OK, history buffs, here’s a chance to strut your stuff. A reader writes, apropos my (completed!) jigsaw puzzle of Leutze’s painting “Washington Crossing the Delaware”:

Derb — Congratulations on your completion of your latest jigsaw puzzle. Growing up near Washington’s Crossing, PA, this painting was something I remember seeing a lot during my childhood. Which brings up a rather unusual issue that I have never been able to resolve to my satisfaction, even after all these years.
Look carefully at the painting, just to the right of where Washington’s right hand is resting on his right thigh. There is what appears to be a hole in Washington’s trousers below the buttons and … Well, Derb, of course, back in junior high school, all of my pals and I had a theory about what this was. But, to this day, I have no idea what that part of the painting really is.
I mean no disrespect to George Washington. Now living in Princeton, NJ, Washington’s Christmas 1776 campaign literally took place in my neighborhood and I believe it to be one of the greatest triumphs in US military history.
But still, what is that? Maybe one of your many readers can shed some light on the subject.

I certainly hope so. I have reproduced the relevant section of the painting (though from my jigsaw puzzle, as I have no access to the original) here. If any reader can enlighten us as to what exactly the Father of Our Country has protruding there (as it appears to me) from under his waistcoat, we shall be much obliged.