Situated along East Monument Street is a stone monument surrounded by a black iron fence. A wayside informational marker is placed right outside the fence. Underneath this monument rests the remains of Daniel Wells and Henry McComas. On September 12, 1814, one of their firearms changed the entire scope of the Battle of North Point, part of the Chesapeake Bay Campaign during the War of 1812.
Both young militia members, sent to the frontlines to skirmish and harass the approaching British infantry, fired a musket round that slammed through the left elbow and into the chest of Major General Robert Ross, British land commander, mortally wounding him. Both Wells and McComas, aged 19 and 18 respectively, would be killed during the day’s fighting. A third soldier, Aquila Randall, also slain that day, has his own small monument and crediting him with firing the fateful shot.
Although most historians credit either Wells or McComas. Both soldiers were reinterred here, the second time their remains had been moved, in 1858 when the monument was completed and a funeral song and dramatic play rounded out the day’s commemoration.
The site is part of the Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail. To learn more about the trail, click here.
Emerging Revolutionary War welcomes back guest historian Eric Olsen. Eric is a historian with the National Park Service at Morristown National Historical Park. Click here to learn more about this site.
Visitors always want to know, “How much did “that” cost back then?” We used to tell them because of inflation and the conversion from pounds to dollars it was really hard to give a definitive answer. It is even harder to figure during the American Revolution when the value of the dollars changed dramatically just over the course of a few months. There are all sorts of fancy conversion sites on the internet today but since math was not my strong point, I don’t know how accurate they are.
One book tried another approach to explain 18th century vs. modern prices. “A person today, purchasing the same product made the same way out of materials made the same way, will pay roughly the same percentage of their wages for the product as a person of equal economic status in the past would have. For comparison, at the present time [1997 book] an average shop rate runs thirty-five dollars an hour for labor. If you make ten dollars an hour, this costs you three and a half hours of work, and the same ratio applied to a craftsman making thirty pounds a year or two pence per hour.” Makes sense but seems a bit too complicated.
However, I did find one primary source that can give a clue to the relative value of items. It comes from Theophile Cazenove, a Dutchman who traveled through New Jersey and Pennsylvania in 1794 looking for investment opportunities for Dutch bankers. At his various stops in Morris County, Cazenove recorded the prices of farms, livestock, and even labor.
Sometimes the prices were in pounds, other times they were in dollars. When he included both prices for one item, I did some very simple math and found that it took eight shillings to make one dollar, and that $2.50 equaled one pound. According to the online conversion applications, one pound in 1790 equaled 167.58 pounds today. One dollar in 1790 equaled 32.20 dollars in today’s money.
But without doing any math or conversions if we look at the prices Cazenove listed we can see what items were more expense than other ones. From that we can also assume the more expensive items were more highly valued.
Keep in mind, on the local level in 18th century America, it was not a cash driven economy. Specie, Hard Money or coins, made of valuable metals such as silver and gold were in short supply in North America and used infrequently. Paper Money was rarely used, appearing briefly during periods of war when armies needed a large source of money to buy goods and services.
By the evening of January 6, 1781, much of the small town of Richmond, newly appointed capital of Virginia, was in flames. Brig. Gen. Benedict Arnold and his force of British regulars and loyalist provincial troops, to the tune of around 800, were east of the city, heading toward Westover Plantation, in Charles City County. It was the home of Mary Willing Byrd, widow of the late William Byrd III. She was also a cousin to Arnold’s wife, Peggy Shippen Arnold. The British transports had landed at Westover back on January 4 and it was there that Arnold finished planning his march on Richmond, 25 miles away.
Westover Plantation
With the arrival of Arnold’s forces at Portsmouth, on the Virginia coast, Gov. Thomas Jefferson believed the target of the raid was Williamsburg. Baron Friedrich von Steuben, the Continental Army’s military commander in the area, believed Petersburg was at risk. Both men were surprised when Arnold landed at Westover, showing his target clearly to be Richmond. Caught off guard, Jefferson nevertheless swung into action, calling out local militia companies. Von Steuben, likewise, sent Continental forces he had on hand to the north side of the James River, to relieve the capital. With a price on his head, the traitor Benedict Arnold couldn’t afford to linger too long in the area. Were he to be captured, he knew it would mean the gallows for him. After spending a mere 24 hours in the city, destroying Westham Foundry, located six miles above Richmond, burning public buildings & filling 42 small craft with tobacco, rum, and any other commodity worth cash money he could find, he gave the order to return to Westover and his troop transports.
