American Revolution

Congress Authorizes Blacks To Enlist in the Continental Army 1776

During the Revolutionary War, about 5000 African-Americans both enslaved and free men fought for the American colonies and their fight for freedom against the British. But the process was anything but a smooth one. Slavery was still in practice in all 13 American colonies at that time.

And the British were the first to take advantage of that fact. They openly recruited African-American slaves, promising freedom for those that took up arms for the Crown against those pesky Rebels. In November 1775, Virginia’s British Royal Governor, Lord Dunmore, issued a proclamation that the British would free any slave who left his slave master to serve alongside the British Army. Over 300 joined within the first month that Dunmore dubbed his “Ethiopian Regiment.”

And even today, many still debate whether more African-Americans fought for the British than the Americans.

But that changed in 1776 when the Continental Congress authorized the Continental Army to allow black men to enlist. Initially, George Washington was against this. Coming from Virginia in the south where plantations held many black slaves, like many Southern Americans, he feared guns in the hands of slaves as the thought was, they would revolt against their slave masters.

Although Washington had initially banned blacks from serving in the Continental Army, many free blacks served in the Colonial militias. Washington finally did relent, but would only allow free blacks to serve in the Continental Army. Slaves were still banned.

The first casualty in the war for American Independence is generally agreed upon as being an African-American, Crispus Attucks who was the first man killed during the Boston Massacre in 1770.

Attucks himself was a runaway slave, not from the south, but from Framingham, Massachusetts. There was an ad in the 1750 Boston Gazette that mentioned he had run from his master’s home. William Brown offered a ten-pound reward for the return of his “property”.

“Ran away from his Master William Brown from Framingham, on the 30th of Sept. last, a Molatto Fellow, about 27 Years of age, named Crispas, 6 Feet two Inches high, short curl’d Hair, his Knees nearer together than common: had on a light colour’d Bearskin Coat.”

Attucks escaped to Nantucket where he worked on a whaling ship. In March of 1770, he and some other sailors were ashore in Boston when hotheads from Massachusetts began accosting a British sentry in the street. The alarm went out and a quick reaction force from his unit, the 29th Regiment of Foot soon was face-to-face with an angry mob of Bostonians with clubs in their hands. At some point, the soldiers fired into the crowd and Attucks, with two bullets in the chest died almost immediately.

Grave of Peter Willard, free African-American of the Revolutionary War. (Photo: Author, Millbury Historical Society)

Here in my hometown of Millbury, Massachusetts, we like to claim Peter Willard as one of, if not the first African-American soldiers in the United States Army. Willard was part of the militia here and he traveled with them to fight during the battle at Lexington and Concord. When he was allowed to in 1776, he joined the Continental Army and fought until the end of the war.

He returned to his home and lived out the remainder of his years quietly. You won’t find his name in any history books, but his town remembers him. A portrait of Willard hung in Millbury’s Town Hall until the building was destroyed a fire in 1971,

Peter Salem is one of the first and possibly most famous of the Revolutionary War African-Americans to fight in the war. He was a slave but his owner freed him so that he could join the militia and fight the British after the Battle of Lexington and Concord, which he did with the 6th Massachusetts.

During the battle of Bunker Hill, Salem was credited with the killing of the British Major Pitcairn during the fighting After it was over, Salem was introduced to General George Washington and was commended for his bravery and service.

His bravery was captured in artwork by painter John Trumbull “The Death of General Warren.” In the work, it shows both General Warren and Major Pitcairn dying, on the far right is an African-American soldier with a musket that is believed to be Salem. The featured image shows a more recent drawing of Salem shooting Pitcairn.

Perhaps the most famous mixed-race infantry unit in the Continental Army was the 1st Rhode Island Regiment. Organized in 1778, the 1st Rhode Island fought mainly in the Northern Theatre during the war. The organization of this regiment was endorsed by Washington, despite his misgivings over the organization of its members. Enlisting in the regiment were 88 slaves who were guaranteed freedom at the end of their service. That is something Washington was very much opposed against, coming from the plantations of the south. The Rhode Island State Assembly promised compensation to the former slave masters for the men signing up to fight.

Even enslaved African-Americans fought in the south. The guerrilla fighters of Francis Marion, “The Swamp Fox” had some enslaved members of his unit. However, when Lord Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, there were many African-Americans in the ranks of the Continental Army, including the 1st Rhode Island Regiment who were there.

It should be noted, however, that Washington, upon his death in 1799, freed his 124 slaves. Was it because his faithful servant, William Lee stood by his side through thick and thin and always accompanied Washington into battle? Washington admired his bravery and his faithfulness and mentioned Lee in his will. Washington in it thanked Lee for “his attachment to me” and for “his faithful services during the Revolutionary War.”

He was to be given his freedom immediately, given an annual stipend of $30 and the choice to remain at the estate, which he did until his own death, as a free man in 1810.

So although Black History Month is still a few weeks away, we thought we’d jump the gun a bit and lean forward in the foxhole to pay respect to our first African-American soldiers who have served our country faithfully since the time of the American Revolution.

Photos: Smithsonian, Millbury Historical Society, author

The “Tea Act” of April 1773, Was the First Step of the American Revolution

The Tea Act 1773 was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain. It was passed to help the financially strapped British East India Company and to help them reduce the massive amounts of tea in their London warehouses.

