battles under General Wilson. Cut off from his troops while filling his canteen, Jameson was captured and taken to Andersonville Prison where he died in the hospital.
Only about two dozen of his paintings have been found.
Source: Phillips de Pury & Luxembourg
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