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Nathan Hale | American Revolutionary officer, Hero & Martyr

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Nathan Hale, American Revolutionary officer who attempted to spy on the British and was hanged. He attended Yale University, where he graduated in 1773, and became a schoolteacher, first in East Haddam and then in New London. He joined a Connecticut regiment in 1775, served in the siege of Boston,

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On the evening of March 5, 1770, British troops fired into a crowd of angry American colonists in Boston who had taunted and violently harassed them. Five colonists were killed. The event, which became known as the Boston Massacre, helped fuel the outrage against British rule-and spurred on the American Revolution.

Among those killed by the British, the first victim was a middle-aged sailor and rope-maker of mixed African American and American Indian descent named Crispus Attucks, accounts suggest. Attucks has been celebrated not just as one of the first martyrs in what became the fight for American independence, but also as a symbol of African Americans' struggle for freedom and equality.

Despite Attucks' fame, relatively little information about him has survived. Based upon various sources, including historians' accounts, news coverage and the transcript from the 1770 murder trial of the British soldiers involved in the confrontation, here are eight things that we do know about Crispus Attucks.

He was multiracial.

According to the New England Historical Society, Attucks is believed to have been born sometime around 1723 in the vicinity of Framingham, Massachusetts, possibly in Natick, a "praying Indian town" established to provide a safe haven where local natives who had been converted to Christianity could live without fear of being attacked by colonists or other Indians. His father was an enslaved African and his mother was a native woman who was a member of the Wampanoag tribe. She may have been descended from John Attucks, who was hanged for treason during King Philip's War, a native rebellion against the English settlers, in 1675-1676. According to Frederic Kidder's 1870 history of the massacre, Attucks' family lived in an old cellar.

He had escaped slavery.

Attucks seems to have spent most of his early life enslaved by a man named William Browne in Framingham. But when he was 27, Attucks ran away. In a newspaper advertisement published in 1750, Browne announced the escape of a "Molatto fellow" named Crispus, and described him as 6'2" with short, curly hair. He was also apparently knock-kneed. Attucks was wearing a bearskin coat, buckskin breeches and a checked shirt when he fled. Browne offered a reward of 10 British pounds plus expenses for his capture and return. But Attucks was never apprehended. As Neil L. York details in his book The Boston Massacre: A History with Documents, Attucks initially was identified in coroners' documents as "Michael Johnson," and may possibly have used that alias to avoid detection.

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He was a seaman.

After his escape, Attucks made his way to Boston, where according to the New England Historical Society, he became a sailor, one of the few trades open to a non-white person. (Around the time of the American Revolution, one-fifth of the 100,000 sailors employed on American ships were African American.) Attucks worked on whaling ships, and when he wasn't at sea, he found work as a rope-maker. On the night that he died, Attucks had just returned from the Bahamas, and was on his way to North Carolina.

He was a big man.

Attucks was six inches taller than the average American man of the Revolutionary War era, and testimony at the trial of the British soldiers indicted for his death depicted him as having a robust physique. John Adams, the future U.S. president who acted as one of the soldiers' defense attorneys, used Attucks' musculature-and his mixed-race lineage-in an effort to justify the British troops' fear of him. Adams described Attucks as "a stout mulatto fellow, whose very looks was enough to terrify any person," according to the trial transcript.

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He was angry at the British over competition for work.

As Douglas R. Egerton writes in his book Death Or Liberty: African Americans and Revolutionary America, Great Britain paid its soldiers so poorly that many of them found it necessary to take part-time jobs when they were off-duty. Competition from the influx of troops threatened to depress the wages of American workers such as Attucks. Additionally, as an experienced seaman, Attucks faced the danger of being seized by one of the British press gangs that Parliament authorized to forcibly draft sailors into the Royal Navy. His ire toward the British apparently was intense.

According to Egerton's book, on the evening of the massacre, Attucks was drinking at a pub with other seamen at a local tavern when a British soldier wandered in and inquired about part-time employment. Attucks was among the patrons who cursed the soldier and harassed him until he fled the establishment.

"Nobody was talking about American independence in March 1770," Egerton says. "And so while we know so little about Attucks, my guess is that as a mariner, he was far more concerned with basic economic survival than making any ideological gesture."

He was a tough, fearless street fighter.

According to testimony at the soldiers' trial, Attucks was at the front of the mob that went to confront the British soldiers. His brazen defiance took considerable courage, since he had escaped slavery, he faced the risk of being arrested and returned to servitude.

"The prudent thing to do for a man like Attucks was to back away from that confrontation, but he did not," Egerton says. Instead, according to trial testimony, Attucks brandished two wood sticks, one of which he gave to a witness named Patrick Keaton. Another witness, an enslaved man named Andrew, described Attucks-"this stout man"-stepping into the fray and swinging his stick at Captain Thomas Preston, and then knocking away a soldier's gun and hitting him in the face or head. According to Andrew, Attucks grabbed the solder's bayonet in his other hand and then yelled for the crowed to "kill the dogs, knock them over," just moments before the soldier regained control of his gun and shot him.

The jury acquitted the soldiers of murder in the deaths of the five Americans, though two of them-Matthew Kilroy and Hugh Montgomery-were convicted of the lesser crime of manslaughter and branded on their hands as a punishment and then released.
READ MORE: 7 Black Heroes of the American Revolution

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He was shot twice in the chest.

One of the musket balls that hit Attucks apparently didn't do too much damage, but the other, which tore an inch-wide hole in his chest, inflicted lethal injuries, according to the transcript of the British soldiers' trial. A contemporary newspaper account described the shot as "goring the right side of his lungs, and a great part of the liver most horribly."

Though some accounts describe him as being killed instantly, he may have lingered for at least a short time after. A witness named Robert Goddard, whose testimony is included in Kidder's book, said that he helped Attucks into a house. "After we got him in there, I saw him give one gasp," Goddard recalled.

He was honored as a hero after death.

In death, Attucks was afforded honors that no person of color-particularly one who had escaped slavery-probably had ever received before in America. As Egerton notes, Samuel Adams organized a procession to transport Attucks' casket to Boston's Faneuil Hall, where Attucks lay in state for three days before the victims' public funeral. According to historians William Bruce Wheeler and Lorri Glover, an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 people-more than half of Boston's population-joined in the procession that carried the caskets of Attucks and the other victims to the graveyard.

According to Eric Hinderaker's book Boston's Massacre, Attucks became a symbol in the 1840s for African American activists in the abolitionist movement, who promoted him as an example of a Black citizen and a patriot, and that image stuck. As civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote in 1964, Black schoolchildren "know that the first American to shed blood in the revolution that freed his country from British oppression was a Black seaman named Crispus Attucks."

Today, schools and public parks are named after Attucks, and his face has appeared on a commemorative silver dollar.
WATCH: Full episodes of the three-part miniseries event Washington.

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On the evening of March 5, 1770, British troops fired into a crowd of angry American colonists in Boston who had taunted and violently harassed them. Five colonists were killed. The event, which became known as the Boston Massacre, helped fuel the outrage against British rule-and spurred on the American Revolution.

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Historic Valley Forge. Read the story of the 6-month encampment at Valley Forge. Plus a timeline, weather reports, the French Connection, Franklin, spies, mysteries, and more!

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Instantly access The Colonial Minuteman plus over 40,000 of the best books & videos for kids.

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Alexander Hamilton: Facts, Birth, Children & Death - HISTORY

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Alexander Hamilton, one of America’s most influential Founding Fathers and Treasury secretaries, had a brilliant political career until he was killed in an 1804 duel.

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Learn more about some of the spies that aided the Patriot cause during the American Revolution.

Nathan Hale

During the Battle of Long Island, Nathan Hale--a captain in the Continental Army--volunteered to go behind enemy lines in disguise to report back on British troop movements. Hale was captured by the British army and executed as a spy on September 22, 1776. Hale remains part of popular lore connected with the American Revolution for his purported last words, "I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country."

Benjamin Tallmadge

In November 1778, George Washington charged Major Benjamin Tallmadge with creating a spy ring in New York City, the site of British headquarters. Tallmadge led the creation of the Culper Spy Ring, recruiting friends to work as his informants. Tallmadge served as the main handler for the Culper Spy Ring until the end of the war.

Learn More: The Culper Spy Ring

Austin Roe

A tavern owner, Austin Roe was closely tied to other members of the Culper Ring, even growing up near the home of fellow spy Caleb Brewster. Roe served as the group's courier, transporting materials from Robert Townsend's New York City coffee shop all the way back to Setauket, Long Island, a trip of more than fifty miles. Roe's position as courier was fraught with danger, traveling a long distance with the possibility of being caught with incriminating evidence of his activities.

Abraham Woodhull

A farmer and the son of a local Patriot judge, Abraham Woodhull joined the Culper ring in November of 1778. Woodhull was essentially the leader of the Culper Spy Ring, deciding what information was transmitted throughout the group, which would eventually make its way to George Washington. In order to evade British detection, Woodhull operated under the pseudonym, "Samuel Culper Sr."

Anna Strong

Well-connected within the New York, colonial, upper class, Anna Strong utilized her farmstead on Long Island to help transfer intelligence information to the other members of the Culper ring. Strong's husband, Selah Strong III, was a prominent Patriot judge who served as a captain during the war. Anna Strong arranged clothes on her clothesline as a means to signal fellow Culper spy Caleb Brewster regarding the location of hidden documents to be transported.

Robert Townsend

A tavern owner in New York City, Robert Townsend participated in a complex cover up to mask his true loyalties. Townsend was a Patriot who publicly presented himself as a Loyalist supporter of Britain, even writing for a Loyalist newspaper to build credibility. The guise worked as Townsend was trusted with sensitive information, even from British military officers. Townsend then relayed the information to Austin Roe.

James Armistead Lafayette

An enslaved African-American who volunteered to join the army under Lafayette in 1781, Armistead served as a double agent working for the Patriots. Armistead posed as a runaway slave who agreed to work with the British, though in actuality he was collecting intelligence from the British and reporting back to Patriot forces. Armistead spied on Brigadier General Benedict Arnold (who had already defected to lead British forces), and eventually visited the camp of Lord Cornwallis to gather information about the British plans for troop deployment and armaments. The intelligence reports from Armistead's efforts were instrumental in helping to defeat the British during the Battle of Yorktown.

Primary Source: Lafayette's Testimonial to James Armistead Lafayette (November 21, 1784 )

Ann Bates

A Philadelphia school teacher and the wife of a British soldier, Ann Bates claimed to be a Patriot in order to collect and identify important information to send to British forces. After walking into George Washington's White Plains headquarters, Bates explained that she "had the opportunity of going through their whole army remarking at the same time the strength and situation of each brigade, and the number of cannon, with their situation and weight of ball each cannon was charged with." Bates' information influenced General Henry Clinton's decision to send more forces to defend Rhode Island, leading to American and French armies to withdraw from Newport.

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Learn more about some of the spies that aided the Patriot cause during the American Revolution.

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He was short, solidly built (one acquaintance remembered that "there wasn't any wasted timber in him") and blessed with almost superhuman energy and endurance. He was handsome and charismatic, with black hair, gray eyes and an aquiline nose, and he carried himself with the lissome elegance of a natural athlete. A neighbor from Connecticut remembered that Benedict Arnold was "the most accomplished and graceful skater" he had ever seen.

He was born in 1741, a descendant of the Rhode Island equivalent of royalty. The first Benedict Arnold had been one of the colony's founders, and subsequent generations had helped to establish the Arnolds as solid and respected citizens. But Arnold's father, who had settled in Norwich, Connecticut, proved to be a drunkard; only after his son moved to New Haven could he begin to free himself from the ignominy of his childhood. By his mid-30s he had had enough success as an apothecary and a seagoing merchant to begin building one of the finest homes in town. But he remained hypersensitive to any slight, and like many gentlemen of his time he had challenged more than one man to a duel.

From the first, he distinguished himself as one of New Haven's more vocal and combative patriots. On hearing of the Boston Massacre, he thundered, "Good God, are the Americans all asleep and tamely giving up their glorious liberties?" When in April 1775 he learned of the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord, he seized a portion of New Haven's gunpowder supply and marched north with a company of volunteers. In Cambridge, Massachusetts, he convinced Dr. Joseph Warren and the Massachusetts Committee of Safety to authorize an expedition to capture Fort Ticonderoga in New York State and its 80 or more cannons.

As it turned out, others had the same idea, and Arnold was forced to form an uneasy alliance with Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys before the two leaders strode side by side into Ticonderoga. While Allen and his men turned their attention to consuming the British liquor supply, Arnold sailed and rowed to St. John, at the opposite end of Lake Champlain, where he and a small group of men captured several British military vessels and instantly gave America command of the lake.

Abrupt and impatient with anything he deemed superfluous to the matter at hand, Arnold had a fatal tendency to criticize and even ridicule those with whom he disagreed. When a few weeks later a Continental Army officer named James Easton dared to question the legitimacy of his authority as the self-proclaimed commodore of the American Navy on Lake Champlain, Arnold proceeded to "kick him very heartily." It was an insult Easton never forgot, and in the years ahead, he became one of a virtual Greek chorus of Arnold detractors who would plague him for the rest of his military career. And yet, if a soldier served with him during one of his more heroic adventures, that soldier was likely to regard him as the most inspiring officer he had ever known.

The American Revolution as it actually unfolded was so troubling and strange that once the struggle was over, a generation did its best to remove all traces of the truth. Although it later became convenient to portray Arnold as a conniving Satan from the start, the truth is more complex and, ultimately, more disturbing. Without the discovery of his treason in the fall of 1780, the American people might never have been forced to realize that the real threat to their liberties came not from without, but from within.

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In that first Revolutionary spring of 1775, Arnold learned of the death of his wife, Margaret. Upon returning from Lake Champlain to New Haven, he visited her grave with his three young sons at his side. Arnold's letters to her prior to the Revolution had been filled with pleas for her to write more often, and his grief upon her death seems to have been almost overpowering. And yet, for someone of Arnold's restless temperament, it was inconceivable to remain in New Haven with his sorrow. "An idle life under my present circumstances," he explained, "would be but a lingering death." After just three weeks, Arnold left his children under the care of his sister Hannah and was on his way back to Cambridge, where he hoped to bury his anguish in what he called "the public calamity." Over the next three years-in Canada, on Lake Champlain, in Rhode Island and Connecticut and again in New York-he made himself indispensable to his commander in chief, George Washington, and the Revolutionary cause.

It is impossible to say when 37-year-old Benedict Arnold first met 18-year-old Peggy Shippen, but we do know that on September 25, 1778, he wrote her a love letter-much of it an exact copy of one he'd sent to another woman six months before. But if the overheated rhetoric was recycled, Arnold's passion was genuine. Knowing of "the affection you bear your amiable and tender parents," he had also written to Peggy's loyalist-leaning father. "Our difference in political sentiments will, I hope, be no bar to my happiness," he wrote. "I flatter myself the time is at hand when our unhappy contest will be at an end." He also assured Peggy's father that he was wealthy enough "to make us both happy" and that he had no expectations of any kind of dowry.

Here in this letter are hints as to the motives behind Arnold's subsequent behavior. While lacking the social connections of the Shippens, who were the equivalent of Philadelphia aristocracy, Arnold had had prospects of accumulating a sizable personal fortune. Now the British had abandoned their occupation of the revolutionaries' capital, and Washington, needing something for Arnold to do while he recuperated from a battle-shattered left thigh, had named him the city's military governor. Having lost once-significant wealth, Arnold embarked on a campaign of secret, and underhanded, schemes to re-establish himself as a prosperous merchant. That end-and those means-were not uncommon among officers of the Continental Army.

But in September 1778 he did not yet have the money he needed to maintain Peggy in the style to which she was accustomed. There was also the matter of the Shippens' politics. They might not be outright loyalists, but they had a decided distaste for the radical patriots who were waging an undeclared war on Philadelphia's upper classes now that the British had gone. Given Arnold's interest in Edward Shippen's daughter and his lifelong desire to acquire the wealth his bankrupt father had denied him, it is not surprising that he embraced the city's marginalized nobility with a vengeance.

Thumbing his nose at the pious patriots who ruled the city, he purchased an ornate carriage and entertained extravagantly at his new residence, the same grand house the British general William Howe had occupied. He attended the theater, even though the Continental Congress had advised the states to ban such entertainments as "productive of idleness, dissipation and general depravity." He issued passes to suspected loyalists wanting to visit friends and relatives in New York City, which was held by the British. He even appeared at a ball in a scarlet uniform, which led a young lady whose father had been arrested for corresponding with the British to joyfully exclaim, "Heyday, I see certain animals will put on the lion's skin."

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One of Arnold's misfortunes was that Joseph Reed had become a champion, however unlikely, of Pennsylvania's radical patriots. A London-educated lawyer with an English wife, Reed had a reputation as one of Philadelphia's finest and most ambitious attorneys before the Revolution. But the Reeds had not fit well into the upper echelons of Philadelphia society. Reed's pious wife complained that one of Peggy Shippen's relatives had accused her of being "sly," claiming that "religion is often a cloak to hide bad actions."

Reed had served on Washington's staff as adjutant general at the beginning, when Washington faced the daunting task of dislodging the British from Boston in 1775. But by the end of the year, with the Continental Army run out of New York City and retreating across New Jersey, he had lost faith in his commander. Reed was away from headquarters when a letter arrived from the army's second-ranking officer, Maj. Gen. Charles Lee. Assuming the letter related to official business, Washington promptly broke the seal. He soon discovered that Reed had established his own line of communication with Lee and that the primary topic of their correspondence was the failings of their commander in chief.

Washington forwarded the letter to Reed with a note explaining why he had opened it, but otherwise let him twist in the icy emptiness of his withheld wrath. He kept Reed on, but their intimacy had ended.

Brilliant, mercurial and outspoken, Reed had a habit of antagonizing even his closest friends and associates, and he eventually left Washington's staff to serve in a variety of official capacities, always restless, always the smartest, most judgmental person in the room. As a New England minister wrote to Washington, the man was "more formed for dividing than uniting."

In the fall of 1778, Reed stepped down as a Pennsylvania delegate to Congress to help the state's attorney general prosecute 23 suspected loyalists for treason. He lost 21 of those cases-there wasn't much evidence to work with-but the position established him as one of the city's most zealous patriots. That November, the two wealthy Quakers who had been convicted were hanged.

In an apparent act of protest, Arnold hosted "a public entertainment" at which he received "not only Tory [or loyalist] ladies but the wives and daughters of persons proscribed by the state" in "a very considerable number," Reed sputtered in a letter to a friend. Perhaps contributing to his ire was the fact that he and his wife had recently moved into the house next to Arnold's and hadn't been invited to the party.

By December Reed was president of the state's Supreme Executive Council, making him the most powerful man in one of the most powerful states in the country. He quickly made it clear that conservative patriots were the enemy, as were the Continental Congress and the Continental Army. As council president, he insisted that Pennsylvania prevail in any and all disputes with the national government, regardless of what was best for the United States as a whole. Philadelphia was at the vortex of an increasingly rancorous struggle involving almost all the seminal issues related to creating a functioning democratic republic, issues that would not begin to be resolved until the Constitutional Convention of 1787.

Amid all this upheaval, Reed launched an investigation into the military governor's conduct. The prosecution of Benedict Arnold-a Washington favorite, an emblem of national authority and a friend to Philadelphia's wealthy-would be the pretext to flex his state's political muscle. And it would lead Arnold to doubt the cause to which he had given so much.

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By late January 1779, Arnold was preparing to leave the military. Officials in New York State, where he was held in high regard, had encouraged him to consider becoming a landowner on the scale of the loyalist Philip Skene, whose vast estate at the southern tip of Lake Champlain had been confiscated by the state. Arnold's financial dealings in Philadelphia had failed to yield the anticipated returns. Becoming a land baron in New York might be the way to acquire the wealth and prestige that he had always craved and that Peggy and her family expected.

By early February he had decided to journey to New York, stopping to visit Washington at his headquarters in New Jersey. Reed, fearing that Arnold might escape to New York before he could be brought to justice for his sins in Philadelphia, hurriedly put together a list of eight charges, most of them based on rumor. Given the pettiness of many of the charges (which included being ungracious to a militiaman and preferring loyalists to patriots), Reed appeared to be embarked on more of a smear campaign than a trial. That Arnold was guilty of some of the more substantive charges (such as illegally purchasing goods upon his arrival in Philadelphia) did not change the fact that Reed lacked the evidence to make a creditable case against him. Arnold knew as much, and he complained of his treatment to Washington and the commander's family of officers.

Washington had refused to take sides in the dispute between Philadelphia's radicals and conservatives. But he knew that Reed was hardly the steadfast patriot he claimed to be. For the last year, a rumor had been circulating among the officers of the Continental Army: Reed had been in such despair over the state of the war in late December 1776 that he'd spent the night of Washington's assault on Trenton at a home in Hessian-occupied New Jersey, poised to defect to the British in the event of an American defeat. In that light, his self-righteous prosecution of Quakers and other loyalists seemed hypocritical in the extreme. It's likely that Washington had heard at least some version of the claim, and just as likely that he took the charges against Arnold with a grain of salt. Still, Reed's position on the Supreme Executive Council required that Washington accord him more civility than he probably deserved.

On February 8, 1779, Arnold wrote to Peggy from the army's headquarters in Middlebrook, New Jersey. "I am treated with the greatest politeness by General Washington and the officers of the army," he assured her. He claimed that the consensus at headquarters was that he should ignore the charges and continue on to New York.

Despite this advice, he had resolved to return to Philadelphia, not only to clear his name but because he was so desperately missing Peggy. "Six days' absence without hearing from my Dear Peggy is intolerable," he wrote. "Heavens! What must I have suffered had I continued my journey-the loss of happiness for a few dirty acres. I can almost bless the villainous...men who oblige me to return." In utter denial regarding his complicity in the trouble he was now in, he was also deeply in love.

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Back in Philadelphia, Arnold came under near-ceaseless attack from the Supreme Executive Council. But since the council was unwilling to provide the required evidence-primarily because it did not have any-the Congressional committee appointed to examine the charges had no choice but to find in Arnold's favor. When the council threatened to withhold the state militia and the large number of state-owned wagons upon which Washington's army depended, Congress tabled its committee's report and turned the case over to Washington for a court-martial.

More than a few Congressional delegates began to wonder what Reed was trying to accomplish. As a patriot and a Philadelphian, Congress's secretary Charles Thomson had once considered Reed a friend. No more. Reed's refusal to bring forward any legitimate evidence, combined with his continual assaults on the authority and integrity of Congress, made Thomson wonder whether his former friend was trying to destroy the political body upon which the country's very existence depended. Was Reed, in fact, the traitor?

The previous summer Reed had received an offer of £10,000 if he would assist a British peace commission's efforts with Congress. In a letter published in a Philadelphia newspaper, Reed claimed to have indignantly refused the overture. But had he really? One of the commissioners had recently assured Parliament that secret efforts were under way to destabilize the government of the United States and that these "other means" might prove more effective in ending the war than military attempts to defeat Washington's army. There is no evidence that Reed was indeed bent on a treasonous effort to bring down Congress, but as Thomson made clear in a letter to him, his monomaniacal pursuit of Arnold was threatening to accomplish exactly that.

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In the meantime, Arnold needed money, and fast. He had promised Edward Shippen that he would bestow "a settlement" on his daughter prior to their marriage as proof that he had the financial resources Peggy's father required. So in March of 1779, Arnold took out a loan for £12,000 and, with the help of a sizable mortgage, bought Mount Pleasant, a mansion on 96 acres beside the Schuylkill that John Adams had once claimed was "the most elegant seat in Pennsylvania."

There was one hitch, however. Although he had technically purchased Peggy a mansion, they were not going to be able to live in it, since Arnold needed the rental payments from the house's current occupant to help pay the mortgage.

Harassed by Reed, carrying a frightening burden of debt, Arnold nonetheless had the satisfaction of finally winning Edward Shippen's consent, and on April 8, he and Peggy were married at the Shippens' house. Now Arnold had a young, beautiful and adoring wife who was, he proudly reported the next morning to several of his friends, good in bed-at least that was the rumor the Marquis de Chastellux, a major general in the French Army who was fluent in English, heard later when visiting Philadelphia.

However, within just a few weeks, Arnold was finding it difficult to lose himself in the delights of the connubial bed. Reed had not only forced a court-martial upon Arnold; he was now attempting to delay the proceedings so that he could gather more evidence. What's more, he had called one of Washington's former aides as a witness, an even more disturbing development since Arnold had no idea what the aide knew. Arnold began to realize that he was, in fact, in serious trouble.

Aggravating the situation, his left leg was not healing as quickly as he had hoped, and his right leg became wracked by gout, making it impossible for him to walk. Arnold had been in tight spots before, but always had been able to do something to bring about a miraculous recovery. But now, what was there to do?

If the last nine months had taught him anything, it was that the country to which he had given everything but his life could easily fall apart. Instead of a national government, Congress had become a facade behind which 13 states did whatever was best for each of them. Indeed, it might be argued that Joseph Reed was now more influential than all of Congress combined.

What made all of this particularly galling was the hostility that Reed- and apparently most of the American people-held toward the Continental Army. More and more Americans regarded officers like Arnold as dangerous hirelings on the order of the Hessian mercenaries and British regulars, while local militiamen were looked to as the patriotic ideal. In reality, many of these militiamen were employed by community officials as thuggish enforcers to terrorize local citizens whose loyalties were suspect. In this increasingly toxic and volatile environment, issues of class threatened to transform a collective quest for national independence into a sordid and self-defeating civil war.

By the spring of 1779, Arnold had begun to believe that the experiment in independence had failed. And as far as he could tell, the British had a higher regard for his abilities than his own country did. Gen. John Burgoyne was in London defending himself before Parliament with the claim that if not for Arnold, his army would have won the Battle of Saratoga. That February, the Royal Gazette had referred sympathetically to his plight in Philadelphia: "General Arnold heretofore had been styled another Hannibal, but losing a leg in the service of the Congress, the latter considering him unfit for any further exercise of his military talents, permit him thus to fall into the unmerciful fangs of the executive council of Pennsylvania." Perhaps the time was right for him to offer his services to the British.

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Arnold is usually credited with coming up with the idea himself, but there are reasons to think the decision to turn traitor originated with Peggy. Certainly the timing is suspect, following so soon after their marriage. Arnold was bitter, but even he had to admit that the Revolution had catapulted him from the fringes of respectability in New Haven to the national stage. Peggy, on the other hand, regarded the Revolution as a disaster from the start. Not only had it initially forced her family to flee from Philadelphia; it had reduced her beloved father to a cringing parody of his former self. How different life had been during those blessed months of the British occupation, when noble gentleman-officers had danced with the belles of the city. With her ever-growing attachment to Arnold fueling her outrage, she had come to despise the revolutionary government that was now trying to destroy her husband.

By marrying Peggy, Arnold had attached himself to a woman who knew how to get what she wanted. When her father had initially refused to allow her to marry Arnold, she had used her seeming frailty-her fits, her hysteria, whatever you wanted to call it-to manipulate him into agreeing to the engagement for fear that she might otherwise suffer irreparable harm. Now she would get her way with her equally indulgent husband.

Given the ultimate course of Arnold's life, it is easy to assume that he had fully committed himself to treason by the time he sent out his first feelers to the British in early May 1779. But that was not the case. He still felt a genuine loyalty to Washington. On May 5, Arnold wrote his commander what can only be described as a hysterical letter. The apparent reason for it was the delay of his court-martial to June 1. But the letter was really about Arnold's fear that he might actually do as his wife suggested. "If your Excellency thinks me criminal," he wrote, "for heaven's sake, let me be immediately tried and if found guilty executed."

What Arnold wanted more than anything now was clarity. With the court-martial and exoneration behind him, he might fend off Peggy's appeals. Joseph Reed, however, was bent on delaying the court-martial for as long as possible. In limbo like this, Arnold was dangerously susceptible to seeing treason not as a betrayal of all he had held sacred but as a way to save his country from the revolutionary government that was threatening to destroy it.

In his anguish on May 5, he offered Washington a warning: "Having made every sacrifice of fortune and blood, and become a cripple in the service of my country, I little expected to meet the ungrateful returns I have received of my countrymen, but as Congress have stamped ingratitude as a current coin I must take it. I wish your Excellency for your long and eminent services may not be paid of in the same coin."

In the reference to money, Arnold unintentionally betrayed the real reason he had been moved to consider this course. If he handled the negotiations correctly, turning traitor could be extremely lucrative. Not only would he be able to walk away from his current financial obligations, he might command a figure from the British that would make him independently wealthy for life.

On May 10, an emissary from Arnold reached John André, a British captain whom Peggy had come to know well in Philadelphia. But now André was living in New York City, which would become crucial to the Revolution's prospects in the months ahead. Arnold wanted to explore the possibility of defecting, but first he needed to be assured of two things: Were the British in this war to stay? And how much were his services worth?

In the tortuous months ahead, Arnold would survive his oft-delayed court-martial with a reprimand, and Washington would restore him to command. But the emissary's visit was the first tentative step that led, in late summer-fall of 1780, to Arnold's doomed effort to hand over the fortifications at West Point to the enemy.

By reaching out to the British, Arnold gave his enemies the exquisite satisfaction of having been right all along. Like Robert E. Lee at the beginning of the American Civil War, Arnold could have declared his change of heart and simply shifted sides. But as he was about to make clear, he was doing this first and foremost for the money.

Editor-in-chief Michael Caruso interviewed author Nathaniel Philbrick on our Facebook page about Benedict Arnold. Watch the video and follow us for more great history stories from Smithsonian magazine and ​Smithsonian.com.

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Why Benedict Arnold Turned Traitor Against the American Revolution

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The story behind the most famous betrayal in U.S. history shows the complicated politics of the nation's earliest days

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Aaron Burr was born in 1756 in Newark, New Jersey. He was the son of Aaron Burr, Sr. - the second president of Princeton, and was the grandson of Jonathan Edwards. He graduated at 16 from the College of New Jersey as a student of theology, but later switched his career track to study law.

Burr began his military service as a volunteer around 1775, and served during Benedict Arnold's "March to Quebec" [September 13 - November 9, 1775]. He is credited with trying to evacuate the body of General Richard Montgomery after he was killed in action during the invasion. Burr joined the staff of George Washington in 1776 and was called to New York City. He and General Washington apparently did not get along and he left a few weeks later. On June 22 he became an aide-de-camp to General Israel Putnam, eventually seeing action in the Battle of Long Island and the evacuation of New York City. He was commissioned Lieutenant Colonel of Malcolm's Regiment on January 4, 1777. He was stationed at Orange County, New York, essentially the commander of the regiment at the age of 21

He spent the winter of 1777-1778 at Valley Forge where he was almost involved with the Conway Cabal. After evacuating with the army on June 19, 1778, he commanded a brigade during Monmouth. After the action there, he openly supported General Charles Lee - whom Washington had reprimanded upon finding him retreating from battle. Burr commanded his regiment following the Monmouth Campaign in Westchester County, New York.

Aaron Burr resigned on March 3, 1779 citing ill health. By the fall of the following year, he resumed his career as a student of law. In 1782, he married Mrs. Theodosia Bartow Prevost, the widow of a British officer who was also ten years older than him. They had one daughter, Theodosia, in 1783, who subsequently died at sea in 1813. Aaron Burr and his wife were married for twelve years, when she passed away.

Burr was a very successful attorney. He moved to New York in 1783 and shared a practice with Alexander Hamilton. In 1789, New York Governor, George Clinton named him Attorney General, launching his political career. He was elected a U.S. senator in 1791, defeating incumbent General Philip Shuyler, who happened to be the father-in-law of Alexander Hamilton, which may well have contributed to the enmity between the two men, which was to later culminate in their famous duel.

After one six-year term in the Senate, Burr ran for president in 1796 and again in 1800. Back then, a candidate for president did not campaign alongside a running-mate, who would serve as his vice-president if elected. Instead, each elector could cast two votes for any two candidates in the race, and whoever received the most votes became president, provided he received a majority, while the runner-up became vice-president, even if they were from opposing political parties.

Burr came in fourth in 1796. John Adams was elected president, with Jefferson as Vice-President. By 1800, Adams' popularity had waned, as did support for his Federalist Party. This was the first election in which each party nominated a "ticket," with one candidate for president and another for vice-president, although the rules would not change until 1804 with the passage of the 12th Amendment, which decreed that electors would vote for the offices of president and vice-president separately. Jefferson and Burr, both members of the opposition Democratic-Republican party, tied for first place with 73 electoral votes each. The tie was broken by the House of Representatives, which selected Jefferson as President, Burr as Vice President.

In 1804, Burr ran for governor of New York, but lost by a large margin to Morgan Lewis. This, along with other setbacks, he blamed on Alexander Hamilton's political machinations. On July 11, 1804 - Burr and Hamilton met at ten paces at Weehawken. Both fired and Hamilton fell, mortally wounded. As far as history records, this is the only time a sitting vice-president shot and killed someone while in office. Burr continued to serve the reminder of his term as vice-president until March of 1805.

Burr later was charged with treason in a conspiracy regarding capitalization on a possible war with Spain. He eventually was acquitted after a trial in 1807. He sailed to England in 1808 hoping to gain support for a revolution in Mexico. He was ordered out of the country and traveled in Europe to Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Paris. There he tried to garner support from Napoleon. This failed, leaving him so penniless he couldn't even travel home. He eventually sailed by French ship in 1811 but it was captured by the British and he was detained in England until May 1812. He finally returned to the United States to pursue his law practice back in New York.

