Category: Revolutionary War

Betsy Ross made flags for 50 years, and we are all familiar with the famous circular 13-star design. Fewer know about Francis Hopkinson, signer of the Declaration of Independence and designer of our Stars and Stripes. Letters between Hopkinson and the Continental Congress tell the story, and these letters can be found in the National Archives.   In 1780 Hopkinson was the Treasurer of the Continental Loan Office. He also consulted with a committee to design the Great Seal of the United States. We have a letter he wrote to the committee, with a proposed design for the seal. In that letter, he also wrote about having designed the American flag in 1777. Since he was a public servant, his design was free, what he called “Labours of Fancy.” He did suggest, however, that receiving a “Quarter cask of the public wine” would be a nice show of appreciation. (This was thought a reasonable request, but by the time it made its way through the red tape of the government, it was never approved and Hopkinson never got his cask of wine.)The Continental Congress had in fact adopted our flag in July of 1777, a design described and provided by the Marine Committee. Hopkinson had served as the chairman of a board under that committee.While no flags have survived from that period, and we don’t have the original drawing, we do have a sketch likely done by Hopkinson that shows the linear pattern of the stars. It is that pattern that we proudly fly today as the Hopkinson Flag.

 

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Americans love their Stars and Stripes, and fly it proudly.  But many do not know that it was not the one flying when the 13 Colonies declared Independence on July 4th, 1776.

The first flag that the early United States used as its “national flag” is known by several names, like Continental Colors and Grand Old Union. It’s usually called  the Grand Union, and it was being used by Americans in 1775 when the conflict with Britain began. As you can see it has the 13 stripes we know so well, but instead of stars on a white field, the British Union flag is displayed.When American colonists first began their struggle for greater liberty, full independence was not yet in the cards. Loyalty to the king was still proclaimed, even while fighting against the oppressive laws passed by British Parliament.  Because of this we also see the Union, or the “King’s Colors,” in the upper left corner. In those days what we now call the Union Jack really represented the King and his authority, and was not really a “national flag” as we think of one today. In fact, the Union flag had been a symbol of defiance to British governmental policies in North America at a time when King George III was not viewed as an antagonist to American freedom.

A diary entry of a British officer in Massachusetts, written May 1st, 1775, may help clarify:“The Rebels have erected the Standard at Cambridge; they call themselves the King’s Troops and us the Parliaments.” The “Standard” he mentions was the Union flag.   The stripes have their own origin. Colonial merchant ships had been using a red and white striped flag long before the War of Independence, and a striped flag was used by members of the Sons of Liberty Society who resisted unfair taxation and played a major role in battling the Stamp Act of 1765.  Originally consisting of nine stripes for the nine American colonies, this flag grew to 13 during the Revolutionary War. The Grand Union was the first naval ensign used aboard American ships of war.  The stripes were a natural part of the design because of their familiarity to American sailors.

 

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Famed US naval officer John Paul Jones was born in Scotland in 1742. At age 13 he began his career at sea, as a ship’s boy on the Friendship sailing between Britain and Virginia and the West Indies. By 21 he was the captain of his own ship.

Jones joined the Continental Navy during the American Revolution he was in Philadelphia shortly after the Revolution began. His friend, Joseph Hewes, a delegate to the Continental Congress, commissioned him as first lieutenant on the vessel Alfred.  He later commanded the sloop Providence.

Jones proved himself a capable officer and commander. Congress sent him to France as captain of the Ranger with orders to attack enemy commerce in British waters. In 1778 he captured the sloop of war Drake in a fierce struggle, and his capture of prizes and prisoners was creating a furor in the British press.

The French now took note of Jones and sent him off in August 1779 in command of a fleet of five naval vessels and two privateers. Jones’s ship was the Bonhomme Richard, around nine hundred tons and slow, but the most heavily armed vessel he had commanded.

On September 23, Jones fought one of the great battles of the Revolution off the Yorkshire coast. The enemy was the Serapis, one of the British escorts of a large convoy. In the battle, mostly fought in moonlight, the Bonhomme Richard grappled with the Serapis. With the two vessels lashed together, the British captain asked Jones if he wished to surrender. Jones shouted his famous reply, “I have not yet begun to fight.”

Surely Jones had not, and by dawn he had accepted the enemy’s surrender. This victory was the highlight of John Paul Jones’s career and  life.

Jones was always a rough and ready type, not willing to give up, and was in his element when the chips were down. When a roaring charge was needed, Jones was the fellow to get.  When life is hanging in the balance, fear and indecision are your enemies, and Jones was nothing if not decisive and unafraid.  He once wrote these words in a letter: “I wish to have no Connection with any Ship that does not Sail fast for I intend to go into harm’s way.”

