The Revolution at Sea: Conclusion

This Patriot cartoon depicting the Coercive Acts as the forcing of tea on an American woman (a symbol of the American colonies) was copied and distributed in the Thirteen Colonies.
In the public doman; courtesy www.wikipedia.com

Lynne Saginaw concludes her excellent piece on naval power and the American Revolution, below.

The argument over what was due the Crown and Parliament from the colonies for protection was starting to become heated. Lincoln Paine, in The Sea and Civilization, continues the story: "…the conflicts of the eighteenth century were enormously expensive. To allay the cost of servicing the debt, and to pay for the continued defense of the North American colonies…the government imposed taxes designed to raise revenues and regulate trade; enforced the Navigation Acts more stringently…and transferred jurisdiction over smuggling cases from the provincial courts, where it was virtually impossible for the government to win a case, to vice admiralty courts.”

(For more on the vice admiralty courts, see Maria Dering’s blog post on the Silver Oar.)

In the spring of 1773, Parliament gave the East India Company permission to get a tax refund on tea exported to Ireland and North America. Using this device, they could price their tea cheap enough to undercut the smugglers. Why did Parliament do this? For a variety of reasons, including incompetent management and bad investments, the British East India Company was losing money, and the government deemed it (stop me if you heard this) TOO BIG TO FAIL.

However, this cost the treasury 60,000 pounds a year; an amount that it could not afford to lose; hence, the new taxes. The colonists were having none of it; result- the Boston Tea Party, and similar acts of defiance.

Paine picks up the story: “In retaliation, Parliament passed the Intolerable (or Coercive) Acts, which annulled the Massachusetts Bay Colony charter, closed the port of Boston, allowed legal cases against agents of the crown to be heard in England, and required private citizens to quarter soldiers in their homes.”

That’s what you call an overreaction. Paine goes on:

“All but the last applied to Massachusetts alone, but in solidarity many of the colonies closed their ports to ships from England… In February 1775, Parliament tightened the noose with the passage of the Restraining Act, which prohibited New England fishermen from ‘carrying on any Fishery…upon the banks of Newfoundland…or any other part of the Coast of North America.’”*

So there it is. Both sides considered their grievances just, and cooler heads did not prevail. Two months later, Lexington and Concord.

----------
*Paine, Lincoln. The Sea and Civilization: A Maritime History of the World (486-87).

The Sea and the American Revolution

Greetings, Round Tablers and friends!  Our indefatigable commentator Lynne Saginaw sent in this post just before Thanksgiving.  

Thank you, Lynne.

The Revolution At Sea (Part I)
Published last year, The Sea and Civilization, Lincoln Paine’s “Maritime History of the World” has a few things to say about the role of seafaring in the run-up to American Revolution. See if you agree with him.

Image via Wikipedia Commons/Charny

He writes, “The proximate cause of the American Revolution can be traced to crown policies implemented in the wake of the Seven Years’ War, but the roots of the colonists’ self-confidence can be traced to the previous century. All but ignored by king and Parliament during the English Civil War of the English Civil War of the 1640s, merchants and cod fishermen in British North America had carved out a place for themselves in the trade with the West Indies, which, stripped of their forests to make way for sugarcane depended on North America for much of their food and virtually all of their wood. 

"As a result, the eighteenth century saw an explosive growth in shipbuilding in British North America, which accounted for about one-third of the ships in the British merchant marine. American shipwrights launched about a thousand vessels in the 1660s, the majority of them relatively small by the standards of the day, and not competitive with larger English-built vessels but more than adequate for the trade of the western Atlantic and Caribbean. Colonial seamen and shipwrights benefited from the Navigation Acts because they were allowed to serve under the British flag and to build ships for British owners. 