In 1833, he married again, this time to the widow of Stephen Jumel. When she realized her fortune was dwindling from her husband's land speculation, they separated after only four months. During the month of their first anniversary, she sued for divorce which was granted the day he died: September 14, 1836.

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With his back to the York River, British General Charles Lord Cornwallis intended to refit and resupply his 9,000-man army in the fall of 1781.

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The term “Hessians” refers to the approximately 30,000 German troops hired by the British to help fight during the American Revolution.

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Royal Massachusetts Governor Thomas Hutchinson

They were the ones who were not afraid. They knew instinctively that talk and politics alone would not bring an end to British tyranny. They were willing to resort to extralegal means if necessary to end this series of injustices. They were American patriots - northern and southern, young and old, male and female. They were the Sons and Daughters of Liberty.

Like other secret clubs at the time, the Sons of Liberty had many rituals. They had secret code words, medals, and symbols. Originally formed in response to the Stamp Act, their activities were far more than ceremonial. It was the Sons of Liberty who ransacked houses of British officials. Threats and intimidation were their weapons against tax collectors, causing many to flee town. Images of unpopular figures might be hanged and burned in effigy on the town's Liberty Tree. Offenders might be covered in warm tar and blanketed in a coat of feathers.

Another important function of the Sons of Liberty was correspondence. These clubs could be found up and down the colonial seaboard. Often they coordinated their activities. Like the public Congresses that would be convened, this private band of societies provided an intercolonial network that would help forge unity. It should come as no surprise that the members of the Sons of Liberty and the delegates to the various Congresses were at times one and the same.

The Daughters of Liberty performed equally important functions. Once nonimportation became the decided course of action, there was a natural textile shortage. Mass spinning bees were organized in various colonial cities to make homespun substitutes. Since women often purchased consumer goods for the home, the Daughters of Liberty became instrumental in upholding the boycott, particularly where tea was concerned. The most zealous Daughters of Liberty refused to accept gentleman callers for themselves or their daughters who were not sympathetic to the patriot cause.

Of course, the winners write the history books. Had the American Revolution failed, the Sons and Daughters of Liberty would no doubt be regarded as a band of thugs, or at the very least, outspoken troublemakers. History will be on their sides, however. These individuals risked their lives and reputations to fight against tyranny. In the end, they are remembered as heroes.

Sons of Liberty Flag
Known as the "Rebellious Stripes," the Sons of Liberty flag was a rallying standard for the radical group. This page gives a little history of the Liberty Flag and includes a nice image.

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Sons and Daughters of Liberty [ushistory.org]

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Royal Massachusetts Governor Thomas Hutchinson They were the ones who were not afraid. They knew instinctively that talk and politics alone would not bring an end to British tyranny. They were willing to resort to extralegal means if necessary to end this series of injustices.

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Born into slavery around 1760, James Armistead lived most of his life on a plantation in New Kent, Virginia. During the American Revolution, however, James received permission from his master, William Armistead, to enlist in the Marquis de Lafayette's French Allied units. Here, the army dispatched Armistead as a spy, playing the role of a runaway slave to gain access to General Cornwallis's headquarters. Because Armistead was a native Virginian with extensive knowledge of the terrain, the British received him without suspicion. As a result, Armistead accomplished what few spies could: direct access to the center of the British War Department.

After successfully infiltrating British intelligence, Armistead floated freely between the British and American camps. As a double agent, he relayed critical information to Lafayette and misleading intel to the enemy. Oblivious to his true intentions, the British assigned Armistead to work under the notorious turncoat, Benedict Arnold. By helping Arnold maneuver his troops through Virginia, Armistead gained significant insight into the Redcoats' movements.

Several of Armistead's finest acts occurred in 1781, during a critical moment in the Revolution-the Battle of Yorktown. The spy informed Lafayette and Washington about approaching British reinforcements, which allowed the generals to devise a blockade impeding enemy advancements. This success resulted in the final major victory for the colonists when Lord Cornwallis surrendered on October 17, 1781.

Though Americans celebrated freedom throughout the United States at the end of the war, James Armistead returned to life as a slave. His status as a spy meant that he did not benefit from the Act of 1783, which emancipated any slave-soldiers that fought for the Revolution.

As a result, Armistead began the process of petitioning Congress to fight for his freedom. After several years without success, Armistead received help from an old comrade in arms, the Marquis de Lafayette. Upon learning that Armistead remained enslaved, Lafayette wrote a letter to Congress on his behalf. Armistead received his manumission in 1787.

Living off his annual pension fee, Armistead moved to his own 40-acre farm in Virginia, where he married, raised a family, and lived out the rest of his life as a freeman. Armistead added Lafayette to his name as a token of gratitude and a testament to the bond the former slave and French general shared.

The two crossed paths again during Lafayette's grand tour of the United States in 1824, where the general picked James out of a crowd and cordially embraced him. James Armistead Lafayette died in 1832.

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Born into slavery around 1760, James Armistead lived most of his life on a plantation in New Kent, Virginia. During the American Revolution, however, James...

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General George Washington asks for a volunteer for an extremely dangerous mission: to gather intelligence behind enemy lines before the coming Battle of Harlem Heights. Captain Nathan Hale of the 19th Regiment of the Continental Army stepped forward and subsequently become one of the first known American spies of the Revolutionary War.

Disguised as a Dutch schoolmaster, the Yale University-educated Hale slipped behind British lines on Long Island and then successfully gathered information about British troop movements for the next several weeks. While Hale was behind enemy lines, the British invaded the island of Manhattan; they took control of the city on September 15, 1776. When the city was set on fire on September 20, 1776, British soldiers were put on high alert for sympathizers to the Patriot cause. The following evening, on September 21, 1776, Hale was captured while sailing Long Island Sound, trying to cross back into American-controlled territory.

Hale was interrogated by British General William Howe and, when it was discovered that he was carrying incriminating documents, General Howe ordered his execution for spying, which was set for the following morning. After being led to the gallows, legend holds that Hale was asked if he had any last words and that he replied with these now-famous words, "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country." There is no historical record to prove that Hale actually made this statement, but, if he did, he may have been inspired by these lines in English author Joseph Addison's 1713 play Cato: "What a pity it is/That we can die but once to serve our country."

Patriot spy Nathan Hale was hanged by the British on the morning of September 22, 1776. He was just 21 years old. Although rumors later surfaced that Hale's capture was the result of a betrayal by his first cousin and British Loyalist Samuel Hale, the exact circumstances leading to Hale's arrest have never been discovered.

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Nathan Hale volunteers to spy behind British lines | September 10, 1776 | HISTORY

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General George Washington asks for a volunteer for an extremely dangerous mission: to gather intelligence behind enemy lines before the coming Battle of Harlem Heights. Captain Nathan Hale of the 19th Regiment of the Continental Army stepped forward and subsequently become one of the first known American spies of the Revolutionary War.

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Photo: Bettmann/Getty Images

Quick Facts

An eyewitness at the Battle of Monmouth said a cannonball fired from the British side sailed right between Molly Pitcher's legs, leaving her unscathed.

Molly Pitcher was a patriot who carried pitchers of water to soldiers and helped with cannon duty during the American Revolution's Battle of Monmouth.

Who Was Molly Pitcher?

Molly Pitcher was an American patriot who carried pitchers of water to soldiers during the Revolutionary War's Battle of Monmouth, thereby earning her nickname. After her husband collapsed during the battle, she took over the operation of his cannon

There are so many legends surrounding Pitcher that some historians believe her story is folklore or a composite of several people. Although there has been ample research done mostly by her descendants, independent review of the documents has led some historians to conclude that Pitcher cannot be definitely identified. Most sources identify her birth name as Mary Ludwig, daughter of Maria Margaretha and Johann George Ludwig, and identify her first husband as William Hays (also sometimes referred to as John Hays), who was in the artillery and fought at the Battle of Monmouth.

Early Life and the Battle of Monmouth

Pitcher was born circa October 13, 1754, near Trenton, New Jersey. In 1768, she moved to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where she met Hays, a local barber. They married on July 24, 1769.

During the American Revolutionary War, Hays enlisted as a gunner in the Continental Army. As it was common at the time for wives to be near their husbands in battle and help as needed, Pitcher followed Hays back to New Jersey during the war's Philadelphia Campaign (1777-78).

Hays fought in the Battle of Monmouth in Freehold, New Jersey, on June 28, 1778, a brutally hot day. His wife was present as well, and 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.

As legend has it, the soldiers nicknamed her Molly Pitcher for her tireless efforts. But the legend only began with her new name. According to accounts, Pitcher witnessed her husband collapse at his cannon, unable to continue with the fight. She immediately dropped her water pitcher and took his place at the cannon, manning the weapon throughout the remainder of the battle until the colonists achieved victory. According to the National Archives, a witness documented her heroic acts, reporting that a cannon passed through her legs on the battlefield, leaving her unscathed:

"While in the act of reaching a cartridge . . . 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 . . . She observed that it was lucky it did not pass a little higher . . . and continued her occupation."

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

Postwar Life and Death

Pitcher remained with the Continental Army until the war ended, then moved back to Carlisle with Hays in April 1783. Following her husband's death, she married a war veteran named John McCauley and worked in the State House in Carlisle. She was honored by the Pennsylvania Legislature in 1822 for her wartime services, receiving an award of $40 and an annual commission of the same amount for the rest of her life. She died on January 22, 1832, in Carlisle, where a monument commemorates her heroic acts in battle.

Women of the American Revolution

There are many other women who also volunteered their service during the American Revolution and whose lives may have contributed to the legend of Pitcher. Historians point to Margaret Corbin, who was in the same regiment with her husband John as Pitcher and her husband. Called Captain Molly, Corbin wore a uniform and when her husband was wounded on the firing line, she stepped in to fight. She was also wounded and captured by the British but eventually released. Corbin was later reassigned to perform guard duty at West Point. Whether she is representative of one woman or a composite of many, Pitcher is a folklore character whose legend tells the story of women's heroism during the American Revolution.

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An eyewitness at the Battle of Monmouth said a cannonball fired from the British side sailed right between Molly Pitcher's legs, leaving her unscathed. Molly Pitcher was a patriot who carried pitchers of water to soldiers and helped with cannon duty during the American Revolution's Battle of Monmouth.

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Loyalists, fence-sitters and patriots in the American Revolution

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Loyalists, fence-sitters and patriots in the American Revolution

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Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roche Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette was born in 1757. Before his second birthday, his father, Michel de Lafayette, was killed at the battle of Minden during the Seven Year's War. At the age of twelve, his mother and grandfather died, leaving him a young, wealthy orphan. On April 9, 1771, at the age of fourteen, Lafayette entered the Royal Army. When he was sixteen, Lafayette married Marie Adrienne Francoise de Noailles - allying himself with one of the wealthiest families in France.

At a dinner on August 8, 1775, Lafayette heard the Duke of Gloucester speak with sympathy of the ongoing struggle in the colonies. He made clandestine arrangements with Silas Deane, a liaison between France and the colonies, to travel to America and join the revolutionary cause.

He landed near Charleston, South Carolina, June 13, 1777, then travelled to Philadelphia, where he was commissioned a Major General on July 31. This reflected his wealth and noble social station, rather than years of battlefield experience - he was only 19 years old. The newly commissioned young general was soon introduced to his commander-in-chief, General George Washington, who would become a lifelong friend.

Lafayette was wounded during the September 11, 1777 Battle of the Brandywine. In December, 1777, he camped with Washington and the army at Valley Forge. As the Conway Cabal unfolded, Lafayette sided with Washington. He wrote a long letter to Washington in which he pledged his loyalty. Washington replied, conveying his sincere appreciation for the Frenchman's support.

General Horatio Gates had convinced Congress to appoint a Board of War, over which he would have complete control. Knowing how loyal Lafayette was to Washington, Gates urged that Lafayette should command the expedition. Congress agreed to the campaign and gave Gates authority to work out the details.

Gates wrote a letter to Washington, informing him that Congress had approved the invasion of Canada and also that he had appointed Lafayette to command the expedition. Lafayette did not want to accept the appointment, but Washington overruled his objections and Lafayette reluctantly accepted. Lafayette travelled to York, Pennsylvania, which served as the capital from September 1777 to June of 1778, and began to carry out plans for the proposed expedition. On February 17, 1778, Lafayette rode to Albany New York, the staging point for the Canadian invasian.

The proposed Canadian expedition began to fall apart. It was clear to Lafayette that the troops and supplies at his disposal were inadequate. Other generals, including Schuyler, Lincoln and Arnold agreed. Compounding matters, Lafayette discovered that many of the troops he was to command were owed back pay totalling over eight hundred thousand dollars.

In a letter to Washington dated February 23, 1778 Lafayette describes the grim situation:

I have written lately to you my distressing, ridiculous, foolish, and indeed nameless situation-I am sent with a great noise at the head of an army for doing great things, the whole continent, france and europe herself by in by, and what is the worse, the british army are in expectations-how far they will be deceived, how far we schall be ridiculized, you may judge very well by the candid account you have got of the State of our affairs.

Lafayette then reveals his suspicions that the entire Canadian campaign and his appointment to lead it was nothing but a ruse to remove him from the area, the better to conspire against Washington:

I fancy (between us) that the actual scheme is to have me out of this part of the continent, and general Conway in chief under the immediate direction of General Gates - how they will bring it up I do not know - but be certain some thing of that kind will appear

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Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roche Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette was born in 1757. Before his second birthday, his father, Michel de Lafayette, was killed at the battle of Minden during the Seven Year's War. At the age of twelve, his mother and grandfather died, leaving him a young, wealthy orphan.

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Who Was Alexander Hamilton?

Alexander Hamilton was born in the British West Indies, and later became General George Washington's assistant. In 1788, as one of America's Founding Fathers, he convinced New Yorkers to agree to ratify the U.S Constitution. Hamilton - an avowed Federalist - then served as the nation's first secretary of the treasury, from 1789 to 1795.

Early Life

Hamilton was born on the island of Nevis in the British West Indies, on January 11, 1755 or 1757 (the exact date is unknown). Hamilton's parents were Rachel Fawcett Lavien, who was of British and French Huguenot descent, and James Hamilton, a Scottish trader.

At the time of Hamilton's birth, Rachel was married to John Lavien, a much older merchant whom she had been pressured to wed by her parents when she was a teenager. They had a son, Peter together.

Lavien was abusive to Rachel and had spent nearly all the money she had inherited when her father died in 1745. During their tumultuous relationship, by Danish law, he even had her imprisoned for several months for adultery.

When she was released, instead of returning to her husband and son, the independent-minded Rachel fled the troubled marriage and moved to St. Kitts. It was there she met and moved in with James Hamilton, with whom she had another son, James (Alexander's older brother), who was born in 1753.

After moving back to St. Croix, James Sr. abandoned the family when Hamilton was a boy, leaving Rachel and her sons impoverished. John Adams would one day come to characterize Hamilton's rise from humble beginnings by describing the young Hamilton as "the bastard brat of a Scottish peddler."

Determined to improve his lot in life, Hamilton took his first job at the tender age of 11, not long after his father left. But the family was soon dealt another sad blow. After working tirelessly to make ends meet, his mother became ill and died in 1768 at the age of 38.

Working as an accounting clerk in a mercantile in St. Croix, the bright and ambitious young lad quickly impressed his employer. Through this early experience, Hamilton was first exposed to international commerce - including the importing of enslaved people - and learned about the business of money and trade.

Hamilton's boss, a businessman named Nicolas Cruger, so valued Hamilton's acumen when it came to accounting that he and other businessmen pooled their resources with a minister and newspaper editor named Hugh Knox to send Hamilton to America for an education. Hamilton had impressed Knox with an eloquent letter he had written describing a ferocious hurricane that had hit the island in 1772.

In 1773, when he was around 16 years old, Hamilton arrived in New York, where he enrolled in King's College (later renamed Columbia University). Despite his gratitude toward his generous patrons, with the American colonies on the brink of a revolution, Hamilton was drawn more to political involvement than he was to academics. In 1774, he wrote his first political article defending the Patriots' cause against the interests of pro-British Loyalists.

A quick learner, Hamilton deemed himself quite capable of becoming a self-made man. Intent on learning through hands-on experience, he left King's College before graduating to join forces with the Patriots in their protest of British-imposed taxes and commercial business regulations.

Military Career

In 1775, when the Revolutionary War began, Hamilton became part of the New York Provincial Artillery Company and fought in the battles of Long Island, White Plains and Trenton.

In 1777, after Hamilton fought in that year's battles of Brandywine Creek, Germantown and Princeton, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the Continental Army. During his early service in the fight for American independence, he caught the attention of General George Washington, who made Hamilton his assistant and trusted adviser.

For the next five years, Hamilton put his writing skills to work. He wrote Washington's critical letters and composed numerous reports on the strategic reform and restructuring of the Continental Army.

Wife and Children

On December 14, 1780, Hamilton married Elizabeth "Eliza" Schuyler, the daughter of Revolutionary War general Philip Schuyler.

By all accounts, they enjoyed a strong relationship throughout their marriage and would have eight children together, despite the revelation that Hamilton had once conducted an extramarital affair with a married woman, Maria Reynolds. Hamilton's affair with Reynolds is considered one of the first sex scandals in the country's history.

In a letter to his wife dated July 4, 1804 (just days before his fateful duel with Aaron Burr), Hamilton wrote, "Fly to the bosom of your God and be comforted. With my last idea; I shall cherish the sweet hope of meeting you in a better world. Adieu best of wives and best of Women. Embrace all my darling Children for me."

Eliza, who lived for 50 years after the death of her husband, would dedicate her life to preserving his legacy.

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End of the War

Growing restless in his desk job, in 1781 Hamilton convinced Washington to let him taste some action on the battlefield. With Washington's permission, Hamilton led a victorious charge against the British in the Battle of Yorktown.

The British surrender after this battle would eventually lead to two major negotiations in 1783: the Treaty of Paris between the United States and Great Britain, and two treaties signed at Versailles between France and Britain and Spain. These treaties and several others comprise the collection of peace agreements known as Peace of Paris, officially marking the end of the American Revolutionary War.

While serving as an adviser for Washington, Hamilton had come to realize Congress' weaknesses, including jealousy and resentment between states, which, Hamilton believed, stemmed from the Articles of Confederation. (He believed that the Articles - considered America's first, informal constitution - separated rather than unified the nation.)

Hamilton left his adviser post in 1782, convinced that establishing a strong central government was the key to achieving America's independence. It would not be the last time that Hamilton worked for the U.S. Army.

In 1798, Hamilton was appointed inspector general and second in command, as America geared up for a potential war with France. In 1800, Hamilton's military career came to a sudden halt when America and France reached a peace agreement.

Law Career

After completing a short apprenticeship and passing the bar, Hamilton established a practice in New York City.

The majority of Hamilton's first clients were the widely unpopular British Loyalists, who continued to pledge their allegiance to the King of England. When British forces took power over New York State in 1776, many New York rebels fled the area, and British Loyalists, many of whom had traveled from other states and were seeking protection during this time, began to occupy the abandoned homes and businesses.

When the Revolutionary War ended, nearly a decade later, many rebels returned to find their homes occupied, and sued Loyalists for compensation (for using and/or damaging their property). Hamilton defended Loyalists against the rebels.

In 1784, Hamilton took on the Rutgers v. Waddington case, which involved the rights of Loyalists. It was a landmark case for the American justice system, as it led to the creation of the judicial review system. He accomplished another history-making feat that same year when he assisted in founding the Bank of New York. In defending the Loyalists, Hamilton instituted new principles of due process.

Hamilton went on to take an additional 45 trespass cases and proved to be instrumental in the eventual repeal of the Trespass Act, which had been established in 1783 to permit rebels to collect damages from the Loyalists who had occupied their homes and businesses.

Politics and Government

Hamilton's political agenda entailed establishing a stronger federal government under a new Constitution.

In 1787, while serving as a New York delegate, he met in Philadelphia with other delegates to discuss how to fix the Articles of Confederation, which were so weak that they could not persist in keeping the Union intact. During the meeting, Hamilton expressed his view that a reliable ongoing source of revenue would be crucial to developing a more powerful and resilient central government.

Hamilton didn't have a strong hand in writing the Constitution, but he did heavily influence its ratification. In collaboration with James Madison and John Jay, Hamilton wrote 51 of 85 essays under the collective title The Federalist (later known as The Federalist Papers).

In the essays, he artfully explained and defended the newly drafted Constitution prior to its approval. In 1788, at the New York Ratification Convention in Poughkeepsie, where two-thirds of delegates opposed the Constitution, Hamilton was a powerful advocate for ratification, effectively arguing against the anti-Federalist sentiment. His efforts succeeded when New York agreed to ratify.

Secretary of the Treasury

When Washington was elected president of the United States in 1789, he appointed Hamilton as the first secretary of the treasury. At the time, the nation was facing great foreign and domestic debt due to expenses incurred during the American Revolution.

Ever a proponent for a strong central government, during his tenure as treasury secretary, Hamilton butted heads with fellow cabinet members who were fearful of a central government holding so much power. Lacking their state loyalties, Hamilton went so far as to turn down New York's opportunity to house the nation's capital in favor of securing backing for his economic program, dubbed the "dinner table bargain."

It was Hamilton's belief that the Constitution gave him the authority to create economic policies that strengthened the central government. His proposed fiscal policies initiated the payment of federal war bonds, had the federal government assume states' debts, instituted a federal system for tax collection and would help the United States establish credit with other nations.

State loyalists were outraged by Hamilton's suggestions, until a compromise was reached during a dinner conversation between Hamilton and Madison on June 20, 1790. Hamilton agreed that a site near the Potomac would be established as the nation's capital, and Madison would no longer block Congress, particularly its Virginia representatives, from approving policies that promoted a more powerful central government over individual states' rights.

Hamilton stepped down from his position as secretary of the treasury in 1795, leaving behind a far more secure U.S. economy to back a strengthened federal government.

Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton

During the 1800 presidential elections, Thomas Jefferson, a Democratic-Republican, and John Adams, a Federalist, were vying for the presidency.

At the time, presidents and vice presidents were voted for separately, and Aaron Burr, intended to be Jefferson's vice president on the Democratic-Republican ticket, actually tied Jefferson for the presidency.

Choosing Jefferson as the lesser of two evils, Hamilton went to work supporting Jefferson's campaign, and in so doing undermined the attempts of Federalists to garner a tie-breaking win for Burr. Ultimately, the House of Representatives chose Jefferson as president, with Burr as his vice president. However, the standoff had damaged Jefferson's trust in Burr.

Duel

During his first term, Jefferson often left Burr out of discussions on party decisions. When Jefferson ran for re-election in 1804, he decided to remove Burr from his ticket. Burr then opted to run independently for the New York governorship but lost.

Frustrated and feeling marginalized, Burr hit his boiling point when he read in a newspaper that Hamilton had called Burr "the most unfit and dangerous man of the community."

Burr was infuriated. Convinced that Hamilton had ruined yet another election for him, Burr demanded an explanation.

When Hamilton refused to comply, Burr, further enraged, challenged Hamilton to a duel. Hamilton begrudgingly accepted, believing that in doing so he would assure his "ability to be in [the] future useful."

How Did Alexander Hamilton Die?

Hamilton met Burr at the duel, which began at dawn on July 11, 1804, in Weehawken, New Jersey. When both men drew their guns and shot, Hamilton was severely wounded, but Hamilton's bullet missed Burr.

Hamilton, injured, was brought back to New York City, where he died the next day, on July 12, 1804. Hamilton's grave is located in the cemetery of Trinity Church in downtown Manhattan, New York City.

Legacy and 'Hamilton' Musical

Through the political philosophy espoused in his Federalist Papers, Hamilton continues to exert a powerful influence over the role of government in American life.

In addition to a number of statues, place names and memorials dedicated to Hamilton throughout the United States, he has been immortalized in the hit Broadway show Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda.

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Alexander Hamilton was born in the British West Indies, and later became General George Washington's assistant. In 1788, as one of America's Founding Fathers, he convinced New Yorkers to agree to ratify the U.S Constitution. Hamilton - an avowed Federalist - then served as the nation's first secretary of the treasury, from 1789 to 1795.

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Revolutionary War Spies! Read about their techniques.

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Benedict Arnold was born on January 14, 1741 in Norwich, Connecticut. Arnold was one of a number of Benedict Arnolds including his father and his great-grandfather, an early governor of Rhode Island. Arnold's mother was Hannah Waterman King, a wealthy widow, before her marriage to the elder Arnold. The family prospered until some poor business deals caused financial problems. Arnold's father turned to the local taverns for solace. Arnold attended school at Canterbury. While there, two sisters and one brother died from Yellow Fever.

Without money, Benedict Arnold was withdrawn from school. With the lack of the structure of formal schooling, and lax parental control, young Benedict was often in trouble. His mother finally found help from family: cousins Daniel and Joshua Lathrop took Arnold in as an apprentice to their large and successful apothecary business. He left his apprenticeship a couple of times to join the army for periods of time during the French and Indian War, but remained in the employ of his cousins for years.

Arnold's mother died in 1759, his father, two years later. After leaving the apprenticeship, Arnold traveled to Europe, buying supplies for his own apothecary which he established in New Haven. The only surviving member of his immediate family was Hannah, his sister, and she became his assistant. His business dealings drifted into smuggling . . . in contempt of the customs laws of the Crown.

In 1767 Arnold married Margaret Mansfield. They had three sons. Prior to the official outbreak of war, Arnold became a Captain in the Governor's Second Company of Guards. When the word spread of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, Arnold was eager for action and at Cambridge he requested permission of the Massachusetts Committee of Safety to lead a campaign to capture Ft. Ticonderoga.

Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys were equally eager to capture such a prize and the two groups met up with each other at Bennington. Arnold was surprised and a little angered because Ethan Allen did not care if Arnold had permission from the Committee of Safety and Arnold couldn't talk Allen out of relinquishing command. Arnold had to concede to accompanying Allen and his rowdy, rough and tumble fighters. On May 10, 1775, they surprised the British garrison and the Green Mountain Boys celebrated by invading the rum stores of the British and getting totally sloshed. They virtually ignored Benedict Arnold except when they were teasing and jeering him. Arnold had an argument with Colonel James Easton, who was to deliver the missive announcing the victory of the capture to Massachusetts. In his regimental memorandum book, Arnold wrote:

I took the liberty of breaking his head, and on his refusing to draw like a gentleman, he having a hanger [short sword] by his side and a case of loaded pistols in his pocket. I kicked him very heartily and ordered him from the Point immediately.

Arnold and Allen really didn't agree on much . . . except for the essential need of an invasion of Canada. Easton returned from his mission to Massachusetts while Arnold and Allen were planning the Canadian Invasion. Easton had done his best to diminish Arnold's participation in the capture of Ticonderoga and the two were arguing once more. The hot-tempered Arnold soon had some more people to fight with: Connecticut governor Johnathan Trumbull appointed Colonel Benjamin Hinman to command the Fort. Ethan Allen relinquished his command. Arnold did not, instead threatening to sail two ships under his command directly to a nearby British outpost and surrender them. Hinman then enlisted the treasonous Arnold's soldiers, took command of his ships, and dissolved his command. Completely affronted, Arnold went to Albany and there sent off a statement of the situation at Ticonderoga to the Continental Congress.

Arnold had been caught in the middle of the political machinations of Connecticut and Massachusetts, both vying for the glory that would accompany the capture of the British stores at Fort Ticonderoga. When Massachusetts acquiesced to Connecticut's preeminence in the territory, Arnold most certainly felt abandoned.

Arnold's wife died in June of 1775. After succumbing to a bout of gout himself, Arnold traveled to Cambridge to settle up his accounts with the Massachusetts Committee of Safety. He was given only a small portion of his expenses, nowhere near his total bill. Piqued, he turned the accounting over to Silas Deane, who in turn presented them to the Continental Congress, and he was finally repaid the balance of the account.

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Benedict Arnold was born on January 14, 1741 in Norwich, Connecticut. Arnold was one of a number of Benedict Arnolds including his father and his great-grandfather, an early governor of Rhode Island. Arnold's mother was Hannah Waterman King, a wealthy widow, before her marriage to the elder Arnold.

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Loyalists, fence-sitters and patriots in the American Revolution

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Loyalists, fence-sitters and patriots in the American Revolution

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Aaron Burr, in full Aaron Burr, Jr., (born February 6, 1756, Newark, New Jersey [U.S.]-died September 14, 1836, Port Richmond, New York, U.S.), third vice president of the United States (1801-05), who killed his political rival, Alexander Hamilton, in a duel (1804) and whose turbulent political career ended with his arrest for treason in 1807.

Early years and the American Revolution

Burr, the son of Aaron Burr, Sr., and Esther Edwards, came from a prominent New Jersey family and was a grandson of the theologian Jonathan Edwards. While he was still a young child, both his parents died, and he and his sister, Sarah, were ultimately raised by an uncle. At age 16 Burr graduated from the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University)-his father had served as the school's second president-and then began studying law. However, Burr halted his studies to fight in the American Revolution (1775-83). He distinguished himself while serving with Benedict Arnold and was promoted to major. He then joined the staff of Gen. George Washington, but both men reportedly developed a mutual dislike for each other, and he was soon transferred. Burr then became an aide to Gen. Israel Putnam and became known for his bravery. He rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel, but in 1779 he resigned, largely because of ill health.

Political career: U.S. Senate and vice presidency

In 1782 Burr was admitted to the New York state bar, and his law practice in New York City soon flourished. During this time he married a widow, and the couple was together until her death in 1794. In 1784 and 1785 he was elected to the state assembly, and in 1789 he was appointed attorney general by Gov. George Clinton. By 1791 he had built a successful political coalition against Gen. Philip Schuyler, father-in-law of Alexander Hamilton (then secretary of the treasury), and won election to the United States Senate, incurring the enmity of Hamilton. Burr ran for vice president in 1796 but lost. The following year he failed to win reelection to the Senate-losing to Schuyler-and spent the next two years in state politics.

In 1800 Burr won the vice presidential nomination on the Jeffersonian Republican ticket. He carried New York state and thus helped bring about a national victory for his party. Under the electoral college procedures then prevailing, the electors had cast their votes for both Thomas Jefferson and Burr without indicating which should be president and which vice president. Both men had an equal number of electoral votes, and the Federalist-controlled House of Representatives had to break the tie. Although Burr maintained that he would not challenge Jefferson-an assertion that Jefferson did not wholly accept-Hamilton's determined opposition to Burr was a strong factor in Jefferson's election after 36 ballots. (In 1804 the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution was adopted, requiring electors to cast separate ballots for president and vice president.)

Burr took office, but he was marginalized by Jefferson, who had come to believe that Burr had been engaged in secret dealings to secure the presidency for himself. That and other incidents left Burr deeply unpopular with party leaders, and his renomination as vice president seemed doubtful.

Duel and treason charges

In February 1804 Burr's friends in the New York legislature nominated him for the governorship. Hamilton contributed to Burr's defeat by disseminating letters containing derogatory comments about Burr. Shortly thereafter, Governor Clinton replaced him as the Republican vice presidential candidate. Once again Burr felt himself to be the political victim of Hamilton's animosity, and he challenged him to a duel at Weehawken, New Jersey. (Although duels were illegal in both New York and New Jersey, the penalties were less severe in the latter state.) The two men faced off on July 11, 1804. There are conflicting accounts about what happened. It is uncertain who fired first and whether Hamilton missed on purpose or whether he shot wide after involuntarily discharging his pistol when hit by Burr. In any event, Burr was unhurt, but Hamilton was fatally wounded and died the next day.

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Arrest warrants were issued for Burr, whom many now viewed as a murderer, and he fled to Philadelphia, where he contacted his friend Gen. James Wilkinson, a United States Army officer secretly in the pay of Spain and the governor of the northern Louisiana territory. Expecting war to break out between the United States and Spain over boundary disputes, Wilkinson and Burr planned an invasion of Mexico in order to establish an independent government there. Possibly-the record is inconclusive-they also discussed a plan to foment a secessionist movement in the West and, joining it to Mexico, to found an empire on the Napoleonic model. In any event, Wilkinson became alarmed and betrayed Burr to President Jefferson. Trying to escape to Spanish territory, Burr was arrested and returned for trial to Richmond, Virginia, the site of the nearest federal court that could hear a trial for treason. Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court John Marshall presided in his capacity as circuit judge for Virginia. (At that time, circuit courts had original jurisdiction to try treason cases; the Supreme Court has never had that power.) Marshall acquitted Burr on the ground that acts of treason against the United States by definition require the existence of a state of war (Article III, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution).

Although acquitted, Burr remained under a cloud of suspicion and distrust. He soon left for Europe, where he tried in vain to enlist the aid of Napoleon in a plan to conquer Florida. Burr remained abroad for four years, living in customary indebtedness. He returned to New York in 1812 and practiced law. He married a wealthy widow, Elizabeth Brown Jumel, in 1833, but he frittered away much of her fortune within a year. Eventually she sued for divorce on grounds of adultery, and a divorce decree was granted on September 14, 1836, the day Burr died.

Amy Tikkanen.