The Tea Act which was enacted in April of 1773, gave the East India Company a virtual monopoly on the importation and sale of tea in the American colonies. England had been victorious in the Seven Years War but now the country too was massively in debt. Parliament looked to the American colonies to ease their debt.

First, they passed the Stamp Act in 1765. The colonists rebelled against paying it, eventually resorting to mob violence to prevent paying for this tax which the colonists considered “taxation without representation” which would be repeated again. Eventually, Parliament would repeal the Stamp Act in 1766.

A year later Charles Townshend, Chancellor of the Exchequer, in charge of the government’s collection of revenues passed the Townshend Revenue Act. Townshend’s act placed taxes on a number of goods imported into the colonies, including tea, glass, paper, and paint.

The thought was to tax the colonies to pay for the salaries of the Colonial governors. Once again the colonists rebelled against this. The colonies had already paid for the governor’s salaries from the elected assemblies of each colony. This gave them a modicum of power over the King’s governors which if the money was coming from Parliament would erase that.

The colonists were outraged and organized boycotts of all of the imported goods. That too was successful and Parliament rescinded all of the Townshend Acts in 1770 except the tax on tea which the English believed showed their right to tax the colonies.

The boycott of goods was over but the issue of the tea was a sticky one between the British authorities and the colonists. While many of the colonists refused to drink tea out of principle, many others were buying tea from the Dutch as it was much cheaper than the tea from the East India Company. Part of the Tea Act’s purpose was to undercut the price of illegal Dutch tea, thus bailing out the East India Company and putting a stamp on Parliament’s right of taxation to the colonies.

It was granting the East India Company a monopoly along with their brokers of selling tea in the colonies. Many of the brokerage firms selling the tea were either fully or partially owned by the colonial.governors, which further inflamed many already hot-headed colonists including many from Massachusetts. In the Bay State Colony, a group of firebrands called the “Sons of Liberty” was a secret society that was formed in all 13 colonies to protect the rights of colonists, especially the right of taxation without representation. Among the more prominent members were Samuel Adams, John Adams, John Hancock, Paul Revere and Benjamin Edes in Boston.

The Sons of Liberty warned the colonists that the tax on tea was a Trojan Horse, designed to accept unfair taxation of the colonies by Parliament. In many of the cities along the coast, in New York, Philadelphia and Charleston, mobs of angry colonists harassed the brokers into resigning and stopped the offloading of tea from ships.

The East India Company had tea leaves beginning to rot on the docks of London, they shipped over 500,000 pounds of tea to the colonies in the fall of 1773. Despite the work of colonists, which refused to accept the tea, in Boston, colonial governor Thomas Hutchinson refused to go along. His two sons and a nephew were the brokers for the tea. The HMS Dartmouth arrived in Boston in late November, shortly afterward, two more ships (the Eleanor and the Beaver), arrived in Boston.

Many Bostonian’s, including Samuel Adams, tried to convince the governor to no avail, to return the tea to London. The Sons of Liberty had several mass meetings and finally decided to act. On December 16, about 130 Sons of Liberty donned disguises, masking themselves as Mohawk Indians and boarded the three ships in Boston Harbor. The Mohawk disguises were noteworthy in that the colonists were identifying themselves more as “native Americans” than as British.

The men boarded the tea ships and over a three-hour span, dumped the tea into Boston Harbor in front of a large crowd of townspeople. The 347 tea chests were axed and dumped amid loud cheers from the crowd. The British reaction was swift.

Parliament passed the “Coercive Acts” which closed the port of Boston until the tea destroyed in the harbor was paid for. The loss of the tea was valued at 90,000 pounds which is about $1.7 million dollars today. General Thomas Gage was installed as the military governor of Massachusetts and British soldiers were to be quartered in the homes of citizens.

One thing that was a direct consequence of the Tea Act and the resultant fallout from the Boston Tea Party was that many of the Sons of Liberty, including Sam and John Adams, believed that drinking tea was unpatriotic following the events in Boston. That started the trend of Americans of having coffee as their preferred drink, which continues today.

But the events set in motion a series of events that culminated in the Battles of Lexington and Concord.

Illustration: Wikipedia

April 19, 1775, Lexington and Concord Begins the American Revolution

The 13 colonies, especially those hot-heads from Massachusetts were spoiling for a showdown with British in early 1775. Tensions had been simmering for some time, the Massachusetts Bay Colony had been a thorn in the Crown’s side for several years.

Things came to a head on April 19, 1775, in the small towns of Lexington and Concord. The British, fearing that the colonists were stockpiling arms and ammunition for rebellion, sent a column of about 400 regulars to Concord on the night of 18 April to destroy the cache.

Minuteman statue in Lexington, Massachusetts

The colonists, however, had effective intelligence and knew about it in advance. They mustered their militia and on Lexington green soon after sunrise, the two sides fired on one another… The militia was swept aside easily by the British troops. The same thing happened in Concord, but by then Colonial militias, have got the word were mustering from all over. The British began a tactical retreat back to Boston (Charlestown) but were fired on all the way back. “The shots heard ‘round the world.” The War for American Independence had begun.

Prelude to War: The British had long grown weary of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Massachusetts had been the scene of many acts of defiance with the Boston Tea Party, the Boston Massacre and a general disdain for the British Army (redcoats) who were occupying Boston.

General Thomas Gage the military governor, commander of 3000 regulars was given orders to destroy the arms and powder to avoid open rebellion. Gage was considered a tyrant by the colonists but in fact, he considered himself a lover of liberty. He was trying to avoid bloodshed and open warfare with English colonists, for the term Americans was not yet used.