Arriving there on January 7, the bulk of Arnold’s troops immediately bivouacked & began cooking rations. With Jefferson’s call, though, Patriot militiamen from the lower counties had been gathering throughout the area of Charles City. Many were seen on the high ground in back of Westover Plantation. Arnold became desperate for intelligence. Among his provincial forces were the Queen’s Rangers, Lt. Col. John Graves Simcoe, commanding. Made up mostly of loyalists from New York, the Queen’s Rangers were comprised of well trained and equipped light infantry and cavalry troops. Back on January 5th, it had been Simcoe who had led the troops who destroyed Westham Foundry. Born in England, Simcoe had served throughout the war, beginning with the siege of Boston back in 1775. He was a very competent officer who would go on after the war to serve as the first lieutenant governor of Upper Canada & to be elected a member of Parliament. He kept a journal throughout the war which he first published in 1787. In this journal Simcoe described the action in Charles City, after the raid on Richmond.
Lt. Col. John Graves Simcoe
Gen. Arnold ordered him to lead a patrol, he said, “to be made on the night of the eighth of January towards Long Bridge (on the Chickahominy River) in order to procure intelligence.” Simcoe detached 40 of his cavalrymen for the patrol. For the most part, he said, his men were “badly mounted, on such horses as had been picked up in the country.” The patrol had not proceeded beyond 2 miles on the main road, presumably the River Road (Modern Virginia State Route 5) before Simcoe’s vidette, a Sergeant Kelly, was challenged by two Patriot militiamen. Kelly kept up a friendly demeanor until he came close, then he rushed the Patriot scouts. He captured one while the other fled. Along with one prisoner, Simcoe said he also freed “a Negro who had been taken on his way to the British army.” From the rebel prisoner he learned that Patriot general Thomas Nelson, Jr had a large party of militiamen encamped at Charles City Courthouse, about 6 miles to the east. The corps of militiamen that had been seen at Westover were an advance party, the captured Patriot had said, and numbered around 400.
Upon learning this, Simcoe says he immediately ordered his troopers to the “right about”, off the road. A Lt. Holland, “who was similar in size to the vidette who had been taken” led the Ranger’s advance. The African American man Simcoe liberated offered to guide his force to the courthouse by an obscure pathway, off the main road. Simcoe’s intention was to attack or, in his words, “beat up” the main body of militia at the courthouse, believing their guard would be lowered owing to the presence of the large advance party on the main road. If repulsed, he planned to retreat along the same path. If successful against the main body, though, he knew he had the option of attacking that advance party of 400 men.
Charles City Courthouse, built ca 1730
As they moved to the east that evening, Simcoe wrote that the patrol “passed through a wood”, where it halted “to collect”. They had scarcely resumed their march on this back road when the column was immediately challenged by a Patriot picket or vidette. Answering the challenge, Lt. Holland, riding in the van, immediately called out… “A friend”; he then gave the countersign for the challenge which the Patriot prisoner had told them. “It is I, me, Charles.”, which apparently was the name of the Patriot militiamen whom Lt. Holland was impersonating. Holland continued leading the column, past the first picket. Riding beside him was the irrepressible Sergeant Kelly, who immediately grabbed the militiaman. Holland himself lunged for a second militiaman who was sitting his horse nearby, but Simcoe said, grabbing hold of him the man was too strong and got free. That second man whirled and, “presented, and snapped his carbine.” For Lt. Holland it was a lucky misfire. The militiaman then galloped off a distance, re-primed his piece & fired off a warning shot.
Simcoe’s patrol had been spotted; the element of surprise was now lost. He gave the immediate order to advance as rapidly as possible and very quickly his force reached the grounds of the courthouse where several companies of Patriot militiamen were encamped. To these men, this had always been a place of safety; where men of Charles City County came to join the militia and, many years later, this is where many old veterans would file their depositions in hopes of obtaining a pension for their service. Now, they were under attack. According to militiaman William Seth Stubblefield, his company was “taken on surprise” about midnight. Simcoe said his men rushed on and immediately a confused and scattered fire began, on all sides. His troopers, attacking from out of the darkness, were nonetheless heavily outnumbered. Thinking quickly, however, Simcoe used his cunning.