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Aaron Burr, in full Aaron Burr, Jr., (born February 6, 1756, Newark, New Jersey [U.S.]-died September 14, 1836, Port Richmond, New York, U.S.), third vice president of the United States (1801-05), who killed his political rival, Alexander Hamilton, in a duel (1804) and whose turbulent political career ended with his arrest for treason in 1807.

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On September 28, 1781, General George Washington, commanding a force of 17,000 French and Continental troops, begins the siege known as the Battle of Yorktown against British General Lord Charles Cornwallis and a contingent of 9,000 British troops at Yorktown, Virginia, in the most important battle of the Revolutionary War.

Earlier, the French fleet commanded by Francois, Count de Grasse, departed St. Domingue (the then-French colony that is now Haiti) for the Chesapeake Bay, just as Cornwallis chose Yorktown, at the mouth of the Chesapeake, as his base. Washington realized that it was time to act. He ordered Marquis de Lafayette and an American army of 5,000 troops to block Cornwallis' escape from Yorktown by land while the French naval fleet blocked the British escape by sea. By September 28, Washington had completely encircled Cornwallis and Yorktown with the combined forces of Continental and French troops. After three weeks of non-stop bombardment, both day and night, from artillery, Cornwallis surrendered to Washington in the field at Yorktown on October 17, 1781, effectively ending the War for Independence.

Pleading illness, Cornwallis did not attend the formal surrender ceremony, held on October 19. Instead, his second in command, General Charles O'Hara, carried Cornwallis' sword to the American and French commanders.

Although the war persisted on the high seas and in other theaters, including with Native American and British forces in the west, the Patriot victory at Yorktown ended fighting in the American colonies. Peace negotiations began in 1782, and on September 3, 1783, the Treaty of Paris was signed, formally recognizing the United States as a free and independent nation after eight years of war.

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Battle of Yorktown begins | September 28, 1781 | HISTORY

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On September 28, 1781, General George Washington, commanding a force of 17,000 French and Continental troops, begins the siege known as the Battle of Yorktown against British General Lord Charles Cornwallis and a contingent of 9,000 British troops at Yorktown, Virginia, in the most important battle of the Revolutionary War.

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The Hessians were an important part of the Revolutionary War, but who were the Hessians, and why were these German soldiers fighting for the British?

In the eighteenth century, Germany was not a unified nation as we know it today; instead, various smaller Principalities, Duchies, and Counties were loosely organized under the declining Holy Roman Empire. Friction between various states resulted in a feudal-like society, complete with power struggles and internal warfare. German unification finally came a century later, in 1871.

Conflicts within the German states, and with the other European powers, created a body of well-trained and experienced soldiers, but hurt the feudal economy. To alleviate this, the princes of the small German states often hired out their armies to supplement their income. German troops saw combat during the War of Spanish Succession from 1701-1714 fighting for Prince Eugene of Savoy (Italy) and during the Jacobite Rebellion in 1715 fighting for Great Britain under George I. In perhaps the best example of the peculiarities of the German states, during the War for Austrian Succession, 1740-1748, German troops fought on both sides, some hired by Great Britain and others by France.

When the war clouds of the American Revolution began to gather, Great Britain turned to the German states to provide much needed manpower. After the Seven Years War (French and Indian War), Britain demobilized in order to alleviate the massive debt caused by the war. Many of these budget cuts came from the army in order to maintain the powerful navy that Britain relied on to protect its empire. When the Revolution began, Britain needed trained soldiers to fight not only in North America, but also throughout its empire.

In North America, the German troops are often referred to as "Hessian Mercenaries," but this is somewhat of an inaccuracy. Great Britain hired 34,000 German soldiers, of which more than half, 18,000, were from the Principality of Hesse-Kassel, which resulted in all German soldiers being generalized as "Hessians." The remaining soldiers were from states such as Anhalt-Zerbst, Anspach-Beyreuth, Brunswick, Hannover, Hesse-Hanau, and Waldeck.

The term "Mercenary" is also misleading. In the modern sense, mercenary implies a soldier for hire who makes a large amount of money from their service. The German soldiers had no choice; they were still in the army of their prince, who had decided to rent their services to a foreign power without the individual soldier's approval. While the German troops were well paid, they did not receive any bonuses for service with Great Britain.

German troops served throughout the Revolution, and were both feared and admired for their discipline and ferocity. German troops played important roles in many battles, but are most famous for their service in the northern theater. At White Plains, Hessians under Leopold Philip de Heister hammered the American lines until they broke. At Fort Washington, Hessians under Wilhelm von Knyphausen overran the American defenders. Knyphausen gave the honor of requesting the American surrender to Colonel Johann Rall. Colonel Rall later commanded the Hessian garrison at Trenton that was defeated and captured, with Rall himself mortally wounded.

There were Brunswick troops with Burgoyne at Saratoga, and troops from Hesse and Anspach-Bayreuth with General Howe during the Philadelphia Campaign. Germans did see limited action in the south. Hessians were at the Siege of Charleston, and Hessian and Anspach-Bayreuthian regiments surrendered with Cornwallis at Yorktown.

Many of the Germans who were captured during the war were held around Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The area was ideal because of its Distance from the fighting, and large German-speaking population.

Between 40 and 50 percent of the German troops did not return home. Many of these were casualties, but some chose to stay in the United States, drawn by the opportunity and freedom offered by the new nation.

Without the added strength of the German troops, the British war effort would have been seriously hampered. In addition to fighting in North America, German troops saw action in other parts of the British Empire, most notably Hanoverian troops at the Great Siege of Gibraltar. The "Hessians" are a critical part of the American Revolution, and understanding their history gives us a better understanding of the entire war.

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This page explains who the Hessian soldiers of the American Revolution were, and why they fought for Great Britain.

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Sons of Liberty was a group established to undermine British rule in colonial America and was influential in organizing The Boston Tea Party.

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James Armistead was an enslaved African American, best known for his work as a spy during the American Revolution.

Who Was James Armistead?

James Armistead was born into slavery in Virginia around 1748. With the permission of his master, Armistead enlisted in the Revolutionary War under General Lafayette. Working as a spy, Armistead gained the trust of General Cornwallis and Benedict Arnold, providing information that allowed American forces to prevail at the Battle of Yorktown. Armistead died in 1830, having successfully petitioned for his freedom in 1787.

Early Life

Born into slavery to owner William Armistead around December 10, 1748, in New Kent, Virginia. In 1781, James Armistead volunteered to join the U.S. Army in order to fight for the American Revolution. His master granted him permission to join the revolutionary cause, and the American Continental Army stationed Armistead to serve under the Marquis de Lafayette, the commander of allied French forces.

Life as a Spy

Lafayette employed Armistead as a spy, with the hopes of gathering intelligence in regards to enemy movements. Posing as a runaway slave hired by the British to spy on the Americans, Armistead successfully infiltrated British General Charles Cornwallis' headquarters. He later returned north with turncoat soldier Benedict Arnold, and learned further details of British operations without being detected. Able to travel freely between both British and American camps, Armistead could easily relay information to Lafayette about British plans.

Using the details of Armistead's reports, Lafayette and General George Washington were able to prevent the British from sending 10,000 reinforcements to Yorktown, Virginia. The American and French blockade surprised British forces and crippled their military. As a result of the Lafayette and Washington's victory in Yorktown, the British officially surrendered on Oct. 19, 1781.

Despite his critical actions, Armistead returned to William Armistead after the war to continue his life as a slave. He was not eligible for emancipation under the Act of 1783 for slave-soldiers, because he was considered a slave-spy, and had to petition the Virginia legislature for his emancipation. The Marquis de Lafayette assisted him by writing a recommendation for his freedom, which was granted in 1787. In gratitude, Armistead adopted Lafayette's surname.

Later Life and Death

After receiving his freedom, he moved nine miles south of New Kent, bought 40 acres of land, and began farming. He later married, raised a large family, and was granted a $40 annual pension by the Virginia legislature for his services during the American Revolution. He lived as a farmer in Virginia until his death on August 9, 1830.

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James Armistead was an enslaved African American, best known for his work as a spy during the American Revolution. James Armistead was born into slavery in Virginia around 1748. With the permission of his master, Armistead enlisted in the Revolutionary War under General Lafayette.

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In his seminal book, Why We Can't Wait, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote about the inspired life of Crispus Attucks, saying, "He is one of the most important figures in African-American history, not for what he did for his own race but for what he did for all oppressed people everywhere.

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Learn about the biography of Molly Pitcher including her real name, folklore, where the name came from, Mary Ludwig Hays, Margaret Corbin, and interesting facts.

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Thomas Hutchinson, a Supreme Court justice in Massachusetts, was the most hated man in America before Benedict Arnold, and was hung in effigy many times for being a loyalist.

The year is 1774. Whether you are a merchant in Massachusetts, a German-born farmer living in Pennsylvania, a tavern-owning woman of Maryland, or a slave-owner in the South, you share some things in common. For instance, you probably don't like paying taxes on such goods as tea that wind up going to support the royal coffers in London. At the same time you like the notion of being part of the British Empire, the most powerful in the world.

Chances are you speak English and have many British relatives or ancestors. Or, even if you're a German farmer with no ties to Britain, you are still grateful for the opportunity to farm peacefully in this British-ruled land. Yet, you hear murmurings - radical notions about separating from Britain are making the rounds. Those hotheads in Boston recently threw a load of tea in the harbor and the British retaliated with something called the Intolerable Acts. A confrontation is looming.

Who will you support? The radical Americans or the British? Fact is, it's not an easy decision. Not only will your way of life be drastically affected, but whomever you choose to side with will make you instant enemies.

Lord Dunmore, the royal governor of Virginia at the start of the Revolutionary War, offered freedom to enslaved Africans and Indians for joining the British Army.

Any full assessment of the American Revolution must try to understand the place of Loyalists, those Americans who remained faithful to the British Empire during the war.

Although Loyalists were steadfast in their commitment to remain within the British Empire, it was a very hard decision to make and to stick to during the Revolution. Even before the war started, a group of Philadelphia Quakers were arrested and imprisoned in Virginia because of their perceived support of the British. The Patriots were not a tolerant group, and Loyalists suffered regular harassment, had their property seized, or were subject to personal attacks.

The process of "tar and feathering," for example, was brutally violent. Stripped of clothes, covered with hot tar, and splattered with feathers, the victim was then forced to parade about in public. Unless the British Army was close at hand to protect Loyalists, they often suffered bad treatment from Patriots and often had to flee their own homes. About one-in-six Americans was an active Loyalist during the Revolution, and that number undoubtedly would have been higher if the Patriots hadn't been so successful in threatening and punishing people who made their Loyalist sympathies known in public.

One famous Loyalist is Thomas Hutchinson, a leading Boston merchant from an old American family, who served as governor of Massachusetts. Viewed as pro-British by some citizens of Boston, Hutchinson's house was burned in 1765 by an angry crowd protesting the Crown's policies. In 1774, Hutchinson left America for London where he died in 1780 and always felt exiled from his American homeland. One of his letters suggested his sad end, for he, "had rather die in a little country farm-house in New England than in the best nobleman's seat in old England." Like his ancestor, Anne Hutchinson who suffered religious persecution from Puritan authorities in the early 17th-century, the Hutchinson family suffered severe punishment for holding beliefs that other Americans rejected.

American patriots used tar and feathering to intimidate British tax collectors.

Perhaps the most interesting group of Loyalists were enslaved African-Americans who chose to join the British. The British promised to liberate slaves who fled from their Patriot masters. This powerful incentive, and the opportunities opened by the chaos of war, led some 50,000 slaves (about 10 percent of the total slave population in the 1770s) to flee their Patriot masters. When the war ended, the British evacuated 20,000 formerly enslaved African Americans and resettled them as free people.

Along with this group of black Loyalists, about 80,000 other Loyalists chose to leave the independent United States after the Patriot victory in order to remain members of the British Empire. Wealthy men like Thomas Hutchinson who had the resources went to London. But most ordinary Loyalists went to Canada where they would come to play a large role in the development of Canadian society and government. In this way, the American Revolution played a central role shaping the future of two North American countries.

James Chalmers and Plain Truth
Along with earning Thomas Paine the respect of his fellow Patriots, his pamphlet Common Sense brought scorn from those loyal to the English Crown. James Chalmers, a Maryland planter, decided to counter Paine with his own work which he dubbed Plain Truth. Chalmers angrily denounced the American cause and called Paine a "political quack." View an ad announcing its first publishing, listen to a reading from Plain Truth, or read a fine essay on Chalmers and his Loyalist document.

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Loyalist Institute
Complete coverage of the Loyalist presence in the Revolution is the focus of this site. Divided into many different sections, all packed with information. Read up on Loyalist regiments, genealogy, re-enactment groups, black Loyalists, uniforms, music and more, more, more. Just take a minute to get the hang of the navigation, and you'll be knee-deep in Loyalist info.

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Thomas Hutchinson
From being the "most popular man in the colony" to his eventual exile back to England, Thomas Hutchinson's turbulent life is profiled on Bartleby.com's Great Books Online page. This bio covers Hutchinson's troubles with rebellious colonists, as well as providing some commentary on his History of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay. No images to see, just a quick overview of one of the more famous Loyalists.

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Tar and Feathers in Revolutionary America
America at the time of the Revolution was a great place if your opinions matched those of the Patriots. Opponents to the popular uprising were often treated to the harshest forms of punishment. This in-depth essay on using tar and feathering to silence Loyalists and others comes to you from Brandeis University. Sorry, no images of what some colonists referred to as "new-fashioned discipline."

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The Birchtown Archaeology Project
When black Loyalists fled the colonies for Nova Scotia in 1783, they landed at Shelburne and were assigned land which became known as Birchtown. More than 2 centuries later an excavation took place at Birchtown; it continues to provide clues as to how life was for these 18th century refugees.

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In 1775, Lord Dunsmore issued the first emanicpation proclamation in American history - however qualified and motivated by military desperation : "I do hereby further declare all indented Servants, Negroes, or others, (appertaining to Rebels,) free that are able and willing to bear Arms."
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In the battle over taxes, patriot and loyalist did their part to keep a certain medieval tradition alive: "Yankee Doodle came to town / For to buy a firelock, / We will tar and feather him / And so we will John Hancock."
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Thomas Hutchinson, a Supreme Court justice in Massachusetts, was the most hated man in America before Benedict Arnold, and was hung in effigy many times for being a loyalist. The year is 1774. Whether you are a merchant in Massachusetts, a German-born farmer living in Pennsylvania, a tavern-owning woman of Maryland, or a slave-owner in the South, you share some things in common.

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The Minutemen played a crucial role not only in the Revolutionary War, but in earlier conflicts.

Minuteman holding musket and flag. Cover illustration from Harper's Weekly, July 15, 1876. Wood engraving by Speer, "from a picture by George W. Maynard, in Memorial Hall, Phila."

Although the terms militia and minutemen are sometimes used interchangeably today, in the 18th century there was a decided difference between the two. Militia were men in arms formed to protect their towns from foreign invasion and ravages of war. Minutemen were a small hand-picked elite force which were required to be highly mobile and able to assemble quickly. Minutemen were selected from militia muster rolls by their commanding officers. Typically 25 years of age or younger, they were chosen for their enthusiasm, reliability, and physical strength. Usually about one quarter of the militia served as Minutemen, performing additional duties as such. The Minutemen were the first armed militia to arrive or await a battle.

Although today Minutemen are thought of as connected to the Revolutionary War in America, their existence was conceived in Massachusetts during the mid-seventeenth century. As early as 1645, men were selected from the militia ranks to be dressed with matchlocks or pikes and accoutrements within half an hour of being warned. In 1689 another type of Minuteman company came into existence. Called Snowshoemen, each was to "provide himself with a good pair of snowshoes, one pair of moggisons, and one hatchet" and to be ready to march on a moment's warning. Minutemen also played a role in the French and Indian War in the 1750's. A journal entry from Samuel Thompson, a Massachusetts militia officer, states, "...but when our men were gone, they sent eleven more at one minute's warning, with 3 days provision..." By the time of the Revolution, Minutemen had been a well-trained force for six generations in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Every town had maintained its 'training band'. The adversity that this region faced - Native-American uprisings, war with France, and potential for local insurrections, social unrest, and rioting - provided ample reason to adhere to a sound militia organization. In his recent book, perhaps David Hackett Fischer puts it best, "The muster of the Minutemen in 1775 was the product of many years of institutional development...it was also the result of careful planning and collective effort." (p. 151). By the time of the Revolution, Massachusetts had been training, drilling, and improving their militia for well over a hundred years.

Unfortunately, one thing the Minutemen lacked was central leadership. This disadvantage would lead to their dissolution. In February of 1775 Concord was one of the first towns to comply with the order to create Minutemen companies out of the militia. Of approximately 400 militia from Concord's muster rolls, one hundred would also serve as Minutemen. When a battle took place Minutemen companies from several towns combined their units. An officer from the 43rd Regiment of Foot was sent to the North Bridge in Concord with a number of light infantry. Minutemen from Concord, Acton, Littleton, and other towns combined forces. After a few volleys were fired, the British light infantry retreated back to the Concord Common area. Lacking central command, with each company of Minutemen loyal to their own town, they did not pursue the redcoats. In the running battle that ensued fifteen miles back to Boston the Massachusetts militia would see their last action as Minutemen in history. The militia would go on to form an army, surrounding Boston and inflicting heavy casualties on the British army at Bunker and Breed's Hill.

Thus, although lacking central command, the Minutemen were still better organized and battle-tested than any other part-time military. They were a vital and necessary force, playing a crucial role in not only the Revolutionary War, but in earlier conflicts. Without these "ready in a minute" men, our history may have been written in a very different way.

- Andrew Ronemus

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Minuteman holding musket and flag. Cover illustration from Harper's Weekly, July 15, 1876. Wood engraving by Speer, "from a picture by George W. Maynard, in Memorial Hall, Phila." Although the terms militia and minutemen are sometimes used interchangeably today, in the 18th century there was a decided difference between the two.

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Marquis de Lafayette, in full Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette, Lafayette also spelled La Fayette, (born September 6, 1757, Chavaniac, France-died May 20, 1834, Paris), French aristocrat who fought in the Continental Army with the American colonists against the British in the American Revolution. Later, as a leading advocate for constitutional monarchy, he became one of the most powerful men in France during the first few years of the French Revolution and during the July Revolution of 1830.

Early life and the American Revolution

Lafayette was born into an ancient noble family in the Auvergne region of central France. Orphaned in his early teens, he had already inherited an immense fortune by the time he married Adrienne de Noailles, the daughter of the influential duc d'Ayen in 1774. He joined the circle of young courtiers at the court of King Louis XVI but soon aspired to win glory as a soldier. Hence, he traveled at his own expense to the American colonies, arriving in Philadelphia in July 1777, 27 months after the outbreak of the American Revolution. With no combat experience and not yet 20 years old, Lafayette was nonetheless appointed a major general in the Continental Army, and he quickly struck up a lasting friendship with the American commander in chief, George Washington. The childless general and the orphaned aristocrat seemed an unlikely pair, but they soon developed a surrogate father-son relationship. It was as thus that Lafayette distinguished himself among a large colourful group of European soldiers of fortune and idealists-among them Frederick William, Freiherr von Steuben of Prussia and Tadeusz Kościuszko and Kazimierz Pułaski of Poland-who had joined the Continental Army to fight for American independence. The more Washington saw of the young Frenchman, the more impressed he was and the closer the two became.

Lafayette served on Washington's staff for six weeks, and, after fighting with distinction at the Battle of the Brandywine, near Philadelphia, on September 11, 1777, he was given command of his own division. He conducted a masterly retreat from Barren Hill on May 28, 1778. Returning to France in February 1779, he worked with American emissaries Benjamin Franklin and John Adams to help persuade the government of Louis XVI to send additional troops and supplies to aid the colonists. Lafayette arrived back in America in April 1780 with the news that 6,000 infantry under the command of the comte de Rochambeau, as well as six ships of the line, would soon arrive from France. He was given command of an army in Virginia, and in 1781 he conducted hit-and-run operations against forces under the command of Benedict Arnold. Reinforced by Gen. "Mad" Anthony Wayne and milita troops under Steuben, Lafayette harried British commander Lord Charles Cornwallis across Virginia, trapping him at Yorktown in late July. A French fleet and several additional American armies joined the siege, and on October 19 Cornwallis surrendered. The British cause was lost. Lafayette was hailed as the "Hero of Two Worlds," and on returning to France in 1782 he was promoted to maréchal de camp (brigadier general). He became an honorary citizen of several states on a visit to the United States in 1784.

Lafayette, marquis de Library of Congress, Washintgon, D.C. (cph 3g04526)

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Marquis de Lafayette | Accomplishments, Biography, & Facts

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Marquis de Lafayette, French aristocrat who fought in the Continental Army with the American colonists against the British in the American Revolution. Later, he became one of the most powerful men in France during the first few years of the French Revolution and during the July Revolution of 1830.

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Alexander Hamilton, (born January 11, 1755/57, Nevis, British West Indies-died July 12, 1804, New York, New York, U.S.), New York delegate to the Constitutional Convention (1787), major author of the Federalist papers, and first secretary of the treasury of the United States (1789-95), who was the foremost champion of a strong central government for the new United States. He was killed in a duel with Aaron Burr.

Early life

Hamilton's father was James Hamilton, a drifting trader and son of Alexander Hamilton, the laird of Cambuskeith, Ayrshire, Scotland; his mother was Rachel Fawcett Lavine, the daughter of a French Huguenot physician and the wife of John Michael Lavine, a German or Danish merchant who had settled on the island of St. Croix in the Danish West Indies. Rachel probably began living with James Hamilton in 1752, but Lavine did not divorce her until 1758.

In 1765 James Hamilton abandoned his family. Destitute, Rachel set up a small shop, and at the age of 11 Alexander went to work, becoming a clerk in the countinghouse of two New York merchants who had recently established themselves at St. Croix. When Rachel died in 1768, Alexander became a ward of his mother's relatives, and in 1772 his ability, industry, and engaging manners won him advancement from bookkeeper to manager. Later, friends sent him to a preparatory school in Elizabethtown, New Jersey, and in the autumn of 1773 he entered King's College (later Columbia) in New York. Intensely ambitious, he became a serious and successful student, but his studies were interrupted by the brewing revolt against Great Britain. He publicly defended the Boston Tea Party, in which Boston colonists destroyed several tea cargoes in defiance of the tea tax. In 1774-75 he wrote three influential pamphlets, which upheld the agreements of the Continental Congress on the nonimportation, nonconsumption, and nonexportation of British products and attacked British policy in Quebec. Those anonymous publications-one of them attributed to John Jay and John Adams, two of the ablest of American propagandists-gave the first solid evidence of Hamilton's precocity.

In March 1776, through the influence of friends in the New York legislature, Hamilton was commissioned a captain in the provincial artillery. He organized his own company and at the Battle of Trenton, when he and his men prevented the British under Lord Cornwallis from crossing the Raritan River and attacking George Washington's main army, showed conspicuous bravery. In February 1777 Washington invited him to become an aide-de-camp with the rank of lieutenant colonel. In his four years on Washington's staff he grew close to the general and was entrusted with his correspondence. He was sent on important military missions and, thanks to his fluent command of French, became liaison officer between Washington and the French generals and admirals.

Eager to connect himself with wealth and influence, Hamilton married Elizabeth, the daughter of Gen. Philip Schuyler, the head of one of New York's most distinguished families. Meantime, having tired of the routine duties at headquarters and yearning for glory, he pressed Washington for an active command in the field. Washington refused, and in early 1781 Hamilton seized upon a trivial quarrel to break with the general and leave his staff. Fortunately, he had not forfeited the general's friendship, for in July Washington gave him command of a battalion. At the siege of Cornwallis's army at Yorktown in October, Hamilton led an assault on a British stronghold.

Early political activities

In letters to a member of Congress and to Robert Morris, the superintendent of finance, Hamilton analyzed the financial and political weaknesses of the government. In November 1781, with the war virtually over, he moved to Albany, where he studied law and was admitted to practice in July 1782. A few months later the New York legislature elected him to the Continental Congress. He continued to argue in essays for a strong central government, and in Congress from November 1782 to July 1783 he worked for the same end, being convinced that the Articles of Confederation were the source of the country's weakness and disunion.

In 1783 Hamilton began to practice law in New York City. He defended unpopular loyalists who had remained faithful to the British during the Revolution in suits brought against them under a state law called the Trespass Act. Partly as a result of his efforts, state acts disbarring loyalist lawyers and disfranchising loyalist voters were repealed. In that year he also won election to the lower house of the New York legislature, taking his seat in January 1787. Meanwhile, the legislature had appointed him a delegate to the convention in Annapolis, Maryland, that met in September 1786 to consider the commercial plight of the Union. Hamilton suggested that the convention exceed its delegated powers and call for another meeting of representatives from all the states to discuss various problems confronting the nation. He drew up the draft of the address to the states from which emerged the Constitutional Convention that met in Philadelphia in May 1787. After persuading New York to send a delegation, Hamilton obtained a place for himself on the delegation.

Hamilton went to Philadelphia as an uncompromising nationalist who wished to replace the Articles of Confederation with a strong centralized government, but he did not take much part in the debates. He served on two important committees, one on rules in the beginning of the convention and the other on style at the end of the convention. In a long speech on June 18, he presented his own idea of what the national government should be. Under his plan, the national government would have had unlimited power over the states. Hamilton's plan had little impact on the convention; the delegates went ahead to frame a constitution that, while it gave strong power to a federal government, stood some chance of being accepted by the people. Since the other two delegates from New York, who were strong opponents of a Federalist constitution, had withdrawn from the convention, New York was not officially represented, and Hamilton had no power to sign for his state. Nonetheless, even though he knew that his state wished to go no further than a revision of the Articles of Confederation, he signed the new constitution as an individual.

Opponents in New York quickly attacked the Constitution, and Hamilton answered them in the newspapers under the signature Caesar. Since the Caesar letters seemed not influential, Hamilton turned to another classical pseudonym, Publius, and to two collaborators, James Madison, the delegate from Virginia, and John Jay, the secretary of foreign affairs, to write The Federalist, a series of 85 essays in defense of the Constitution and republican government that appeared in newspapers between October 1787 and May 1788. Hamilton wrote at least two-thirds of the essays, including some of the most important ones that interpreted the Constitution, explained the powers of the executive, the senate, and the judiciary, and expounded the theory of judicial review (i.e., the power of the Supreme Court to declare legislative acts unconstitutional and, thus, void). Although written and published in haste, The Federalist was widely read, had a great influence on contemporaries, became one of the classics of political literature, and helped shape American political institutions. In 1788 Hamilton was reappointed a delegate to the Continental Congress from New York. At the ratifying convention in June, he became the chief champion of the Constitution and, against strong opposition, won approval for it.

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Alexander Hamilton | Biography, Duel, Musical, & Facts

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Alexander Hamilton, New York delegate to the Constitutional convention, major author of the Federalist papers, and first secretary of the treasury of the United States, who was the foremost champion of a strong central government for the new United States.

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Learn about spies during the American Revolution including secret messages, invisible ink, famous agents, the Culper Spy Ring, disguises, and interesting facts.

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Benedict Arnold, (born January 14, 1741, Norwich, Connecticut [U.S.]-died June 14, 1801, London, England), patriot officer who served the cause of the American Revolution until 1779, when he shifted his allegiance to the British. Thereafter his name became an epithet for traitor in the United States.

Who was Benedict Arnold?

How did Benedict Arnold betray the Continental Army to the British?

Why did Benedict Arnold betray the Continental Army to the British?

What happened to Benedict Arnold after he betrayed the Continental Army to the British?

What does it mean to call someone a "Benedict Arnold"?

Upon the outbreak of hostilities at Lexington, Massachusetts ( April 1775), Arnold volunteered for service and participated with Ethan Allen in the successful colonial attack on British-held Fort Ticonderoga, New York, the following month. That autumn he was appointed by General George Washington to command an expedition to capture Quebec. He marched with 700 men by way of the Maine wilderness, a remarkable feat of woodsmanship and endurance, and, reinforced by General Richard Montgomery, attacked the well-fortified city. The combined assault ( December 31, 1775) failed, Montgomery was killed, and Arnold was severely wounded.

Promoted to the rank of brigadier general, Arnold constructed a flotilla on Lake Champlain and inflicted severe losses on a greatly superior enemy fleet near Valcour Island, New York ( October 11, 1776). He returned a hero, but his rash courage and impatient energy had aroused the enmity of several officers. When in February 1777 Congress created five new major generalships, Arnold was passed over in favour of his juniors. Arnold resented this affront, and only Washington's personal persuasion kept him from resigning.

Two months later he repelled a British attack on Danbury, Connecticut, and was made a major general, but his seniority was not restored and Arnold felt his honour impugned. Again he tried to resign, but in July he accepted a government order to help stem the British advance into upper New York. He won a victory at Fort Stanwix (now Rome) in August 1777 and commanded advance battalions at the Battle of Saratoga that autumn, fighting brilliantly until seriously wounded. For his services he was restored to his proper relative rank.

Crippled from his wounds, Arnold was placed in command of Philadelphia (June 1778), where he socialized with families of loyalist sympathies and lived extravagantly. To raise money, he violated several state and military regulations, arousing the suspicions and, finally, the denunciations of Pennsylvania's supreme executive council. These charges were then referred to Congress, and Arnold asked for an immediate court-martial to clear himself.

Meanwhile, in April 1779, Arnold married Margaret (Peggy) Shippen, a young woman of loyalist sympathies. Early in May he made secret overtures to British headquarters, and a year later he informed the British of a proposed American invasion of Canada. He later revealed that he expected to obtain the command of West Point, New York, and asked the British for £20,000 for betraying this post. When his British contact, Major John André, was captured by the Americans, Arnold escaped on a British ship, leaving André to be hanged as a spy. The sacrifice of André made Arnold odious to loyalists, and his reputation was further tarnished among his former neighbours when he led a raid on New London, Connecticut, in September 1781.

Arnold, Benedict: meeting with Maj. John André Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-DIG-ppmsca-30575)

At the end of 1781 Arnold went to England. Unable to obtain a regular commission in the British army, he later pursued various business ventures, including land speculation in Canada. Arnold returned to England in 1791, but he left to spend several years privateering in the West Indies before permanently settling in London.

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Benedict Arnold, (born January 14, 1741, Norwich, Connecticut [U.S.]-died June 14, 1801, London, England), patriot officer who served the cause of the American Revolution until 1779, when he shifted his allegiance to the British. Thereafter his name became an epithet for traitor in the United States.

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Learn about Patriots and Loyalists during the Revolutionary War. One side wanted independence while the other wanted to remain part of Britain.

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Kids learn about the Battle of Yorktown major event ending the American Revolutionary War.

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By the start of the American Revolution, the British military was spread thinly across their global empire. Despite having tens of thousands of troops in America throughout the war, it was still necessary to supplement their numbers by hiring foreign troops. By 1776 thousands of soldiers from Hesse-Cassel were pouring into New York. They served the big names like Charles, Earl Cornwallis, Sir William Howe, and even Benedict Arnold. Despite their good reputation among their contemporaries, these soldiers are largely forgotten. Today the majority of Americans only know about Hessians because of the popular TV show Sleepy Hollow based on Washington Irving's famous book. Of course, this is not a fitting legacy for these well trained soldiers who fought, died, and were a part of the American experience. They were from the culturally and religiously diverse regions of what is now southwest Germany. Research into these soldiers contracted to fight in the war gives us an enlightening history that shows just how global a war the American Revolution really was. Here are a few important facts about the Hessians who served in America:

1. They weren't that kind of mercenary

Today we consider mercenaries individuals who voluntarily get involved with a conflict for their own personal profit. However, the German soldiers who came to fight were established soldiers in their national armies who were required by their country to serve; the Landgrave (Prince) of Hesse-Cassel himself pocketed the money.[1] This was a widely unpopular move. American Patriots and sympathizers in Europe quickly turned this against the British government. Propaganda like the famous Sale of the Hessians, possibly authored by Benjamin Franklin,followed the defeat at Trenton, attacking the use of these soldiers as being cruel to the Germans who had no stake in the war. It also portrayed the Hessian military leaders and Landgrave as cruel and uncaring about their own people in addition to representing King George as hiring men to slaughter his own people.[2]

2. Hessians had long been the go-to subsidy allies of the British[3]

Landgrave Fredrick II of Hesse-Cassel was the son in law of King George II, giving him a valuable family tie to the Hanovers.[4] The Landgrave's ancestors had been involved in every major conflict Great Britain found itself in with its roots going back to the Nine Years War (1688-97).[5] It is also worth noting that the British brought in soldiers from other parts of the Holy Roman Empire as well, those being the principalities of Brunswick, Anspach-Bayreuth, Waldeck, and Anhalt-Zerbst, as well as Hesse-Hanau.[6] However, because of the Landgrave's peacetime buildup of troops, political ties, and reputation, Hesse-Cassel was the main source of troops, hence the colonists donning them with the broad nickname 'Hessians.'