But Gage knew each town had a militia company as per orders from the Crown to defend against Indian attacks. But he knew they’d be defending their town against the British regulars. Why he was trying to conduct the raid as stealthily as possible and do so without bloodshed.

Gage’s orders to LTC Francis Smith was to move “with utmost expedition and secrecy to Concord, where you will seize and destroy … all Military stores … But you will take care that the soldiers do not plunder the inhabitants or hurt private property.” Another 20 riders were out in the countryside looking for Colonial leaders John Hancock and Samuel Adams.

The colonists learned of it and sent riders out to warn the militias. Among them were Paul Revere and Samuel Prescott. They did not, however, say, “The British are coming”, since the colonists considered themselves English.

The British mustered at 2100 hrs on the 18th of April and after taking barges, disembarked in Cambridge, the troops waded ashore in waist deep water and began their 17-mile march to Concord. It was now 0200 hrs on the 19th. About 0300 Colonel Smith decided to send six companies of Infantry ahead at the quick march to Concord and then sent back a message to Boston asking for reinforcements.

Forces Meet in Lexington: The six British companies under the command of Major Pitcairn were nearing the small town of Lexington where the militia, after having been warned by Paul Revere had been on the village green all night. The militia, under the command of French and Indian War officer Captain John Parker, was wondering if the reports were true.

Around 0415 hrs, Parker had a rider race to the green to report that the British were close by and advancing quickly. But he also knew that, at that time, no declaration of war had been declared, that the British had gone on these forays before and finding nothing, would travel back to Boston. He too wanted no part of any bloodshed with the regulars. He ordered his heavily outnumbered men in parade ground formation, but not blocking the road to Concord.

Parkers orders were clear, concise and now etched on the monument that now stands on the village green. “Stand your ground; don’t fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here.”

Confusion over the first shot: The regulars arrived and rather than continue to Concord, they tried to surround the militia. One British Lieutenant ordered the militia to lay down their arms. Both Parker and Pitcairn who arrived moments later ordered the men to hold their fire. Parker then told the militia to disperse and go home. But someone fire but no one knows who fired that first shot.

The British believed that a militia member fired on them and they returned fire with several volleys. Eight of the militia were dead, nine wounded. The British suffered one minor casualty. Both sides agreed that the shot was fired from neither side facing each other on the green. But was either a colonial citizen behind a hedge or a mounted British officer.

The regulars fired several volleys because their officers had failed to give them proper orders and they didn’t know what the parameters of the mission were. Many of them thought they were there to disarm the militia. Smith arriving after, restored order and resumed the march to Concord.

Unknown to Smith, the colonials had already dispersed the arms and weapons in Concord to other towns and massed on a ridge overlooking the town. They numbered 250 against the 700 British.

Smith sent one company to secure the North Bridge on the edge of town.

The British troops arrived and began to search the town. They tried to burn some supplies but the fire got out of control and was quickly spreading to the town meetinghouse. The British soldiers along with the townspeople conducted a bucket brigade to put the fire out with minimal damage. The British soldiers acted very professionally in Concord and paid for whatever food or drink they took.

The militia outside of town commanded by Colonel James Barrett was then augmented by several companies of militia from surrounding communities. The 400-450 militia now vastly outnumbered the regulars guarding the bridge of 95 men under the command of Captain Laurie.

Barrett ordered the men to load their weapons but not to fire unless fired upon. The advanced on the bridge. Laurie, still waiting on reinforcements, ordered his men to back across it and they took up firing positions on the sides of the road. Once again a shot rang out. From who no one knows but soon others, from the British side ring out. Then, the other soldiers, believing the order had been given fired a volley into the militia crossing the bridge. Two men are killed instantly, four were wounded.

Major Buttrick, coming across with the militia on the bridge exhorted the men to fire, three British men were killed or mortally wounded. Eight more were wounded. The British were heavily outnumbered and they broke, leaving their wounded behind before linking up with other British forces that met them on the road.

The militia, stunned by their success and still finding it hard to believe that both sides were firing at one another, retreated back across the bridge and took up defensive positions behind a stone wall and back on the high ground.

The British stayed put in Concord until noon searching for more supplies. And after eating, they began their trek back to Boston. But by now the Colonial militia forces had swelled to 2000. They didn’t fight as European armies did, online and in tight formations. They fought as they had against the French and Indians, as irregulars, behind trees and stone walls. But still under centralized command.

Much to the chagrin of the British soldiers, they sniped and nipped at their heels all the way back thru Lexington. They were exhausted and nearly out of ammunition. But then a brigade under the command of Earl Percy, with 1000 fresh troops met them at 1430 hrs.

The fighting at Menotony (now Arlington) and Cambridge were probably the bloodiest of the entire day. At times the fighting was house-to-house and the British soldiers, frustrated at the tactics of the militia, killed several innocent civilians. Percy understood the militia’s use of frontier tactics:

During the whole affair the Rebels attacked us in a very scattered, irregular manner, but with perseverance & resolution, nor did they ever dare to form into any regular body. Indeed, they knew too well what was proper, to do so. Whoever looks upon them as an irregular mob, will find himself much mistaken. They have men amongst them who know very well what they are about, having been employed as Rangers against the Indians & Canadians, & this country being much covered with wood, and hilly, is very advantageous for their method of fighting

The British finally reached Boston about dark and were reinforced by General Gage with fresh troops. By morning on April 20, Boston was surrounded by over 15,000 militia who had gotten the alarm and responded. Those numbers would grow further when militia units from Rhode Island and Connecticut arrived. General Gage was surrounded on three sides and his worst nightmare had come true. The rebellion had turned to open warfare.