"On the whole, however, the colonists deeply resented the prohibitions in the Navigation Acts, the expectations of which were unrealistic for the simple reason that there were not enough ships to serve all of Britain’s far-flung colonies. Moreover, by law European goods imported into the colonies had first to be unloaded and reloaded in England. This re-exportation caused unnecessary delays, drove up handling costs, and resulted in the imposition of double duties on some goods – for import to and export from England. The number of enumerated goods that could be exported only to England and not to other British colonies, much less to foreign ports, increased steadily. By the 1750s, these included sugar, molasses and rice, copper and iron ore, tobacco and cotton, and naval stores like tar, lumber, pitch and hemp, and as a result, smuggling was rampant”  (Paine, 485-86).

You can see where this is going. A neglected colony creates a profitable industry, and then finds the mother country, suddenly hard up for funds, trying to cut in on the action.

Source: 
Paine, Lincoln, The Sea and Civilization: A Maritime History of the World. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2013.

What were the Navigation Acts?
Wikipedia.com states:  "Navigation Acts were a series of laws that restricted the use of foreign ships for trade between Britain and its colonies. They began in 1651 and ended 200 years later. They reflected the policy of mercantilism, which sought to keep all the benefits of trade inside the Empire, and minimize the loss of gold and silver to foreigners. They prohibited the colonies from trading directly with the Netherlands, Spain, France, and their colonies. The original ordinance of 1651 was renewed at the Restoration by Acts of 1662, 1663, 1670, and 1673 subsequently subject to minor amendment. These Acts formed the basis for British overseas trade for nearly 200 years. Another way to define this is laws created by England to limit their colonies' trade with other countries."

Next up in Part 2: More on how an argument about trade policy became a shooting war.

Up for review on December 2:  Send Me A Fast Ship by Tim McIntyre
Would-be reviewers are hereby advised that the December 2 distribution of books for review will include Send Me a Fast Ship by Tim McIntyre, a brand new history of the American Navy in the Revolution. 

Only members not currently on assignment may qualify to review.

Next Meeting: December 2, 2014

Greetings to all!  Our next Round Table meeting is Tuesday, December 2, 2014, at 6:00 p.m. in the Coffee House Club, 20 West 44th Street, 6th Floor.  For all the details, please visit our website at http://arrt-ny.org/meeting.html

It is sure to be a lively meeting, and we hope to see you there!

BAND OF GIANTS

Round Tabler Jack Kelly's new book, Band of Giants, garnered a wonderful review in the Wall Street Journal on November 5.  Read all about it here: http://bandofgiants.org/reviews/

Thanks to Tom Fleming for the tip.  And congratulations to Jack for a job well done!

Happy Halloween!

Hello, Round Tablers. My quest to get spooky stories for this week's blog has meet with some success. Here is a quotation to get us started.

From The Reverend Ewald Shewkirk via Michael Newton:

"It was a wettish day, and it looked as if all was dead in the town." Mr. Shewkirk in New York, July 14, 1776." Now that sounds like it's worth investigating!

From Lynne Saginaw: The Rest of the Story: The Vilest Villain ...

Loring admitted he had misappropriated two-thirds of the allowance for prison food. He had an assistant by the name of Sergeant O'Keefe, who was probably in charge of almost 300 private, unofficial hangings ordered without trial.

On the 18th of January, 1777, George Washington wrote to Lord Howe on the subject of naval prisoners:

“…that I am under the disagreeable necessity of troubling your Lordship with a letter almost wholly on the subject of the cruel treatment which our officers and men in the Naval Department, who are unhappy enough to fall into your hands received on board the Prison ships in the harbor of New York:

"From the opinion I entertain of your Lordship's humanity I will not suppose that you are privy of proceedings of so cruel and unjustifiable a nature and I hope that upon making the proper inquiry you will have the matter so regulated that the unhappy persons whose lot is captivity may not, in the future, have the misery of cold, disease and famine added to their other misfortunes.

"You may call us Rebels, and say we deserve no better treatment, but remember, my Lord, that we still have feelings as keen and sensible as Loyalists and will if forced to, most assuredly retaliate upon those upon whom we look as the unjust invaders of our rights, liberties and properties.