3. Hesse-Cassel was Europe's most militarized state

That includes Prussia, the military giant to the north. Men were trained from adolescence and continued their training well through adulthood until they were deemed unfit or too old to serve.[7] Much like America's National Guard, they would take a few weeks out of every summer to drill. The Landgrave was so enthralled with this way of life he drilled soldiers himself every day no matter the weather, and added his own ideas to a system that copied the famous Prussian military. Two centuries of warfare had created a true military society. Most politicians, including high ranking nobles such as the Prince, had either served themselves or had sons who were officers that bolstered their families' positions. Unique among European armies, , even commoners could become officers through merit.[8]

4. A number of 'Hessians' were not even from Hesse

Though the men who were first sent to America served willingly, the burden of honoring an agreement to keep a minimum of 12,000 troops in America caused the Landgrave to look elsewhere for soldiers. This included unfortunate travelers, criminals, and other 'undesirables' that Fredrick's fellow princes were eager to be rid of. Others enlisted willingly; the enlistment incentives and a free ride to America made the dangers worthwhile to many. Those already in the army who opted to desert rather than go to America did so out of fear of being separated from their families or dying during the crossing.[9]

5. Hessians were a part of every major battle

German soldiers, whether from Hesse or other German states, would see action from the city of Quebec to the wilderness of Florida. The majority landed in New York in the summer of 1776. There they fought in the battles over Fort Lee and Fort Washington, and were made infamous to militiamen after the Battle of White Plains. Hessians pushed General Washington to the shores of the Delaware and looted and destroyed many of the beautiful homes that dotted New Jersey. Finally, these men were with Lord Cornwallis as he pushed from Charleston to Guildford and up to Yorktown. These campaigns were led in part by excellently trained German officers such as Captain Johann Ewald, chosen by Cornwallis personally to plan strategy. The loss of Colonel Rall and 918 Hessians at Trenton and later hundreds more at Bennington and Saratoga were major defeats for the British during the war.[10] Without these Germans who intimidated the colonists and operated effectively on the field, the Revolution would have been dramatically different.

6. Many of the Hessians opted to stay in America

Opportunities in America impressed these soldiers so much that thousands of them opted not to return to their native country. Johann Döhla, an enlisted man who kept a journal about his experiences, wrote upon seeing New York for the first time that, "The American land is good and incomparable land...It is rich and fruitful, well cultivated, and with much grain, especially a great deal of Indian corn; and it has many and beautiful forests of both soft and hardwood trees unknown to us."[11] He went on to write about the diversity of religion in America and wanted to explore the many ways of life in the colonies much like his comrades. This is an attitude reflected in many journals, diaries, and letters that remain. Ultimately Hesse sent 19,000 of their sons to America.[12] Between casualties rates and the sheer number of deserters little over half returned home.

7. As the war went on, some of these men began to side with the Americans

In a country with strong political ties to England many soldiers were sympathetic to King George III. One stated in a letter, "Everyone at home who thinks they had good cause for rebellion ought in punishment to spend some time among them and learn how things are here...not necessity but wickedness and pleasure was the cause of the rebellion."[13] However, others were swayed to the American side either by bribery or their experiences fighting with the British. Pamphlets were snuck into camps offering freedom and land to anyone willing to desert and sign up with the American troops. By the wars end Congress offered soldiers farm land, two pigs, and a cow to Hessian deserters along with citizenship,[14] a much brighter future than the one those that returned would have had. Ewald himself returned to Hesse in spite of having frequently criticized British command in his journal. Nearing the war's end, his attitudes began to change how he saw the war and his duty to the British. In one bold statement after describing Benedict Arnold turning traitor he wrote, "America must be free and André must be hanged!"[15]

8. The American Revolution was the downfall of Hesse-Cassel as a mercenary state

At the start of the war sending men to America was very convenient for the overpopulated German duchies. As the war went on and casualty rates went up, valuable tradesmen, farmers, and other workers were eventually the ones sent to America. The country began to suffer, and the industries that were originally benefiting from the war began to fail. Eventually the debt of maintaining the long supply lines between America and the duchy became too much. It had been expected that thousands of men would be sent from the countryside to supplement loses. However, the unprecedented length of the war had caught the British and the Hessian governments by surprise.[16] Overwhelming losses to desertion and death, and the treatment of prisoners, horrified the people of Hesse. Worse yet, they ended up on the losing side! Political powers both British and German turned against the age old practice of hiring out troops. After the American war, the Hessians would never be seen fighting as mercenaries again. "We had flattered ourselves with the best reception, were deceived in our expectations in our most undeserved way...We bent our proud backs under everything, because it could not be otherwise."[17] The Revolution had seen an estimated loss of 5,000 casualties and 3,000 desertions.[18] [FEATURED IMAGE AT TOP: "Vonboferegiment." Source: Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection, Brown University Library]
[1] The title Landgrave was equivalent to Duke; the Landgrave of Hesse was the sovereign of that region. [2] Benjamin Franklin, "The Sale of the Hessians," (1777).

[3] When a government such as the British parliament allows a certain sum of money to be used to buy foreign soldiers they can be referred to commonly as mercenaries or subsidy allies. There is some argument as to what name is the best one to be used to describe Germans hired to fight in the war. For the sake of simplicity however, the term mercenary will be used. [4] Charles Ingrao, The Hessian Mercenary State, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 2. [5] Peter K. Taylor,Indentured to Liberty, (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1994), 5. [6] Johann Ewald,Diary of the American War, (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1979), xix. [7] Ewald,Diary of the American War, 129. It's worthwhile to note that Johann Ewald's Diary of the American War mentions a man of fifty reenlisting in Hesse. He had earned experience serving in the Seven Years War as an officer but deserted. Despite this he was sent to serve in the American War. [8] Ingrao,The Hessian Mercenary State, 129-132. [9] Ingrao,The Hessian Mercenary State, 140-144. [10] Theodore Savas, J. David Dameron,A Guide to the Battles of the American Revolution (New York: Savas Beatie, 2006),87. [11] Johann Döhla,A Hessian Diary of the American Revolution, (Norman and London: University of Oklahoma Press, 1913), 23. [12] Taylor,Indentured to Liberty, x. [13] Ray W. Pettengill,Letters From America (Saratoga, NY: published by the author, 1924), 166. [14] Ingrao,The Hessian Mercenary State, 160. [15] Ewald,A Hessian Diary of the American Revolution, 249-250. Major JohnAndré was head of British military intelligence during the war in addition to being a former acquaintance of Ewald's. When Benedict Arnold decided to turn traitor in 1780 he met with the general the night before the plan was discovered. Because André was wearing civilian clothing instead of a military uniform when he was captured by American soldiers he was hanged as a spy instead of being given a military trial. [16] Ingrao,The Hessian Mercenary State, 148. [17] Ewald,Diary of the American Revolution, 361. [18] Valentine C. Hubbs,Hessian Journals, Unpublished Documents of the American Revolution, (Rochester, NY: Camden House, 1980), 1.

By the start of the American Revolution, the British military was spread thinly across their global empire. Despite having tens of thousands of troops in America throughout the war, it was still necessary to supplement their numbers by hiring foreign troops. By 1776 thousands of soldiers from Hesse-Cassel were pouring into New York. They served the big names like Charles, Earl Cornwallis, Sir William Howe, and even Benedict Arnold. Despite their good reputation among their contemporaries, these soldiers are largely forgotten. Today the majority of Americans only know about Hessians because of the popular TV show Sleepy Hollow based on Washington Irving's famous book. Of course, this is not a fitting legacy for these well trained soldiers who fought, died, and were a part of the American experience. They were from the culturally and religiously diverse regions of what is now southwest Germany. Research into these soldiers contracted to fight in the war gives us an enlightening history that shows just how global a war the American Revolution really was. Here are a few important facts about the Hessians who served in America:

1. They weren't that kind of mercenary

Today we consider mercenaries individuals who voluntarily get involved with a conflict for their own personal profit. However, the German soldiers who came to fight were established soldiers in their national armies who were required by their country to serve; the Landgrave (Prince) of Hesse-Cassel himself pocketed the money.[1] This was a widely unpopular move. American Patriots and sympathizers in Europe quickly turned this against the British government. Propaganda like the famous Sale of the Hessians, possibly authored by Benjamin Franklin,followed the defeat at Trenton, attacking the use of these soldiers as being cruel to the Germans who had no stake in the war. It also portrayed the Hessian military leaders and Landgrave as cruel and uncaring about their own people in addition to representing King George as hiring men to slaughter his own people.[2]

2. Hessians had long been the go-to subsidy allies of the British[3]

Landgrave Fredrick II of Hesse-Cassel was the son in law of King George II, giving him a valuable family tie to the Hanovers.[4] The Landgrave's ancestors had been involved in every major conflict Great Britain found itself in with its roots going back to the Nine Years War (1688-97).[5] It is also worth noting that the British brought in soldiers from other parts of the Holy Roman Empire as well, those being the principalities of Brunswick, Anspach-Bayreuth, Waldeck, and Anhalt-Zerbst, as well as Hesse-Hanau.[6] However, because of the Landgrave's peacetime buildup of troops, political ties, and reputation, Hesse-Cassel was the main source of troops, hence the colonists donning them with the broad nickname 'Hessians.'

3. Hesse-Cassel was Europe's most militarized state

That includes Prussia, the military giant to the north. Men were trained from adolescence and continued their training well through adulthood until they were deemed unfit or too old to serve.[7] Much like America's National Guard, they would take a few weeks out of every summer to drill. The Landgrave was so enthralled with this way of life he drilled soldiers himself every day no matter the weather, and added his own ideas to a system that copied the famous Prussian military. Two centuries of warfare had created a true military society. Most politicians, including high ranking nobles such as the Prince, had either served themselves or had sons who were officers that bolstered their families' positions. Unique among European armies, , even commoners could become officers through merit.[8]

4. A number of 'Hessians' were not even from Hesse

Though the men who were first sent to America served willingly, the burden of honoring an agreement to keep a minimum of 12,000 troops in America caused the Landgrave to look elsewhere for soldiers. This included unfortunate travelers, criminals, and other 'undesirables' that Fredrick's fellow princes were eager to be rid of. Others enlisted willingly; the enlistment incentives and a free ride to America made the dangers worthwhile to many. Those already in the army who opted to desert rather than go to America did so out of fear of being separated from their families or dying during the crossing.[9]

5. Hessians were a part of every major battle

German soldiers, whether from Hesse or other German states, would see action from the city of Quebec to the wilderness of Florida. The majority landed in New York in the summer of 1776. There they fought in the battles over Fort Lee and Fort Washington, and were made infamous to militiamen after the Battle of White Plains. Hessians pushed General Washington to the shores of the Delaware and looted and destroyed many of the beautiful homes that dotted New Jersey. Finally, these men were with Lord Cornwallis as he pushed from Charleston to Guildford and up to Yorktown. These campaigns were led in part by excellently trained German officers such as Captain Johann Ewald, chosen by Cornwallis personally to plan strategy. The loss of Colonel Rall and 918 Hessians at Trenton and later hundreds more at Bennington and Saratoga were major defeats for the British during the war.[10] Without these Germans who intimidated the colonists and operated effectively on the field, the Revolution would have been dramatically different.

6. Many of the Hessians opted to stay in America

Opportunities in America impressed these soldiers so much that thousands of them opted not to return to their native country. Johann Döhla, an enlisted man who kept a journal about his experiences, wrote upon seeing New York for the first time that, "The American land is good and incomparable land...It is rich and fruitful, well cultivated, and with much grain, especially a great deal of Indian corn; and it has many and beautiful forests of both soft and hardwood trees unknown to us."[11] He went on to write about the diversity of religion in America and wanted to explore the many ways of life in the colonies much like his comrades. This is an attitude reflected in many journals, diaries, and letters that remain. Ultimately Hesse sent 19,000 of their sons to America.[12] Between casualties rates and the sheer number of deserters little over half returned home.

7. As the war went on, some of these men began to side with the Americans

In a country with strong political ties to England many soldiers were sympathetic to King George III. One stated in a letter, "Everyone at home who thinks they had good cause for rebellion ought in punishment to spend some time among them and learn how things are here...not necessity but wickedness and pleasure was the cause of the rebellion."[13] However, others were swayed to the American side either by bribery or their experiences fighting with the British. Pamphlets were snuck into camps offering freedom and land to anyone willing to desert and sign up with the American troops. By the wars end Congress offered soldiers farm land, two pigs, and a cow to Hessian deserters along with citizenship,[14] a much brighter future than the one those that returned would have had. Ewald himself returned to Hesse in spite of having frequently criticized British command in his journal. Nearing the war's end, his attitudes began to change how he saw the war and his duty to the British. In one bold statement after describing Benedict Arnold turning traitor he wrote, "America must be free and André must be hanged!"[15]

8. The American Revolution was the downfall of Hesse-Cassel as a mercenary state

At the start of the war sending men to America was very convenient for the overpopulated German duchies. As the war went on and casualty rates went up, valuable tradesmen, farmers, and other workers were eventually the ones sent to America. The country began to suffer, and the industries that were originally benefiting from the war began to fail. Eventually the debt of maintaining the long supply lines between America and the duchy became too much. It had been expected that thousands of men would be sent from the countryside to supplement loses. However, the unprecedented length of the war had caught the British and the Hessian governments by surprise.[16] Overwhelming losses to desertion and death, and the treatment of prisoners, horrified the people of Hesse. Worse yet, they ended up on the losing side! Political powers both British and German turned against the age old practice of hiring out troops. After the American war, the Hessians would never be seen fighting as mercenaries again. "We had flattered ourselves with the best reception, were deceived in our expectations in our most undeserved way...We bent our proud backs under everything, because it could not be otherwise."[17] The Revolution had seen an estimated loss of 5,000 casualties and 3,000 desertions.[18] [FEATURED IMAGE AT TOP: "Vonboferegiment." Source: Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection, Brown University Library]
[1] The title Landgrave was equivalent to Duke; the Landgrave of Hesse was the sovereign of that region. [2] Benjamin Franklin, "The Sale of the Hessians," (1777).

[3] When a government such as the British parliament allows a certain sum of money to be used to buy foreign soldiers they can be referred to commonly as mercenaries or subsidy allies. There is some argument as to what name is the best one to be used to describe Germans hired to fight in the war. For the sake of simplicity however, the term mercenary will be used. [4] Charles Ingrao, The Hessian Mercenary State, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 2. [5] Peter K. Taylor,Indentured to Liberty, (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1994), 5. [6] Johann Ewald,Diary of the American War, (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1979), xix. [7] Ewald,Diary of the American War, 129. It's worthwhile to note that Johann Ewald's Diary of the American War mentions a man of fifty reenlisting in Hesse. He had earned experience serving in the Seven Years War as an officer but deserted. Despite this he was sent to serve in the American War. [8] Ingrao,The Hessian Mercenary State, 129-132. [9] Ingrao,The Hessian Mercenary State, 140-144. [10] Theodore Savas, J. David Dameron,A Guide to the Battles of the American Revolution (New York: Savas Beatie, 2006),87. [11] Johann Döhla,A Hessian Diary of the American Revolution, (Norman and London: University of Oklahoma Press, 1913), 23. [12] Taylor,Indentured to Liberty, x. [13] Ray W. Pettengill,Letters From America (Saratoga, NY: published by the author, 1924), 166. [14] Ingrao,The Hessian Mercenary State, 160. [15] Ewald,A Hessian Diary of the American Revolution, 249-250. Major JohnAndré was head of British military intelligence during the war in addition to being a former acquaintance of Ewald's. When Benedict Arnold decided to turn traitor in 1780 he met with the general the night before the plan was discovered. Because André was wearing civilian clothing instead of a military uniform when he was captured by American soldiers he was hanged as a spy instead of being given a military trial. [16] Ingrao,The Hessian Mercenary State, 148. [17] Ewald,Diary of the American Revolution, 361. [18] Valentine C. Hubbs,Hessian Journals, Unpublished Documents of the American Revolution, (Rochester, NY: Camden House, 1980), 1.

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8 Fast Facts About Hessians - Journal of the American Revolution

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By the start of the American Revolution, the British military was spread thinly across their global empire. Despite having tens of thousands of troops in America throughout the war, it was still necessary to supplement their numbers by hiring foreign troops. By 1776 thousands of soldiers from Hesse-Cassel were pouring into New York.

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The Daughters of Liberty was a group of political dissidents that formed in the North American British colonies during the early days of the American Revolution.

The following are some facts about the Daughters of Liberty:

Much like the Sons of Liberty, the Daughters of Liberty was created in response to unfair British taxation in the colonies during the American Revolution, particularly the Townshend Acts of 1767 which were a series of measures that imposed customs duties on imported British goods such as glass, paints, lead, paper and tea.

Although some sources state that the Daughters of Liberty was an official group or society of women, other sources indicate it was more of a blanket term used to describe all women who supported the patriotic cause.

According to the book Household Manufacturers in the United States (which discusses how women's crafting skills helped contribute to the American Revolution) the Daughters of Liberty was an actual society that had chapters in many sections of New England.

Another book, titled Civil Disobedience: An Encyclopedic History of Dissidence in the United States, also states there were many official chapters of the society, particularly in Rhode Island:

"In 1766, the city's female auxiliary, the Daughters of Liberty, became the first group to formalize their organization under that name. That same year, Eleanor Frye founded a Daughters of Liberty unit at East Greenwich; another group gathered at the home of Mary Easton Lawton and Robert Lawton at Spring and Tomo Streets in Newport."

When Did the Daughters of Liberty Form?

The name, the Daughters of Liberty, first began showing up in the press around 1766, when the Boston Gazette published an article on April 7 of that year about a recent spinning bee held at a house in Providence, Rhode Island:

"On the 4th instant, eighteen daughters of liberty, young ladies of good reputation, assembled at the house of doctor Ephraim Brown, in this town, in consequence of an invitation of that gentlemen, who had discovered a laudable zeal for the introducing Home Manufacturers. There they exhibited a fine example of industry, by spinning from sunrise until dark, and displayed a spirit for saving their sinking country, rarely to be found among persons of more age and experience."

Yet, according to the book Understanding the American Promise, the Daughters of Liberty didn't officially emerge until 1768, after the passage of the Townshend Acts the previous year:

"The Townshend duties thus provided an unparalleled opportunity for encouraging female patriotism. During the Stamp Act crisis, Sons of Liberty took to the streets in protest. During the difficulties of 1768 and 1769, the Daughters of Liberty emerged, embodying the new idea that women might play a role in public affairs. Any woman could express affiliation with the colonial protest through conspicuous boycotts of British-made goods."

What Did the Daughters of Liberty Do?

The Daughters of Liberty didn't join in on the public protests and riots incited by the Sons of Liberty in 1765. Instead, they organized and participated in boycotts and helped manufacture goods when non-importation agreements caused shortages.

In August of 1768, when Boston merchants signed a non-importation agreement in which they pledged not to import or sell British goods, this caused a shortage in the colony of specific goods like textiles.

To help ease this shortage, the Daughters of Liberty organized spinning bees to spin yarn and wool into fabric, according to the book The American Revolution: A Concise History:

"Women took to their spinning wheels - what had been a chore for solitary women, spinning wool into yarn, weaving yarn into cloth, now became a public political act. Ninety-two 'Daughters of Liberty' brought their wheels to the meeting house in Newport, spending the day spinning together until they produced 170 skeins of yarn. Making and wearing homespun cloth became political acts of resistance."

When the colonists also decided to boycott British goods, particularly British tea, women joined in on the boycott. Since women were the ones who purchased consumer goods for their households, and some of them also ran small shops themselves, their actions had a major impact on British merchants, according to the book Revolutionary Mothers:

"But when the call went out for a boycott of British goods, women became crucial participants in the first organized opposition to British policy. Thus, the first political act of American women was to say 'No.' In cities and small towns, women said no to merchants who continued to offer British goods and no to the consumption of those goods, despite their convenience or appeal. Their 'no's had an immediate and powerful effect, for women had become major consumers and purchasers by the mid-eighteenth century. And in American cities, widows, wives of sea captains and sailors, and unmarried women who ran their own shops had to make the decision to say no to selling British goods. In New York City a group of brides-to-be said no to their fiances, putting a public notice in the local newspaper that they would not marry men who applied for a stamped marriage license. Parliament could ignore the assemblies petitions. It could turn a deaf ear to soaring oratory and flights of rhetoric. But Parliament could not withstand the pressures placed on it by English merchants and manufacturers who saw their sales plummet and their warehouses overflow because of the boycott. In March 1766, the Stamp Act was repealed."

In addition to boycotting the purchase of tea, women also signed agreements pledging that they would also not drink any tea offered to them. In Boston on January 31, 1770 the Boston Evening Post published the following agreement, reporting that over 300 Boston women had signed it:

"At a time when our invaluable rights and privileges are attacked in an unconstitutional and most alarming manner, and as we find we are reproached for not being so ready as could be desired, to lend our assistance, we think it our duty perfectly to concur with the true Friends of Liberty, in all the measures they have taken to save this abused country from ruin and slavery; And particularly, we join with the very respectable body of merchants, and other inhabitants of this town, who met at Faneuil Hall the 23d of this instant, in their resolutions, totally abstain from the use of tea: And as the greatest part of the revenue arising by virtue of the late acts, is produced from the duty paid upon tea, which revenue is wholly expanded to support the American Board of Commissioners, we the subscribers do strictly engage, that we will totally abstain from the use of that article (sickness expected) not only in our respective families; but that we will absolutely refuse it, if it should be offered to us upon any occasion whatsoever. This agreement we cheerfully come into, as we believe the very distressed situation of our country requires it, and we do hereby oblige ourselves religiously to observe it, till the late Revenue Acts are repealed."

This same statement was also published on February 12 in the Boston Evening Post and similar statements were published on February 15 in the Boston Weekly News-letter and the Massachusetts Gazette.

To get around purchasing and drinking British tea, women found alternatives by making herbal teas from various plants like raspberry, mint and basil, which they referred to as Liberty Tea.

The Daughters of Liberty weren't always so well-behaved though and sometimes took matters into their own hands when they deemed it necessary.

In 1777, these women even had their own version of the Boston Tea Party, later dubbed the "Coffee Party," during which they confronted and assaulted a local merchant who was hoarding coffee in his warehouse. Abigail Adams described the incident in a letter, dated July 31, 1777, to her husband John Adams:

"You must know that there is a great scarcity of sugar and coffee, articles which the female part of the state are very loathe to give up, especially whilst they consider the scarcity occasioned by the merchants having secreted a large quantity. There has been much rout and noise in the town for several weeks. Some stores had been opened by a number of people and the coffee and sugar carried into the market and dealt out by pounds. It was rumoured that an eminent, wealthy, stingy merchant (who is a bachelor) had a hogshead of coffee in his store which he refused to sell to the committee under 6 shillings per pound. A number of females some say a hundred, some say more assembled with a cart and trucks, marched down to the warehouse and demanded the keys, which he refused to deliver, upon which one of them seized him by his neck and tossed him into the cart. Upon his finding no quarter he delivered the keys, when they tipped up the cart and discharged him, then opened the warehouse, hoisted out the coffee themselves, put it into the trucks and drove off. It was reported that he had a spanking among them, but this I believe was not true. A large concourse of men stood amazed silent spectators of the whole transaction."

Members of the Daughters of Liberty:

There is no known list of members of the Daughters of Liberty but many notable women contributed to the cause and played a variety of roles in the American Revolution.

One such woman was Sarah Bradlee Fulton from Boston, who has since been called the "Mother of the Boston Tea Party." According to the Boston Tea Party Museum website, she is credited with the idea of disguising the men as Mohawk Indians, painting their faces, and donning Native American clothing.

After the Boston Tea Party was over, Fulton helped dispose of the men's disguises and cleaned the red paint off their faces. In June of 1775, after the Battle of Bunker Hill, Sarah Bradlee Fulton organized a small field hospital next to Wade's tavern and asked women to serve as nurses to the soldiers wounded in the battle. She served as a nurse herself and even removed a bullet from a young soldier's cheek.

During the Siege of Boston, Sarah Bradlee Fulton also confronted a group of soldiers who had seized a shipment of wood that she and her husband had bought for the sole purpose of keeping it out of the hands of the British troops.

When Fulton heard the troops had seized it, she chased the men down, grabbed their oxen by the horns, turned them around and commandeered the shipment. When the troops threatened to shoot her she simply replied "shoot away." Amazed by her defiance, they surrendered the shipment to her.

A chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution was later named after Fulton and a memorial plaque was placed at her grave site in 1900. The following poem, written by Mary Jane Seymour, was read at the dedication ceremony for the plaque:

Yet not alone by men reclaimed
Brave women too achieved their part
With courage, love and loyalty,
They bore war's cruel smart
We turn no printed page to-day,
Their gracious deeds to magnify
Within our hearts their memories rest,
Their influence cannot die.
We raise this modest table stone
Our sister's name and fame to keep
The impress of her noble life
Ends not with a dreamless sleep -
May we be wise and ever prize,
The lessons taught us here,
That freedom comes by sacrifice
And duty knows no fear.

Another notable Daughter of Liberty was actually a young girl, Susan Boudinot, the nine-year-old daughter of the future President of the Continental Congress Elias Boudinot, who made the pledge not to drink British tea and stuck to her promise.

While visiting the home of New Jersey's Loyalist Governor, William Franklin, she was served a cup of tea and after refusing it multiple times she then accepted it politely, crossed the room and threw the tea out a nearby window.

Boudinot became famous for her rebellious act and even 100 years later magazines, such as St. Nicholas: An Illustrated Magazine for Young Folks, were still publishing poems and drawings about her defiance.

According to the Report of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution from 1917, there were numerous other notable women who supported the cause and later had DAR chapters named after them:

"The following is a enumeration of the more prominent patriots from whom chapters have been named, but it by no means covers the list: Molly Pitcher (Mary Ludwig Hays), of Monmouth, N.J., who took her husband's place (when he was dangerously wounded) at the canon for 24 hours at the Battle of Monmouth, received the personal thanks of Gen. Washington and from the Continental Congress, a sergeant's commission, and half pay through life; Sarah Bradlee Fulton, 'mother of the Boston Tea Party' and the messenger of Gen. Washington inside enemy's lines in Boston; Lydia Darrah, whose eavesdropping and daybreak ride to the grist mill save the army of Washington; Nancy Hart, of South Carolina, who single-handed captured six Tories; Emily Geiger, of South Carolina, who rode 50 miles on horseback through country infested by British, carrying a message from Gen. Greene to Gen. Sumter, was captured, searched (after she had swallowed her dispatches), released, and gave the message verbally; Deborah Sampson, of Massachusetts, who fought as a common soldier for two years; Rebecca Motte, of South Carolina, who set fire to her own house to prevent it from falling into the hands of the British; Prudence Wright and the women of Pepperell, Mass., who guarded the bridge at Pepperell and secured, by capture, a Tory carrying dispatches; Elizabeth Zane, of Virginia, who carried (under fire by the British and Indians), powder in a tablecloth from the powder house to the fort, a distance of 100 yards, and thus saved the day at Fort Henry, Va.; to Hannah Arnett, a frail little woman who uttered living words at a vital moment and brought about the rejection of the British offer of amnesty and turned the tide of the American Revolution."

Through their various roles, these Daughters of Liberty made their own contributions to the American Revolution and helped win America's freedom in their own way.

Sources:
Berkin, Carol. Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America's Independence. Alfred A. Knopf, 2005.
Green, Mary Wolcott. The Pioneer Mothers of America; Harry Clinton Green. G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1912.
Report of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Volume 19. Government Printing Office, 1917.
Representative Women of New England. Edited by Julia Ward Howe and Mary Hannah Graves. New England Historical Publishing Company, 1904.
"Sarah Bradlee Fulton." Boston Tea Party Ship & Museum, Historic Tours of America, www.bostonteapartyship.com/sarah-bradlee-fulton
St. Nicholas: An Illustrated Magazine for Young Folks, Volume 26. The Century Co, 1899.
Allison, Robert. The American Revolution: A Concise History. Oxford University Press, 2011.
Roark, James L. and Michael P. Johnson, Patricia Cline Cohen, Sarah Stage, Alan Lawson, Susan M. Hartmann. Understanding the American Promise, Volume 2: From 1865. Bedford/St. Martin's 2011.
Tryon, Rolla Milton. Household Manufactures in the United States, 1640-1860. University of Chicago Press, 1917.
Zinn, Howard. A People's History of the United States; 1492-Present. Routledge, 1980.
Lossing, Benson J. Our Country: A Household History for All Readers. Johnson & Miles, 1878.

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The Daughters of Liberty: Who Were They and What Did They Do? - History of Massachusetts Blog

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The Daughters of Liberty was a group of political dissidents that formed in the North American British colonies during the early days of the American Revolution. The following are some facts about the Daughters of Liberty: Much like the Sons of Liberty, the Daughters of Liberty was created in response...

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How an Enslaved Man-Turned-Spy Helped Secure Victory at the Battle of Yorktown

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How an Enslaved Man-Turned-Spy Helped Secure Victory at the Battle of Yorktown

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In the autumn of 1781, the American colonial army fought in the Battle of Yorktown, the final and arguably most consequential battle for American independence from British rule. By all accounts, this monumental victory, which forced the surrender of British General Lord Cornwallis and his squadron of nearly 9,000 troops, would not have been possible without crucial insider intelligence from James Armistead, a patriot who worked briefly yet effectively as a double agent for the Continental Army throughout the Revolutionary War.

He was also an enslaved man.

Before actively choosing to serve the budding republic that denied him his freedom, Armistead already had a fairly close-up view of the conflict: His owner, William Armistead managed the military supplies for the state of Virginia after the war began in 1775. In 1780, James and William moved from the Virginia capital of Williamsburg to the new capital, Richmond, and the following summer James got permission to join the armed forces himself.

At the time, enslaved people could fight on either side of the war, with freedom as an incentive for their service. Armistead didn't take up arms in the war, however. Instead, in 1781, he was stationed under the Marquis de Lafayette, commander of the allied French forces and a key ally of General George Washington, to infiltrate the British army through espionage.
Read More: 5 Patriot Spies of the American Revolution
A Revolutionary Double Agent

Getting information on the enemy was critical to Lafayette, who needed to stem the losses his forces were suffering at the hands of Cornwallis's larger and better supplied army. The French general was also under orders to capture the infamous traitor Benedict Arnold, who was causing chaos after offering his services to the British.

Posing as a runaway enslaved man, Armistead quickly infiltrated British forces via Arnold's camp. While at first he took on menial tasks, his vast knowledge of the terrain-a trait that wouldn't seem suspicious for a local runaway-was useful to both Arnold and Cornwallis for British intelligence during the war. So they assigned him the task of spying on the colonies.

Armistead's work as a double agent made traveling between the camps easier, as he didn't stand out as a peculiar presence by either side. It also made collecting information on British forces less dangerous-as long as he wasn't caught.

It was a dangerous tightrope act for Armistead: He supplied Lafayette with information on the British through handwritten notes delivered to other spies, meanwhile feeding Cornwallis and his company inaccuracies.

One of Armistead's most valuable pieces of intel came near the end of the summer in 1781. He sent a note to Lafayette, detailing Cornwallis's move from Portsmouth to Yorktown and the expected arrival of 10,000 British troops at the new location.

In response, Lafayette informed General George Washington, and the pair made preparations along with French General Comte de Rochambeau to set up a blockade by land and by sea around the Yorktown peninsula. The siege, combined with constant bombardment, weakened Cornwallis's forces, forcing the British commander's surrender on October 19.
Read More: How A Black Spy Infiltrated the Confederate White House
Fighting for His Freedom

After the war officially concluded in 1783, Armistead was forced to return to slavery. To his dismay, he discovered that his spy work was not covered under a Virginia law in 1783 stating that enslaved men who "have faithfully served agreeable to the terms of their enlistment, and have thereby of course contributed towards the establishment of American liberty and independence, should enjoy the blessings of freedom as a reward for their toils and labours."

Armistead repeatedly petitioned the Virginia legislature for his freedom, but his objections were continuously ignored. It wasn't until Lafayette provided a testimonial in 1784, confirming the spy's instrumental work, that any officials took notice.

In the note, Lafayette wrote "This is to certify that the Bearer has done essential services to me while I had the honour to command in this State. His Intelligence from the ennemy's [sic] camp were industriously collected and most faithfully delivered. He perfectly acquitted himself with some important commissions I gave him and appears to me entitled to every reward his situation can admit of."

As a result, in 1787 Armistead became a free man. Appreciative of the Frenchman who helped him acquire his freedom, Armistead changed his name to James Armistead Lafayette.

Armistead went on to move nine miles south of New Kent, Virginia, where he'd spent so much of his life as another man's property. He lived a peaceful life as a husband and father, bought 40 acres of land to farm, and received $40 a year from the Virginia legislature for his invaluable work to liberate a nation that, in the end, proved so reluctant to grant him his own freedom.
Read More: He Fought for His Freedom in the Revolution. Then His Sons Were Sold Into Slavery

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How an Enslaved Man-Turned-Spy Helped Secure Victory at the Battle of Yorktown | HISTORY

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James Armistead provided critical intel to the Continental Army as a double agent during the Revolutionary War.

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Crispus Attucks has been immortalized as the first casualty of the American Revolutionary War and the first African American hero. He was in the front line of a group 50 patriots defying British troops when suddenly shots were fired.

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To write a biography of Molly Pitcher's life is a difficult task, partially because the woman is ultimately more legend than fact. In fact, the Molly we know may not have been a single woman, but rather a composite character of multiple figures who fought in the war.

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A great deal of history is told from the Patriots' side of the story, and with good reason. Without the efforts made by the Founding Fathers, there would never have been a United States of America. Yet, choosing to go against King and country, and join a cause that at the time seemed hopeless, wasn't the most simple of decisions. At the time, England was the strongest empire in the world, and promised prosperity and longevity to all the colonies who would support her. The Loyalists who believed in this promise were also known as "Tories" and "King's Men."