For the colonies, although the Declaration of Independence was still 15 months away, there was no turning back. Massachusetts would again be the site of a bigger battle in just a few months during the Battle of Bunker Hill. The Colonials were ill-prepared to go to war with the greatest army on the face of the earth. But they did and several years later after a costly war, they would win their freedom.

Photos: Author, National Archives

The Boston Massacre March 5, 1770 A Powder Keg That Lit the Revolution

The Boston Massacre occurred on March 5, 1770, when a squad of British soldiers came to the aid of a lone sentry who was being heckled and pelted with snowballs from an unruly mob. The British soldiers fired a volley of shots into the crowd of colonists, killing five, three immediately died on the scene and the other two died later of their wounds.

One of the dead was a free man of African-American heritage, Crispus Attucks. Eight British soldiers were arrested along with the officer in charge, Captain Thomas Preston as well as four civilians and charged with manslaughter. Six of the soldiers including Preston were acquitted, two were found guilty but had their sentences reduced to the branding of their thumbs with an “M” for manslaughter.

One interesting footnote for the trial was the fact that the British soldiers were defended by one of the most staunch Patriots (as they were called as opposed to Loyalists) against the British but he insisted that the soldiers receive a fair trial to show impartiality. And therefore no further retaliatory moves by the British against the Patriot cause.

However, colonists were further moved to action by this event which was illustrated by Paul Revere, but was inflammatory and not quite true. In his illustration, Revere showed the British troops on-line and firing under the command of their officer (Preston). When in fact the soldiers fired in absence of orders and haphazardly, not in unison.

Boston Becomes a Hot-Spot: Rising tensions in the British colony of Massachusetts had been building since 1768. Boston was one of the main shipping ports for the British into the American colonies and because of that, was the hub of resistance against unfair British taxation on the colonists by Parliament in the 1760s.

In 1768, the Townshend Acts, which, after the “Stamp Act”, began the era of “Taxation Without Representation” was placed upon the colonists, where a variety of common items that were manufactured in Britain and exported to the colonies were subjected to import tariffs. Colonists objected that the Townshend Acts were a violation of the natural, charter, and constitutional rights of British subjects in the colonies. And that was just the beginning.

The colonists called for action and the Massachusetts House of Representatives drafted a document called the “Massachusetts Circular Letter” where they demanded that Parliament rescind the Townshend Acts by sending a letter directly to King George. The letter was sent to the other colonial assemblies asking them to join in boycotting any British merchants who imported these goods.

Back in London, Lord Hillsborough, the new Colonial Secretary directed all colonial governors to order all colonial assemblies to dissolve if they answered the Massachusetts Circular Letter and ordered the Mass. House to rescind the letter thru the Governor Francis Bernard. The Mass. House refused.

The British then sent the HMS Romney, a fifty-gun warship into Boston Harbor as a show of force. Tensions increased when the sailors began impressing colonist sailors into Navy service and then seized the merchant ship “Liberty” a sloop belonging to John Hancock which was accused of smuggling.

Bostonians, angered to the point of rioting, scared the British officials to the extent that they retreated to Castle William and called for the army. General Gage was dispatched to send “such Force as You shall think necessary to Boston” to quell the rioting. He sent four regiments of infantry there. Two were later withdrawn but two, the 14th and 29th Regiments of Foot stayed and were quartered in the town.

The fact that the British soldiers had been billeted in Boston was a further thorn for the colonists. Tension continued to simmer under the surface until the cold March night of March 5, 1770, when an innocuous interaction began a deadly series of events.

The old state house in Boston, the round disk in the sidewalk is the spot where the British shot the colonists during the Boston Massacre.

As was customary a British soldier stood on guard duty outside the Custom-house on King Street, which today is known as State Street. The private Hugh White was alone. Then a young wigmaker’s apprentice named Edward Garrick recognized a British officer and yelled to him in the street that the officer hadn’t paid his bill to Garrick’s boss. Which was incorrect, the Captain in question had paid it. But that began a snowball effect.

White yelled at Garrick that he should show more respect to an officer of the Crown. The two men began hurling insults at one another. Garrick began to poke White in the chest with his finger while continuing to insult the soldier. White then struck Garrick on the side of his head with a musket, what today is commonly referred to as a “Butt stroke.”

This attracted a larger crowd including a 19-year old bookseller named Henry Knox who would later become a General in the army with General George Washington. The crowd was becoming more boisterous and when church bells rang, usually signaling a fire, the crowd swelled to fifty.

The crowd was led by Crispus Attucks and they pelted White with snowballs and insults and he retreated to a somewhat safer but still exposed position on the steps of the Custom House. Sensing imminent danger, White called for assistance. Captain Thomas Preston, commander of the guard watch sent a non-commissioned officer and six enlisted men, Corporal William Wemms, Hugh Montgomery, John Carroll, William McCauley, William Warren, and Matthew Kilroy to assist and if need be protect Private White and the Custom House.

The crowd, by now swelled to 300-400 townspeople grew more threatening. The soldiers formed a semi-circle around the steps of the Custom House and loaded their weapons. Knox, by now seeing what was transpiring, begged Preston to diffuse the situation. Preston said he was aware of it and ordered the crowd to disperse.