After the war, he served in the Russian navy in the Black Sea in a war with the Turks. He died in Paris,in 1792, still an American citizen, and one of the great heroes of the U.S. Navy.

Today we still honor John Paul Jones by flying his unique American flag, called the Serapis after the ship he captured.

 

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North African pirates were menacing folks at least as far back as the Crusades. We have tales of them sailing as far north as Iceland, not only capturing merchant ships but plundering ports and taking captives for the slave trade.It was the habit of European nations to pay tribute to the scoundrels, rather than fight them. Eventually, the pirates organized into North African Barbary States, controlling the eastern half of North Africa along the Mediterranean Sea.  Their leaders got rich by extortion. But things were about the change. Before independence, American Colonial vessels were British, and protected by British payments to the pirates. After declaring independence, they were no longer covered by that deal, and the new nation had to pay their own tribute, which they did during the 1700s, over Thomas Jefferson’s objections.Then Thomas Jefferson was elected president, and he declared there was to be no more tribute, and sent the American Navy and Marines to deal with matters.It took some work, including landing Marines to assault a fortress in Tripoli, but eventually a treaty was worked out to protect American shipping. (Tripoli was the first American victory on foreign soil, with the Stars and Stripes flying over the fortress. The “Marine’s Hymn” still celebrates this with the line, “…from the shores of Tripoli.”)America had to send the Navy in again after the War of 1812, but things were settled in very short order: an American flag meant the vessel was safe.

 

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America’s early Minutemen were men who were ready for military duties “at a minute’s warning.”

When these men rallied, they became a militia, citizens with limited military training who could grab their arms immediately and fight in an emergency to defend their local area.

The first Minutemen were in Massachusetts, and they saw their first action at the battles of Lexington and Concord. They certainly surprised the British, whose leader reported,

“Whoever looks upon them as an irregular mob will be much mistaken.”

It was one of those Minutemen who “fired the shot heard round the world,” on April 19, 1775, commencing America’s open rebellion.  

Minutemen militia groups were formed in other colonies, including the Culpeper Minutemen of Virginia. The importance of the American militia was later enshrined in the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution. The Minutemen are also forever remembered in such poems as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “Paul Revere’s Ride” and Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Concord Hymn.”

Every year we celebrate the anniversary of that “shot heard round the world,” on April 19th, the day we know as Patriots Day.

 

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The first shots of the American Revolution were fired in Lexington and Concord on April 19,  1775. Today we call this day Patriots Day. But did the American soldiers have a flag with them that day? Great question!

British soldiers had marched from Boston to arrest Colonial leaders Sam Adams and John Hancock. But men like Paul Revere and Samuel Dawes were alerted and rode out to give warning.  About 70 Minutemen gathered to confront 240 British Redcoats. The face-off began on the 19th, both sides wary, with no one sure what would happen.  Suddenly a shot was fired, It was “The shot heard ‘round the world.”  You may remember the line from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s famous poem: By the rude bridge that arched the floodTheir flag to April’s breeze unfurledHere once the embattled farmers stoodAnd fired the shot heard round the world. But no one gave a description of that  “flag to April’s breeze unfurled.” But we do honor the Bedford flag as the one carried by Nathaniel Page at “the rude bridge.”  Page was a Bedford Minuteman, one of those brave militia that marched out to face the British Redcoats.

The Bedford flag is the oldest-known complete flag existing in the United States. We don’t know who made it, but it predates the American Revolution itself, going back to the early 1700’s. On the flag are Latin words which mean, Conquer or Die, and its unusual proportions are still preserved in dyed reproductions.

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Our forefathers had strong opinions about unjust taxation. In 1765, when Americans were still British subjects, Parliament passed the Stamp Act. It was an attempt to raise revenue by directly taxing paper. Every piece of printed paper was to be taxed, from newspapers, cards, and pamphlets, to almanacs, legal papers and playing cards.  Even dice were taxed.

It did not go over well with the Americans. Tax on colonial trade had been more about regulating commerce, not raising money. But the Stamp Act was a direct attempt to raise money in the colonies, without the approval of the colonial legislatures.  This was not going to happen.

There was a lot of fuming and fussing going on about it, and Sam Adams in Boston certainly did his share. The Stamp Act Master, Andrew Oliver, was born into a life of privilege, and thought little of the “people.” But things changed one day when his effigy was hung, beheaded and burned in Boston. Oliver retreated to the safety of the island of Fort William.

Things began to escalate, so the British Governor ordered the militia to beat the drums and sound the alarm. Problem was, the drummers were out there protesting with the mob. So the Governor also decided to skip town.

As it turned out, the Stamp Master had to promise not to enforce the tax, and resign his post. As Sam Adams later said, “The people shouted; and their shout was heard to the distant end of this Continent.”