Queen’s Rangers
He immediately sent his two “bugle horns”, buglers, men he called French and Barney, over towards his right. They had orders to “answer his challenging, and sound when he ordered.” The night air was quickly becoming filled with lead as both sides exchanged fire. As a ruse, Simcoe called out in a loud voice for the “Light Infantry to form”; then he gave the order to “sound the advance”. The buglers on the right responded, and sounded their horns. In a matter of seconds, the Patriot militiamen, caught off guard and now apparently fooled into thinking they were outnumbered and being flanked, immediately started falling back. As John Graves Simcoe described it, “the enemy fled on all sides, scarcely firing another shot.” And just like that, the skirmish was over. But the night was dark, and the Queen’s Rangers were unfamiliar with the country. Some of the Patriots were captured while others were wounded. Simcoe said a few of the fleeing militiamen drowned in a nearby mill dam. In his 1833 pension application, militiaman Irby Phillips likewise referenced men “drowning in a mill pond”. Simcoe said that he himself stepped in to save three armed Patriots from “the fury of the soldiers (Rangers)”. He said the militiamen were frightened and presented their loaded pieces, directly at his breast. In their agitated state, they easily could have pulled the triggers, but, luckily for Simcoe, they didn’t.
From these three prisoners he learned that he had earlier been deceived; that he had fallen for a ruse himself. The story he had been told of the 400-man Patriot advance party near the main road was false; there was no advance party. What Simcoe had been calling the main party consisted of between 150 and 200 militiamen, all encamped with cookfires going. General Nelson was not among them but, apparently, was in camp some miles away, back towards Williamsburg with a force of around 700 or 800. Many of the fleeing militiamen headed in that direction.
Simcoe ordered his troopers to mount immediately. Many of them wanted to search the buildings and homes near the courthouse, where several of the militiamen had fled, but were not permitted. Simcoe wrote that his troopers were “plainly distinguished by the fires which the enemy had left.” Silhouetted in this way, the commander believed his small numbers could have easily been discerned, possibly inviting a dangerous counter attack.
In this brief action, the Queen’s Rangers lost one man, a Sergeant Adams, who was mortally wounded. Simcoe described the sergeant’s last moments: “This gallant soldier, sensible of his situation, said: ‘My beloved Colonel, I do not mind dying, but for God’s sake, do not leave me in the hands of the rebels.” French, one of the buglers, and two other troopers were wounded in the engagement and about a dozen of his horses had been captured. The Patriots, in Simcoe’s estimation, suffered around 20 or so casualties, including several captured.
The Rangers left Charles City Courthouse and headed west, back towards Westover, with their prisoners. Simcoe said the enemy made no threat against his rear. The patrol arrived at Westover the next morning, January 9. There, Sergeant Adams died and was buried with honors. On January 10, Benedict Arnold’s transports shoved off into the James River and began their trip back towards Portsmouth.
By 1781, Virginia was a major supply depot and logistical hub for the Southern American army operating in the Carolinas. While Arnold’s strategic strike against Richmond was brief, it was yet overwhelmingly successful. Ironically though, the final chapter of this event wasn’t written in Richmond at all but, rather, in Charles City. The old county courthouse, which still stands today along historic and scenic Virginia State Route 5, was a witness to it all.
“No taxation without representation” was one of the political cries of American colonists before the American Revolution. While the slogan inspired colonial enmity of the British Parliament and spearheaded efforts by prominent Americans and Britons to achieve some form of representation in the British government, it fell on deaf ears of common British citizens, including one correspondent of The Newcastle Chronicle, published in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England.
250 years ago today, this unknown correspondent’s opinion of the matter was printed for British citizens to read and consider:
When we consider (says a correspondent) in our present dispute with America, that there are large manufacturing towns in England, who, though they have no direct representative, yet pay the same taxes as those who have; thatthere are many thousands of merchants, manufacturers and others in Britan, who never had a vote for a representative, and therefore cannot be said to have consented to the taxes imposed upon them by the constituent powers of the legislature; and when we consider that the people of the Isle of Man, who once had superior privileges to any province in America, are deprived of all trade but with Britain, and obliged to pay taxes by British acts, without having one representative in the British Parliament. When we consider these things, how ill grounded must the complaints of the Americans appear to every man of feafe, and how necessary does it become to exact that obedience from their fears, which is neither to be hoped from their gratitude nor from their justice.
In July 2024, Minute Man National Historical Park announced the discovery of five musket balls fired at Concord’s North Bridge on April 19, 1775. Park Ranger Jarrad Fuoss will join Emerging Revolutionary War on Sunday, January 5, 2025, at 7 pm, for a behind-the-scenes look at how the bullets were unearthed and will also provide a preview of the park’s 250th-anniversary events this April.