But the mob of colonists, their boldness fueled by their numbers refused to heed the warnings. Now there were no longer just snowballs being thrown as other objects began to pelt the British soldiers. One object knocked Private Hugh Montgomery, down and causing him to drop his musket. He recovered his weapon, and upon standing, panicked and despite no order given to fire, discharged his weapon into the crowd. A colonist swung a cudgel at Montgomery hitting him on his arm and swung wildly at Preston, narrowly missing the Captain’s head and striking he too on the arm.

The rest of the British troops outnumbered 50-1 panicked as well. Seconds later, a series of shots, not a volley rang thru the streets of Boston. Preston never gave the order to fire. In the volley of fire at close range, three colonists died instantly. Ropemaker Samuel Gray, mariner James Caldwell, and Crispus Attucks went down in the street. In the back of the mob, an unlucky 17-year old apprentice ivory turner named Samuel Maverick was struck by a ricocheting musket ball and died a few hours later. Another wounded man, Patrick Carr, an Irish immigrant lingered for two weeks before succumbing to his injuries.

Captain Preston immediately called out for reinforcements and the majority of the 29th Regiment of Foot was called out to surround the Custom House and restore order. The mob had swelled further but had retreated a block or two from the Custom House. Acting Governor Thomas Hutchinson spoke from the balcony and restored order to a small degree but assured colonists that there would be an inquiry into the events.

In the aftermath of the violence, both sides produced propaganda pieces that greatly aided their side of the events. And it only further inflamed passions on both sides. The soldiers and Preston were arrested and were to be charged

In an effort to demonstrate the impartiality of colonial courts, and not to lose moderate support for the cause, two Patriot leaders, John Adams and Josiah Quincy, volunteered to defend Captain Preston and his men. Preston had himself requested that Adams defend the British soldiers. Adams wrote about the trial later and gave his thoughts:

The Part I took in Defence of Cptn. Preston and the Soldiers, procured me Anxiety, and Obloquy enough. It was, however, one of the most gallant, generous, manly and disinterested Actions of my whole Life, and one of the best Pieces of Service I ever rendered my Country. Judgment of Death against those Soldiers would have been as foul a Stain upon this Country as the Executions of the Quakers or Witches, anciently. As the Evidence was, the Verdict of the Jury was exactly right. This however is no Reason why the Town should not call the Action of that Night a Massacre, nor is it any Argument in favour of the Governor or Minister, who caused them to be sent here. But it is the strongest Proofs of the Danger of Standing Armies.

Adams presented a compelling case that the mob, not the British soldiers incited the violence, calling them a “motley rabble” and that the soldiers rightly feared for their lives. The jury agreed and found six innocent, two were convicted of manslaughter because there was testimony that they had fired directly into the crowd. The punishment was reduced to branding their thumbs in open court.

Preston was tried separately and acquitted as there was clear evidence that he never gave the order to open fire on the colonists. The four civilians were also tried separately, later in December of 1770 and also acquitted. But by then, public interest had waned and no one wanted to continue the trial any further.

The Boston Massacre was one of the most important events that led to the American Revolution against the British. Both John and Samuel Adams wrote that the events of March 5, 1770, coupled with the Boston Tea Party, would vault America into a state of Revolution against the British. It would be five years later in April 1775, just outside of Boston in the two tiny villages of Lexington and Concord, where the colonists would be drawn into open warfare against the British.

Coincidentally, six years to the day of the Boston Massacre, the British would have to evacuate Boston after George Washington made a brilliant maneuver and moved artillery into the town at Dorchester Heights, threatening the British position. Boston was spared without a shot being fired.

Photo/Illustration: Wikipedia

General George Washington Sets Up Espionage Ring on Long Island

In February 1777, with the Revolutionary War not going well, George Washington was intent on finding out more information about the British disposition in New York. Washington’s military scouts were unable to gather enough information for him to make any appreciable decisions. So Washington decided to take the drastic step of creating his own ring of spies.

It was one of the first espionage operations and organizations in the history of the United States. Washington himself dabbled in intelligence collection as a young man when he would befriend unwitting French officers in taverns and pump them for information during his travels to Ohio.

During this time of history, spies and spying were deemed “ungentlemanly” and were universally loathed. Untrained operatives were not going to be successful as the first man to volunteer, Nathan Hale was caught only a week after being sent and was hanged.

Washington needed well-trained professionals to do the job but they didn’t exist in 1777. However, John Jay, who later became the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, had been running a counter-intelligence operation in New York and recommended Nathaniel Sackett to Washington.

On February 4, 1777, Washington wrote a letter to Sackett where he offered him $50 a month—out of his own pocket—to establish the first formal espionage group for the “advantage of obtaining the earliest and best Intelligence of the designs of the Enemy.”

Sackett is the real founding father of American intelligence although history has largely ignored his contributions, perhaps due to his very short time as the head of intelligence. However, the CIA credits him with the idea of embedding his operatives with the British and Hessian forces.

Sackett much like his successor many years later in WWII General William Donovan, with the OSS would have to start from scratch. Many of the first agents would fail, including Sackett himself only months into the job. Washington would not receive enough timely reports from his operative to properly assess the situation and he would let Sackett go after paying him for his time and effort.

Sackett’s replacement, was a young man, Benjamin Tallmadge who was just 26 years old and developed the very successful intelligence gathering operation known as the Culper Spy Ring. Tallmadge was a Major, and later was promoted to Colonel and went by the alias, John Bolton. Culper was the name proposed by Washington from Culpeper County, Virginia.