One of the most prominent group of Loyalists were, maybe not surprisingly, the African-American slave population. The British promised them freedom and station in Great Britain in return for their support during the Revolutionary War. It gave many slaves the opportunity to start over, and begin a new life for themselves away from the days of slavery in the United States.

The Loyalists are men whose names have been largely erased from history on this side of the Atlantic as they were seen as traitors to the cause. In the late Eighteenth century, Loyalists were driven from their homes, their estates burned, and many were tarred and feathered. This practice was not supported by many of the Founding Fathers, because they believed that such behavior would hurt their case.

Here is a list of a few of the men who stood with England in opposition to the case for independence.

John Malcolm (2 May 1769 - 30 May 1833) was a sea captain, army officer, and British customs official who was the victim of the most publicized tarring and feathering incident during the American Revolution. It is he who is depicted in the painting above, a print by British artist Philip Dawe published in Great Britain. Malcolm was subjected to the treatment twice, with the second one being the more brutal. An angry mob dragged him from his home in the middle of the night after a fight with Patriot George Hewes. They tarred and feathered him and threatened to cut off his ears. To avoid this fate, he promised to resign his post as customs official and returned to England. He died in 1788 in Great Britain.

Lt. Col. James Chalmers (1734 - Oct 3, 1806) was a Commander of First Battalion of Maryland Loyalists and the author of a pamphlet entitled "Plain Truth" in 1776. The pamphlet was written to oppose the work of American Rebel supporter Thomas Paine, "Common Sense," which argued that Great Britain did not have the right to govern America. Chalmers wrote under the pseudonym " Candidus", so he wouldn't be found out. Because he was seen to be on both sides of the conflict, he wasn't respected by other British Military commanders. Also, "Plain Truth" did little to quiet the waves of revolution which were already stirring. After the war, Chalmers returned to London where he lived out the rest of his life, continuing to write pamphlets against the works of Paine.

John Butler (1728-1796) was the commanding Colonel of Butler's Rangers in the Mohawk Valley, a regiment of Tories and former Black slaves fighting in the American Revolutionary War on the side of the British. Butler and his regiment were held primarily responsible for the Wyoming Valley Massacre of July, 1778. At Wyoming Valley, Butler's Rangers and the Seneca who fought alongside took 227 scalps, and burned 1,000 houses. His son Walter would go on to do even greater damage at Cherry Valley in November of the same year. After the year, Butler returned to farming in Southern Ontario. He went onto play a large part in the development of that area.

Joseph Brant (Thayendenegea) (March 1743 - November 24, 1807) was a Mohawk war leader who fought on the side of the British during the American Revolutionary War. Brant was the most famous American-Indian of his time, and his education and connections allowed him to achieve what he did during his lifetime. He was often blamed for the massacres at Cherry Valley and Wyoming Valley, even though he had been one of the few who tried to stop the attacks from escalating. These false accusations granted him the nickname "Monster Grant." After the war, he spent his days clearing his name and aiding the development of his people. He died in his home at Lake Ontario in 1807.

Sir John Johnson (November 5, 1741 - January 4, 1830) was commander of the King's Royal Regiment of New York and Canadian politician. Fearing for his life, Sir John removed to Canada at the start of the American Revolutionary War. His wife, Lady Johnson, was held hostage by the Colonists in New York for that year to ensure Johnson's "good behavior." Later, he formed the King's Royal Regiment, which was significant n the siege of Fort Stanwix. At the end of the war, he was forced into permanent exile in Canada.

William Franklin (ca. 1730 - 17 November 1813) was the Governor of New Jersey, the illegitmate son of Benjamin Franklin, and a staunch Loyalist throughout his lifetime. William and his steadfast Patriot father, Benjamin, would never be able to overcome their differences in opinion. William was imprisoned during the War for Independence and later exiled to London, never to return to the Colonies.

Thomas Hutchinson (September 9, 1711 - June 3,1780) was a leading Boston merchant from an old American family, who served as governor of Massachusetts. Viewed as pro-British by some citizens of Boston, Hutchinson's house was looted and burned in 1765 by an angry crowd in protest against the Stamp Act. Hutchinson and fellow Loyalist Sir Francis Bernard had tried to dissuade Britain from levying both the Sugar and the Stamp Act, but their voices were not heard. Because Hutchinson would stand against the acts in public, the Colonists believed Hutchinson was not on their side. As matters escalated, Hutchinson was eventually forced into exile in England.
Images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.

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A great deal of history is told from the Patriots' side of the story, and with good reason. Without the efforts made by the Founding Fathers, there would never have been a United States of America. Yet, choosing to go against King and country, and join a cause that at the time seemed hopeless, wasn't the most simple of decisions.

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Individually and collectively, the minute men of Massachusetts played important roles in the beginning of the Revolutionary War. The life stories of these people help explain how they came to oppose their government and propose violent struggle.

Concord Museum, Concord, MA

Ready on Short Notice
The American militias established in the colony of Massachusetts were based on an English militia model. Every man over age sixteen was required to join and bring his own weapon to the mandatory musters (training meetings). The governor had authority over the groups. As European settlers spread into Native American territories, conflicts increased. To increase the colonial fighting units' flexibility, power was decentralized. In 1645, company commanders were ordered "to appoint out and to make choice of thirty soldiers of their companies in ye hundred, who shall be ready at half an hour's warning upon any service they shall be put upon by their chief military officers." By 1756, the designation "minute men" appears on a payroll document, but it was not until 1774 and the establishment of the Provincial Congress that the minute men, as we remember them today, were formed.

Loyalty to the Colony
Many of the militia men were veterans of wars against the French and Indians. In those earlier battles, they had fought in the name of the English crown, but their true loyalty may have been toward their own colony. Minute men like Lexington's Ebenezer Locke were third- or fourth-generation Americans, and therefore somewhat removed from their British roots.

Democratic Guerrillas
Seventy-seven members of the Lexington Training Band stood together on April 19, 1775. Most were over thirty years of age, and twenty were veterans of the French and Indian wars, where they learned the guerrilla tactics that would come into play defending their town. Their captain, John Parker, was one of those veterans, a forty-five-year-old farmer and father of seven. Although others were more experienced in military combat and had held higher ranks in earlier wars, Parker was democratically chosen to lead the company, perhaps for his calm demeanor and sound judgment. Theirs was not a strict military unit. Instead, the Training Band was more of a democratic assembly in which the captain freely asked the advice of older veterans, and everyone stood by the captain's decisions once they were made.

Skilled but Unorthodox
Though not strict, the Lexington minute men were a well-trained group. Observing them at Concord's North Bridge on April 19, 1775, British Lieutenant William Sutherland remarked that the minute men marched "in a very military manner." But the minute men fought without regard to the era's rules of military engagement. Historians have not been able to determine that they had a premeditated plan to counter the regular tactics of the British. More likely, the events resulted from a breakdown in command. The British, following standard late 18th-century military procedure, formed orderly rows, setting up walls of men who fired their muskets, then dropped back to reload as other soldiers took their places. At the Bridge, this tight formation limited the number of men who could fire without harming their comrades -- and simultaneously created a mass of enemies that the minute men could fire into, spilling the first British blood of the Revolution. On their return march to Boston, encountering the irregular tactics of the minute men, the British kept to the road. It was the fastest way to get out of the danger zone.

Ruthless Improvisers
Fighting for their homes, the minute men were ruthless and improvisational. They hid behind stone walls and buildings to fire at the British. At one point in the British flight, Noah Eaton of Framingham found a Redcoat in his sights. "Surrender or die," he commanded, pointing his gun for emphasis. The regular, in the middle of reloading his musket, handed it over and was taken prisoner. Eaton did not mention that his gun, too, was empty.

Rejecting British Authority
The minute men were, quite simply, Americans, born in New England. Vast distances of time and space made British authority more of an abstraction than a reality to them. Aside from trade regulation, probably the most important government service they required was defense against the Native Americans (whose land they were taking). Once even that function was self-regulated, through the creation of local militias, British taxes were perceived as more and more burdensome -- without any clear benefits. By April 1775, the minute men were spoiling for a fight.

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The Minute Men | American Experience | PBS

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Individually and collectively, the minute men of Massachusetts played important roles in the beginning of the Revolutionary War. The life stories of these people help explain how they came to oppose their government and propose violent struggle. Ready on Short Notice The American militias established in the colony of Massachusetts were based on an English militia model.

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Mount Vernon might be surprised to see the key to the Bastille, the notorious French prison, on display in the central hall. In 1790, Gilbert du Motier-better known as the Marquis de Lafayette-sent the key to George Washington on behalf of the people of France. To understand why Lafayette did this, it is necessary to understand the special relationship that developed between Washington and Lafayette during the American Revolution.

The bond between the two men grew so strong that they were more like a father and son, rather than a commanding general and his top-ranking officer. For Lafayette, there was no better person to receive the symbol of the end of ancient tyranny than the man who fought so bravely to establish the United States.

At first glance, Lafayette might seem an unlikely supporter of George Washington. Born in 1757, he came from one of France's oldest families. His ancestors served in the Crusades and alongside Joan of Arc. When Gilbert was two, his father died fighting in the Seven Years' War. Upon the death of his mother when he was eleven, Lafayette inherited one of his nation's largest fortunes. Five years later he married Adrienne de Noialles, a woman from an even more renowned family. But Lafayette was never impressed with status or riches, longing instead for military glory. He won a captain's commission in the French army and was appointed to the Black Musketeers in 1773.

However, in 1775 Lafayette's life took an unexpected turn. Like many noblemen, he lost his commission when the government reduced military spending. Called to the city of Metz for militia duty, he attended a dinner with the Duke of Gloucester, the younger brother of British King George III. The Duke complained about the American colonists who had risen up against British rule. He mocked their revolutionary beliefs in the equality of mankind and the right of the people to rule themselves. The Duke further explained how the colonists had organized the Continental Army under the leadership of General George Washington. Lafayette would always remember this dinner as the turning point of his life. "My heart was enlisted," he later confessed in his memoirs, "and I thought only of joining my colors to those of the revolutionaries."

Lafayette studied the ideals of the American Revolution and planned to enlist in the Continental Army. Silas Deane was a representative of the Continental Congress sent to France to recruit officers. Even though Lafayette was only nineteen and had no experience in war, Deane offered him a commission. King Louis XVI ordered Lafayette to remain in France, but the defiant young nobleman ignored him and set sail for America in early 1777. When he finally arrived in Philadelphia, Congressmen James Lovell of Massachusetts refused to receive him, saying that Americans were tired of ambitious Frenchmen seeking glory. But upon realizing how wealthy and well-connected Lafayette actually was, and recognizing his sincere support for the American cause, Lovell recommended Lafayette's appointment as a Major-General.

Lafayette proceeded to General Washington's camp along Brandywine Creek south of Philadelphia in September 1777. Here the Continental Army was fighting to halt General William Howe's advance toward the capital. Washington was immediately taken with Lafayette, especially when the Marquis explained, "I am here to learn, not to teach." Washington ordered Lafayette to join General John Sullivan's forces who were in a desperate fight on the army's right. The redcoats outflanked Washington and were trying to surround him. When Sullivan finally retreated, Lafayette reluctantly went with him, realizing only later that he had been shot in the leg. Washington sent his own surgeon to care for him, and when Lafayette was taken to the hospital the General told the doctors to, "Treat him as if he were my son."

After Lafayette recovered, he became a valued member of Washington's close-knit military family. Lafayette in turn came to admire Washington's leadership more each day, especially during the winter at Valley Forge. Lafayette was overjoyed when news of the French alliance arrived in early 1778.

In June 1778, following the Battle of Monmouth Courthouse, Lafayette returned to France hoping to win more support for the United States. But while he was feted as a hero, he was not placed at the head of the French army. Count Rochambeau was chosen instead. By the summer of 1781, Lafayette was back in the United States. Washington sent him to Virginia to stop British raids along the James River. When Cornwallis' forces arrived in Virginia, Lafayette harassed the British general until Washington and Rochambeau could lay siege to him at Yorktown. In October 1781, there was no prouder soldier at Cornwallis' surrender than Lafayette.

Lafayette again returned to France as a national hero. Three years later on a tour of the United States he visited Washington at Mount Vernon. Lafayette remembered, "Our meeting was very tender and our satisfaction was mutual." He discussed his many concerns about the American nation. Like Washington, he favored the creation of a strong central government. But unlike Washington he recommended an immediate end to slavery. Back in France, Lafayette helped launch the French Revolution in 1789. He served in the National Assembly and drafted the Declaration of the Rights of Man. He proudly sent the key to the Bastille to Washington, who was serving as the President of the United States.

Lafayette fled from France when the revolution turned violent. He was imprisoned at Olmütz by the Austrians who considered him a dangerous radical. Lafayette's fortune was confiscated by the French government and many of his relatives died by the guillotine. He was finally set free and settled at La Grange, an estate near Paris nicknamed the Mount Vernon of France.

One of Lafayette's greatest joys in his later years came in 1824 when he made a triumphant tour of the United States. At Mount Vernon he went alone to visit the grave of George Washington, returning to his carriage with tears in his eyes. Lafayette remained a defender of democratic ideals until his death in 1834.

Mary Stockwell, Ph.D.

Notes:
1. Quoted in James R. Gaines, Liberty and Glory: Washington, Lafayette, and Their Revolutions (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2007), 37.

2. Ibid., 70.

3. Quoted in Marc Leepson, Lafayette: Lessons in Leadership from the Idealist General (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), 37.

4. Quoted in Gaines, 198.

Bibliography:
Gaines, James R. Liberty and Glory: Washington, Lafayette, and Their Revolutions. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2007.

Leepson, Marc. Lafayette: Lessons in Leadership from the Idealist General. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.

Marquis de Lafayette. Memoirs of General Lafayette: With an account of his visit to America, and of his reception by the people of the United States; from his arrival, August 15th, to the celebration at Yorktown, October 19th, 1824. Boston: E. G. House, 1824.

Unger, Harlow Giles. Lafayette. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 2002.

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Mount Vernon might be surprised to see the key to the Bastille, the notorious French prison, on display in the central hall. In 1790, Gilbert du Motier-better known as the Marquis de Lafayette-sent the key to George Washington on behalf of the people of France.

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Alexander Hamilton was born in Charlestown, Nevis, in the West Indies on January 11, 1757 ( or 1755), to James Hamilton, a Scottish merchant of St. Christopher, and Rachel Fawcett. Rachel's father was a Huguenot physician and planter. While very young, she had been married to and divorced from a Danish proprietor on St. Croix. After her divorce, the court prohibited her remarriage. The marriage to James Hamilton was acceptable socially in the West Indies, but not elsewhere. The union resulted in the birth of two sons, but they were living apart less than 10 years later. Rachel and her boys lived on St. Croix, dependent on her relatives. She passed away in 1768. His father survived until 1799 - but the boys were virtually orphans before they were even teenagers.

At the age of 12, Hamilton began work as a clerk in a general store, but the boy had a keen intellect and ambitious goals. He was an excellent writer, in French as well as English. By 1772, his aunts scrimped and saved to send the young intellectual to New York for formal education.

In 1773 was entered at King's College (Now Columbia). Even as a young man he had a strong grasp on political issues concerning British and American government, which he exhibited in a series of anonymous pamphlets so discerning, they were attributed to John Jay. He was only 17 at the time.

In 1775 he withdrew from his college studies and founded a volunteer military company. On March 14, 1776, Hamilton was commissioned Captain of the New York Provincial Company of Artillery. He exhibited great skill and intelligence in his duties with artillery, and Nathanael Greene noticed. He was asked to serve on the staff of Lord Stirling, which he declined, and continued his career with artillery at Long Island, Harlem Heights, White Plains, and saw action at Trenton and Princeton in the New Jersey campaign.

Washington recognized Hamilton's leadership abilities, as well as his extraordinary talent for writing. Hamilton was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and made his aide-de-camp on March 1, 1777. Just twenty years old at the time, Hamilton had already made remarkable accomplishments.

Hamilton spent the winter of 1777-1778 with Washington and the Continental Army at Valley Forge. It was during this winter that Brigadier General Horatio Gates tried unsuccessfully to incriminate Hamilton during the Conway Cabal.

On December 14, 1780, Alexander Hamilton married Elizabeth Schuyler, daughter of Philip Schuyler, a Revolutionary War general, and Catherine Van Rensselaer Schuyler. Both the Schuylers and Rensselaers were very wealthy and prominent New York families. It was a happy marriage that produced eight children.

On February 16, 1781, Hamilton quarreled with Washington, and their relationship was forever soured. He describes the incident in a letter to his father-in-law dated February 18, 1791:

. . . Two days ago, the General and I passed each other on the stairs. He told me he wanted to speak to me. I answered that I would wait upon him immediately. I went below, and delivered Mr. Tilghman a letter to be sent to the commissary, containing an order of a pressing and interesting nature.
Returning to the General, I was stopped on the way by the Marquis de La Fayette, and we conversed together about a minute on a matter of business. He can testify how impatient I was to get back [. . .] I met him [Washington] at the head of the stairs, where, accosting me in an angry tone, "Colonel Hamilton," said he, "you have kept me waiting at the head of the stairs these ten minutes. I must tell you sir, you treat me with disrespect. I replied without petulancy, but with decision: "I am not conscious of it, sir, but since you have thought it necessary to tell me so, we part." "Very Well, sir," said he, "if it be your choice," or something to this effect, and we separated. I sincerely believe my absence, which gave so much umbrage, did not last two minutes.

Attempts at reconciliation were not successful. Several months later, in July, Hamilton was given command of a battalion of Lafayette's Division in Moses Hazen's Brigade. He led a successful attack at Yorktown, contributing to the final American victory there. He continued in the military for a couple of years when he was made Colonel on September 30, 1783. He left the service by the end of the year.

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Alexander Hamilton was born in Charlestown, Nevis, in the West Indies on January 11, 1757 ( or 1755), to James Hamilton, a Scottish merchant of St. Christopher, and Rachel Fawcett. Rachel's father was a Huguenot physician and planter. While very young, she had been married to and divorced from a Danish proprietor on St.

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Women accomplished extraordinary things to advance their cause during the revolution.

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Benedict Arnold, the American general during the Revolutionary War who betrayed his country and became synonymous with the word "traitor," was born on January 14, 1741.

Arnold, who was raised in a respected family in Norwich, Connecticut, apprenticed with an apothecary and was a member of the militia during the French and Indian War (1754-1763). He later became a successful trader and joined the Continental Army when the Revolutionary War broke out between Great Britain and its 13 American colonies in 1775.

During the war, Arnold proved himself to be a brave, skilled leader, helping Ethan Allen's troops capture Fort Ticonderoga in 1775 and then taking part in the unsuccessful attack on British Quebec later that year, which earned him a promotion to brigadier general. Arnold distinguished himself in campaigns at Lake Champlain, Ridgefield and Saratoga, and gained the support of George Washington. However, Arnold had enemies within the military and in 1777, a group of lower-ranking men were promoted ahead of him. Over the next several years, Arnold married a second time and he and his wife led a lavish lifestyle in Philadelphia, racking up substantial debt. Money problems and the resentment Arnold felt over not being promoted faster were factors in his decision to become a turncoat.

In 1780, Arnold was given command of West Point, the American fort on the Hudson River in New York (and future home of the United States Military Academy, established in 1802). Arnold contacted Sir Henry Clinton, head of the British forces, and proposed handing over West Point and its men. On September 21 of that year, Arnold met with British Major John Andre and made his traitorous pact, in which the American was to receive a large sum of money and a high position in the British army. However, the conspiracy was uncovered and Andre was captured and killed. Arnold fled to the enemy side and went on to lead British troops in Virginia and Connecticut. He later moved to England, though he never received all of what he'd been promised by the British. The former American hero and patriot died in London, in relative obscurity, on June 14, 1801.
READ MORE: Why Did Benedict Arnold Betray America?

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Benedict Arnold, the American general during the Revolutionary War who betrayed his country and became synonymous with the word "traitor," was born on January 14, 1741. Arnold, who was raised in a respected family in Norwich, Connecticut, apprenticed with an apothecary and was a member of the militia during the French and Indian War (1754-1763).

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History Brief Video: Patriots and Loyalists

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History Brief Video: Patriots and Loyalists

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Congressional Republicans were in a festive mood on January 24, 1804, as they gathered at Stelle's Hotel on Capitol Hill for a banquet celebrating the transfer of the Louisiana Territory to the United States. The festivities began at noon with the discharge of "three pieces of cannon." President Thomas Jefferson and Vice President Aaron Burr were among the honored guests; they departed after the banquet, but the revelry continued until nightfall. "A number of the guests drank so many toasts that in the night they returned to their houses without their hats," one contemporary reported. But when one celebrant offered a toast to Vice President Burr, the effect was pronounced and chilling: "few cheered him," the chronicler observed, "& many declined drinking it."

None of Aaron Burr's contemporaries knew quite what to make of this complex and fascinating individual. As Senator Robert C. Byrd observed in his November 13, 1987, address on the life and career of this controversial vice president, "There is much that we will never know about the man." Much of Burr's early correspondence, entrusted to his daughter for safekeeping, was lost in 1812, when the ship carrying Theodosia Burr Alston from South Carolina to New York for a long-awaited reunion with her father disappeared off the North Carolina Coast.

Burr was one of the most maligned and mistrusted public figures of his era-and, without question, the most controversial vice president of the early republic-but he never attempted to justify or explain his actions to his friends or to his enemies. One editor of Burr's papers has lamented, "Almost alone among the men who held high office in the early decades of this nation, Burr left behind no lengthy recriminations against his enemies...no explanations and justifications for his actions." He seems to have cared very little what his contemporaries thought of him, or how historians would judge him. Few figures in American history have been as vilified, or as romanticized, by modern writers. Urbane and charming, generous beyond prudence, proud, shrewd, and ambitious, he stood apart from other public figures of his day. An anomaly in an era when public office was a duty to be gravely and solemnly accepted but never pursued with unseemly enthusiasm, Burr enjoyed the "game" of politics. His zest for politics enabled him to endure the setbacks and defeats he experienced throughout his checkered career, but, as Mary-Jo Kline, the editor of Burr's papers suggests, it also gave him the "spectacular ability to inspire suspicion-even fear-among the more conventional Founding Fathers."

Early Years

Aaron Burr was born at Newark, New Jersey, on February 6, 1756. His father, Aaron Burr, Sr., was a highly respected clerical scholar who served as pastor of the Newark First Presbyterian Church and as president of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University). His mother, Esther Edwards Burr, was the daughter of the noted Puritan theologian and scholar, Jonathan Edwards, who is most often remembered for his passionate and fiery sermons. The family moved to Princeton when the college relocated there soon after the future vice president's birth, but Burr did not remain there long. His father contracted a fever and died when young Aaron was only a year-and-a-half old. His mother and her parents died soon thereafter. An orphan by the age of two, Burr and his older sister, Sally, moved to Philadelphia, where they lived with family friends until 1759, when their uncle, Timothy Edwards of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, became their legal guardian.

Edwards and his young wards moved to Elizabeth Town, New Jersey, the following year. Uncle Timothy soon discovered that Esther's "Little dirty Noisy Boy" had inherited much of the Edwards family's renowned intellect but little of their piety. High-spirited, independent, precocious, and self-confident, young Aaron at first studied with a private tutor. In 1769 he began his studies at the College of New Jersey, graduating in 1772. In 1773 he enrolled in the Reverend Joseph Bellamy's school at Bethlehem, Connecticut, to prepare for the ministry but soon realized that he could neither wholly accept the Calvinist discipline of his forebears nor forgo the distractions of the town. He had, his authorized biographer relates, "come to the conclusion that the road to Heaven was open to all alike." In May 1774, he moved to Litchfield, Connecticut, to study law under his brother-in-law, Tapping Reeve, but the outbreak of the American Revolution interrupted his studies.

Burr joined the march on Quebec as an uncompensated "gentleman volunteer" in the summer of 1775. His bravery under fire during the ill-fated assault on that heavily fortified city on December 31, 1775, won him a coveted appointment as an aide to the American commander in chief, General George Washington, but he was almost immediately reassigned to General Israel Putnam. Burr served as Putnam's aide until 1777, when he finally received a commission as a lieutenant colonel and command of his own regiment. Washington seems to have taken an immediate dislike to his ambitious young aide, and Burr appears to have reciprocated this sentiment. When Washington ordered the court-martial of General Charles Lee for dilatory conduct at the battle of Monmouth Courthouse, New Jersey, in June 1778, Burr sided with Lee. His own regiment had suffered heavy losses during the engagement after Washington ordered Burr to hold an exposed position in the blazing 96-degree heat. But notwithstanding his dislike for Colonel Burr, Washington respected his abilities, assigning him the difficult but crucial task of determining the future movements of the British forces in New York. Burr later commanded the troops stationed at Westchester, New York, imposing a rigid but effective discipline that brought order to the frontier outpost where unruly soldiers and footloose marauders had formerly terrorized the nearby settlers. Burr resigned his commission in early 1779, his health broken by the accumulated stresses of several exhausting campaigns. He always took pride in his military record, and for the remainder of his long life, admirers referred to him as "Colonel Burr." Of his many accomplishments, only two are memorialized on the stone that marks his grave: Colonel in the Army of the Revolution, and Vice President of the United States.

Aaron Burr lived an unsettled existence after leaving the army, traveling about the countryside, visiting friends and family, and studying law as his health permitted. In 1782 he began his legal practice and married Theodosia Bartow Prevost, the widow of a British army officer. In November 1783, the Burr family-which included his wife's two sons by her first husband and an infant daughter, named Theodosia for her mother-moved to New York after British forces evacuated the city. Burr lavished special attention on his only child, carefully supervising her education and cultivating her intellect. Young "Theo," in turn, idolized her father, and she became his closest confidante after her mother died in 1794.

Early Political Career

Burr was an able lawyer. A New York law barring non-Whigs from the legal profession worked to his advantage as he rose to prominence in that calling. At this stage in his career, he was not, apparently, an adherent of any particular political persuasion. Despite his alacrity in responding to the call for volunteers at the outbreak of the Revolution, he seems to have been curiously detached from the political ferment that brought it about. Once Burr began his political career, he served a single term in the New York assembly during the 1784-1785 session, not returning to public life until 1788. Then, as the editors of his papers suggest, he "appears to have played a minor and equivocal role" in the New York debate over ratification of the proposed federal constitution. The radical Sons of Liberty touted Burr as a possible delegate to the ratification convention, but, for reasons he never elaborated, he declined to serve. Before long, however, he abandoned whatever reservations he may have had with respect to the new Constitution. "After adoption by ten states," he advised one correspondent, "I think it became both politic and necessary to adopt it."

Burr was soon actively involved in New York politics. Joining forces with his future rival, Alexander Hamilton, he supported Richard Yates-a moderate Antifederalist and a longstanding friend who had helped him win admission to the bar-in the 1789 gubernatorial election. Yates lost to George Clinton, a more ardent Antifederalist who had served as governor of New York since 1777. Governor Clinton, either willing to forgive Burr or shrewd enough to realize that the brilliant young newcomer would soon emerge as a key player in New York politics, appointed him attorney general in 1789. In 1791 Clinton helped orchestrate Burr's election to the U.S. Senate. Burr unseated Senator Philip Schuyler and made a lifelong enemy of Schuyler's son-in-law, Alexander Hamilton.

Senator Burr had acquired a taste for politics-a profession that, he would later advise an aspiring candidate, he found "a great deal of fun." In 1792 he entered the New York gubernatorial race but soon withdrew in Clinton's favor. Northern Republicans mentioned him as a prospective vice-presidential candidate in 1792, but Burr deferred to Clinton again after southern Republicans refused to support the ambitious young senator. Better to select "a person of more advanced life and longer standing in publick trust," James Monroe of Virginia cautioned, "particularly one who in consequence of such service had given unequivocal proofs of what his principles really were."

Burr was a vehement partisan in the Senate, siding with the anti-administration forces who opposed Hamilton's financial system and Washington's foreign policy. He mounted a spirited, though unsuccessful, defense of Pennsylvania senator Albert Gallatin, the Swiss-born Republican who was unseated in 1794 after the Federalist majority determined that he did not meet the Constitution's nine-year citizenship requirement for senators. He voted against Washington's nomination of John Jay as an envoy to Great Britain in 1794, on the grounds that it would be "mischievous and impolitic" to appoint Jay, the chief justice of the United States, to "any other office or employment emanating from, and holden at the pleasure of, the executive." Burr was also one of the most outspoken opponents of the unpopular Jay Treaty, which the Federalist-dominated Senate approved in 1795.

In 1796 the determined senator again set his sights on the vice presidency, and-in a striking departure from 18th-century electoral etiquette-began an energetic campaign to secure the support of his fellow Republicans. On June 26, 1796, the Republican caucus endorsed him as their vice-presidential candidate, although, as Burr's biographers have noted, "For their party's vice-presidential nomination, the Republicans were less unified than in their determination that [Thomas Jefferson] was the man to head their party's drive to oust the 'aristocrats.'" Republicans concentrated on capturing the presidency but succeeded only in electing Thomas Jefferson vice president. Over half of the electors who voted for Jefferson failed to cast their second votes for Burr, who finished a disappointing fourth with only 30 electoral votes.

Burr retired from the Senate in 1797. The following year, he returned to the New York assembly, making several enemies during his brief and troubled term. He advocated defensive measures to protect New York harbor as relations with France worsened in the wake of the "X,Y,Z affair"-a prudent stance, given New York's strategic importance and vulnerable location, but one that prompted accusations from more doctrinaire Republicans that Burr had joined the Federalist camp. He became vulnerable to charges that he had abused the public trust for his personal benefit when he participated in a private land speculation venture in western New York and then sought to enact legislation removing restrictions on land ownership by noncitizens-a measure that would increase the value of his western lands. Working in concert with Hamilton, Burr helped secure a charter and raise subscriptions for a private company to improve the water supply of pestilence-ridden Manhattan, but New Yorkers were shocked to learn that the surplus capital from the venture had been used to establish the Bank of Manhattan. Although Federalists were heavily involved in the enterprise, the bank was controlled by Republicans. New York voters, suspicious as they were of banks, deserted the party in droves in the 1799 state election, and Burr was turned out of office. One observer commented in disgust that the Republicans "had such a damn'd ticket that no decent man could hold up his head to support it."

Although some Republicans were increasingly uncomfortable with Burr's questionable financial dealings and his willingness to cooperate with Federalists to achieve his ends, he remained a valuable asset. He had, one Federalist admitted, "by his arts & intrigues...done a great deal towards revolutionizing the State," building a political base that would help launch his national career. Burr's vehement opposition to the Alien and Sedition Acts in the New York assembly had won Republicans the support of New York's large and rapidly growing immigrant community. In a feat one admirer attributed to "the intervention of a Supreme Power and our friend Burr the agent," he ensured that New York City elected a Republican delegation to the state legislature in 1800, laying the groundwork for a Republican victory in the presidential contest later that year. New York was one of the states in which the legislature selected presidential electors, and its 12 electors comprised over 15 percent of the 70 votes necessary to achieve an electoral majority. Republican control of the New York legislature was crucial, and New York City's 13-member delegation gave the party a majority.

The Election of 1800

In 1800 Republican strategists hoped to cement their fledgling coalition by seeking, for geographical balance, a New Yorker as their vice-presidential candidate. One obvious choice was New York's elder statesman, George Clinton, but his reluctance to enter the race cleared the way for Burr's unanimous nomination by the Republican caucus on May 11, 1800. Although Jefferson would later claim-after Burr discredited himself by his behavior during the election and in office-that he had harbored reservations about his New York lieutenant from the time of their first meeting in 1791 or 1792, contemporary correspondence suggests that their relationship was cordial during the 1790s. If Jefferson had reservations about Burr in 1800, he laid them aside to secure a Republican victory, using his influence to ensure that all of Virginia's 21 electors would cast their second votes for his running mate.

Jefferson waged a behind-the-scenes campaign, writing letters to his political lieutenants and encouraging the preparation and dissemination of pamphlets and press accounts critical of John Adams's administration, which had supported the Alien and Sedition Acts and increased the military establishment. Burr was an active campaigner, visiting Rhode Island and Connecticut in late August to shore up Republican support. "The Matter of V.P-is of very little comparative Consequence," he informed one correspondent as he speculated that the election might result in the election of Jefferson as president and Adams as vice president, "and any Sacrifice on that head ought to be made to obtain a single vote for J____." Surprising as it might appear to modern observers, Burr's clearly successful political prowess in the 1800 election only raised suspicions among his rivals and allies that he was not to be trusted. He did not fit the mold of the dispassionate statesmen who remained aloof from the fray of politics while their supporters worked to secure their election. But "the creation of nationwide, popularly based political parties," one Burr scholar explains, "demanded men who were willing to...bargain regional alliances, men able to climb the ladder of popular support and to convey their own enjoyment of the 'fun' of politics." In this respect, she suggests, Burr was "The Ghost of Politics Yet to Come."

