Author: Kevin Pawlak

The Experience of Freehold’s Civilians during the Battle of Monmouth Courthouse

On By Kevin PawlakIn Battles, Civilian, Monmouth, WomenLeave a comment

Amid the hot weather of June 28, 1778, the British army under General Henry Clinton battled General George Washington’s Continental Army in the fields outside Freehold, New Jersey. The Battle of Monmouth Courthouse ranks as the eleventh deadliest battle of the Revolutionary War, claiming at least 700 casualties between the two armies. While the armies moved on after the sharp fight, the citizens of Freehold were left to deal with the battle’s aftermath.

Below are excerpts from two letters written by citizens of Freehold in the immediate aftermath of the battle that describes the toll the armies and battle took on their homes.

An unidentified “young gentleman, an inhabitant of Freehold,” penned the first letter on June 29, 1778. This citizen marched during the battle with Nathanael Greene’s troops, who only arrived on the battlefield proper near the end of the fight. Thus, he could “form an idea of the particular movements of the…engagement only from the dead…” There was abundant evidence provided by the corpses on the battlefield as the British “left very many dead upon the field of action…” Beyond the furrowed ground sliced by artillery shots and musket balls, the British columns left a path of destruction in their wake. “The destruction the enemy have made is dreadful. A great number of houses, barns and out-houses, on and near the public roads, are entirely reduced to ashes. They have been all round us, and yet we have escaped.”

A lady of Freehold wrote her letter two days after the battle. She equally said the horrid aftermath of an 18th-century conflict. “The enemy declared, at Robert McKnight’s, they intended to pay us a visit the next day, as they went down to the Court-house, and said their orders were to burn all the houses in this neighborhood. Doctor Henderson is burnt out, as also Peter Foreman, David Foreman, Benjamin Covenoven, George Walker, Mr. Solomon, David Covenoven, Garret Vanderveer, David Clayton, and a number of others. Most of the people on the public road have lost every thing the enemy could carry off or destroy.”

This anonymous woman was pleased that the British army had passed on, though they left their dead behind “as thick as bees round Mr. Sutfin’s.”

The occupation of the area by the warring armies “I fear…will make a famine among us,” she sadly concluded.

The Battle of Monmouth Courthouse was only one of a long stretch of days for central New Jersey’s civilians between 1775 and 1783.

This sketch of British troops burning homes around Lexington, Massachusetts, is a view similar to the one had by Freehold’s citizens as the British army passed through their homes.

Prisoner of Washington and Napoleon: A Brief Sketch of Charles O’Hara

On By Kevin PawlakIn British LeadershipLeave a comment

If not for his connections to some of the most famous commanders and events of 18th-century military history, British general Charles O’Hara might only get a passing mention in many history books. He still hardly gets more than that.

Charles O’Hara

Charles O’Hara came into this world unceremoniously as the illegitimate son of James O’Hara, a British baron. The younger O’Hara cut his teeth in military matters at the young age of 12 in the 3rd Dragoons before receiving an officer’s appointment in the Coldstream Guards. He served in an officer’s capacity in Germany, Portugal (with Charles Lee), and Africa. O’Hara was strict but liked by the men who served under him.

O’Hara’s years of military service brought him to North America in July 1778. Lieutenant General Henry Clinton appointed him to command the troops at Sandy Hook, New Jersey, to protect New York City because of his engineering skills and a recommendation from Admiral Richard Howe. Two years later, O’Hara wound up under the command of Lord Charles Cornwallis in the Southern theater. He performed ably there, leading the pursuit of Cornwallis’ army toward the Dan River in early 1781 and leading the British counterattack at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse. O’Hara led from the front and received two wounds to show for it. His nephew died during the battle.

At Yorktown, O’Hara drew the duty of surrendering Cornwallis’ army to General George Washington and Comte de Rochambeau. As the surrendering British columns approached the Allied lines, O’Hara asked to see Rochambeau. Whether this was a slight against Washington or not is unclear, but Rochambeau referred him to Washington. O’Hara apologized to Washington and explained why Cornwalls was not in attendance. Then, O’Hara handed Cornwallis’ sword to Washington, who refused it and passed O’Hara along to Benjamin Lincoln. O’Hara handed the sword to Lincoln. He looked it over, held it for a brief moment, and returned it to O’Hara. The surrender of the British army then began.