Tallmadge’s group included Abraham Woodhull and Robert Townsend. Woodhull used the alias Samuel Culper Senior and Townsend used the alias Samuel Culper Junior. Other operatives consisted of Caleb Brewster, Austin Roe, Anna Strong, James Rivington, Amos Underhill, Jonas Hawkins, Sally Townsend, and Mary Underhill.

Many of the operatives were friends of Tallmadge’s from New York, so their trust factor and bona fides were solid. They used a series of “dead drops” and other clandestine means of communication to prevent exposure to the British.

Many of the methods used would become tried and true espionage methods such as coded newspaper items, invisible ink and a clever numbering system a “numerical dictionary” code that matched 763 cities, names, and words to numbers.

Some of the other means of communication involved the signals that are still used in tradecraft today such as when there was a message to be picked up. Anna Strong, a resident of Setauket, helped pass along messages from the spy ring by posting prearranged signals to indicate when one of the spies was ready to submit intelligence.

If Strong hung a black petticoat on her clothesline, it meant that one of their contacts had arrived in town. Next to that, she would hang a number of white handkerchiefs. The specific number of handkerchiefs indicated one of six hiding places where their contact will be located. The operatives used Strong’s signals to meet one another or to drop messages at one of the meeting places.

The British had caught wind of a woman who supposedly was passing signals to the Revolution and Strong fit the profile of whom they were looking for, but she was never caught.

Their secrecy was such that not even Washington himself knew the identities of all of the operatives. Not one of them were ever compromised or captured by the British.

The Culper Spy ring operated in New York City, Long Island, and Connecticut from 1778 until 1783. However, the majority of their operations ended around 1781. Some of their intelligence coups were extremely important to the cause of the Revolution. Among them were :

A planned sneak attack on the French forces that were landing to help the cause at Newport, Rhode Island. The French were still organizing after their voyage from France and an attack before they were ready could have thrown them back into the sea.
A British ploy to counterfeit the paper money that the Revolution was using, “Continental Dollars”, the timely intelligence helped the Continental Congress to act quickly and retire the bills.
The cell learned that a high-ranking American officer was going to turn over the fort at West Point, NY to the British. The future home of the US Military Academy on the Hudson River was of vital importance. The traitorous officer later turned out to be Benedict Arnold.
Culper also learned of a planned raid by Lieutenant General William Tryon in Connecticut in 1779 was a ruse to force Washington to split his forces, thus allowing LTG Henry Clinton to attack his forces piecemeal.

At the conclusion of the fighting, the British paid a big compliment to the Culper Spy Ring by stating,. “Washington didn’t really out-fight the British. He simply out-spied us,” a British intelligence officer reportedly said.

After the war, Washington asked for Congress to reimburse him for paying his spy network. His sum? $17,000, which just under $450,000 today. Congress paid him back and it was money well spent.

In 2014, a series aired on AMC based on the Culper Spy Ring “Turn: Washington’s Spies” and also drew on the book “Washington’s Spies: The Story of America’s First Spy Ring”, by Alexander Rose.

The series aired from 2014 – 2017 and starred Jamie Bell (6 Days), as Abraham Woodhull and Seth Numrich as Major Benjamin Tallmadge.

Illustrations/Photo: US Archives

December 26, 1776, General George Washington Wins Battle of Trenton

By now everyone is aware of the famous painting of General George Washington and his ragtag starving army crossing the Delaware. They did this on Christmas Day and were en route to the Hessian garrison at Trenton, New Jersey. Washington’s bold plan to quietly and quickly surround the Hessian garrison and win a much-needed battle was a pivotal win for the fledgling American Revolution.

The army had suffered defeats in New York, morale was low, the troops were starving and hungry and the revolution was on the verge of collapsing. But Washington’s bold attack and victory would inspire men to stay on in the army and would lead to more recruits rallying to the cause. The revolution even after Trenton would be far from a certainty but it was a much-needed rallying point.

Washington’s Plan: The Continental Army was in a bad way by December. They’d been routed out of New York and Long Island by the British and Hessians. They retreated across New Jersey and were across the river in Pennsylvania. The Hessians moved into Trenton, which was a small town at that time to establish their winter quarters. The Hessians numbered about 1400 men in four regiments and were commanded by Colonel Johann Rall.

Washington had about 2400 men under his command and planned to attack Trenton using three coordinated attacks.

First, General John Cadwalader would launch a diversionary attack at Bordentown, New Jersey, to block off reinforcements from the south. This would prevent the British from reinforcing Trenton’s Hessians from the south.

Then General James Ewing’s 700 men would seize the bridge at Assunpink Creek after taking his men over the Trenton Ferry. They would provide a blocking force which would effectively stop any of the Hessian troops from escaping.

Finally, Washington’s main assault force of two infantry divisions commanded by Generals Nathaniel Greene and John Sullivan, 2400 strong, would cross the river 9 miles north of Trenton, and attack from both the north under Greene and from the south under Sullivan.

Washington planned if this attack was successful, to make further moves against Princeton. Everything depended on the army getting into position without being compromised.

Rall was neither liked by his superiors or his troops, who thought him too soft to be a capable commander. Nevertheless, Rall who had been a soldier for more than 35 years had plenty of combat experience, despite his perceived shortcomings. Rall made a conscious blunder when against his own officer’s recommendations to build up defenses in the town with fortifications along the river, he declined. He mirrored what the British thought of the American soldiers and told his officers, “Let them come. We will go at them with the bayonet.”