Jefferson soon had ample reason to distrust Burr. In 1800, as in the three previous presidential elections, each elector cast two votes without distinguishing between presidential and vice-presidential candidates. Republican strategists expected that all of their electors would cast one vote for Jefferson and that most-enough to guarantee that Burr would receive the second highest number of votes but not enough to jeopardize Jefferson's margin-would cast their second votes for Burr. Jefferson and his lieutenants left the implementation of this scheme to chance, never asking even a single elector to withhold a vote from Burr, although Jefferson's friend and advisor, James Madison, would later allege that Republicans had been lulled by "false assurances dispatched at the critical moment to the electors of one state, that the votes of another would be different from what they proved to be."

Increasingly confident of victory as the news of the election filtered in from the states, Republicans were stunned to learn by mid-December that, although they had clearly defeated Adams and his running mate, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina, they had failed to elect a president. Jefferson and Burr, whether by neglect or miscalculation, would each receive 73 electoral votes. The election would be decided by the House of Representatives, as provided in Article II, section 1, of the Constitution, which directed that "if there be more that one [candidate] who have such a majority, and have an equal Number of Votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately chuse by Ballot one of them for President," with "each State having one Vote." The representatives from each state would poll their delegation to determine how their state would cast its single vote, with deadlocked states abstaining.

As soon as the outcome of the election became apparent, but before Congress met to count the electoral votes on February 11, 1801, the Federalists began a last-ditch effort to defeat Jefferson. Some, while resigned to a Republican victory, believed that the less-partisan and more flexible Burr was by far the lesser of two evils. Others supported Burr in the hope that, if a deadlock could be prolonged indefinitely, the Federalist-dominated Congress could resolve the impasse with legislation authorizing the Senate to elect a Federalist president-a hope that had no constitutional basis but demonstrated the uncertain temper of the times. Alexander Hamilton, a prominent New York Federalist, actively opposed Burr, repeatedly attempting to convince his colleagues that Burr was a man whose "public principles have no other spring or aim than his own aggrandisement."

Burr never explained his role in the drama that subsequently unfolded in the House of Representatives, which cast 36 ballots before finally declaring Jefferson the winner on February 17, 1801. The few comments he ventured at the time were guarded, evasive, and contradictory. Professing indignation at rumors that he was soliciting Federalist support in an attempt to wrest the presidency from Jefferson, Burr initially denied "that I could submit to be instrumental in counteracting the wishes & expectations of the U.S.," instructing his friend Samuel Smith "to declare these sentiments if the occasion shall require." One prominent Federalist, Robert Goodloe Harper of South Carolina, advised Burr against withdrawing from the presidential contest, urging that he "take no step whatsoever, by which the choice of the House of Representatives can be impeded or embarassed," and instead "keep the game perfectly in your own hand." Burr appears to have followed Harper's advice to the letter during the tense and confused days that followed. He never actively solicited Federalist votes but seemed willing enough to accept them. In late December, he informed Samuel Smith that, if the House elected him president, he would not step aside for Jefferson.

Rumors of Burr's change of heart soon appeared in the press. Tempers flared and reports of impending armed conflict spread, but Burr remained silent. When the House cast the first ballot on February 11, eight of the 16 states-one less than the simple majority required to elect the president-voted for Jefferson. Six states voted for Burr, with two states divided and not voting. This ratio remained constant through 34 subsequent ballots taken over the course of a week. The deadlock was not resolved until February 17, when Jefferson received the votes of 10 states on the 36th ballot. Representative James A. Bayard (F-DE) and Burr himself finally resolved the impasse. As Delaware's only representative, Bayard controlled his state's vote. He voted for Burr on the first several ballots, but was under considerable pressure from Hamilton to change his vote and resolve the contest in Jefferson's favor. (In thus throwing his support to Jefferson, Hamilton rose above partisan interests and helped to save the nation.) Concluding that Burr could not muster enough Republican support to win the election (and having received assurances with respect to Jefferson's fiscal and appointments policies), Bayard finally informed his fellow Federalists that he could not "exclude Jefferson at the expense of the Constitution." Correspondence from Burr, who was awaiting the outcome of the election in New York, had arrived on February 15; these letters, now lost, revealed that he had abandoned any hope of winning the presidency. His supporters finally agreed that, when the state delegations were polled before the House cast its 36th ballot on February 17, Vermont and Maryland Federalists would withhold their votes, a move that freed their previously deadlocked delegations to vote for Jefferson. Bayard and the South Carolina representatives would cast blank ballots, further eroding Burr's margin. Jefferson, with 10 votes, would become president, while Burr, with four, would become vice president.

The election, and the confusion that followed, exposed a critical flaw in the constitutional provision governing the election of the president and the vice president. The Twelfth Amendment, which passed both houses during the fall of 1803 and was ratified by the requisite number of states in time for the 1804 election, changed the method of election by requiring electors to designate one vote for a presidential candidate and the other for a vice-presidential candidate. Intended to prevent an unscrupulous vice-presidential candidate (or his supporters) from subverting the electoral process, the amendment was a Republican initiative, sponsored in the House of Representatives by John Dawson (R-VA) and in the Senate by Burr's rival De Witt Clinton (R-NY).

Vice President Aaron Burr

If Burr was at all chagrined by the outcome of the election, or by the taint he had acquired from not emphatically renouncing his widely rumored presidential aspirations, he gave no sign of it. "I join my hearty Congratulations on the Auspicious events of the 17th:," he wrote to Albert Gallatin while en route to Washington for the March 4 inauguration; "as to the infamous slanders which have been so industriously circulated-they are now of little Consequence & those who believed them will doubtless blush at their own Weakness." Burr arrived in Washington three days before the inauguration and found accommodations in nearby Georgetown.

On March 4, 1801, Senate President pro tempore James Hillhouse (F-CT) administered the oath of office to Burr in the Senate Chamber on the ground floor of the new Capitol in Washington. The new vice president offered a brief extemporaneous address of "about three sentences," which the press ignored in favor of Jefferson's elegant and conciliatory inaugural address. Burr assumed the president's chair and administered the oath of office to the newly elected senators who presented their credentials. When Jefferson and the presidential party arrived in the Senate Chamber, Burr left the Senate president's seat and joined Chief Justice John Marshall to listen to Jefferson's inaugural address. He later described the day as "serene & temperate-The Concourse of people immense-all passed off handsomely-great joy but no riot."

The new vice president soon received a flood of letters from friends, political allies, and relatives seeking appointments in the new administration or demanding the removal of Adams's Federalist appointees. Burr, who could never refuse a friend and considered patronage a means of cementing alliances and paying political debts, passed a number of these requests along to Jefferson. The president, however, became increasingly uncomfortable with each new recommendation. Most damning, as historian Mary-Jo Kline has explained, were the "repeated requests for consideration of the claims of the 'faithful' from other states and territories." Jefferson was perfectly willing to replace Adams's "midnight appointments" with marshals and court officers who were loyal Republicans, as well as to remove Federalists who displayed "malversation or inherent disqualification" for office, appointing Republicans to the vacant posts. Still, mindful of the charges of nepotism and cronyism he had levelled against the Adams administration, he hesitated to dismiss civil servants solely for political reasons. Nor did he think it appropriate for the ambitious New Yorker to concern himself with appointments to federal offices in other states. The final insult appears to have occurred in the fall of 1801 with Burr's campaign to secure an appointment for his ally, Matthew L. Davis, to a naval post in New York. The president, already suspicious of the enterprising vice president who had jeopardized his election, soon began to distance himself from Burr. Thereafter, in making federal appointments in New York, he relied on George Clinton or Clinton's nephew De Witt.

After the Clintons replaced Burr as the administration's liaison to the New York Republican Party, De Witt spared no effort to discredit the vice president in his home state. Assisted by [New York] American Citizen editor James Cheetham, he waged a savage war against the vice president in the local press. "The handbills were numerous, of various descriptions, uniform however in Virulent and indecent abuse," Burr reported. "[T]o Vilify A.B. was deemed of so much consequence, that packages of them were sent to Various parts of the country." It was becoming painfully apparent, one of his allies observed, that the vice president's "influence and weight with the Administration is in my opinion not such as I could wish." Bereft of the political base that had made him a formidable force in New York politics and an attractive vice-presidential prospect, he was now a liability to the administration. During Burr's single term in office, whatever influence or status he enjoyed would derive solely from his position as president of the Senate.

President of the Senate

Burr was one of the most skilled parliamentarians to serve as president of the Senate, a striking contrast to Adams and a worthy successor to Jefferson. "Mr. Burr, the Vice President, presides in the Senate with great ease, dignity & propriety," Senator William Plumer (F-NH) observed. "He preserves good order, silence-& decorum in debate-he confines the speaker to the point. He has excluded all spectators from the area of the Senate chamber, except the members from the other House. A measure which contributes much to good order."

Although Burr was universally respected for his parliamentary skills and his impartial rulings, Senate Republicans noted with mounting concern his easy familiarity with his many Federalist friends. Alienated from his own party, pragmatic at the expense of principle, and beset by the chronic financial difficulties that dogged him throughout his career, Burr was increasingly regarded by his fellow Republicans as an unprincipled opportunist who would stop at nothing to rebuild his shattered political and personal fortunes. They found ample evidence of the vice president's apostasy on January 27, 1802, when Burr cast a tie-breaking vote that undercut the Republican effort to repeal the Judiciary Act of 1801.

That act, signed into law less than a week before Jefferson's election, enacted badly needed reforms, providing circuit court judges to relieve the Supreme Court justices from the burdensome and exhausting chore of riding circuit, and reducing the number of justices from six to five, effective with the next vacancy. The act became effective in time to allow John Adams to appoint Federalist judges to the new circuit courts, a development that heightened Republican fears of a Federalist-controlled judiciary. And, with one less Supreme Court justice, it appeared unlikely that Jefferson would ever have an opportunity to appoint a Republican nominee to the Supreme Court. On January 6, 1802, Senator John Breckinridge (R-KY) introduced a bill to repeal the Judiciary Act. Burr's vote would prove crucial in the Senate, where the absence of one Republican and the resignation of another had eroded the administration's already slim majority. Republicans were greatly relieved when the Senate deadlocked on a vote to proceed to a third reading of the repeal bill on January 26, and Burr resolved the tie in favor of the repealers. But he had secretly informed Federalists that he would support their attempts to block repeal by adding amendments that would make the Judiciary Act acceptable to moderate Republicans. Thus, the next day, when his friend Jonathan Dayton (F-NJ) moved to refer the bill to "a select committee, with instructions to consider and report the alterations which may be proper in the Judiciary system of the United States," Burr resolved the tie in favor of the Federalists. Burr explained that he had voted for referral in hopes of reaching a compromise:

I am for the affirmative, because I never can resist the reference of a measure where the senate is so nicely balanced, when the object is to effect amendment, that may accommodate it to the opinions of a larger majority; and particularly when I can believe that gentlemen are sincere in wishing a reference for this purpose. Should it, however, at any time appear that delay only is intended, my conduct will be different.

Republicans, who resented Burr's treachery, were outraged when he announced the members of the select committee. During the early 1800s, senators voted to choose members of these temporary committees, which normally consisted of three members, but on this occasion two senators tied for first place and three for second place. The committee would therefore, Burr announced, comprise five members: two Republicans who favored repeal; two Federalists who had voted against repeal and subsequently voted to refer the bill to committee in hopes of effecting a compromise; and one Republican moderate, John Ewing Colhoun (R-SC), who had sided with the Federalists. An account of the proceedings in the New York Evening Post reveals that Burr answered Republican challenges to this unexpected development with his customary ease and composure:

The Democratic [Republican] members appeared extremely discontented at the apparent result; and before the vote was finally declared by the Vice President, General [James] Jackson [R-GA] rose and proposed, that the Senate should ballot again for the committee. This dashing proposition did not materially interrupt the regularity of the scrutiny.

The Vice President was very deliberate. He took the ballots of the respective Senators, examined them attentively, stated the number of them, and holding them up in his hand, mentioned that gentlemen, if they chose, might come and examine them. Mr. G[ouverneur] Morris [F-NY] hoped never to see, in the Senate a proceeding implying so much distrust.

After a pause, the Vice President declared his opinion, that the ballots were truly counted. Of course, the committee was composed as stated above, to the no small chagrin of some of the Democratic members of Congress, in both Houses.

Although Burr had substantive objections to the repeal bill and told one correspondent that he was troubled at the prospect "of depriving the twenty-six judges of office and pay," his growing estrangement from the administration was also a factor. He may, as one scholar of the early judiciary suggests, have hoped to "enhance his stature not only with moderates of his own party but also with Federalists, and perhaps even pave the way for the eventual formation of a third party under his leadership," but the immediate result of Burr's abortive attempt to reach a compromise was his further isolation from his party. He had, as Jefferson's biographer has noted, "offended one side without satisfying the other." Among the advisers who formed Jefferson's inner circle, only Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin continued to support the increasingly troublesome vice president.

Burr soon abandoned any hope of winning renomination to a second term. In early 1804, he called on Jefferson to inform him that he recognized "it would be for the interest of the republican cause for him to retire; that a disadvantageous schism would otherwise take place," but he was concerned that "were he to retire, it would be said that he shrunk from the public sentence." He would need, Burr suggested, "some mark of favor...which would declare to the world that he retired with [Jefferson's] confidence." Jefferson replied that he had not attempted to influence the 1800 election on his own or Burr's behalf, nor would he do so in the next election-a cool rejoinder that masked his now considerable resentment of the man whom, he claimed, he had "habitually cautioned Mr. Madison against trusting too much."

The Republicans ultimately settled on George Clinton as their new vice-presidential candidate. Burr retired from national politics, without Jefferson's "mark of favor," entering the 1804 New York gubernatorial race in a desperate attempt to restore his rapidly failing career.

The Burr-Hamilton Duel

Burr no longer commanded the respect and support from New York Republicans that he had once enjoyed. He entered the gubernatorial race as an independent and actively sought Federalist support when it became apparent that the Federalists would not offer a candidate of their own. But Alexander Hamilton was soon "intriguing for any candidate who can have a chance of success against A.B." Burr plunged enthusiastically into the campaign, delivering speeches and distributing campaign literature, but he could not overcome the liabilities he had acquired since 1800. He lost the election by an overwhelming 8,000-vote margin.

Burr's defeat left him bitter and disillusioned. He blamed Hamilton for his predicament, and when he learned that his rival and former ally had referred to him, at a private dinner party, as a "dangerous man, and who ought not to be trusted," he demanded an explanation. The conflict escalated, as Burr and Hamilton exchanged a series of letters, and finally came to a head on June 27, 1804, when Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel. The grim engagement, which took place on July 11 at Weehawken, New Jersey, resulted in Hamilton's death the following day.

Burr's opponents called for his arrest, but the outcry against him was by no means universal. Dueling was expressly prohibited by law in most states, and murder was a crime in every state. But encounters on the "field of honor" still took place during the early 19th century, particularly in the southern states. Burr had previously challenged Hamilton's brother-in-law, John Church, to a duel-a bloodless encounter that enabled them to confront and then forget their differences-and Hamilton's son Philip had incurred a mortal wound on the dueling ground the previous year. Henry Clay, Andrew Jackson, and others of similar stature subscribed to the Code Duello, but few suffered the stigma that Burr carried after that fatal morning at Weehawken. He left New York a month after Hamilton's death to allow "public opinion" to "take its proper course," traveling south in hopes of a reunion with his daughter Theodosia, now the wife of Joseph Alston, a South Carolina planter with impeccable Republican credentials, and his young grandson, Aaron Burr Alston. He was eventually indicted in New York and New Jersey but never stood trial in either jurisdiction.

Burr returned to the Senate in early November, in time for the second session of the Eighth Congress. It was, as Senator Plumer noted, an awkward occasion:

Nov. 7, 1804: This day the Senate made a quorum for the first time this session [which began two days earlier]. Mr. Burr, the Vice President, appeared and took his seat in the Senate the very first day of the session. It has been unusual for the Vice President to take his seat the first day of the session. But this man, though indicted in New York & New Jersey for the murder of the illustrious Hamilton, is determined to brave public opinion. What a humiliating circumstance that a man Who for months has fled from Justice-& who by the legal authorities is now accused of murder, should preside over the first branch of the National Legislature! I have avoided him-his presence to me is odious-I have merely bowed & spoken to him-Federalists appear to despise neglect & abhor him. The democrats [Republicans], at least many of them, appear attentive to him-& he is very familiar with them-What line of conduct they will generally observe to him is yet uncertain.

Republicans had indeed become "more attentive" to Burr; even Jefferson seemed anxious to mend fences with his errant vice president. "Mr. Jefferson has shewn more attention & invited Mr. Burr oftener to his house within this three weeks than ever he did in the course of the same time before," Plumer marveled. "Mr. Gallatin, the Secy of the Treasury, has waited upon him often at his (Burr's) lodging-& on one day was closeted with him more than two hours. The Secretary of State, Mr. Madison, formerly the intimate friend of Genl. Hamilton, had taken his murderer into his carriage rode with him-accompanied him on a visit to M. Terreau the French Minister." United States Attorney Alexander Dallas wrote to New Jersey governor Joseph Bloomfield, urging him to grant clemency to the vice president.

Republicans in Congress, particularly in the Senate, were equally solicitous of Burr. "The proceedings in New York in consequence of the duel are deemed by a number of the Senators to be harsh and unprecedented," Senator Samuel L. Mitchill (R-NY) explained to his wife. "They believe it very unfair and partial to make him the victim of justice, while several other persons who have killed their opponents in duels at Hoboken are suffered to go at large without molestation. Under these impressions an address has been drawn up to Governor Bloomfield for the purpose of inducing him to quash or suspend the proceedings against the Vice President." Federalists were stunned by the Republicans' newfound respect for Burr, which Plumer attributed to "their joy for the death of Hamilton." But the real reason for Republicans' apparent change of heart, as Burr's biographers Herbert Parmet and Marie Hecht have suggested, was the impending impeachment trial of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase.

The Impeachment Trials of John Pickering and Samuel Chase

Burr had earlier presided over the impeachment trial of New Hampshire judge John Pickering, a revered patriot and the author of his state's 1784 constitution, who by 1803 had become insane and an alcoholic. The House of Representatives impeached Pickering on March 2, 1803, for conduct "contrary to his trust and duty as judge," and the trial in the Senate was held a year later. Even the judge's Federalist supporters were embarrassed by his ravings from the bench, but they saw in the charges against him the opening salvo in the Republicans' assault on the federal judiciary. They would defend him at all costs, maintaining throughout his trial that insanity did not constitute grounds for removal. Republicans were forced to counter that the judge was perfectly sane, but guilty of misconduct that justified his removal from office, although Jefferson and some moderate Republicans were uneasy at the thought of subjecting a man so obviously tormented to the ordeal of an impeachment trial.

The trial was a highly partisan proceeding, and on March 12, 1804, the final vote that removed Pickering from office split along party lines. The vice president made "very formal arrangements" for the trial, Representative Manasseh Cutler, a Federalist from Massachusetts, informed a correspondent, "and the court was opened with a dignified solemnity." Burr presided over the preliminary proceedings and most of the trial with his customary tact and skill, deferring to the Senate to resolve the difficult procedural issues that arose after Pickering failed to appear and his son's attorney, Robert Goodloe Harper, informed the court that the judge, "being in a state of absolute and long continued insanity," could "neither appear nor authorize another to appear for him." But on March 10, Burr, concerned about his gubernatorial campaign in New York, "abruptly left the Senate," departing in the midst of a heated debate over Connecticut Federalist Uriah Tracy's motion to postpone the trial until the following session. President pro tempore Jesse Franklin, a North Carolina Republican, presided for the remainder of the trial, and Burr's unexpected departure made no apparent difference in the outcome of the proceedings. Pickering's trial, as Jefferson's biographer has stressed, was a "confused and tragic episode." The participants in this sorry spectacle all realized that Pickering was a deeply disturbed man and were greatly relieved when the trial ended with his removal from office.

But the impending trial of Associate Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase, impeached for judicial misconduct by the House of Representatives on March 12, 1804-the day Pickering's trial ended-was another matter. Appointed to the Court by President Washington and confirmed by a narrow margin, Chase was an inveterate Federalist, known for his intemperate and partisan harangues from the bench and for his flagrant prejudice against defendants accused of violating the Sedition Act. For many Republicans, Chase personified all the evils inherent in the Federalist-controlled judiciary. As his impeachment trial approached, these Republicans were painfully aware that they could ill afford to offend the man whose rulings would govern the proceedings, and they thus treated Burr with studied deference.

But it was an uneasy truce, at best. Burr was noticeably uncomfortable in the Senate Chamber. "After the minutes of the preceding day have been read-the little business before us dispatched," Plumer observed, the vice president would "leave the chair-come to some one Senator, & intimate in strong terms that it was best to adjourn-& sometimes request a senator to move an adjournment-& in a few minutes he was gone." He seemed to have "lost those easy graceful manners that beguiled the hours away the last session-He is now uneasy, discontented, & hurried." Plumer also sensed "an unusual concern & anxiety in the leading democratic members of the senate," who feared "the talents of Burr." The vice president appeared "friendly to them," he reflected, but "[s]ome office must be given him-what office can that be, that he will accept, & not injure them?"

Burr imposed a rigid discipline on the conduct of the Chase impeachment trial, conducting the proceedings, as one reporter observed, "with the dignity and impartiality of an angel, but with the rigor of a devil." Manasseh Cutler reported that the trial was "conducted with a propriety and solemnity throughout which reflects honor upon the Senate. It must be acknowledged that Burr has displayed much ability, and since the first day I have seen nothing of partiality." Although the managers appointed by the House of Representatives and led by Republican representative John Randolph of Virginia were responsible for trying the case, Burr would occasionally intervene, posing questions of his own to a witness when the irrational and ineffective Randolph (or another interrogator) failed to pursue a particular line of questioning, or seeking clarification of an incomplete or ambiguous response. When either side objected to a question posed by the other, Burr took careful note of the objection, ordering that the offending question be "reduced to writing" and put to the Senate for a determination.

But at times Burr's rigid insistence on absolute decorum only increased the tensions that simmered in the Senate Chamber, elaborately redecorated for the occasion under his careful supervision. Although Senator Plumer would conclude by the end of the trial that Burr had "certainly, on the whole, done himself, the Senate & the nation honor by the dignified manner in which he has presided over this high & numerous Court," he was outraged at Burr's treatment of Chase on January 2, 1805, when the judge appeared before the Senate to enter his plea. Before the court opened, Plumer had overheard the vice president's caustic comment as he ordered Sergeant at Arms James Mathers to remove the chair set aside for the aged justice: "Let the Judge take care to find a seat for himself." Mathers replaced the chair, after Chase "moved that a seat be assigned him," and the vice president "in a very cold formal insolent manner replied he presumed the Court would not object to taking a seat," but Burr would not permit Mathers to provide a table for the judge's convenience. Burr repeatedly interrupted the aged and frail judge as Chase, at times breaking into tears, requested additional time to prepare his answer to the impeachment.

Burr's "peevishness" continued as the proceedings unfolded; on one occasion, he notified one of Chase's attorneys, Philip Barton Key, "that he must not appear as counsel in his loose coat" ["greatcoat," or overcoat], a proviso that senators criticized and Key ignored. By the first week of February, the Senate's now "remarkably testy" president was "in a rage because we do not sit longer." Unruly senators on both sides of the aisle bristled, Plumer observed, when Burr lectured them on judicial etiquette after the high court of impeachment had adjourned for the day on February 12:

Just as the time for adjourning to tomorrow was to be put in the Secretary's office-Mr. Burr said he wished to inform the Senate of some irregularities that he had observed in the Court. Some of the senators as he said during the trial & while a witness was under examination walked between him & the Managers-Others eat apples-& some eat cake in their seats.

Mr. [Timothy] Pickering [F-MA] said he [did] eat an apple-but it was at a time when the President had retired from the chair. Burr replied he did not mean him-he did not see him.

Mr. [Robert] Wright [R-MD] said he did eat cake-he had a just right so to do-he was faint-but he disturbed nobody-He never would submit to be schooled & catechised in this manner.

At this instance a motion was made by Mr. [Stephen Row] Bradley [R-VT], who also had eaten cake, for an adjournment-Burr told Wright he was not in order-sit down-The Senate adjourned-& I left Wright & Burr scolding.

Although rightfully concerned about maintaining an atmosphere of judicial decorum, Burr had obviously lost much of the "easy grace" and consummate tact that had made him such an effective presiding officer. The ordeal ended on March 1, when Burr announced, after a separate vote on each article of impeachment, "that there is not a Constitutional majority of votes finding Samuel Chase, Esq., guilty, on any one article."

Burr's Final Days in the Senate

Burr's final days in the Senate would have been unpleasant even without the strain of presiding over a taxing and bitterly contested impeachment trial. He presided over the February 13, 1805, joint session of Congress, counting the electoral returns. In that capacity, he announced that Jefferson had been reelected and that his old rival, George Clinton, would succeed him as vice president. Senator Samuel Mitchill reported that Burr performed this "painful duty" with "so much regularity and composure that you would not have seen the least deviation from his common manner, or heard the smallest departure from his usual tone." But, Mitchill observed, the always impeccably attired vice president "appeared rather more carefully dressed than usual" for the occasion.

A week later, Republican senator John Smith of New York introduced a bill "freeing from postage all letters and packets to and from Aaron Burr," and Burr found himself in the unenviable position of listening as senators questioned the propriety of granting him the franking privilege. Although surviving accounts of the debate do not indicate that the issue of Burr's character was ever raised in his presence, it was certainly an unspoken consideration. The debate was particularly intense on February 27. Senator John Quincy Adams, a Massachusetts Federalist, proposed an amendment to extend the frank to all former vice presidents (omitting the explicit reference to Burr), and Republican James Jackson of Georgia cautioned in response that "We might hereafter have a Vice President to whom it would be improper to grant the privilege." After Federalist senators Timothy Pickering of Massachusetts and James Hillhouse of Connecticut finally "advocated the indelicacy of the situation of having Mr. Burr in the chair," the vice president volunteered that "he was apprehensive that tomorrow he should be afflicted with pain in the head & should be unable to attend." With Burr absent from the chamber, his opponents were free to speak their minds. The debate was bitter and intense; Senator Hillhouse was resolutely opposed to giving Burr such a dangerous privilege. "The Vice President is an ambitious man," he warned his colleagues. "[H]e aspired to the Presidency-disappointed ambition will be restless. You put arms into his hands to attack your government-He may disseminate seditious pamphlets, news papers & letters at the expence of the very government he is destroying." Senator Pickering feared that Burr would "sell the right of franking to commercial houses-And in the city of New York alone it might give him a fortune." But Burr's supporters countered, "The reason why gentlemen oppose this bill is because Mr. Burr has fought a duel and killed a man." Although the bill passed by a vote of 18 to 13, with all but three of the New England senators voting against it, the House subsequently postponed the measure.

Burr's Farewell Address

Burr left the Senate the day after the Chase trial concluded and just two days before George Clinton took office as the nation's fourth vice president. Federalists and Republicans alike were deeply moved by his March 2, 1805, farewell address, still one of the most celebrated speeches in the history of the early Republic. His remarks were intended for the senators alone, unexpectedly delivered at the conclusion of a closed-door executive session.

Burr began his 20-minute address with an acknowledgement that "he must at times have wounded the feelings of individual members." But he had "avoided entering into explanations at the time," he explained, "because a moment of irritation was not a moment for explanation; because his position (being in the chair) rendered it impossible to enter into explanations without obvious danger of consequences which must injure the dignity of the Senate, or prove disagreeable and injurious in more than one point of view." Only "the ignorant and unthinking," he continued, "affected to treat as unnecessary and fastidious a rigid attention to rules and decorum." But Burr "thought nothing trivial which touched, however remotely, the dignity" of the Senate, and he cautioned senators "to avoid the smallest relaxation of the habits which he had endeavored to inculcate and establish." Likening the Senate to "a sanctuary, a citadel of law, of order, and of liberty," Burr predicted that "if the Constitution be destined ever to perish by the sacrilegious hands of the demagogue or the usurper, which God avert, its expiring agonies will be witnessed on this floor."

Concluding his remarks with the customary expressions of respect and good will, Burr left the Senate Chamber, closing the door behind him, Senator Mitchill noted, "with some force." "[A] solemn and silent weeping" filled the Senate Chamber "for perhaps five minutes." Mitchill, for one, had "never experienced any thing of the kind so affecting," and New York Republican John Smith, "stout and manly as he is...laid his head upon his table and did not recover from his emotion for a quarter of an hour or more." But De Witt Clinton's ally, [New York] American Citizen editor James Cheetham, and others who suspected that Burr's "melodio, harmonico pathos" was merely an effort to restore his political fortunes, doubted that "the flowing tear" could "wash away the dingy stains" of Burr's "political degeneracy."

The "Burr Conspiracy"

The 49-year-old former vice president was heavily in debt at the time of his forced retirement from politics. He had been involved in a number of speculative ventures throughout his career, many of which had resulted in substantial losses. Generous beyond prudence, Burr could never refuse a relative or a friend in need, even if it meant going further into debt. He had assumed responsibility for a number of young wards throughout the years-some of them the children of clients, others rumored to have been his own offspring-and his generosity to his charges further strained his always precarious finances. Burr had always lived, dressed, and entertained well, even when he could ill afford to do so. Surveying his limited prospects, the optimistic and always enterprising former vice president now looked to the West.

The full extent of Burr's business and other ventures in the West will probably never be known, but his first undertaking appears to have been the Indiana Canal Company. Burr and his fellow investors intended to construct a canal to circumvent the Ohio River rapids at Louisville, but, as his biographers have explained, the resourceful vice president had "more than one plan for the future but several alternate ones depending on change and history." His most ambitious scheme was contingent upon the outbreak of war with Spain, which was still in possession of West Florida and Mexico and increasingly hostile toward the burgeoning new nation that pressed along its eastern border. Burr planned an assault on Mexico and anticipated that the western states would leave the Union to join in a southeastern confederacy under his leadership. One of Burr's accomplices, Louisiana Governor James Wilkinson, betrayed the conspiracy before Burr could begin his expedition, and the former vice president was arrested on charges of treason. Chief Justice John Marshall presided over Burr's trial, which opened on August 3, 1807, in Richmond, Virginia. The jury, guided by Marshall's written opinion that two witnesses must testify to a specific, overt act to establish treason-a standard that the prosecution failed to meet-ultimately found "that Aaron Burr is not proved to be guilty under this indictment." Pressed by debts and fearful of further prosecution, Burr departed for Europe under an assumed name in June 1808.

Burr's Later Years

Burr spent the next four years in self-imposed exile. He traveled throughout England and the continent, sightseeing, reading, entertaining the ladies, who found him an attractive companion, and seeking support for another southwestern expedition. His overtures to the British and French courts failed miserably. In the spring of 1812, convinced that a war between the United States and Great Britain was imminent, Burr returned home under the alias, "M. Arnot." He took a room near the Boston waterfront-a far cry from the handsome and well-furnished New York mansion, Richmond Hill, that he had maintained in better times-while testing the waters to determine whether he could safely return to New York.

Burr reappeared in New York in June 1812, ready to resume his legal career. He eagerly looked forward to a reunion with his beloved "Theo" and his grandson Aaron Burr Alston but soon learned that young "Gampy," as Burr called his namesake, had died. In late December 1812, the grief-stricken Theo set out from her home in Georgetown, South Carolina, to visit her father in New York and was never seen again. The schooner that carried Theodosia Burr Alston and her escort probably sank in a storm off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, but the mysterious circumstances of her disappearance, and the controversy and mystery that always dogged Burr's career, spawned legends that the unfortunate Mrs. Alston had been forced to walk the plank by pirates or mutineers, or was still alive as a prisoner in the West Indies.

Although devastated by his daughter's death, Burr continued to practice law and to supervise the education of his young wards. Snubbed by many of his former acquaintances and wholly removed from the "game of politics" that had once been his joy and delight, Burr followed the independence movements that were changing the face of Latin America with a lively but cautious interest. In 1829 he petitioned the government for a pension based on his military service during the Revolution, a crusade that continued until his plea was finally granted in 1834. He became progressively more eccentric and impoverished as the years passed. In 1831 William Seward found him living in a dirty garret, shabbily dressed but optimistic as ever.

In 1833 Aaron Burr married a second time. His new bride, a wealthy widow with a past almost as controversial as his own, soon became disenchanted with her husband when she discovered that he had mismanaged her assets, and she divorced him the following year. Incapacitated by a series of strokes in 1834, Burr lived on the charity of friends and relatives until his death at Port Richmond, Staten Island, on September 14, 1836. During his final hours, a clergyman inquired about his prospects for salvation. Evasive and cryptic to the end, Burr only replied, "On that subject I am coy." Aaron Burr was buried with military honors at Princeton, New Jersey, on September 16, 1836.

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Aaron Burr, 3rd Vice President (1801-1805)

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Congressional Republicans were in a festive mood on January 24, 1804, as they gathered at Stelle's Hotel on Capitol Hill for a banquet celebrating the transfer of the Louisiana Territory to the United States. The festivities began at noon with the discharge of "three pieces of cannon."