"I should not have said this much, but injured countrymen have long called upon me to endeavor to obtain redress of their grievances, and I should think, myself, as culpable as those who inflicted such severities, were I to continue silent.”

Lord Howe’s answer was an evasive general denial of the charges. Howe was a poor disciplinarian, naturally lazy, who preferred the luxury and self-indulgence, and did not want to bother with investigations that might take up his time or reflect on the British army's administration in New York.

Loring was finally relieved of his position on charges of corruption and sent to England during the war. He died there shortly afterwards. But the damage was done.

From Lower Manhattan, these photos of the long-ago Bridewell Prison

I recommend that you take a look for yourselves the next time you are in City Hall Park. Perhaps you'll feel the same tingle up and down your spine that I did.



Photos by Maria Dering

No Huzzahs Here for Joshua Loring, Jr.

Halloween is coming and our villains list features Joshua Loring, Jr.  Here is what Lynne Saginaw dug up about this nefarious scoundrel.  

The Vilest Villain of All: Joshua Loring, Jr.

Americans like to see ourselves as the good guys: occasionally mistaken, but always honest and well-meaning. The refutation of the argument goes back to the earliest days of America. It exists in the person of Joshua Loring, Jr. (1744-89), mass murderer and paragon of corruption.

Prison ship Jersey
In the public domain; courtesy of www.wikipedia.com

In the entirety of the Revolution, a total of 4,300 American men were killed in battle. Three times as many, roughly 13,000, died on the infamous British prison ships and in warehouses and factories commandeered by the British in New York and elsewhere. And Joshua Loring was largely to blame.

American prisoners died like rats, of disease and hunger. In summer, they suffocated and they froze to death or died of pneumonia in winter. With little food and water, prisoners had no strength to resist dysentery, typhoid, smallpox, yellow fever, and tuberculosis. The food was often putrid.

From Commissary Joshua Loring, Provost Marshal William Cunningham, and Naval Commissary David Sprout, down to the lowly prison guards, no one acted to prevent the virtual annihilation of these prisoners of war. The story differed little in prisons in Charleston and Savannah. The policy appears to have been a deliberate conspiracy not only among the prison commissaries, but actually by the British High Command.

Wallabout Bay
The victims were buried in the sands of the adjacent shore of Wallabout Bay, where the Navy Yard in Brooklyn is now located. Twenty years after the war, a vast number of the bones were dislodged. They were collected by Captain John Jackson, the proprietor of the neighboring land, and re-interred at his expense.

When they evacuated New York, the British tried to cover up their responsibility. But the evidence was there, contained in letters written by prisoners who survived. There was also the word of escaped and exchanged prisoners. And there was the report made by Elias Boudinot, appointed by Congress to secure the exchange of prisoners, provide them with clothing and food, and investigate the situation in some of the New York prisons.

Howe had a direct link with Commissioner Loring, whom he appointed. Loring was a Boston Loyalist and a contemptible example of greed and graft. He is perhaps most famous for selling his wife Elizabeth Lloyd Loring (1744-1838) to Howe to secure the appointment. This arrangement was widely known at the time, and made the Lorings the subject of some of the more ribald lyrics of the day.

Visit us on Halloween for the rest of the story.

Sources:
http://longislandgeneaology.com by Brock Fleming
www.wikipedia.com
www.usmm.org (The Merchant Marine website has lists of the names of prisoners)

Our Meeting on Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Rarely do I add personal musings to a blog of this kind, but I would like to share my observations on Tuesday night's meeting.  

In my experience, groups interested in history (whether local, state, or national) tend to skew toward an older demographic.  In the past, the ARRT-NY was no exception to the rule. (That is just a statement of fact, not a value judgment.)  However, I have noticed over the past few years that we are -- happily -- attracting a much more diverse group in terms of age and background.  On Tuesday evening, we welcomed our youngest attendee ever, who even took a lively part in our book and flag auction.