Adams and his close associates continued their efforts, expanding their organization into the Sons of Liberty. Parliament was forced to repeal the Act within a year. If it had not, the American Revolution of 1776 probably would have started ten years earlier in 1766.

 

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Molly Pitcher is described as a patriot who carried pitchers of water to soldiers and helped with cannon duty during the Battle of Monmouth in the American Revolution.

“Molly Pitcher” may be a combination folk hero inspired by the actions of many women who served in this role on the battlefield, and became know by this nickname.  During the American Revolutionary War it was common  for wives to be near their husbands in battle and help as needed.

Although historians conclude that Molly Pitcher cannot be definitely identified, most sources say she was Mary Ludwig Hays, born in Trenton New Jersey in 1754.  At the Battle of Monmouth, she earned this nickname as she carried pitchers of water to soldiers.

As the story goes, it was a brutally hot day in June, 1778. She made countless trips to a nearby spring to fill pitchers of cold water for soldiers to drink and to pour over their cannons to cool them down. When her husband William (John) Hays, the artilleryman, was wounded, she dropped her her water jugs and took up loading the artillery in his place. She kept the cannon loaded throughout the rest of the battle until the colonists had won the victory.

According to the National Archives, there was a witness to Molly Pitcher’s actions. Joseph Plumb Martin, a soldier in the Continental Army, was there. His memoirs, discovered in the 1950’s, documented her heroic acts: Plumb relates :

“A woman whose husband belonged to the artillery and who was then attached to a piece in the engagement, attended with her husband at the piece the whole time. While in the act of reaching a cartridge and having one of her feet as far before the other as she could stemp, a cannon shot from the enemy passed directly between her legs without doing any other damage than carrying away all the lower part of her petticoat. Looking at it with apparent unconcern, she observed that it was lucky it did not pass a little higher, for in that case it might have carried away something else, and continued her occupation.”

With her actions on that day, Molly Pitcher became one of the most popular and enduring symbols of the women who contributed to the American Revolution.

George Washington is said to have seen her heroics and issued her a commendation. Mary was allegedly called “Sergeant Molly” for the rest of her life. But where history ends and folklore begins is up for debate. There is no record of such  commendation from Washington. Martin’s account is the only real evidence available about her at Monmouth.

Mary Hays (“Molly Pitcher”)  was honored by the Pennsylvania Legislature in 1822 for her wartime services. She was awarded $40 and an annual commission for rest of her life. A monument in Carlisle commemorates her heroic acts in battle.

                                            

Whether Molly Pitcher is  one woman or a mixture of many, her legend tells the story of women’s heroism during the American Revolution.

 

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America has had its share of pirates. One could even say that the Boston Tea Party was a sort of piracy. It’s  likely that a some of those tea leaves found their way into a patriot’s teapot instead of landing at the bottom of Boston Harbor.

It was normal for a nation at war to authorize civilians to seize enemy shipping. Men who did this were called privateers. The Continental Congress issued this proclamation: 

“You may, by force of arms, attack, subdue, and take all ships and other vessels belonging to subjects of the King of Great-Britain…”

Nations called any enemy “privateers” pirates. During the American Revolution, even Navy Captain John Paul Jones was called a pirate. He was so successful off the British coast that the British Navy declared he was to be hanged if captured. Fortunately he never was, and won a famous battle against the 50-gun HMS Serapis off the east coast of Britain.

American Naval officer Joshua Barney was a privateer.  During the Revolutionary War, Barney once remarked that he was happiest when faced with “the point of the bayonet or the cannon’s mouth.” As a privateer during the War of 1812, Barney took 20 vessels from 1812-1813. He put his uniform back on and started building and commanding vessels, and even fought on land to defend the nation’s capital.

Jean Lafitte was a pirate and smuggler near New Orleans. He raided Spanish and French shipping. He even set up his own Kingdom of Barataria, made up of isolated islands in Louisiana. A local hero, he supplied “a steady and relatively inexpensive supply of dry goods, wine, all sorts of manufactured items…”

In 1812, the British tried to convert Jean Lafitte to their side, but he was a patriot at heart and would have nothing to do with it. When General Andrew Jackson came to defend New Orleans, Lafitte offered his services. The popular pirate supplied cannons, ammunition and skilled men. Pirates knew how to handle a cannon, and Lafitte had some of the best in the business. His men manned key artillery and were crucial to winning the battle.

The pirates were commended by Jackson as “having shown uncommon gallantry and skill in the field.”

 

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Until modern times, the great killer of soldiers in all armies was an invisible one. It was not bullets, cannons or bayonets, but the disease called smallpox. In 1775, smallpox had so devastated the American army in Canada that John Adams bemoaned that “…smallpox is ten times more terrible than the British, Canadians and Indians together.”