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Battle of Yorktown-British Battles website

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Battle of Yorktown-British Battles website

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General George Washington's resounding victory and the surrender of Lord Cornwallis's British army on 19th October 1781; the end for Britain in the American Colonies
The next battle in the American Revolutionary War is the Siege of Gibraltar
Battle: Yorktown

War: American Revolutionary War

Dates of the Battle of Yorktown: 28 th September to 19 th October 1781

Place of the Battle of Yorktown: Virginia in the United States of America

Combatants at the Battle of Yorktown: Americans and French against the British and their German mercenaries

Generals at the Battle of Yorktown: General Washington commanded the American army. Lieutenant-General de Rochambeau commanded the French troops. Major-General Lord Cornwallis commanded the British and German troops.

Size of the armies at the Battle of Yorktown: 8,800 American troops, 7,800 French troops and 6,000 British and German troops.
Uniforms, arms and equipment at the Battle of Yorktown:
The British wore red coats, with bearskin caps for the grenadiers, tricorne hats for the battalion companies and caps for the light infantry. The Highland Scots troops wore the kilt and feather bonnet.

The two regiments of light dragoons serving in America, the 16 th and 17 th, wore red coats and leather helmets in England, but there is clear evidence that they took to wearing green in America.

The Hessian infantry wore blue coats and retained the Prussian style grenadier mitre cap with brass front plate.

The Americans dressed as best they could. Increasingly as the war progressed infantry regiments of the Continental Army took to wearing mostly blue or brown uniform coats. The American militia continued in rough clothing.

Both sides were armed with muskets. The British and German infantry carried bayonets, which were in short supply among the American troops. Steuben in the winter of 1777/8 in Valley Forge insisted that the American Continental Regiments be issued with a standard pattern musket and bayonet, the bayonet being essential to enable the Americans to fight hand-to-hand with the British foot on an equal footing.

Many American soldiers from backwoods areas carried rifles, weapons of considerably greater accuracy than the ordinary musket and which their owners used with proficiency.

Both sides were supported by artillery.

The French royal regiments of foot wore white coats.

Winner of the Battle of Yorktown: The Americans and French.
British Regiments at the Battle of Yorktown:
Troop of 17 th Light Dragoons (incorporated in Tarleton's Legion), Royal Artillery, A composite battalion of Foot Guards (comprising 1 st, 2 nd and 3 rd Foot Guards), 17 th Foot, 23 rd Royal Welch Fusiliers, 33 rd Foot, 43 rd Foot, 71 st Fraser's Highlanders (disbanded at the end of the war), 76 th Foot (disbanded at the end of the war) and 80 th Foot (disbanded at the end of the war), Tarleton's Legion, Simcoe's Legion and the North Carolina Loyalists.

German Regiments in British pay at the Battle of Yorktown:
Regiment of de Voit (Anspach), Regiment of de Seybothen (Anspach), Regiment of Prince Hereditary (Hesse), Regiment of von Bose (Hesse).

French Regiments at the Battle of Yorktown:
Artillery, Lauzun's Legion, Bourbonnois Regiment of Foot, Royal Deux-Ponts Regiment of Foot, Soissonois Regiment of Foot and the Agenois Regiment of Foot.

Americans Regiments at the Battle of Yorktown:
4 th Dragoons (Moylan), Armand's Horse, Lafayette's Light Infantry, Muhlenburg's Brigade, Hazen's Canadian Regiment, 1 st New York Regiment, 2 nd New York Regiment, 1 st New Jersey Regiment, 2 nd New Jersey Regiment, Rhode Island Regiment, 1 st Pennsylvania Regiment, 2 nd Pennsylvania Regiment, Virginia Regiment, 3 rd Maryland Regiment, 4 th Maryland Regiment, three brigades of Virginia Militia and Sappers and Miners.

Account of the Battle of Yorktown:
During the campaigning in 1781, Cornwallis progressively lost his grip on the Carolinas. The years of fighting in America, with no proper supply of recruits to replace British losses, and the intervention of Spain and France in the war, leading to the requirement for British troops in the West Indies and the Mediterranean, left the British much weakened in America.

Cornwallis marched his army into Virginia and seized Yorktown and Gloucester, towns on each side of the York River.

With the arrival of the French fleet of Admiral De Grasse, General Washington was able to march south from New York with the joint American and French army to attack Cornwallis.

Expecting Major-General Clinton to sail from New York with a British relieving force, Cornwallis decided to remain in Yorktown, rather than march south to the Carolinas, or attempt to reach New York.

The Americans and French arrived before Yorktown on 28 th September 1781, forming a semi-circle around the British entrenchments and putting the British and German troops under siege.

Cornwallis's first move was the inexplicable one of abandoning a line of four redoubts that dominated the British positions. The Americans immediately occupied the empty redoubts.

Washington began formal siege operations on the eastern side of Yorktown on 30 th September, and on 9 th October were sufficiently close to open an artillery bombardment.

On 14 th October 1781, the Americans and French stormed two redoubts in front of their trenches and Cornwallis's position in Yorktown became untenable.

The British carried out a sortie on the 16 th October, in which several guns in the two redoubts held by the Americans were spiked. On the same day, Cornwallis attempted to pass the Guards, the 23rd Regiment and the Light Infantry across the York River to Gloucester, but was thwarted by a storm.

With no sign of Clinton's relief, and with inadequate supplies of artillery ammunition and food, on 19 th October 1781, Cornwallis's army marched out of Yorktown and surrendered to George Washington.

Casualties at the Battle of Yorktown:
6,000 British troops surrendered to the Americans and French with 10 stands of German and British colours, guns, small arms, ammunition and equipment.

The casualties during the siege were 500 British, 80 Americans and 200 French killed and wounded.

Follow-up to the Battle of Yorktown:
The capitulation of Clinton's army at Yorktown ended the major battles of the American Revolutionary War, although local fighting continued in areas where there were strong loyalist communities. General Leslie's force in Charleston and the British left in New York were evacuated by ship. The war was formally ended by the Treaty of Paris, signed in 1783, that acknowledged the independence of the American states.
Anecdotes and traditions from the Battle of Yorktown:

The British bands are reputed to have played "The world turned upside down" as the troops marched out to surrender.

After the surrender the American and French officers entertained the British officers to dinner, other than Tarleton with whom the Americans refused to sit at table, due to the atrocities committed by his troops in North and South Carolina.

References for the Battle of Yorktown:
History of the British Army by Sir John Fortescue

The War of the Revolution by Christopher Ward

The American Revolution by Brendan Morrissey
The previous battle of the American Revolutionary War is the Battle of Guildford Courthouse The next battle in the American Revolutionary War is the Siege of Gibraltar To the American Revolutionary War index

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three brigades of virginia militia and sappers and miners

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General George Washington's resounding victory and the surrender of Lord Cornwallis's British army on 19th October 1781; the end for Britain in the American Colonies The next battle in the American Revolutionary War is the Siege of Gibraltar Battle: Yorktown War: American Revolutionary War Dates of the Battle of Yorktown: 28 th September to 19 th October 1781 Place of the Battle of Yorktown: Virginia in the United States of America Combatants at the Battle of Yorktown: Americans and French against the British and their German mercenaries Generals at the Battle of Yorktown: General Washington commanded the American army.

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British military officials employed the common European practice of hiring mercenary soldiers for the war in America. Given that Germany was not unified at this time, most principalities maintained their own military forces, Hesse-Cassel among them. Even though mercenaries came to America from other German states, they were known, then and now, as Hessians. It is estimated that nearly 30,000 Germans served with the British in America. The attraction of free land for deserters and the vigorous German population already in America led thousands of these mercenaries to switch allegiance and stay in America. Hessians who remained in the British employ were hated and feared by the Americans, and the fact that George III had chosen to employ foreign mercenaries stirred up much anger among the colonists.

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British military officials employed the common European practice of hiring mercenary soldiers for the war in America. Given that Germany was not unified at this time, most principalities maintained their own military forces, Hesse-Cassel among them. Even though mercenaries came to America from other German states, they were known, then and now, as Hessians.

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Learn about the Sons of Liberty of the American Revolution including how they got their name, important members, protests, the Stamp Act, the Boston Tea Party, and interesting facts.

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In 1784, the Marquis de Lafayette wrote out this testimonial for James Armistead Lafayette who had aided the American cause during the Yorktown Campaign of 1781. This broadside, with its illustration by Richmond artist John Blennerhasset Martin, includes the text of Lafayette's note.

This is to certify that the bearer by the name of James has done essential services to me while I had the honour to command in this state. His intelligences from the enemy's camp were industriously collected and faithfully delivered. He perfectly acquitted himself with some important commissions I gave him and appears to me entitled to every reward his situation can admit of.

Done under my hand, Richmond,
November 21st, 1784.
Lafayette

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Lafayette's Testimonial to James Armistead Lafayette

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In 1784, the Marquis de Lafayette wrote out this testimonial for James Armistead Lafayette who had aided the American cause during the Yorktown Campaign of 1781. This broadside, with its illustration by Richmond artist John Blennerhasset Martin, includes the text of Lafayette's note.

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Who was Nathan Hale? | Online History Curriculum Sample

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Crispus Attucks ( circa 1723 - March 5, 1770) was the first person to die in the Boston Massacre. This made him the first American to die in the American Revolutionary War. After being killed at the Boston Massacre, Attucks became a martyr of the American Revolution.

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There is some debate among historians as to who the "real" Molly Pitcher is. Most believe that the title is a composite character of all of the women who fought in the Continental Army.

Molly Pitcher at the Battle of Monmouth published by Currier & Ives, [between 1856 and 1907] | public domain image
from the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley

The actions of Molly Pitcher are usually attributed to one Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley. (The nickname "Molly" was common for women named "Mary".) Mary Ludwig was born to a German family in Pennsylvania circa 1744. Details of her childhood are not widely known, though it is believed that her father was a butcher, she had several siblings, and that she was not taught to read or write.

She married William Hays, a foober, in 1769. Hays was a Patriot involved in the 1774 boycott of British goods that arose as protest for the unfair tax being placed on the colonies.

In 1777, Hays enlisted in the Continental Army and was trained as an artilleryman. Mary followed and joined a group of camp followers led by Martha Washington. They took care of the troops, washed clothes, made food, and helped care for the sick or injured soldiers.

In the Battle of Monmouth in June of 1778, Mary Hays carried water from a spring to the thirsty soldiers under heavy fire from the British. When her husband collapsed (sources claim either heat stroke or injury) and was carried off of the battlefield, Mary Hays took his place at his cannon. Once, a cannon ball came so close, that it actually went between her legs, ripping her petticoat. She is only known to have said something along the lines of, "Well, that could have been worse," and went back to firing her cannon.

The nickname "Molly Pitcher" is believed to have come from the soldiers' cry, "Molly! Pitcher!" when they were thirsty or when their overheated cannons needed to be cooled down.

We are lucky that a certain Private Joseph Martin thought to record this detail in his journal later on, so the bravery of this woman was not lost to history.

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 for 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 step, 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.

Legend has it that she was thanked personally by General Washington.

After the war, her husband died and she remarried to John McCauley. He spent nearly all of her money and then disappeared. She died at 78.

Margaret Corbin

Others believe that "Molly Pitcher" is really Margaret Corbin, wife of John Corbin who was also an artilleryman in the Continental Army. Her story is very similar to that of Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley.

John Corbin enlisted and Margaret joined a group of camp followers so she could take care of him. In 1776, stationed at Fort Washington, John was killed in the Battle of Fort Washington, leaving his cannon unmanned. Margaret took over and fired his cannon until she was very badly injured. The British won that fight, but they released her as the equivalent of a wounded soldier.

Margaret went to Philadelphia, completely disabled from her wound and unable to work. She is the first woman to receive a government pension as a wounded veteran, though it was not the same amount the men soldiers received.

There are other women, including Deborah Samson, who showed incredible bravery on the battlefield. The legend of "Molly Pitcher" could apply to them just as easily, which is why it is still unclear who Molly Pitcher was.

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Molly Pitcher | Facts, Debate, Information & History

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There is some debate among historians as to who the "real" Molly Pitcher is. Most believe that the title is a composite character of all of the women who fought in the Continental Army.

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Learn about Patriots and Loyalists during the Revolutionary War. One side wanted independence while the other wanted to remain part of Britain.

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American Revolution

There were two main kinds of soldiers that fought in the Revolutionary War in America, and that was the Militia and the Continental Army.

The Militia was made up of people that were regular citizens that were prepared to fight if there was an emergency and if they were needed.

Who Were the Militia?

The Militia were people that were regular citizens, and they had regular jobs. Most of the people in the Militia army were between the ages of 16 and 65 years old. These were men that were trained a few times of the year, but most of the time, they had jobs as farmers, trade skills, and other responsibilities.

The Militia fighters were people that would prepare in case they were needed to fight in the army at any time. The Militiamen lived in the cities, and they would not only fight in a war, but they also would be there to take care of any crime, Indians or bandits that came into their area.

Continental Army

The other soldiers were called the Continental Army. These were people that were part of the United States Army under George Washington.

This army, unlike the Militia, was made up of people that would go and sign up to be in the military, and they would stay in the military for a certain amount of time. Some of the time was shorter while other times were for years.

The soldiers would be trained to fight, and they knew how to fight in the War if they needed to.
Minutemen
Another name for the Militia was "minutemen," because it was said that they would be there to fight within a minute. These people that were part of the Militia did not always win the battles, and many of these citizens would be there mainly to defend the community.

Some of the people of the Militia were old, and they were not very prepared for War.

1774

In the year 1774, the Militia that lived in Massachusetts changed their Militia around, and they took some of their best fighters and prepared them to be ready to fight when they were called on. This was a very important time in the community, and the Militia was prepared to fight when the time came.

Paul Revere

Paul Revere came through Massachusetts at midnight on April 18, 1775, and let the Militia know that the British troops were coming to fight. Then, the very next morning, the British attacked, but the Militia was ready, and they were able to make the British soldiers flee the area.

This made the Militia very popular, and as the War continued, other units of Militia or minutemen began to form. They were made in different colonies such as Connecticut, Maryland, and New Hampshire.

More Facts About Colonial Militia:

Anyone that was between 16 and 60 was required to keep a firearm and agree to be part of the Militia if they were needed.

The main job of the Militia was to fight against the Indians and the French.

Sometimes the Militia fought beside other soldiers, such as during the French and Indian War.

Minutemen were part of the Militia, but they were different because they were volunteers, and the Militiamen were required to fight by law.

The minutemen trained more than the Militia.

What Did You Learn?

Who were the men of the Colonial Militia?
The men of the Colonia Militia were men between the ages of 16 and 60 that were regular citizens.

Did the men have to join the Militia?
The men that were citizens were required by law to be part of the Militia.

What was the difference between the Militia and the Minutemen?
The difference between the Militia and the Minutemen was that the Militiamen were required to be in the army, but the Minutemen were volunteers.

Why were the minutemen called minutemen?
They were called minutemen because they were ready to fight "in a minute's time."

What was the main job of the Militia?
The primary role of the Militia was to keep the community safe and to fight against the French and the Indians.

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There were two main kinds of soldiers that fought in the Revolutionary War in America, and that was the Militia and the Continental Army. The Militia was made up of people that were regular citizens that were prepared to fight if there was an emergency and if they were needed.

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Believing the American revolutionary cause was noble and just, Gilbert du Motier, the Marquis de Lafayette, journeyed to the fledgling American colonies, and offered his military service to the Continental Army at the age of 19. With the approval of Congress, Lafayette was commissioned to the rank of Major General.

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James Monroe, Henry Lee, John Marshall, Alexander Hamilton, and Marquis de Lafayette were some of the Continental Army officers who served George Washington during the Revolutionary War. Of these rising stars, Alexander Hamilton overcame the greatest odds, including impoverishment and illegitimacy, in obtaining his position as aide-de-camp to General Washington. For approximately the next twenty years, Hamilton and Washington would work with each other during the Revolutionary War, the framing of the Constitution, and Washington's Presidency of the United States. The period of 1777-1778, however, pivotal to the success of the Continental Army, and ultimately that of the Continental Congress, also was important for Hamilton, for during this time, he rapidly proved his worth on a national basis.

Alexander Hamilton was born on the West Indian Island of Nevis. His father, of Scottish ancestry, remained in Scotland during Hamilton's childhood due to a debt, forcing his mother to rely on friends and relatives for financial support. Around the age of ten the family moved to the nearby island of St. Croix where his mother died soon after. Friends and relatives took an interest in the future of the young Hamilton by encouraging him to work as a mercantile clerk and to read and write, activities at which he excelled despite his lack of proper schooling. Hamilton's formal education began after Reverend Hugh Knox, a Presbyterian minister, gave a sermon so inspiring that Hamilton wrote a description of it for the Royal-Danish American Gazette. When a group of readers found out that the words were those of an under-privileged fifteen-year-old they decided to sponsor his way to the American Colonies to receive his first formal education.

Hamilton attended King's College (now Columbia University) located outside of what was then 18th century New York City. In this prime location, Hamilton was surrounded by talk of rebellion, as well as arguments against it. Events and issues were leading up to the Battle of Lexington and Concord in but a few months; although outright rebellion and war against the mother country was unthinkable, a war of words was reality. The radical politics of New York (and other colonies) were expressed by way of pamphlets. A particular New York Loyalist in favor of England's crown policy, known as 'the Farmer' in his sympathetic writings, favored royal British authority in the American colonies and denounced all actions of a colonial American congress. 'The Farmer' received several responses from Hamilton and other rebellious spirited Whigs. 'Friend to America,' an assumed name of Hamilton's, responded to 'the Farmer' in his pamphlet. He defended the American congress, writing in reference to members of parliament on December 15, 1774, "...That they are enemies to the rights of mankind is manifest, because they wish to see one part of their species enslaved by another. That they have an invincible aversion to common sense is apparent in many respects: They endeavor to persuade us, that the absolute sovereignty of parliament does not imply our absolute slavery".1 Hamilton continued to write in defense of colonial-American rights throughout the war.

With war pending, Hamilton immersed himself in the study of artillery tactics and military maneuvers. In March of 1776, he joined the New York Artillery, and was recommended for an officer's commission by General Alexander McDougall. He was thereby given the title "Captain of the Provincial Company of Artillery." As noted by a top scholar, "Hamilton's abilities as a conscientious and business-like leader were evident from his earliest days of military service. He not only had to recruit and train his own men; he also had to see that they were fed, clothed, and paid. While many young New Yorkers may have fought the enemy as bravely as Hamilton did, few battled the local authorities so stubbornly to provide for their troops."2 In May of 1776 Hamilton wrote to the New York provincial congress regarding the condition of his men. He was concerned because the men in his company of artillery were not quite at full strength. Hamilton had an additional problem because his men were paid less than other artillery companies and their duties were the same. There was only so much the New York provincial congress could do, however. British and Hessian troops under General William Howe disembarked from Halifax for New York City during the summer of 1776. Meanwhile, General Washington marched his army from Boston, and proceeded to strategically fortify the main waterway approaches to New York City.

Hamilton's New York Artillery Company was used in strategic areas in New York City. Upon losing successive battles in the city of New York, he covered the Continental Army's rear in a number of the withdrawals. Initially, Hamilton's company was placed at Fort George on the waterfront of Manhattan. During the Battle of White Plains Hamilton placed his cannon in such a place as to turn back a significantly sized Hessian advance. This decisive movement left a good impression of Hamilton among the American high command and delayed in part the British offensive, thus giving the Continental Army preciously needed time to perform an orderly retreat. When the Continental Army evacuated New York City, Forts Washington and Lee fell to a victorious British force. With much of the army's enlistment expiring at the beginning of and throughout December, Washington led a desperate retreat through New Jersey and into Pennsylvania. Hamilton's artillery company was specifically selected to cover the hasty retreat from New Brunswick, New Jersey.

The victory at the Battle of Trenton on December 26, 1776, distinguished Hamilton in a Continental Army that gained a newfound hope in fending off the British incursion into Philadelphia. General Howe posted troops throughout New Jersey to liberate Philadelphia and Pennsylvania in 1777 from rebel leaders. Washington recognized Howe's tactic in attempting to demoralize the cause, and found it absolutely necessary to establish a newfound hope with his army. During the night of the surprise attack on Hessian soldiers at Trenton, Hamilton's skill and experience were crucial. Serving in Lord Stirling's brigade, Captain Hamilton and Captain Forrest's artillery companies were assigned to cover King Street and the parallel Queen Street. Hamilton and Forrest were well equipped; each had two six-pound cannon, while Forrest also had a pair of Howitzers. With both streets covered by the artillery, Hessian commander Colonel Johann Rall, decided to form up his infantry and artillery and march on the Americans from King Street. "No sooner had the Hessians stepped off, however, when the round-shot from Hamilton's battery tore through their ranks," according to a recent book entitled Battles of the Revolutionary War. 3 The Hessians under Rall retreated in the opposite direction, and many ended up surrendering because of the effective rounds discharged from Hamilton's artillery company. General Hugh Mercer placed his American infantry between houses from the direction of Queen Street on the right flank of Colonel Rall's Hessians. The effective rounds discharged from Hamilton's artillery combined with the musketry of Mercer's troops, and devastated the Hessian ranks with casualties. This caused a general retreat among the Hessian troops; many of them were enfolded and forced to surrender to the victorious Continentals.

After Hamilton's gallantry and heroic accomplishment displayed at the crucial engagement at Trenton, he was appointed an aide to General Washington. In this position his writing skills and keen sense of judgement would prove essential to the highest command in the army. The 1777 winter encampment at Morristown, New Jersey, found Hamilton with an army of well under 10,000. The army, however, was reinforced steadily as the winter progressed into spring. During this time Hamilton recorded, "the many deserters coming in from the enemy showed them to be in desperate straits... Since the possibility that the French might enter the war in Europe would disincline the British from sending reinforcements overseas"4. General Howe's army made a feint into northern New Jersey in the spring of 1777 to draw the Continental Army out of the highlands of Morristown. Nevertheless, it would be weeks before it became a certainty that Howe's intention was Philadelphia. During that time, Hamilton received on-the-job training and became accustomed to the cramped living style as a part of General Washington's staff.

While the Continental Army awaited the approach of General Howe and the British Army in Wilmington, Delaware, Hamilton described the atmosphere before the Battle of Brandywine. On September 1, 1777, he wrote of General Howe's slovenly movements, the Continental Army's morale, and of the surrounding landscape. "He still lies there [Greys Hill, Pennsylvania] in a state of inactivity; in a great measure I believe from the want of horses, to transport his baggage and stores. It seems he sailed with only about three weeks provendor and was six at sea. This has occasioned the death of a great number of his horses, and has made skeletons of the rest. He will be obliged to collect a supply from the neighboring country before he can move... This country does not abound in good posts. It is intersected by such an infinity of roads, and is so little mountainous that it is impossible to find a spot not liable to capital defects. The one we now have is all things considered the best we could find, but there is no great depindence [sic] to be put on it. The enemy will have Philadelphia, if they dare make a bold push for it, unless we fight them a pretty general action. I opine we ought to do it, and that we shall beat them soundly if we do. The militia seem pretty generally stirring. Our army is in high health & spirits. We shall I hope have twice the enemy's numbers. I would not only fight them, but I would attack them; for I hold it an established maxim, that there is three to one in favour of the party attacking..."5 Among the dispatches arriving at the Ring House were conflicting reports concerning the right flank of the Continental Army. The secretive movements made by Howe and Cornwallis had couriers bringing reports in all morning. One of Hamilton's duties at the home of Benjamin Ring was to establish the immediate importance of incoming dispatches. After deciding to reinforce the right flank of the Continental Army with Nathanael Greene's Brigades, General Washington and Lafayette, along with Washington's staff, rode along with Greene's troops. Upon the scene of the battle they tried to rally the Continentals of Stephen's and Stirling's divisions. The American stand at Brandywine Creek almost proved fatal, but there was no other alternative for Washington. During the nine months that remained in the 1777-78 Philadelphia Campaign, Hamilton was deployed on missions of major importance on the request of General Washington.

When General Washington decided to keep his army between Howe and the Continental Army's supply line deeper in Pennsylvania, he sent Hamilton on a mission to destroy a supply of flour and prevent other supplies from falling into British hands as they marched toward Philadelphia. Hamilton now led a group of eight cavalrymen which included Captain Henry Lee, and was about to burn the mill at the small village of Valley Forge when two sentries fired warning shots from their posts. The force of British Cavalry, largely outnumbering Hamilton's force, at first chased Captain Lee who took flight across the millrace with a pair of mounted American cavalry. The British dragoons gave up the chase with Lee and went after Hamilton. While Hamilton attempted to cross the Schuylkill River in a scow, the green-coated dragoons fired numerous volleys at him and the remainder of his party. The musketry wounded one man, killed another, and crippled Hamilton's horse. Hamilton had no choice but to swim to the other side of the river whereafter he wrote to John Hancock, President of the Continental Congress, the British had potential to be in Philadelphia that evening. Upon returning to Washington's headquarters, Hamilton was chagrined to find out that he had been given up for a casualty by word of Lee. Meanwhile, the Continental Congress and Philadelphia patriots were in a panic, securing valuables, and leaving the city.

The British did not enter the city that night, or within even within the next week. Hamilton's next mission was to go into Philadelphia and obtain shoes, blankets, clothing, and other important supplies for the Continental Army. On September 26, the British under Howe finally marched into Philadelphia. Hamilton's missions were not completely over, however, and after the Battle of Germantown was fought in October 1777, he was sent north to New York. General Horatio Gates was the recent victor of Saratoga, where he defeated British General "Gentleman Johnny" Burgoyne. Gates was reluctant to send reinforcements to Washington, and when Gates would not acknowledge Washington's request through dispatch, Hamilton was hurried into negotiations. By the time reinforcements had arrived to bolster Washington's numbers, Fort Mifflin and Fort Mercer had fallen into British hands, and the Royal Navy had complete access to the Delaware River and could supply the occupying army at Philadelphia shipping ports. Hamilton would spend the remainder of the winter at Valley Forge in Washington's Headquarters at one of the homes of Isaac Potts, next to where he experienced the near deadly encounter with green-coated British dragoons the previous autumn.

After the trying winter at Valley Forge and the formal alliance with France, Hamilton observed the Continental Army as it became nearly victorious over the Redcoats at the Battle of Monmouth. Hamilton and Lafayette were close behind General Washington on the battle line as he rallied the Continentals to near victory. Hamilton was described during the battle as "...incessant in his endeavors during the day in reconnoitering the enemy, in rallying, and in charging..."6 During the remainder of the time he served the position of aide-de-camp, Washington would not allow Hamilton to independently command a force of troops, because it would be unfair to other Continental Army officers who surpassed him in seniority. General Washington and Colonel Hamilton had a falling out in the spring of 1781, and Hamilton resigned as an aide to the Commander-in-Chief. Eventually he was given an independent command and during Yorktown campaign, he commanded the capture of a strategic fortification (redoubt #10), at the siege of Yorktown, Virginia.

Following the capitulation of General Cornwallis and his army at Yorktown, Hamilton was appointed a member of Congress. He worked closely with fellow New Yorker, Gouveneur Morris, in financing the fledgling national government. Hamilton's steady work with the colonial assembly in congress sums up his wartime activity. His rapid advancement from the Caribbean islands, to college in New York, and the experience he obtained in the Continental Army (especially as an aide to Washington) continued with his tremendous influence during the framing of the Constitution, and beyond. The extraordinary achievements he made during the War for American Independence impressed not a few. Alexander Hamilton's contributions to the United States during this early period will not be forgotten any time soon.

Andrew Ronemus

The Founding Fathers. Alexander Hamilton: A Biography in His Own Words. New York: Newsweek, 1973.

ibid

Wood, W.J. Battles of the Revolutionary War. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 1990.

Flexner, James Thomas. The Young Hamilton. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1978.

Schmucker, Samuel M. The Life and Times of Alexander Hamilton. Philadelphia: John E. Potter and Company, 1856.

ibid

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James Monroe, Henry Lee, John Marshall, Alexander Hamilton, and Marquis de Lafayette were some of the Continental Army officers who served George Washington during the Revolutionary War. Of these rising stars, Alexander Hamilton overcame the greatest odds, including impoverishment and illegitimacy, in obtaining his position as aide-de-camp to General Washington.

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Both the British and the Americans sent Revolutionary War spies over to the other's camps to discover what secrets they could.

There were many spies that were never discovered and to this day we do not know who they were. Most of those we do know are known thanks to the meticulous record-keeping of Sir Henry Clinton, British commander of the forces in America.

Benedict Arnold, spy for the wrong side!

Clinton exhibited an almost maniacal fascination with the duplication of any and all correspondence that he wrote and received. He went so far as to make duplicate copies of all the letters and documents he signed and saved almost every scrap of paper that crossed his path, including such mundane items as the accounts of his personal expenses and dinner receipts. (from Spy Letters of the American Revolution).

I cannot tell you the lives or stories of those unknown spies, because, like I said, they are unknown, but I can tell you about those we do know ...

Famous Revolutionary War Spies

Women as American Revolution Spies

Those are the men, but Revolutionary War women played a large role as spies as well. foolishly, American men assumed that women were too simple to understand complex military strategy, so they spoke freely as British spies mingled among them disguised as peddlers or pretending to search for a father or brother.

Our knowledge of these is limited, as many were not caught, but those we do know include ...

Miss Jenny, who paid dearly for information she extracted from the French camp

Ann Bates, a schoolteacher that infiltrated George Washington's camp

Lydia Darragh, a Quaker and pacifist who nonetheless seized an opportunity when it appeared in her living room

Nature of Espionage During the Revolutionary War

When you hear the word spy you may think of people in black masks and hoods like you see in the movies. This is not how these spies operated. They led normal lives and blended in with society, which is how they got the job done.

Many of these Revolutionary War spies are also heroes, whose bravery we can aspire to.

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Revolutionary War Spies | Facts, Information & History

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Both the British and the Americans sent Revolutionary War spies over to the other's camps to discover what secrets they could. There were many spies that were never discovered and to this day we do not know who they were.

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The name Benedict Arnold is synonymous in American history with the word traitor. His name is almost a synonym for treasonous behavior so despicable, his many contributions to American Independence before becoming a turncoat are largely forgotten.

Arnold actually built a very impressive military career before his defection to the British army. Born in the British colony of Connecticut in 1741, he was the only child out of eleven to survive into adulthood. He spent his young adulthood engaged as an apothecary and merchant but served in the militia as well.

During the American Revolution, Arnold quickly established himself as one of George Washington's best generals. Realizing the strategic importance of securing New York, Arnold mustered a group of men and headed toward Fort Ticonderoga. Coordinating with Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys, Arnold helped capture the fort for the Patriots. Arnold suffered two battle wounds for the American cause in 1776; the first in a failed attack on Quebec and the second at the Battle of Saratoga.

Arnold believed the Continental Congress insufficiently rewarded his efforts, especially considering his sacrifices. After being appointed to brigadier general, Arnold watched as Congress passed him over for promotion to the post of major general five times in favor of his subordinates. Arnold had every intention of resigning from military service following these outrages but not for Washington's insistence that he stay. He was rewarded in 1777 with a promotion to major general and a post as military commander of Philadelphia.

Arnold's behavior eventually came to frustrate his relationships with other Continental officials. He feuded with several officers in the Continental Army, including Moses Hazen, John Brown, and James Easton. Arnold lived extravagantly in Philadelphia and also engineered a variety of business deals that earned him a reputation for questionable practices in his desperate desire to impress Edward Shippen, a wealthy Philadelphia Loyalist, so that he could marry his 18-year-old daughter, Peggy. Arnold's behavior became so questionable that some began to suspect he was covertly dealing with the British to make his money. Although he successfully secured Peggy's hand, Arnold's extravagance and imprudence, ultimately, drove him deep into debt.

Continental officials could not confirm Arnold's suspected betrayal until 1780 when hard evidence of his treason was uncovered. The Americans captured Major John Andre, Arnold's British contact, who was in possession of paperwork revealing Arnold's treason. After receiving command of West Point in 1779, Arnold willingly provided the British with vital information for taking control of West Point. Andre was executed for his crimes while Arnold managed to escape to England.

Arnold would continue to serve in the military, only now he served the British against his former countrymen. In December, he led a force of British troops into Virginia, capturing Richmond and laying waste to the countryside. Arnold would die in 1801, leaving behind him a legacy as America's most notorious traitor.

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The name Benedict Arnold is synonymous in American history with the word traitor. His name is almost a synonym for treasonous behavior so despicable, his many...

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You can click on any person on this site to learn more about them

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The third vice-president of the United States was involved in two of the most sensational episodes in the America of his day. In a duel in 1804, when he was 48, he killed Alexander Hamilton, one of the country's founding fathers, and three years later after complicated legal proceedings he was questionably acquitted of treason.

Aaron Burr came from a prominent family of clerics and scholars, but he always had a wild streak. Orphaned as a baby, he was brought up by an uncle who would find instilling discipline into his charming, self-willed nephew a challenge. The young Burr fought with distinction in the War of Independence and started on an almost lifelong pursuit of women.

He became a prosperous lawyer in New York City and went into politics, both of which created a poisonous rivalry with Alexander Hamilton. In the 1790s Burr was a United States senator and from 1800 he was vice-president to President Jefferson, but he was not picked to run again with Jeffferson in 1804. The animosity with Hamilton reached a point at which Burr challenged him to a duel. Each man fired one shot. Hamilton missed, but Burr did not. Hamilton fell, mortally wounded, with a pistol ball lodged in his spine, and died the following day.

