Before Lawrence of Arabia…

Today in 1900 marks the death of Charles Carroll Tevis, a convert and professional soldier who served in nine different armies over half a century. Born Washington Tevis in Maryland, he graduated from West Point in 1849. Seeing little opportunity for action or advancement in the peacetime army, he joined the Turkish army as a cavalry officer. The above painting was done in 1855 while he was still a Turskish officer. He then joined the French army and fought in the Crimean War. After the war, Tevis (who changed his name to Charles) moved to Paris and converted to Catholicism. When the American Civil War broke out in 1861, he returned to America and served in the Union Army. By 1865, he was named a Brigadier General. In 1866, he joined a group of Irish nationalists known as Fenians to invade Canada (and presumably throw off the British yoke). He then joined the Papal Army in Italy as a private, where he tried to raise an American contingent of volunteers. Tevis went back to the French army for the Franco-Prussian war. When that war ended, he joined the Egyptian army as a general. He then went back to the Turkish army, where he fought against the Russians. His last military venture was as a general in Bulgaria. He also found time to spy for the British government on Indian nationalists in Paris. Tevis retired to Paris, where he died in 1900.