Edgar Samuel Paxson

Edgar Samuel Paxson (April 25, 1852 – November 9, 1919) was an American frontier painter, scout, soldier and writer, based mainly in Montana.

Inspired by his meetings with Kit Carson and Captain Jack Crawford (the "Poet Scout") in New York, he became restless to explore and by age 20 was travelling across America, ranging from Kansas to Canada.

He lived comfortably in Deer Lodge, still relatively obscure as an artist, raising his four children with Laura, until the Spanish–American War in 1898, when at age 46 he led Company "G"of the Butte Volunteers into battle in the jungles of Manila.

[2] It took Paxson six years to complete the painting which he allowed an associate to take on tour around America, charging twenty-five cents to view it.

Brigadier General Edward Settle Godfrey was brought to tears by the accuracy and ferocity of the painting, as was Elizabeth Custer.

In 1963 Harold McCracken, the noted historian and Western art authority, deemed Paxson's painting "the best pictoral representation of the battle" and "from a purely artistic standpoint...one of the best if not the finest pictures which have been created to immortalize that dramatic event.

Paxson, on the other hand, was much more intrigued with the mountainous western Montana landscape and its inhabitants of fur trappers and Native Americans.

His murals at the Missoula County Courthouse and the State Capitol depict scenes largely faithful to the historic record.