Many Americans considered Burr no better than a murderer. He was now turning his mind to starting a colony in the newly acquired Louisiana Territory, personally invading Mexico, which was still a Spanish colony, and - according to rival interpretations of his intentions - either expanding the United States or founding a whole new nation of his own. At one point he sounded the British ambassador out about the possibility of bringing the British fleet and British money to assist in separating the Louisiana Territory from the Union. In 1805 he made a journey south to New Orleans to test the water.

As rumours about Burr's intentions spread, the administration became increasingly suspicious and President Jefferson was informed by a treacherous associate of Burr's, a certain General Wilkinson, that there was 'a deep, dark, wicked and widespread conspiracy' afoot. Wilkinson turned out to be in the pay of the Spanish government, but then so, confusingly enough, was Burr.

Late in 1806 Burr led a force of sixty followers in boats down the Mississippi, apparently heading for New Orleans. Near Natchez he was held and then released, but when he reached what is now Alabama, he was arrested and sent under guard to Richmond, Virginia. There he came up in the United States Circuit Court before Chief Justice John Marshall, who happened not to be an ardent admirer of President Jefferson. In those days the justices of the Supreme Court also presided individually in the federal district courts.

The proceedings took months. Burr was accused of high misdemeanour for planning to attack the dominions of the King of Spain and of treason for trying to seize New Orleans and convert American territory into an empire of his own. If he was found guilty of treason, the penalty would be death. The prosecution lawyers were overshadowed from the start by the galaxy of legal talent Burr had found to defend him, headed by Edmund Randolph, a former governor of Virginia, federal Attorney General and Secretary of State to George Washington. Burr's team spent three days arguing that to be guilty of treason for 'levying war' under the Constitution, the accused must have committed an overt act in a war, testified to by two witnesses and committed in the district of the trial. Chief Justice Marshall upheld this argument and in the end, despite the evident misgivings of the jury, Burr had to be acquitted.

Burr was generally believed guilty all the same and in Baltimore a mob hanged him in effigy. He took refuge in Europe, where he tried to interest the British and French governments in creating a new nation in the American Southwest. He returned to the United States in 1812 and spent the rest of a long life in law practice in New York, a disappointed man. He was eighty when he died at Port Richmond on Staten Island in 1836.

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The third vice-president of the United States was involved in two of the most sensational episodes in the America of his day. In a duel in 1804, when he was 48, he killed Alexander Hamilton, one of the country's founding fathers, and three years later after complicated legal proceedings he was questionably acquitted of treason.

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Siege of Yorktown | Summary, Combatants, Casualties, & Facts

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Siege of Yorktown (September 28–October 19, 1781), joint Franco-American land and sea campaign that entrapped a major British army on a peninsula at Yorktown, Virginia, and forced its surrender. The siege virtually ended military operations in the American Revolution.

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Hessian Soldiers of the American Revolution

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Hessian Soldiers of the American Revolution

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Hessian Guide Hessians remaining in America listing. by John Merz page 43 reprinted here with permission kindly sent in by Bill Hawk Copyrights: 2005

During and after the American Revolution of the 30,000 Soldiers supplied by six German principalities, an estimated 6,000 men were discharged or deserted from the ranks, and quite a number returned later from Germany. Of those men, approx. 3500 remained in the new United States of America, and the rest selected to settle in Canada, mostly in the French-Canadian part, a few hundred in either Nova Scotia or Ontario, only a very few in the Provinces of Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick.

During my first fifteen years of researching where those so-called Hessians settled down and raised families, I have found some information on about 3000 of them, not counting the Hessian settlers of Quebec (1500 - 2000).

In the following list of names which is by no means complete, in fact, due to an unfortunate computer problem I lost quite a bit of data, and only the fortunate circumstance that months earlier I had made a printout saved those names in printed form. It will take me a few months again to feed them back into my computer together with the since newly found names. However, research is an ongoing process and it would not be a good idea to wait with publishing until you feel you have them all.

Some of the names are variations, as everybody is aware of the fact that the original German name has undergone changes, in some cases very drastic ones, I would advise to check through the whole list and mark those which you suspect could be related to yours. Every name has some references to where it was found, and in order to find those references, turn to the full listing of references, appearing in numerical sequence right after the list of names. There is no particular system to find those references, they were numbered as they were found, from 1 to 100 are mostly books or official publications, from 101 to 299 articles found in respect to Hessian soldier's history, and 300 to 399 are personal documents as supplied by descendants, etc.
Note from John Merz Hello Hessians; After my first printing of my book "GUIDE" of which I sold many many copies, I have now been made aware of the fact that there was a page missing explaining the abbreviations used in my Hessian soldiers listings: I apologize for this oversight and here they are: A B B R E V I A T I O N S

B*D = Baptised daughter B*S = Baptised son B.R. = Butler's Rangers CQ92 = listed in Quebec Census 1792 CQ95 = listed in Quebec Census 1795 D* = Died D1 = Discharged from unit D1Can = Discharged in Canada D2 = Deseserted from unit D2NY = Deserted in New York KRRNY = King's Royal Regiment of NewYork (Provincial Corps) LC = Land Certificate

LG = Land Grant LP = Land Petition M* = Married MF = Microfilm (see separate listings) Q1800 = On VondenVelden List of Hessians in Quebec 1800 RTCan = Returned to Canada after release in Germany SH* = Sold himself in U.S.A. (indentured for 3 years) W* = Witness WB* = Witnessed Baptism WM* = Witnessed Marriage.

These German Military units served in North America from 1776 to 1783 Page 10 of the Hessian Guide

A-B Ansbach-Bayreuth Regiments A-Z Anhalt Zerbst Regiment B-1 Brunswick Dragoon Regt. Prinz Ludwig B-2 Brunswick Musketier Regt. Prinz Friedrich B-3 Brunswick Musketier Regt. von Riedesel B-4 Brunswick Grenadier Battalion von Breymann B-5 Brunswick Musketeer Regt. von Specht B-6 Brunswick Musketier Regt. von Rhetz B-8 Brunswick Regiment von Ehrenkrook B-9 Brunswick Regiment von Barrier (Chasseurs)B-10 Brunswick Batt]. Major de Lucke (disbanded 1781)B-? Brunswick troops (Regiment or Battl. unknown)HAJ Hanau Jaegercorps (Chasseur Corps)HAR Hanau Artillery Corps HHE Hanau Regiment Erbprinz HFK Hanau Frei Corps (The Free Corps served only in N.Y.)K-1 Kassel Leib Infantry Regiment K-2 Kassel Fuselier Regiment Erbprinz K-3 Kassel Musketier Regt. Prinz Carl

K-4 Kassel Fuselier Regt. von Ditfuerth
K-5 Kassel Musketeer Regt. von Donop
K-6 Kassel Fuselier Regt. von Lossberg
K-7 Kassel Fuselier Regt. von Knyphausen
K-8 Kassel Musketier Regt. von Truembach/von Bose
K-9 Kassel Musketeer Regt. von Mirbach
K-10 Kassel Grenadier Regt. von Rall
K-11 Kassel Grenadier Regt. von Linsingen
K-12 Kassel Grenadier Regt. von Block/von Lengerke
K-13 Kassel Grenadier Regt. von Minnigerode
K-15 Kassel Artillery Corps
K-16 Kassel Regiment von Huyn/von Benning
K-17 Kassel Regiment von Stein/von Seitz
K-18 Kassel Gren.Battl. Koehler/Graf/Platte
K-19 Kassel Regiment von Wissenbach/von Knoblauch
K-20 Kassel Regiment von Buenau
K-22 Kassel Feldjaegercorps (Chasseur corps)
K-23 Kassel Regiment Landgraf/von Wutgenau
K-? Soldier of Kassel troops (Regiment unknown)
WAL Waldeck Regiment

Many Loyalist (English) Military units enlisted German officers and men who had previously served with above listed German units, and had escaped from American prison camps.

note from John: dated 25 Aug 2005 and sent to the mailing list."SOURCES" The information collected for this publication has been found in various sources, such as books, historical works, dissertations, and other documentations, and is listed herein in numerical order as the information has been received. In other words, the S#1 (Source #1) was the first source studied by this researcher, followed by #2, and so on. When studying the "One-Line-Name" entries or personal data files of particular soldiers, sources are quoted as they have been found. Most of the material quoted can be obtained for closer study from your local Public Library or through Inter-Library loan. Most research centres do have significant holdings of source material of their own. One more clarification: If it says $18, 192, 400, that means it refers to S#18, S#192, S#400. With one-line listings, every type space counts. Hope this will answer some of your questions. Yours John Helmut Merz INDEX of NAMES Names of Additional Soldiers not found in the Hessian Guide - Link
(Can't find your Hessian check here, if you have your solider and proof of units list him here.)
The S# numbers are explained on these pages Resources

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Hessian Guide Hessians remaining in America listing. by John Merz page 43 reprinted here with permission kindly sent in by Bill Hawk Copyrights: 2005 During and after the American Revolution of the 30,000 Soldiers supplied by six German principalities, an estimated 6,000 men were discharged or deserted from the ranks, and quite a number returned later from Germany.

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Historical Significance-Sons and Daughters of Liberty

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Historical Significance-Sons and Daughters of Liberty

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Hidden History: Virginia slave spied America to Revolutionary War Victory

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While George Washington led the American colonists to victory in the Revolutionary War, there might not have been a revolution at all if it weren't for provocateurs such as Samuel Adams.

Adams and other firebrands helped push moderate colonial leaders into joining in the resistance against the British, which eventually led to the war. But Adams wasn't just a rabble-rouser. He also was a serious political theorist who championed the notion of individual rights, which became a core American value. During the Revolutionary War, Adams served in the Continental Congress and helped draft the Articles of Confederation, the document that was the predecessor to the U.S. Constitution.

Samuel Adams' Background and Early Life

Adams was born in Boston on September 27, 1722, to an affluent Puritan family. His father, Samuel Adams Sr., was a prominent local merchant and religious deacon who was also active in local politics. His mother, Mary Adams, was the daughter of a local businessman.

Adams attended Boston Latin School and then went to Harvard College. It was there that Adams was introduced to the writings of John Locke, a philosopher in the Enlightenment, who argued that all people were born with certain rights that could not be taken away and that governments exist by the consent of the people. That idea made a powerful impression on Adams, who wrote his 1743 master's degree thesis at Harvard on the legality of resisting British authority.

When Adams' father died in 1748, he inherited the family business of making malted barley and supplying it to brewers. He also may have tried his hand at brewing, judging from a 1751 newspaper advertisement in which he offered "strong beer, or malt for those who incline to brew it themselves; to be sold by Samuel Adams, at a reasonable rate."

But Adams wasn't very good at running the business and eventually went bankrupt. He was similarly unsuccessful as a city tax collector, performing his duties so ineptly that his ledgers came up short by thousands of pounds.

Sons of Liberty

Though Adams wasn't very good with money, he was a good writer. He and some friends started their own short-lived newspaper, The Public Advertiser, which published Adams' opinion pieces. He used that opportunity to exhort other Bostonians to cherish and protect their personal freedom.

Adams' voice became more prominent in the mid-1760s when the British government tried to pay off debt from the Seven Years War by imposing new taxes upon the American colonists. While others merely grumbled about the economic harm, Adams argued in print that the British were violating the colonists' rights, because they were being taxed without representation in Parliament. He denounced the Stamp Act, a 1765 tax law, as an attempt "to destroy the liberties of America as with one blow."

That same year, Adams was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, an office he would hold for nine years. Around that time, he also joined a secretive group of activists called the Loyal Nine, which eventually evolved into a more radical organization called the Sons of Liberty.

When British troops arrived in Boston in 1768, Adams became more heavily involved in organizing resistance against the Crown. He wrote scores of newspaper articles under pen names, attacking the British. He also pressured Boston merchants to boycott British goods.

Role in the Boston Tea Party

After the British Parliament passed the Tea Act in 1773, which sought to force the colonists to buy their tea from the British East India Company, Adams helped organize Bostonians to hinder the tea shipments. One group of resisters took matters even further, dressing up as Indian warriors and boarding several British ships to dump their tea, in what became known as the Boston Tea Party. Adams, who may have played a role in planning the event, afterward praised it publicly, writing that the protesters "have acted upon pure and upright principle."

Eventually, British authorities had enough of Adams and his agitation. In 1775, British General Thomas Gage led a force of soldiers from Boston to Lexington, on a mission to arrest Adams and fellow colonial radical John Hancock. But American spies got wind of the plan, and American militiamen confronted the British on Lexington Common. The ensuing Battles of Lexington and Concord were the opening armed confrontations that sparked the Revolutionary War.

As a delegate to the Continental Congress, Adams signed the Declaration of Independence and continued his inflammatory rhetoric. In a 1776 speech in Philadelphia, he castigated Americans who sided with the Crown. "If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom-go from us in peace," Adams said. "We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you."

As a member of the Continental Congress, Adams also helped draft the Articles of Confederation, the predecessor to the U.S. Constitution.

Samuel Adams' Later Years

After leaving the Continental Congress in 1781, Adams went back to Boston and eventually got back into state politics. He served for a time as president of the Massachusetts Senate and as Lieutenant Governor under Governor John Hancock, his former fellow radical. When Hancock died in office, Adams took over for him and subsequently was elected to three one-year terms before retiring.

Adams died at the age of 81 on October 2, 1803.

Samuel Adams Quotes

"Among the natural rights of the Colonists are these: First, a right to life; Secondly, to liberty; Thirdly, to property; together with the right to support and defend them in the best manner they can. These are evident branches of, rather than deductions from, the duty of self-preservation, commonly called the first law of nature."

"Some of our politicians would have the people believe that the administration are disposed or determined to have all the grievances which we complain of redressed, if we will only be quiet. But apprehend this would be a fatal delusion."

"There can be no property in that which another can of right take from us without our consent."

"If the British administration and government do not return to the principles of moderation and equity, the evil which they profess to aim at preventing by their own rigorous measures, will the sooner be brought to pass-the entire separation and independence of the colonies."

"We cannot make events. Our business is to wisely improve them."

"Shame on the men who can court exemption from present trouble and expense at the price of their own posterity's liberty!"

"How strangely will the tools of a tyrant perve the plain meaning of words!"

Sources

Rights of the Colonists, by Samuel Adams.
The Writings of Samuel Adams, Vol. III (1773-1777) by Samuel Adams.
Biographical sketch of Samuel Adams, American Battlefield Trust.
Desperate Sons: Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, John Hancock, and the Secret Bands of Radicals Who Led the Colonies to War, by Lee Standiford
Biographical sketch of Samuel Adams, National Park Service.
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
Samuel Adams: The Life of an American Revolutionary, by John K. Alexander.

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Samuel Adams - Quotes, Definition & Facts

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Samuel Adams was a political leader and activist who played a vital role in urging colonial America to break with Britain during the American Revolution.

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Crispus Attucks (born 1723?-died March 5, 1770, Boston, Mass. [U.S.]) was an American hero, martyr of the Boston Massacre.

Attucks's life prior to the day of his death is still shrouded in mystery. Although nothing is known definitively about his ancestry, his father is thought to be Prince Yonger, a slave who was brought to America, while his mother is thought to be Nancy Attucks, a Natick Indian. In the Boston Gazette on Oct. 2, 1750, William Brown, a resident of Framingham, Mass., advertised for the recovery of a runaway slave named "Crispas"-usually thought to be the Crispus in question. That advertisement proclaimed that "Crispas" had run away and described him as 27 years old and 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 metres) tall. In the 20-year interval between his escape from slavery and his death at the hands of British soldiers, Attucks probably spent a good deal of time aboard whaling ships.

All that is definitely known about him concerns the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770. Toward evening that day, a crowd of colonists gathered and began taunting a small group of British soldiers. Tension mounted rapidly, and, when one of the soldiers was struck, the others fired their muskets, killing three of the Americans instantly and mortally wounding two others. Attucks was the first to fall, thus becoming one of the first men to lose his life in the cause of American independence. His body was carried to Faneuil Hall, where it lay in state until March 8, when all five victims were buried in a common grave. Attucks was the only victim of the Boston Massacre whose name was widely remembered. In 1888 the Crispus Attucks monument was unveiled in the Boston Common.

Encyclopaedia Britannica.

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Crispus Attucks | Revolutionary War, African American, Patriot

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Crispus Attucks was an American hero, martyr of the Boston Massacre. Attucks's life prior to the day of his death is still shrouded in mystery.

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Molly Pitcher Facts

Molly Pitcher was born on October 13th, 1754 near Trenton, New Jersey. Her birth name was Mary Ludwig but she was given the nickname Molly Pitcher because she carried pitchers of water to soldiers during the Battle of Monmouth during the American Revolutionary War. It is also believed that when her husband William Hays collapsed during the battle, Mary took his place on the battlefield operating the canon. During the battle a cannonball shot by the enemy flew right between her legs and tore apart the bottom of the skirt she was wearing. She was unharmed. When the war ended, Mary gave birth to a son. William Hays died in 1786 and Mary later married John McCauley. This is why Mary's name is sometimes quoted as Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley.

During the Revolutionary period, many women named Mary were often nicknamed Molly.

Molly had an older brother named Johann Martin.

Molly's parents were Maria Margaretha and John Georg Ludwig.

Molly's father was a butcher.

Because education was not considered to be important for women at the time, it is unlikely that she attended school.

William Hays, Molly's first husband, was a local barber. They were married on July 24th, 1769 and then settled in Carlisle, Pennsylvania

William Hays joined the Continental Army - Proctor's 4th Artillery in 1777. Molly joined him at the winter camp at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.

Molly Pitcher joined a group of women led by Martha Washington. The group were known as camp followers and provided several services. They washed blankets and clothes and cared for the sick and the dying.

In 1778 William trained as an artilleryman and Molly and the other camp followers carried water to troops on the field.

The water that Molly and the other women carried was used for drinking water by the soldiers and to cool down the cannon barrels. The water was also used to soak the ramrod sponge which was used to clean the barrel after each shot.

When the soldiers required water they would shout, "Molly - pitcher!" It is believed that this is how Molly got the name Molly Pitcher.

There are two springs in the battlefield today that are marked 'Molly Pitcher Spring'. It is believed that the springs were the water source for Molly and the other women during the battle.

General Washington saw Molly during the battle and remembered her service. After it was over he issued her a warrant that named her a non-commissioned officer.

Following the battle and because of General Washington's commemoration of her courage she became known as 'Sergeant Molly'. She used this nickname for the rest of her life.

After William died Molly married again. Her second husband was not a nice man and he disappeared between 1807 and 1810, never to be seen again.

Molly supported herself by working as a general servant, and by caring for the sick and for children.

In 1822 Molly Pitcher was awarded a $40 annuity for her heroic service and bravery during the American Revolutionary War's Battle of Monmouth.

Molly Pitcher died on January 22nd, 1832 in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. She was 78 years old.

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Molly Pitcher was born on October 13th, 1754 near Trenton, New Jersey. Her birth name was Mary Ludwig but she was given the nickname Molly Pitcher because she carried pitchers of water to soldiers during the Battle of Monmouth during the American Revolutionary War.

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History Brief Video: Patriots and Loyalists

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History Brief Video: Patriots and Loyalists

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The Life and Times of Aaron Burr, Hamilton's Nemesis

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A Hessian Diary of the American Revolution

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A Hessian Diary of the American Revolution

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A Hessian Diary of the American Revolution by Johann Conrad Döhla

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In 1777, Johann Conrad Döhla journeyed from Anspach-Bayreuth (a principality in present-day Germany) to North America to fight alongside the British Army during the American War for Independence. The young soldier was one of the about 20,000 German-speaking troops, collectively referred to as "Hessians," hired by King George III to help defeat the American Revolutionaries. Döhla fought from New York to Virginia and kept a diary of his experiences along the way. He recorded the daily activities of a soldier's life, anecdotes of his fellow soldiers, and many other unique observations about the foreign people and places he encountered.

The following excerpt includes his entries during the month of July 1781-the summer before the surrender at Yorktown.

Excerpt

IN THE MONTH OF JULY
2 July. We were relieved during the morning by a command of Hessians.
6 July. During the evening Private [Johann] Bär, of Quesnoy's Company, deserted from the camp without his uniform, dressed only in his linen blouse.
7 July. On today's date the besieged city of Ninety-Six in South Carolina, and the important pass between Cambridge and Charleston, was relieved by the English troops under Colonel Tarleton, and the Americans were driven back so that they had to abandon the siege.
8 July. During the afternoon the deserter Bär was returned to the regiment by the so-called Royal Refugees. They had captured him twenty miles from here.
10 July. The English fleet, which consisted primarily of transport and provisions ships, and had two warships and three frigates for an escort, was attacked by the French Admiral La Motte as the English were coming from Saint Eustatius in the West Indies en route back to England. One warship of seventy-four guns and two frigates (one of forty and one of thirty-six guns), and thirteen transport ships, carrying more than twenty-one hundred men, were captured. The rest were routed and, after a three-hour resistance, fled.
11 July. Punishment was carried out by the regiment. The deserter Bär, of Quesnoy's Company, today ran a gauntlet of three hundred men with switches, twelve times. At noon today the command [sent] to Greenbridge returned. They brought many cattle with them. These were slaughtered and divided among the regiments. Two men of the Ansbachers and two from our regiment, namely, Private [Johann Paul] Währl and Private Dressel, of Eyb's Company, were missing from this command.
12 July. Bär again had to run the gauntlet twelve times.
13 July. We had no shortage of provisions here at New Portsmouth because the inhabitants brought them, mostly fresh and plentiful, into the camp. All the foodstuffs were cheap except that a quart of rum cost about half a Spanish dollar, or in German money, one Franconian gulden.
Here, surprisingly, crabs are caught on dry land and hay grows on the trees. For this reason: here many small crabs are found that are called sand crabs. These hide in the sandy soil, in which there are many small holes, and as soon as it rains a little, these crabs come out in numbers from these holes so that the ground is covered with them. We have gathered and cooked an entire kettle full of them. They are a kind of water crab, but somewhat smaller, and they turn red when cooked and taste like ours. Concerning the hay that grows on trees, the following must be understood. There is this moss, long and soft, which frequently hangs down from the limbs, more than an ell in length, and which grows abundantly on the trees. This is gathered like fodder by the inhabitants and stacked for feeding the cattle during the winter. In Virginia there is also much clipped money because of a shortage of small change. One Spanish dollar is divided into eight parts; the piaster, however is divided into two or four parts. The inhabitants of Virginia are built tall and strong and appear rather pallid due to the great heat. Toward us they were rather complaisant and showed more respect than in other provinces. Especially, the Virginia females showed great affection for the Germans.
14 July. We received orders to embark.
15 July. We broke camp at five o'clock in the afternoon. We marched into New Portsmouth, to a wharf where the troops were to be embarked, but because it was too late, we spent the night lying under the open sky. I went on color guard.
16 July. We were embarked during the morning. I went aboard the ship Pleasant Success, on which there were two companies, Quesnoy's and the Major's.
18 July. Our ships left the Portsmouth harbor and sailed to Chesapeake Bay, where we lay at anchor for ten days.
28 July. I returned to Norfolk, on detail, to get water. This was loaded aboard our ship, as we had not been supplied with sufficient fresh water for drinking and cooking.
29 July. About ten o'clock in the morning, our fleet sailed out of the Chesapeake Bay.
31 July. We arrived in the sea harbor of the James River near Yorktown and dropped anchor.
This Yorktown-or Little, or Small, York-is a small city of about three hundred houses, but with a large circumference. It lies close to the water of the James River, rather high up on sandy but level ground. It has three churches, two Reformed and one German Lutheran, without steeples, and two Quaker prayer houses, and a beautiful courthouse or city hall, which, like most of the houses, is built of brick. There are many house here that stand ruined and abandoned by their owners. An American occupation force of about three hundred militiamen was stationed here, which, however, on our arrival, pulled back to Williamsburg, sixteen miles from here, without firing a shot. We encountered few residents here, because most had gone farther inland with all their belongings; and therefore, no French foodstuffs were obtainable.
The harbor at Yorktown is deep and two English miles wide. The James River goes more than twenty miles farther inland, but beyond Yorktown it is navigable only by small ships.
A small island, several miles in circumference, named Gloucester, which has a few beautiful buildings, lies opposite York. During the past month of July there was such exceptional heat that it was nearly unbearable aboard ship.

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A Hessian Diary of the American Revolution

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A Hessian Diary of the American Revolution by Johann Conrad Döhla Buy the Book In 1777, Johann Conrad Döhla journeyed from Anspach-Bayreuth (a principality in present-day Germany) to North America to fight alongside the British Army during the American War for Independence.

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Boycott: While the colonists waited for an answer to their petition to Parliament, requesting the Stamp Act be repealed, colonial merchants encouraged people to boycott (refuse to buy) English goods.

Secret Societies: Some colonists were not content with mere boycotts. They began to form secret societies to protest British policies. The most famous of these secret societies was the Sons of Liberty.

The Sons of Liberty were people who were fed up with being treated unfairly by the British Government; they were so angry they were willing to break the law, because it was against the law back then to criticize the British government. Their most famous action was the Boston Tea Party.

Some famous members of the Sons of Liberty include Paul Revere, Patrick Henry, and John Hancock.

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The American Revolution for Kids and Teachers - Sons of Liberty, Boycott - American Revolution for Kids

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Boycott: While the colonists waited for an answer to their petition to Parliament, requesting the Stamp Act be repealed, colonial merchants encouraged people to boycott (refuse to buy) English goods. Secret Societies: Some colonists were not content with mere boycotts. They began to form secret societies to protest British policies.

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The Boston Tea Party Ships Arrive in Griffin's Wharf

By November 28, the crisis was now on the doorstep of Boston. The first tea ship to arrive was the Dartmouth owned by the Rotch family. The ship arrived with 114 crates of East India Company tea. Samuel Adams and the Sons of Liberty now had a deadline. According to customs law, the ship had only twenty days to unload its cargo. The twentieth day would be December 17, 1773. Still two more ships arrived. On December 2, the Eleanor arrived with 114 crates, and on December 15, the Beaver had joined the other two ships at Griffin's Wharf.

Samuel Adams took the lead in negotiating with ship owners, and the customs officials for the port of Boston. On December 3, Adams ordered John Rowe, the owner of the Eleanor to unload his other cargo, but not the tea. On December 11, Adams and the Boston Committee of Correspondence ordered Francis Rotch, the owner of the Dartmouth and Beaver, to set sail for London with the East India Company tea onboard. Rotch refused to because his ships would be broadsided by two British warships, the Somerset and Boyne that were out in the harbor. Adams told Rotch that his ship must sail back to London. Adams exclaimed to Rotch "the people of Boston and the neighboring towns absolutely require and expect it."

Now there were only a few days before the cargo of tea had to be unloaded according to customs law. On December 14, Samuel Adams brought Francis Rotch to the customs collector to ask for clearance for his ships to leave the port of Boston. The customs collector stubbornly insisted that no law would allow the ship to leave before unloading the tea. Two days later, on December 16, Rotch appeared at Old South Meeting House before thousands of angry Bostonians. Samuel Adams advised him to appeal to Royal Governor Thomas Hutchinson for permission to send his ships back to London. Francis Rotch reluctantly straddled his horse, and made his way to Milton where the Royal Governor was staying at his summer estate.

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Samuel Adams Biography | Samuel Adams Facts

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Samuel Adams was one of Boston's most prominent revolutionary leaders. His perspective and ability to gather support were pivotal in the Boston Tea Party.

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The life of Crispus Attucks cannot be fully substantiated as records of slaves during the colony were poorly documented. There are no records of his life after he escaped his master until his death in 1770.

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Mount Vernon might be surprised to see the key to the Bastille, the notorious French prison, on display in the central hall. In 1790, Gilbert du Motier-better known as the Marquis de Lafayette-sent the key to George Washington on behalf of the people of France. To understand why Lafayette did this, it is necessary to understand the special relationship that developed between Washington and Lafayette during the American Revolution.

The bond between the two men grew so strong that they were more like a father and son, rather than a commanding general and his top-ranking officer. For Lafayette, there was no better person to receive the symbol of the end of ancient tyranny than the man who fought so bravely to establish the United States.

At first glance, Lafayette might seem an unlikely supporter of George Washington. Born in 1757, he came from one of France's oldest families. His ancestors served in the Crusades and alongside Joan of Arc. When Gilbert was two, his father died fighting in the Seven Years' War. Upon the death of his mother when he was eleven, Lafayette inherited one of his nation's largest fortunes. Five years later he married Adrienne de Noialles, a woman from an even more renowned family. But Lafayette was never impressed with status or riches, longing instead for military glory. He won a captain's commission in the French army and was appointed to the Black Musketeers in 1773.

However, in 1775 Lafayette's life took an unexpected turn. Like many noblemen, he lost his commission when the government reduced military spending. Called to the city of Metz for militia duty, he attended a dinner with the Duke of Gloucester, the younger brother of British King George III. The Duke complained about the American colonists who had risen up against British rule. He mocked their revolutionary beliefs in the equality of mankind and the right of the people to rule themselves. The Duke further explained how the colonists had organized the Continental Army under the leadership of General George Washington. Lafayette would always remember this dinner as the turning point of his life. "My heart was enlisted," he later confessed in his memoirs, "and I thought only of joining my colors to those of the revolutionaries."

Lafayette studied the ideals of the American Revolution and planned to enlist in the Continental Army. Silas Deane was a representative of the Continental Congress sent to France to recruit officers. Even though Lafayette was only nineteen and had no experience in war, Deane offered him a commission. King Louis XVI ordered Lafayette to remain in France, but the defiant young nobleman ignored him and set sail for America in early 1777. When he finally arrived in Philadelphia, Congressmen James Lovell of Massachusetts refused to receive him, saying that Americans were tired of ambitious Frenchmen seeking glory. But upon realizing how wealthy and well-connected Lafayette actually was, and recognizing his sincere support for the American cause, Lovell recommended Lafayette's appointment as a Major-General.

Lafayette proceeded to General Washington's camp along Brandywine Creek south of Philadelphia in September 1777. Here the Continental Army was fighting to halt General William Howe's advance toward the capital. Washington was immediately taken with Lafayette, especially when the Marquis explained, "I am here to learn, not to teach." Washington ordered Lafayette to join General John Sullivan's forces who were in a desperate fight on the army's right. The redcoats outflanked Washington and were trying to surround him. When Sullivan finally retreated, Lafayette reluctantly went with him, realizing only later that he had been shot in the leg. Washington sent his own surgeon to care for him, and when Lafayette was taken to the hospital the General told the doctors to, "Treat him as if he were my son."

After Lafayette recovered, he became a valued member of Washington's close-knit military family. Lafayette in turn came to admire Washington's leadership more each day, especially during the winter at Valley Forge. Lafayette was overjoyed when news of the French alliance arrived in early 1778.

In June 1778, following the Battle of Monmouth Courthouse, Lafayette returned to France hoping to win more support for the United States. But while he was feted as a hero, he was not placed at the head of the French army. Count Rochambeau was chosen instead. By the summer of 1781, Lafayette was back in the United States. Washington sent him to Virginia to stop British raids along the James River. When Cornwallis' forces arrived in Virginia, Lafayette harassed the British general until Washington and Rochambeau could lay siege to him at Yorktown. In October 1781, there was no prouder soldier at Cornwallis' surrender than Lafayette.

Lafayette again returned to France as a national hero. Three years later on a tour of the United States he visited Washington at Mount Vernon. Lafayette remembered, "Our meeting was very tender and our satisfaction was mutual." He discussed his many concerns about the American nation. Like Washington, he favored the creation of a strong central government. But unlike Washington he recommended an immediate end to slavery. Back in France, Lafayette helped launch the French Revolution in 1789. He served in the National Assembly and drafted the Declaration of the Rights of Man. He proudly sent the key to the Bastille to Washington, who was serving as the President of the United States.

Lafayette fled from France when the revolution turned violent. He was imprisoned at Olmütz by the Austrians who considered him a dangerous radical. Lafayette's fortune was confiscated by the French government and many of his relatives died by the guillotine. He was finally set free and settled at La Grange, an estate near Paris nicknamed the Mount Vernon of France.

One of Lafayette's greatest joys in his later years came in 1824 when he made a triumphant tour of the United States. At Mount Vernon he went alone to visit the grave of George Washington, returning to his carriage with tears in his eyes. Lafayette remained a defender of democratic ideals until his death in 1834.

Mary Stockwell, Ph.D.

Notes:
1. Quoted in James R. Gaines, Liberty and Glory: Washington, Lafayette, and Their Revolutions (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2007), 37.

2. Ibid., 70.

3. Quoted in Marc Leepson, Lafayette: Lessons in Leadership from the Idealist General (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), 37.

4. Quoted in Gaines, 198.

Bibliography:
Gaines, James R. Liberty and Glory: Washington, Lafayette, and Their Revolutions. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2007.

Leepson, Marc. Lafayette: Lessons in Leadership from the Idealist General. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.

Marquis de Lafayette. Memoirs of General Lafayette: With an account of his visit to America, and of his reception by the people of the United States; from his arrival, August 15th, to the celebration at Yorktown, October 19th, 1824. Boston: E. G. House, 1824.

Unger, Harlow Giles. Lafayette. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 2002.

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Mount Vernon might be surprised to see the key to the Bastille, the notorious French prison, on display in the central hall. In 1790, Gilbert du Motier-better known as the Marquis de Lafayette-sent the key to George Washington on behalf of the people of France.

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Read Alexander Hamilton: Soldier and Statesman on Epic

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