After dining with Washington following the surrender proceedings at Yorktown, O’Hara became Washington’s prisoner until receiving his exchange on February 9, 1782. He returned to England with Cornwallis’ praise and a promotion to major general. Back home in England, O’Hara fell into hard financial times from a gambling debt and ran away from them to mainland Europe. In stepped his old friend and commander Charles Cornwallis, who helped O’Hara offset the debts.

O’Hara received another promotion in 1792 to lieutenant general and lieutenant governor of Gibraltar, a post he long desired. There, misfortune found him once more when he faced the young Napoleon Bonaparte on the battlefield of Toulon. On November 23, 1793, the defeated O’Hara surrendered to Napoleon.

Labeled an insurrectionist, O’Hara found himself in prison in Luxembourg. During his nearly two years there, he befriended American Thomas Paine until his exchange in August 1795. Ironically, the man exchanged for him was the Comte de Rochambeau. He once again took the post of Governor of Gibraltar, where he died in 1802 from the effects of his war wounds suffered two decades earlier. 

Despite taking part in one of the most famous events of the Revolutionary War, O’Hara has faded into general obscurity even though he bears the distinction of being the only person to surrender to both Washington and Napoleon. 

He is featured regularly on the screen in The Patriot, but most people likely do not even know the character’s name or backstory. There is plenty more to be told in his story.

Transcribe Revolutionary War Veteran Pensions

On By Kevin PawlakIn National Park ServiceLeave a comment

The National Archives and the National Park Service recently announced a collaborative project that allows members of the public to transcribe Revolutionary War Pension Files. This initiative has been launched in celebration of the upcoming 250th anniversary of America’s independence.

During the Revolutionary War, the Continental Congress offered pensions to American soldiers for their service. Later, they extended the pensions to the widows and orphans of deceased soldiers. Each pension file contains a wealth of information about the common Continental or militia soldier who fought for American independence.

As you might expect, the public transcription project is a large undertaking. The National Archives reports that they have 2,322,134 objects digitally scanned and ready for transcription.

If you want to help keep the story of a Revolutionary War Patriot alive and accessible, consider joining the National Archives’ Citizen Archivist program to get started today. For more information and to sign up, visit https://www.archives.gov/citizen-archivist/missions/revolutionary-war-pension-files.

Rev War Revelry: “Tea: Consumption, Politics, and Revolution, 1773-1776” with author and historian James R. Fichter

On By Kevin PawlakIn Emerging Revolutionary WarLeave a comment

Join us this Sunday night at 7pm as we welcome James R. Fichter to our popular Sunday night Rev War Revelry!

In Tea, James R. Fichter reveals that despite the so-called Boston Tea Party in 1773, two large shipments of tea from the East India Company survived and were ultimately drunk in North America. Their survival shaped the politics of the years ahead, impeded efforts to reimburse the company for the tea lost in Boston Harbor, and hinted at the enduring potency of consumerism in revolutionary politics.

Tea protests were widespread in 1774, but so were tea advertisements and tea sales, Fichter argues. The protests were noisy and sometimes misleading performances, not clear signs that tea consumption was unpopular. Revolutionaries vilified tea in their propaganda and prohibited the importation and consumption of tea and British goods. Yet merchant ledgers reveal these goods were still widely sold and consumed in 1775. Colonists supported Patriots more than they abided by non-consumption. When Congress ended its prohibition against tea in 1776, it reasoned that the ban was too widely violated to enforce. War was a more effective means than boycott for resisting Parliament, after all, and as rebel arms advanced, Patriots seized tea and other goods Britons left behind. By 1776, protesters sought tea and, objecting to its high price, redistributed rather than destroyed it. Yet as Fichter demonstrates in Tea, by then the commodity was not a symbol of the British state, but of American consumerism.

Grab your favorite drink and tune in. If you are not able to tune in on Sunday, the video will be placed on our YouTube and podcast channels.