Opening Moves: The Hessians were warned from Loyalists and American deserters that Washington was planning an attack. Outwardly, Rall dismissed them as nonsense, but in private he was worried. He wrote a letter to his commander Colonel Donop that the town was practically indefensible and he expected an attack at any moment.

On Christmas Night, the Hessians didn’t send out any patrols due to the weather. It had begun to rain, turned to sleet and finally snow. While the Hessians were bundling down trying to stay warm, Washington’s men were crossing the Delaware in boats while horses and artillery were taken across by ferry.

The weather delayed the crossing and set back the attack which was supposed to be a pre-dawn strike. But the weather also threw Washington’s plans completely off kilter. Neither General Cadwalader nor General Ewing were able to join the attack due to the severe weather conditions. As the men began marching towards Trenton, many of the men without boots were forced to tie rags around their feet and the snow was dyed red from their blood. Two men died of exposure on the way.

Only about 2 miles outside of town, Washington’s men ran into 50 armed American militia. Unaware of the plan to attack Trenton, they had just attacked a Hessian outpost. Washington was furious, believing that the Hessians would be alerted to their approach. However, Rall, having been warned by the British that the Americans would be planning an attack, believed the raid on the outpost was it and let his guard down, thinking that it was over.

Washington personally led the advance element when they ran headlong into another Hessian outpost about a mile from town. After the two sides exchanged fire, the Hessians realized they were facing a much larger force and beat a hasty but organized retreat, firing along the way.

It was then, General Sullivan and his troops entered from the south, which cut off the Hessian escape route and the firing increased. By the time Rall was assembling his three main regiments, his adjutant had informed him that Washington’s men had taken the main intersection of the town’s streets, where Rall’s engineers wanted to build a redoubt.

American cannons began to fire at the massing Hessians. Rall commanded one regiment to clear the guns. But as soon as they began advancing, the fire from the cannons broke up the attack. Rall ordered his own two cannons into action. They fired a few rounds each before accurate American return fire killed all of the crewmen and the cannons were captured.

The Hessian lines began to buckle. One regiment was pushed back and separated from the other two. The other two began to take heavy casualties from grapeshot and musket fire from the American infantry. A bayonet charge led by John Starke against the separated regiment broke them when their weapons wouldn’t fire due to wet powder.

Victory: Rall tried to reorganize his men and attack Washington’s flank. They marched in good order into the town’s streets where they briefly recaptured their cannons. But a determined American counterattack pushed them back. The Americans, firing from three directions broke up the attack. Rall was mortally wounded by cannon fire and his men retreated into an orchard where they quickly surrendered.

The third regiment of Hessians marched in the wrong direction and ran headlong into Sullivan’s troops who cut off their escape. Just minutes after the rest of the troops had surrendered, they too capitulated.

The battle was a stunning victory for Washington, who lost only the two men to frostbite and exposure on the march in and just five men wounded, including a near fatal wound to James Monroe who would later become the President of the United States. The Hessians lost 22 dead, including all four Colonels, 83 wounded and 896 men taken prisoner. Later, Sullivan captured another 200 Hessians who tried to escape to the British lines.

But even more importantly, the Americans, in dire need of food and supplies captured the Hessian’s stores at Trenton including food, arms, ammunition, clothing, shoes, boots, and bedding. Things which were all in short supply in the American Army. The ragtag Americans had gone toe-to-toe with a European army that had raised Cain in New York. Even British General Howe was surprised at the ease that the Americans had been able to dispatch the Hessians.

By noon on the 26th, Washington’s men and their prisoners were safely back across the Delaware and into Pennsylvania. The revolution would live on.

Illustration: National Archives

Boston Tea Party, December 1773, Set in Motion Rebellion in the Colonies

On a cold December evening in December 1773, American colonists, members of the Sons of Liberty protested the British Tea Act by disguising themselves as American Indians and threw an entire shipment of tea from England into Boston Harbor.

This political protest and the subsequent reactions of the English government, set in motion a series of events that would eventually kick-start the American Revolution in nearby Lexington and Concord in April 1775.

Background: The Tea Act, passed by Parliament in April of 1773 infuriated the colonists as they felt the English government was unfairly putting the financial burden of the failing East India Company on the colonists of America. “No Taxation without Representation” became the rallying cry for political movements including the Sons of Liberty which began in Boston but had other groups in New York, Philadelphia, and other colonies.

Europeans had developed an affinity for tea in the early 1700s and that carried over to the American colonies. English Parliament granted a monopoly to the East India Company to the importation of tea into England. Parliament sought and was granted permission to carry that over to the American colonies in 1721. The Dutch smuggled tea into America and the cost was much cheaper. The East India Company was losing huge amounts of money. So Parliament passed the Indemnity Act which lowered the tax on tea consumed in Great Britain, and gave the East India Company a refund of the 25% duty on tea that was re-exported to the colonies. To counter their loss of taxes, Parliament decided to make up the money on the American colonies.

They passed the Townshend Revenue Act of 1767, which levied new taxes, including one on tea, in the colonies. The colonists, at this time considered themselves Englishmen, were infuriated as Parliament was levying taxes on them while they had no representation in Parliament.

This created a firestorm in London, because, according to the British Constitution, citizens could only be taxed by their elected representatives. Since the colonies had no representation in Parliament, they felt the taxes were illegal.