It is a pleasure to see so many different kinds of people interested in American history, especially the history of the Revolution that often takes a back seat to the Civil War.  So please do encourage your friends, neighbors, colleagues, and family members to try a Round Table event soon.  You'll find us on Facebook, on this blog, and at our website, www.arrt-ny.org.  We are a friendly group!

From Our Library

Now that autumn is in full swing, why not take a break from your busy schedules and pick up a good book?  Our Book Review chair Lynne Saginaw shares her thoughts on a few good ones here.  Thank you, Lynne, for this very helpful list.

What I Read This Summer
Now that I’ve retired, I’m a full-time reader. Here is a partial list of Revolutionary War titles I read over the summer; they will make good reading for those fast approaching cold autumn evenings.

Pulitzer–Prize winner Joseph Ellis’ excellent Revolutionary Summer: The Birth of American Independence is just out in paperback from Vintage ($15.95). Those risky, dramatic days are brought vividly to life in a short, snappy text you’ll find hard to put down, even though you already know how it comes out. The summer of 1776, culminating in the Battle of Brooklyn, makes for thrilling reading. Originally published by Knopf at $26.95.

From great events to what the women of the era made of them: turn to Dear Abigail: the Intimate Lives and Revolutionary Ideas of Abigail Adams and her Two Remarkable Sisters by Diane Jacobs. You may never have heard of Mary Cranch and Elizabeth Shaw Peabody, the older and younger sisters, respectively, of Abigail Adams, but they lived lives of substance. All three were devoted correspondents, and their letters illuminate the times with an intimacy that is by turns touching and instructive.

This volume, published 2014 by Ballantine Books, suffers from some inconsistent editing, including a few wince-making spelling errors by the author (I don’t mean the oddities of Colonial–era spelling, well known to history readers), and some of Ms. Jacobs' conclusions strike this reviewer as naïve, but the life stories of the principals are so compelling that you shouldn’t let these lapses stop you from enjoying this book.

One of my favorite essayists, Simon Winchester, tackles the history of America’s infrastructure in The Men Who United the States. The colonial and immediate post-revolutionary periods are not a big part of this eccentric and charming volume -- part memoir, part history, part travelogue -- but you won’t want to miss Winchester’s section on George Washington’s efforts at canal-building. (HarperCollins, 2013)

When I was a kid, there was a saying: “make new friends but keep the old.” One old friend they’ll have to pry out of my cold dead hands is David McCullough’s classic John Adams. Published by Simon and Schuster in 2001 (at $35.00), this is a brilliant compendium of everything you need to know about this Founding Father, written with clarity, depth, and love for this difficult man. McCullough is rightly deemed the dean of popular historians. Even the most history-averse will fall for this one, assuming its heft doesn’t scare them off. Make it a dare, and win twice over.

Another past winner revisited was Richard D. Blackmon’s Dark and Bloody Ground, published in 2012 by Westholme ($29.95), a solid niche publisher of American history. This book was a finalist of ARRT’s book award that year. Not for the general reader, it details with exhaustive care the war along the southern frontier among Native peoples, colonists, and Europeans. If you are interested in the war in the South or in the beginnings of American policy towards the first Americans, this should be on your shelf. Otherwise, any one of the other books cited will serve you better.

Get thee to a library.
 Preview of Coming AttractionsPotential reviewers are hereby alerted that the October 7^th meeting will feature these four books for review. Only members not currently on assignment are eligible.

The Return of George Washington, 1783-1789 by Edward J. Larson
American Spring: Lexington, Concord and the Road to Revolution by Walter R. Borneman
Brandywine: A Military History of the Battle that Lost Philadelphia by Saved America, September 11, 1777 by Michael C. Harris
Band of Giants: The Amateur Soldiers Who Won America’s Independence by Jack Kelly (a Round Tabler himself!)
 
Hope to see many of you on Tuesday at our October 7th dinner meeting!

Our October Meeting: David W. Young Speaks about Cliveden

Hello, Round Tablers.  Our fall season starts with an exciting meeting on Tuesday, October 7. 