Jefferson County, West Virginia: Home of Two Revolutionary War Generals

On By Kevin PawlakIn Charles Lee, Continental Leadership, Personalities2 Comments

Though it is most commonly associated with its Civil War history, Jefferson County, West Virginia, boasts a large amount of Revolutionary War history, too. One does not have to travel far in the county to stumble on a Washington family home (there were ten, seven still stand) or find Washington family members buried in the Zion Episcopal Cemetery in Charlestown, the county seat (this cemetery supposedly boasts more Washington family graves than any other place in the United States).

Beyond Washington, though, Jefferson County can claim at least two other well-known Revolutionary War generals on its citizen rolls: Horatio Gates and Charles Lee. Both of their countryside estates still stand today but are privately owned.

Traveller’s Rest (Library of Congress)

Traveller’s Rest, built by Horatio Gates in 1773, stands west of Kearneysville in the western section of the county. Gates employed carpenter John Ariss for the wooden portions of the construction project, a man who also worked on many of the local Washington homes. Gates lived at Traveller’s Rest until his service in the Continental Army took him away from his home. Following his defeat at the Battle of Camden in 1780 and his subsequent sidelining by the Continental Congress, Gates returned to his plantation, where he lived quietly. In 1790, the former general freed his slaves, sold the house, and moved to New York, where he died in 1806.

Three miles south of Gates lived Charles Lee at Prato Rio, a Portuguese phrase meaning “Stream on the meadow.” Lee did not build his home but purchased the 1733 structure in 1774 after some urging from Gates. Following his own sacking in the wake of the Battle of Monmouth, Lee returned to his home in 1779, a place he referred to as “The Hut.” Lee spent his last years there quietly surrounded by his three dogs, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Supposedly, when he learned of a possible visit from George Washington, Lee attached a note to his door that read, “No dinner cooked here to-day.”

Lee’s house was less conventional than Gates’ home. The inside contained no walls—only chalk lines delineated the different rooms. Lee remarked, “I can sit in any corner, and give orders, and overlook the whole, without moving my chair.”

Prato Rio (West Virginia State Historic Preservation Office)

While both homes can be seen from public roads today, they are not open to the public. Please respect the owners’ privacy.

Rev War Revelry: Washington’s Marines: A Discussion with Author and Historian Maj. Gen. Jason Bohm

On By Kevin PawlakIn Navy, Revolutionary WarLeave a comment

Join author Jason Bohm for a discussion of his new book published by Savas Beatie, Washington’s Marines: The Origins of the Corps and the American Revolution, 1775-1777, on Sunday night, August 20, 2023, at 7 pm. Bohm’s book examines the Marine Corps’ humble beginnings and what it achieved during the early years of the American Revolution. Jason Bohm’s eye-opening Washington’s Marines tells of the Corps’ origins and achievements in the early years of the Revolutionary War.

Grab a drink and join us to learn more about the early history of the United States Marine Corps!

All Rev War Revelries can be found LIVE on our Facebook page, or a week later on our YouTube and Spotify channels.

Major General Jason Q. Bohm is a Marine with more than 30 years of service. An infantryman by trade, he has commanded at every level from platoon commander to commanding general in peacetime and war. Bohm also served in several key staff positions, including as a strategic planner with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Director of the Marine Corps Expeditionary Warfare School, House Director, Marine Corps Office of Legislative Affairs, U.S. House of Representatives, and Chief of Staff of U.S. Naval Striking and Support Forces, NATO. Bohm has a bachelor’s degree in marketing, a master’s degree in military studies, and a master’s degree in national security studies. Jason has written several articles for the Marine Corps Gazette and won various writing awards from the Marine Corps Association. He is the author of From the Cold War to ISIL: One Marine’s Journey (Naval Institute Press, 2019).

July 17, 1775: The Start of the Beeline March

On By Kevin PawlakIn Common Soldier1 Comment

“The Shot Heard Round the World” on April 19, 1775, put the American colonies into a fever pitch and a war footing, but 18th-century travel limitations naturally caused that word to spread slowly. It did not reach the town of Mecklenburg, in Berkeley County, Virginia (now Shepherdstown, in Jefferson County, West Virginia) for 21 days. On May 10, Mecklenburg’s citizens learned of the fights between colonists and British soldiers at Lexington and Concord. Coupled with news of Virginia royal governor Lord Dunmore’s removal of powder from the magazine in Williamsburg, Mecklenburg’s citizens prepared to offer whatever aid they could to their fellow beleaguered colonists.