Join us on Sunday evening as we welcome historian and author Gary Ecelbarger to discuss his new two volume study of George Washington between July 4, 1777 and July 4, 1778. During this momentous year, Washington faced the British army at major engagements at Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth. He also spent the winter at Valley Forge. Ecelbarger breaks down this year into two volumes. The first volume, which covers the July to December of 1777 is available now.
This will be pre-recorded and posted to the Emerging Revolutionary War Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/emergingrevwar at 7 p.m. on Sunday, December 22.
Everyone has heard of the “shot heard round the world” at the North Bridge, or the first shots of the war on the early morning of April 19, 1775 at the Lexington Green. But few people know about events that transpired in New Hampshire four months before Lexington and Concord. The events at Fort William and Mary on December 13 and 14 1774 were just as critical to the step toward war as the September Powder Alarm or the later Salem Alarm in February 1775.
Fort William and Mary, ca. 1705 by Wolfgang William Romer
In response to the Massachusetts Powder Alarm in September 1774, colonial Whig leaders in nearby colonies began to make plans to “capture” local and colonial powder supplies. The crux was the issue of who really owned the gunpowder. Whig leaders believe they owned the power, the colonial militias. Royal leaders, Gen. Gage specifically, believe the powder was the “King’s Powder.” So any attempt to take the powder, was theft and treason. On December 3, 1774 the Rhode Island Assembly ordered the removal of cannons and powder from Fort George in Newport. On December 9, local militia carried out the order without any incident. Gage began to look at larger powder supplies that he believe were vulnerable. One large such supply was located at Fort William and Mary, located near Portsmouth, New Hampshire. This fort was isolated on the island of New Castle, at the mouth of the Piscataqua River. Located here was a small garrison of six men, guarding the fort and its supply of gunpowder.
Paul Revere and his other Patriot leaders in Boston became expert spies and soon received word that Gage was to send a contingent of British marines to Fort William and Mary. On December 13, Revere set out from Boston to Portsmouth to warn them of the coming expedition. Though the British navy was active in the area off of Portsmouth, Gage ironically made no plans to send an expedition to the fort. That would matter little in what happened next.
Surrender of Fort William and Mary by Howard Pyle
As Revere arrived in Portsmouth that afternoon, he gave the news of the supposed British expedition to the local Committee of Correspondence. Soon the local militia organized and, on the next day, nearly 400 militiamen assaulted the fort. The six-man British contingent inside the fort refused to surrender. They even fired three of their cannon at the attacking militiamen. For the first time, colonists were in open combat against British troops. The contingent eventually surrendered, having suffered a few injuries but no fatalities. That afternoon, the militia hauled away nearly 100 barrels of gunpowder. The next day nearly a thousand militiamen led by John Sullivan, arrived in Portsmouth due to the rider notification system. With no British to fight, these men assisted in going back to the fort to carry away muskets and cannon. Gage got word of Revere’s presence in Portsmouth and soon sent a small force from Boston to Portsmouth via the British navy. This force arrived the next week and at that point, there was nothing left of substance in Fort William and Mary.
The events at Portsmouth led Gage to be more aggressive in establishing a more coordinated spy network. As the new year began, Gage’s communications with England forced British officials to realize that this opposition was not like those in years past. The Patriots were arming themselves and establishing their own government in an affront to British authority. Former Prime Minister William Pitt, now sitting as a member of the House of Lords, knew the colonies well. He was well liked by the colonists, and he sought a compromise. He predicted the colonials would not back down and soon war would erupt between Great Britain and its colonies. Pitt proposed to remove British troops from Boston to lessen the tensions and to repeal the Coercive Acts. Both ideas were rejected overwhelmingly by Parliament.
In response to the news that the Continental Congress convened, Parliament on February 9, 1775, declared: “We find, that a part of your Majesty’s subjects in the province of the Massachusetts Bay have proceeded so far to resist the authority of the supreme legislature, that a rebellion at this time actually exists within the said province.” Now there was no doubt how the “Patriots” were viewed by Parliament and the King; they were rebels.
The events at Fort William and Mary were part of a succession of tense encounters between British authorities and local Whig leaders. Each one built on the tension from the previous. It is amazing that the “attack” by the New Hampshire militia on the fort, attacking the King’s troops, did not lead directly to war then. It would take four more months before another armed conflict sparked a revolutionary war.