Here are the details; click on the images to enlarge them.

From our October newsletter, Broadside

Please remember to make a reservation in advance of October 7.  For more about Cliveden, visit http://www.cliveden.org/  And join us on October 7th!

And while you're at it, you can easily renew your membership for 2014-2015 by mailing in the form or completing it and bringing it with you on October 7.  Here's the form, which is also available on our website at http://arrt-ny.org/ARRTDuesForm2014-2015.pdf  You can print the enlarged image or the image from the website by typing CTRL+P on your PC.  (Mac users -- you're on your own!)

We think this is the best deal around!

Membership has its advantages:  special rates for our great dinner events; a copy of the Broadside mailed to you five times a year, reminders of special events.  It's a great time to join the Round Table!

For more information, take a look at our membership flyer:

See you soon!

Mid-September Round-Up

Here are some tidbits from history and current news for Round Tablers and friends.

British Troops Landing at Kip's Bay
In the public domain; courtesy of www.wikipedia.com

Round Tabler Richard Melnick wrote yesterday, 9/15: "Kip's Bay Invasion Day
On September 15, 1776 British warships in the East River bombarded American positions around Kip's Bay, Manhattan (York Island), allowing British and Hessian troops, who boarded flatboats on Newtown Creek at Long Island, and invaded our fair city's shores ...".  Thanks, Richard.

Jack Kelly reports on his new book:  "Band of Giants: The Amateur Soldiers Who Won America’s Independence is now officially available in stores."  I hope it’s an enjoyable, exciting and informative narrative about the Revolutionary War and the “forgotten founders” who fought the war.

"The best source of information about the book is: http://bandofgiants.org/"
Thanks, Jack.  We hope Round Tablers (and friends) will enjoy the book!  Post comments here or on Facebook.  

U.S. 10-cent commemorative stamp
Issued 1975; image in the public domain

Lynne Saginaw reports on a timely item:  Unsung Hero, 5775 Edition:   Haym Salomon

Whether or not you’re celebrating the upcoming Jewish New Year, here’s the story of an American patriot we should all know.

Haym Salomon (or Solomon; April 7, 1740 – January 6, 1785) was a Jewish American broker who immigrated to New York from Poland. He helped convert French loans into ready cash by selling bills of exchange for Robert Morris, the colonies’ Superintendent of Finance. Salomon was the prime financier of the Revolution.

Haym Salomon was born in Leszno (Lissa) Poland in 1740 to a family, originally Spanish and Portuguese, who migrated to Poland and lived there for many generations. During his travels in Western Europe, he acquired knowledge of finance as well as fluency in several languages. He returned to Poland in 1770 but left for England two years later. In 1775, he came to New York, where he established himself as a financial broker for merchants engaged in overseas trade.

Sympathetic to the Patriot cause, Salomon joined the New York branch of the Sons of Liberty. In September 1776 he was arrested as a spy. The British pardoned him, but only after holding him for 18 months on a British ship, to use him as an interpreter for their Hessian mercenaries. Salomon used his position to help prisoners escape and encouraged the Hessians to desert. In 1778 Salomon was arrested again and sentenced to death, but he managed to escape, and made his way with his family to Philadelphia.

Once resettled, Salomon resumed his activities as a broker. The Continental Congress was struggling to raise money. It had no powers of direct taxation and had to rely on requests for money to the states, which were mostly refused. The government had no choice but to borrow. ...

For more about Haym Salomon and his service to the Republic, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haym_Salomon and www.nps.gov/amrev.  If your taste runs to hard copy, you might want to read William Pencak's book, Jews and Gentiles in Early America, 1654-1800.

Unsung Hero: Dr. David Hosack and the Medicinal Garden

Where Rockefeller Center stands now in midtown Manhattan was once the location of one of the outstanding medical facilities of the immediate post-colonial era. Not a hospital, but a garden. Dr. David Hosack, who also designed the garden at Hamilton Grange, planted it, beginning in 1801. Here is his story, as contributed by the indefatigable Lynne Saginaw (Chair, ARRT-NY Book Review Committee).