Washington knew all about this disease because he had survived it as a child. It could kill off the soldiers and destroy a viable army. Plus, just the threat of infection would scare off many of the troops that Washington desperately needed. The success or failure in the war to gain independence from Britain could be determined by this unseen killer. Washington described as a threat greater  “than…the Sword of the Enemy.”

Smallpox continued to plague the Continental Army and civilian populations. Epidemics broke out in Boston and Philadelphia in the summer of 1776.  American forces sent to take Quebec had to retreat because of the high number of soldiers infected with smallpox.

Washington took the bold and controversial move in the winter of 1777 in Morristown New Jersey to have soldiers inoculated against smallpox. Later while in encampment at Valley Forge, he went further and demanded that his entire army be inoculated.

Inoculation would have to be done in great secrecy because inoculated soldiers were unable to fight for a period of time. But Washington eventually put in place a system where new recruits would get the inoculation as soon as they enlisted. They would then have the mildest form of the disease while they were being outfitted with uniforms and weapons. By the time the men left to join, these new soldiers would be completely healed.  

By some reports, death from smallpox in the ranks dropped from 17% to a low of 1% of all reported deaths, a tremendous reduction.

Historian Elizabeth Fenn stated, “Washington’s unheralded and little-recognized resolution to inoculate the Continental forces must surely rank with the most important decisions of the war…”

George Washington’s military genius is undisputed. But American independence may not have happened without his strategy to reduce the loss of men to smallpox with the first mass military inoculation.

 

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George Washington was known for keeping his cool, so it was rare that anyone saw him lose his temper. But at the Revolutionary War Battle of Monmouth in New Jersey, Washington exploded in rage when his second in command disobeyed orders and retreated from an engagement.  

Washington had sent General Charles Lee ahead to engage British General Cornwallis while Washington brought his full army up from winter quarters at Valley Forge. But Lee withdrew from the fight after several hours.

When Washington met up with Lee, he cursed him furiously for withdrawing from the British. General Scott was there and said that the “leaves shook on the tree.”

Washington rode forward on his horse, encouraging his men to battle, and continued to do so throughout the day.  The day was so hot and Washington maneuvered around so swiftly – inspiring his men and directing the fight – that his horse died from exhaustion.

That night Washington resolved to continue the fight the next day, but when dawn came, the British were nowhere to be seen. They had retreated overnight.

Another of Washington’s generals, Marquis de Lafayette, was present at the battle, and later reported, “I thought then as now I had never beheld so superb a man.”

 

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The British had tens of thousands of troops in America throughout the war, but still found it  necessary to increase their numbers by hiring foreign troops. German rulers hired out some of their regular army units to Great Britain to fight against the Patriots in the American Revolution.  By 1776 thousands of soldiers called “Hessians” were pouring into America via New York.

The term “Hessians” refers to the approximately 30,000 German troops hired, principally drawn from the German state of Hesse-Cassel, as well as other German states.

One of the battles where American troops met Hessian fighting forces happened in Rhode Island.  

Rhode Island, a small state, located about 6 miles south of Boston, was the first of the 13 Colonies to declare its independence from Britain, May 4th, 1776.  It borders the Atlantic Ocean, but is not  actually an island. It got its name because there were early settlements on Aquidneck Island, which was then called “Rhode Island.”

A fierce battle was fought on Aquidneck. The British had strengthened the town of Newport, but the Americans wanted it. A French fleet set up a blockade forcing the British to scuttle their own small fleet. Then Colonial soldiers landed on the island, and the British withdrew.

But soon, a much larger British fleet appeared to take on the French ships. As the two fleets set for battle, a hurricane came up and damaged and scattered both fleets. The French withdrew for repairs.

Without the French, American land forces could not breach the British fortifications. As they withdrew, the British attacked. The Rhode Island regiments fought fiercely and well, and broke the British line, driving them back.

One of the Rhode Island regiments met up with Hessian troops, who attacked them in three waves. This particular regiment was predominantly made up of men of African descent, and  many Native Americans. The Rhode Island regiment beat back the Hessians so fast and furiously that after the battle the Hessian commander asked for a transfer: It seems he was afraid that his men would kill him if he went into battle with them again, because he had subjected them to so much slaughter.

Although the campaign failed in its overall goal, the new American nation took pride in its fighting troops. The Hessians were known as tough, professional soldiers, but the Americans were pretty tough themselves, chasing them out. The Continental Army was clearly an effective hard fighting force.

American General Greene was at the battle, and wrote:

“To behold our fellows, chasing the Hessians off the field of battle, afforded a pleasure which you can better conceive than I describe.”

He went on to say, “I had the pleasure to see them run in worse disorder than they did at the Battle of Monmouth.”

So for now you can say, See! The Hessians are going!

 

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