To read more about the events leading up to Lexington and Concord, visit the Savas Beatie website to purchase “A Single Blow: The Battles of Lexington and Concord and the Beginning of the American Revolution” by Phillip S. Greenwalt and Rob Orrison
Many have heard of Paul Revere’s ride to Lexington and the shot heard round the world at Concord (and Lexington) but few know about the December 1774 raid and skirmish at Fort William and Mary in New Castle, New Hampshire. Here, inspired by news from Paul Revere, local militia attacked and captured a small British garrison at Fort William and Mary. Join us as we welcome Dr. Dr. Cynthia Hatch to discuss this much over looked action leading up the American Revolution.
Dr. Hatch is an Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology instructor specializing in Revolutionary War history. With a PhD in History, she explores the intricate political, social, and cultural dynamics of the 18th century, with a particular focus on the colonial legal system and the pivotal role of local narratives in shaping historical interpretations during the Revolutionary Era.
Join us as we discuss the events leading up and during the raid of Fort William and Mary and learn, were these the FIRST shots of the American Revolution? This Rev War Revelry will be pre-recorded and posted to our Facebook page at 7pm on Sunday, December 8th.
May it please your Excellency [General Washington]
My last of the 20th ultimo from Point aux Trembles, advising of my retiring from before Quebec, make no Doubt your Excellency has received. I continued at Point aux Trembles until the 3rd Instant, when to my great Joy General Montgomery joined us with Artillery and about 300 Men. Yesterday we arrived here, and are making all possible Preparation to attack the City, which has a wretched motley Garrison of disaffected Seamen, Marines & Inhabitants, the Walls in a ruinous Situation, & cannot hold out long. Inclosed is a Return of my Detachment amounting to 675 Men, for whom, I have received Cloathing of General Montgomery. I hope there will soon be Provision made for paying the Soldiers Arrearages, as many of them have Families, who are in Want. A continual Hurry has prevented my sending a Continuation of my Journal. I am with very great Respect Your Excellency’s Most obedient humble servant
Benedict Arnold
“To George Washington from Colonel Benedict Arnold, 5 December 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-02-02-0445. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 2, 16 September 1775 – 31 December 1775, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1987, p. 495.]
The 27-year-old from Thetford, Norfolk, England native had a long journey before he even sailed across the Atlantic Ocean for the colonies. Although receiving an education until age 13, and an apprenticeship with his father until age 19, both uncommon among his peers, Thomas Paine started his professional career as a privateer. It did not suit him for long, he returned to Britain in 1759. Paine then became a staymaker, and within several years, opened his own store in Sandwich, Kent. By the end of the same year, Paine had married.
Life seemed to be set for the young couple, but tragedy after tragedy ultimately led Paine to the American colonies. Paine’s shop ran into financial challenges not long after his nuptials, and although offset by the joy of pregnancy, a relocation to a new town may have been too much on Mary. She went into early labor, and both mother and child tragically died during the delivery. A series of moves, career changes, and troubles dotted the next dozen years.
A supernumerary, Excise Officer, staymaker, schoolteacher, were all ahead of time. Charges of fraud and dismissal were as well. By the age of 31, in 1768, Paine’s next professional endeavor took him to Lewes in Sussex. Over the ensuing years in Lewes, a town with a long history of opposition to the monarchy and republican sentiments, Paine became a member of the Court Leet and parish vestry, worked as a tobacconist and grocer, and married for the second the time.
Thomas Paine
By 1772, Paine wrote his first political piece. His time in his home country was now on the clock. By the spring of 1774, following his political priorities and ideologies, Paine had all but abandoned his post as an excise officer and was essentially fired. He next separated from his second wife, Elizabeth, and moved to London. It was while in London that Paine met Benjamin Franklin who suggested he emigrate to Philadelphia. Paine did exactly that.
His journey through life was turbulent, even more so during the first half of the 1770s, just like his voyage across the Atlantic on his to Philadelphia in the Pennsylvania colony. The water supplies aboard the ship were dreadful, and typhoid raged across the decks of the vessel. Paine was barely alive by the time the ship reached Philadelphia. He was so ill he was unable to leave the docked boat under his own power, Benjamin Franklin sending his personal physician to the ship and have him carried off. Yet, on this date, November 30, 250 years ago, Thomas Paine had arrived to the American colonies. After six weeks of recovery his new journey, a journey shared by all those that were to be swept up in the American Revolution, began.
Less than two years after landing in Philadelphia, Paine published his work Common Sense. Coupled with a series of works entitled The Crises, Paine, “ignited a nation to help the failing cause of the Revolution.”
Emerging Revolutionary War Era 