Portrait of Dr. Hosack by Rembrandt Peale, 1835
In the public domain; courtesy of www.wikipedia.com

Born August 31, 1769, 245 years ago this week, David Hosack is perhaps best known as the doctor who tended Alexander Hamilton after his duel with Aaron Burr. Born in New York City, Hosack attended Columbia College, where he began as a student of art, but became fascinated by medicine. He apprenticed with Dr. Richard Bayley.

Hosack transferred to the College of New Jersey, today's Princeton. He graduated in 1789 and enrolled for further study under Dr. Nicholas Romayne. In the fall of 1790 Hosack transferred to the University of Pennsylvania Medical School in Philadelphia, where he wrote a doctoral dissertation on cholera. He received his medical degree the following spring, and moved to Alexandria, Virginia, where he opened his first practice.

He’d learned that the best practitioners received at least some of their schooling in Europe, so his father agreed to pay his way to Britain. Hosack attended the University of Edinburgh, where he spent much of his time in botanical gardens.

Shortly after his return to America, Hosack's son died. His wife soon followed, in childbirth. These tragedies, and the epidemics of yellow fever in Philadelphia in 1793 and New York in 1795 and 1798, led Hosack to devote much of his life to the expansion of medical knowledge and education, and to the training of doctors in caring for women and children. He helped found Bellevue Hospital.

Hosack was appointed professor of natural history at Columbia College in 1795, and in 1797 succeeded to the chair of medicine. By 1801 he was a Professor of Botany at Columbia. In 1807 he was named professor of midwifery and surgery in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, later occupying the chairs of the “Theory and Practice of Medicine” and of “Obstetrics and the Diseases of Women and Children.”

Always an innovator, he was one of the first physicians to use a stethoscope, and a strong advocate of smallpox vaccination. Hosack made great progress towards combating yellow fever, and was the first to make an accurate description of its symptoms. He and Nicholas Romayne worked to found several new medical schools. One of his early accomplishments was the merger of the College of Physicians and Surgeons and Columbia.

In 1801, Hosack purchased twenty acres of land in New York for $4,807.00. At the time, the land was in a rural area, three and a half miles from the city limits. Elgin, as it was called, was the first public botanical garden in the United States. At his own expense, Hosack landscaped the garden with a variety of indigenous and exotic plants. By 1804, the garden was home to 1,500 species of plants, the majority of American origin.

In addition to an enormous variety of plants, the garden contained an expansive greenhouse, two hothouses, and a pond for the propagation of aquatic species. It soon proved too expensive for even a man as prosperous at Dr. Hosack to run properly.

The New York Legislature passed an act in 1810 that allowed the State of New York to purchase the Elgin Botanical Garden. Care of the garden was placed in the hands of the State Regents, who did not share Hosack’s foresight. The garden was abandoned in 1812, fell into decay and was sold to raise funds for Columbia.

After his wife Catharine died, Hosack married Mary Eddy of Philadelphia, with whom he had nine children—seven of whom survived to adulthood.

Hosack was the founder and first president of the New York Horticultural Society, the first such organization in America. He was president of the Literary Society and the Philosophical Society, one of the founders of the New York Historical Society—and its fourth president (1820–1827).After Mary died in 1824, he married Magdalena Coster, widow of a friend and mother of seven. The families were combined with success, living on Chambers Street and at a country estate on Kip’s Bay—both part of the Coster inheritance. Every Saturday, the Hosacks hosted a salon for leading artists and intellectuals as well as medical men, and they became known as social leaders in the city. Hosack was a patron of American artists including Samuel F. B. Morse, inventor of the telegraph, and Thomas Cole.

In later life, with Coster family assets, Hosack was able to purchase the famous Hudson River estate of Hyde Park, former home of his teacher and partner in medical practice, Dr. Samuel Bard, and there he developed another fine botanical garden. The Hosacks’ opulent home became popular with visitors who enjoyed the beauty of the Hudson River valley, including not only painters and naturalists but the writer Washington Irving.