The rallying point for the Beeline March

The militia in Mecklenburg strapped on their accouterments and began to drill. On June 10, the drilling militia was welcomed to the property of Colonel William Morgan, just outside town, for a barbecue. Songs were sung and all those present made a pledge that they would return to the same spot in Morgan’s Grove fifty years from that day.

Following the patriotic fanfare, the men returned to drilling, wondering if they might have the chance to face the British. A decision made in far-off Philadelphia soon promised Berkeley’s militiamen that chance. On June 14, the Continental Congress declared that “six companies of expert riflemen, be immediately raised in Pennsylvania, two in Maryland, and two in Virginia.” Once formed and equipped, “each company…shall march and join the army near Boston, to be there employed as light infantry, under the command of the chief Officer in that army.”

The Virginia companies went to Daniel Morgan, who organized his company in Winchester, and Hugh Stephenson, the leader of the company rendezvousing at Mecklenburg. Joining soldiers signed one-year enlistments. Henry Bedinger, one of Stephenson’s men, recorded that “none were received but young men of Character, and of sufficient property to Clothe themselves completely, find their own arms, and accoutrements, that is, an approved Rifle, handsome shot pouch, and powder-horn, blanket, with such decent clothing as should be prescribed.” It took less than seven days to raise each company to the strength of 100 men. Only the delay in getting enough rifles to arm the entire Mecklenburg company prevented them from leaving immediately after filling the ranks.

Once mustered, Stephenson and Morgan agreed to meet in Frederick, Maryland, and march to Boston together. On July 15, Morgan’s men marched first, stealing a step on the Mecklenburg men, who left Morgan’s Grove on July 17. “Morgan having the start we used every exertion to overhaul him, in Vain, altho’ we marched (always in single file) from 30 to 36 miles a number of days,” said Bedinger.

Food and cheering citizens greeted Stephenson’s men along the march and kept their marching feet moving at the blistering pace needed to catch Morgan. Only two men failed to make the entire march (one was court-martialed, and the other was accidentally wounded). On August 11, after a march of over 500 miles in 25 days and just behind Morgan’s men, Stephenson’s company halted in front of General George Washington in Cambridge. When the Mecklenburg riflemen saw the general, they “presented their arms to him as he slowly rode by us looking attentively and affectionately at the soldiers from his native state. When he shook hands with our captain, it was said they both shed tears.”

Stephenson’s Company reporting to General Washington at Cambridge (My Ride to the Barbecue)

The march has gone down in history as the Beeline March due to the quick and direct nature of the expedition to augment the Continental forces in front of Boston. Fifty years later, the pledge made on June 10, 1775, was kept, though the numbers of Stephenson’s company were considerably smaller. Five decades after the march, only five participants still lived; just two returned to Morgan’s Grove to commemorate the feat. One of them was Michael Bedinger, who recorded his experiences in the Beeline March. At the anniversary ceremony, he sang “two patriotic songs…the very same that had been sung at that spot fifty years before.”

Today, two markers commemorate the Beeline March’s genesis. In Morgan’s Grove Park, a marker dedicated in 1988 marks the “Shepherdstown Rally Point” (Mecklenburg was later renamed Shepherdstown). Down the road from the park in Elmwood Cemetery, a 1932 monument erected by the Daughters of the American Revolution sits with the names of the commissioned and non-commissioned officers of Stephenson’s company.

For a burgeoning armed force that was seeking to stand up to one of the world’s most powerful military forces, the Beeline March showed the spirit of the American soldier in the early days of the Revolutionary War.

“Rev War Revelry”: The Saratoga Campaign

On By Kevin PawlakIn Battlefields & Historic Places, Battles, Campaigns, Emerging Revolutionary War1 Comment

The Saratoga Campaign and Battle of Saratoga sit near the top of numerous “Turning Points of the Revolutionary War” lists. It is a story that has been told many times. New research has shed additional light on the campaign’s well-known and trivial parts.

Join Saratoga National Historical Park interpreter and historian Eric Schnitzer for Emerging Revolutionary War’s Revelry on October 2, 2022, at 7 pm to learn about new research being conducted about the campaign.

We hope you can join us on Sunday at 7 p.m EDT on our Facebook page for this historian happy hour.