In late 1772 because of the Indemnity Act, sales of tea plummeted and the warehouses of the East India Company (EIC) were overflowing with tea no one was buying. The East India Company was on the verge of bankruptcy. So Parliament allowed the EIC to import tea directly to the colonies. They tried to hide from the colonists that they were still paying a tax on their tea. But once the colonists found out it sprang them into action.

But the irony of the situation was that the price of tea in the colonies was now cheaper than even the smugglers were charging. Some of the biggest colonial opposition figures such as Samuel Adams considered the British tea monopoly to be “equal to a tax” and to raise the same “Taxation Without Representation” issue whether or not a tax was applied to it.

Situation Coming to a Head in Boston: In Charleston, SC and New York, colonists had succeeded in forcing the tea consigners, appointed by Parliament to resign. Therefore customs officials seized the tea. In Philadelphia and New York, the protests stopped the tea from being unloaded and the ships returned to London with the tea in the ship’s holds.

A replica of the Dartmouth is in Boston Harbor at the Boston Tea Party Museum.

Boston however, was another matter. Governor Hutchinson, forced the two tea consigners (his sons), not to resign. The tea ship Dartmouth arrived in Boston on November 29, 1773. Law stated that the tea must be offloaded within 20 days or the Customs officials could seize it. Samuel Adams called a meeting and thousands of colonists attended at the Old South Meeting House.

Adams put 25 men watching the Dartmouth to see if the company tried to offload the tea. Hutchinson refused to let the Dartmouth sail back to England without paying the duty of the tea in her hold. Meanwhile, two more tea ships, the Eleanor and the Beaver arrived in Boston Harbor and anchored near the Dartmouth. A fourth was supposed to arrive but a storm diverted it to Cape Cod.

On the final night of the Dartmouth’s deadline, Adams led a meeting of over 7000 colonists as the Sons of Liberty were preparing for a night of lawlessness that would push both parties inexorably toward war.

Boston Harbor December 16: While Adams was firing up the colonists at the Old South Meeting House, plans had already been made to take matters into their own hands. While Adams made a show of trying to keep the meeting going, about 150 members of the Sons of Liberty, slipped out and began drifting towards Griffin’s Wharf.

They elaborately disguised themselves as Mohawk Indians to avoid identification.The act of wearing Indian dress was to express to the world that the American colonists identified themselves as “Americans” and no longer considered themselves British subjects. Many left Boston soon after for fear of reprisal.

One hundred and sixteen men were positively identified as members of the Tea Party but many others stayed anonymous. Sixteen of the participants were teenagers and only nine were over the age of forty.

George Hewes recorded his own journal of the event: “It was now evening, and I immediately dressed myself in the costume of an Indian, equipped with a small hatchet, which I and my associates denominated the tomahawk, with which, and a club, after having painted my face and hands with coal dust in the shop of a blacksmith, I repaired to Griffin’s wharf, where the ships lay that contained the tea. When I first appeared in the street after being thus disguised, I fell in with many who were dressed, equipped and painted as I was, and who fell in with me and marched in order to the place of our destination.”

The men boarded the ships and began the work of bringing all 342 tea chests to the sides of the ships and dumping them into Boston Harbor. The entire operation took over three hours. Only two of the chests that night survived. One of them is on display now at the Boston Tea Party Museum. The value of the estimated 92,000 pounds of tea tossed in Boston Harbor was around £9,659 which was reported at the time. That is worth around $1.7 million dollars today.

The Robinson Half Chest is one of only two remaining original tea crates that were thrown into Boston Harbor.

English Reaction: The events in Boston galvanized Parliament, even those who had been sympathetic to the colonists’ cause. Parliament passed what was known in England as the Coercive Acts but became known in America as the Intolerable Acts.

The Intolerable Acts were actually a series of separate acts designed to punish the colony of Massachusetts and the people of Boston for trying to usurp their authority.

Prime Minister Lord North said, “The Americans have tarred and feathered your subjects, plundered your merchants, burnt your ships, denied all obedience to your laws and authority; yet so clement and so long forbearing has our conduct been that it is incumbent on us now to take a different course. Whatever may be the consequences, we must risk something; if we do not, all is over.”

The first act closed the Port of Boston until all of the tea was paid for and the King’s government was satisfied that order had been restored in Massachusetts. The second took away the charter of the colony of Massachusetts and stated that all positions in the colonial government were to appointed by the governor, Parliament or the King. Local meetings were restricted to only one per year unless the governor called for one.

The third act stipulated that any officials of the crown accused of a crime in the colony of Massachusetts would be tried in England or another area of the Empire since they couldn’t be guaranteed a fair trial in Massachusetts. (British soldiers were acquitted in 1770 of murder during the Boston Massacre when tried in Massachusetts) And the final was the Quartering Act which colonists were forced to house British soldiers in their homes.

Rather than isolate what were considered radicals in Massachusetts and force the colonists to concede authority to Parliament over their lives in America, it had the opposite effect. The other colonies, fearing the same could happen to them, banded together in support of Massachusetts. The began correspondence with one another and sent delegates to the Continental Congress. Banded together, they still hoped that their issues with England could be solved.

About a year later in April 1775, at the small village green in Lexington, a local militia stood up to the British army in what is known as the “The Shot Heard Around the World”, and the American Revolution began.

Photos: Wikipedia, Boston Tea Party Museum