He died tragically, of a stroke, only days after a fire destroyed his New York property, on December 22, 1835.

Sources: 
Hosack, Alex Eddy, M.D.  Lives of Eminent American Physicians and Surgeons of the Nineteenth Century.  Samuel Gross, ed. 1861.  Dr. Alex Hosack was the son of David Hosack.
Magnet, Myron. The Founders at Home: The Building of America, 1735-1817.
www.wikipedia.org
Dictionary of American Biography
http://libweb.lib.buffalo.edu (website of the Robert L. Brown History of Medicine Library at the University of Buffalo)

Objects of the Revolution: The Silver Oar

Sailing through Deep Waters

Images from Document 259, February 1941, "Gift of the Silver Oar to the United States District Cour
for the Southern District of New York.  Court en banc, Room 506, February 14, 1941, 10:30 a.m.

This object forms a bridge between pre-Revolutionary New York Province and post-Revolution New York City.  What is it, who made it, and where is it now?

What?

This is the Silver Oar, formerly the mace of the Vice-Admiralty Court of the Province of New York until the court was dissolved in 1775.  At that time, Thomas Ludlow, Jr., the Marshal of the Court, took the oar “into his own possession, doubtless for safekeeping.”  It remained in his family until around 1939.  It was put up as collateral for a loan and then sold in October 1940 to a silversmith (Robert Ensko), who sold it to a group of Columbia University men and friends.  (By the way, Columbia beat out Yale for the purchase of the oar. Roar, Lion, roar!)

Who made it?

Preeminent silversmith Charles LeRoux (1689-1745) served for many years as the official silversmith of New York City.  He made many gold and silver boxes to contain seals that granted the freedom of the City, and is noted for engraving the plates for bills of credit issues from 1715-1737.  The bills for 1737 show a version of the Seal of New York, still in use today.

Who led the effort to purchase it?

Charles Culp Burlingham (1858-1959) spearheaded the fund-raising effort.  He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University in 1879 and a Bachelor of Laws degree from Columbia University in 1881.  (He received an honorary Juris Doctor degree from Columbia in 1933).

Where is it now?

On 14 February 1941, the silver oar was presented to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, document no. 259.  I don’t know where the Court keeps the oar, or even if the Court still owns it.  That is a subject for further research.  A copy was exhibited in New Hampshire in 2010.

Notes:  More details about LeRoux and the silver oar are available. The writer has done a great deal of research on colonial silversmiths, especially Charles LeRoux and his family.  Post a comment here if you would like more information about him or other silversmiths in New York City before the Revolution.

Prepared by Maria A. Dering
Member, Board of Governors
American Revolution Round Table of New York

Vacation

Your e-newsletter blogger will be on vacation next week, but please check back after Labor Day for new posts on Objects of the Revolution (the silver oar, for sure) and exciting fall events.  See you soon!

The Battle of Brooklyn -- Part Two

The Battle of Brooklyn (Long Island):  August 27, 1776

British military map from 1776 showing the marching routes and battle sites
during the Battle of Long Island.  Public domain, courtesy of www.wikipedia.com.

Here is the conclusion to our summary of the Battle of Brooklyn (Long Island), thoughtfully prepared by our Book Review Chair and Board of Governors Member Lynne Saginaw. Thank you, Lynne!

When we left off, the sudden appearances of 10,000 British troops behind their lines had thrown the Continentals into a panic. Many ran for their lives. They and those who stood were shepherded into a defensive line on Brooklyn Heights. There they shivered in flooded emplacements as the British dug their way ever closer and Washington tried to figure out how to save what was left of the army.

Fortunately, one of the men Washington had at hand was a stocky, hard-bitten member of the “codfish aristocracy,” Colonel John Glover. A militia officer since 1759, Glover was colonel of the 14th Continental Regiment, the “Marbleheaders.” He had raised ten companies of some 500 fishermen and sailors; Spanish, Native American, Jewish, and African-American, as well as local Massachusetts men. Those men -- many of whom Glover knew personally – were to remain together throughout the year, an example of discipline and courage for the rest.

At 5 o’clock on the morning of August 28^th, the regiment crossed to Brooklyn from Manhattan. Glover directed the manning of the vessels and rafts that had been brought down through the Harlem River from the North River, as the Hudson was then known.

During the first part of the night, the men worked with great difficulty because of the ebb tide and a strong northeast wind. Later, when the wind changed and a heavy fog covered the Long Island side, Glover and his soldiers were able to complete the evacuation of the last 700 of Washington’s 9,000 men, plus field pieces, heavy ordinance, and all ammunition, as well as horses, cattle, and provisions. All this was accomplished in nine hours across the mile-wide East River, oars muffled against the splashing of the water. By the official record, only three men did not make it back, and they were stragglers who failed to board with their comrade.

By 7 a.m. it was done. Washington crossed in the last boat. While pleased with their success, the British were nevertheless nonplussed at the miraculous escape of their foe. This was not going to be as easy as they had assumed.

Postscript: Washington’s most iconic moment again found him on the water, crossing the Delaware on a brutal December night. And who was there, ten miles below Trenton, on the night of December 25^th?

Of course! Glover and his extraordinary “Marbleheaders” ferried 2,400 troops -- again with horses, artillery and wagons -- across the Delaware River under extreme weather conditions. After marching several miles, they fought in the Battle of Trenton, and then transported the army and about 1,000 Hessian prisoners back across the river, all on the same day.                                                  
                                           
Sources: 
www.nps.gov/sapa
Ellis, Joseph J.  Revolutionary Summer: The Birth of American Independence. Knopf, 2013
Kelly, Jack. Band of Giants: The Amateur Soldiers who won America’s Independence. Palgrave-Macmillan, 2014.

EXTRA! The Boston Tea Party ... Opera ... 2014

Photo courtesy of www.bostonteapartyopera.com

Round Tabler Treasurer Jon Carriel submitted this review about an opera in New York City that might interest our readers.  But note:  The last performance is this Friday, August 22nd.  The Boston Tea Party Opera is presented as part of the New York Fringe Festival.  Details follow.

And now for something … completely different!  An opera about the Boston Tea Party composed (story, lyrics, and music) by ARRT-NY member Matthew Zachary (“Matt”) Johnson! 

Its time frame is not just the title December 1773 event, but includes many years leading up to it, including the Boston Massacre of March 1770. The story line involves a cross-section of Boston’s citizens in a series of sometimes-realistic, sometimes-fantastical vignettes, but is dominated by the dramatic conflict of Samuel Adams and Thomas Hutchinson. 

How well the opera will play to those with only faint memories of American History 101 I don’t know, but most Round Tablers should have little problem following the progression of events, which also involved the audience in the real debate of the era regarding the dangers and opportunities of defiance of the British Empire for the men and women of the time.

Musically, it’s radical only in the sense of being contrary to one’s expectation of it being annoying. (I confess to approaching any “classical” effort created in my lifetime with huge trepidation.)  There’s much to enjoy in its rhythmic riffs, vocal pyrotechnics, and harmonic sonorities. And the music is extremely well served by a young, enthusiastic cast of a dozen or so prodigious vocal talents. 

In short, it was certainly worth my time and may well be worth yours. 

Unfortunately, what I saw this afternoon was the fourth of only five performances of the current production. The last is this Friday, August 22^nd, at 5:15 PM, at the very comfortable Sheen Center Loretto Theatre, which is a short walk from the Broadway-Lafayette subway station.

For more information, visit Matt Johnson's website: http://www.bostonteapartyopera.com/

Objects of the Revolution

For the past year or two, the American Revolution Round Table of New York has been working on a project called "15 Objects of the Revolution."  We invited our members to contribute images of weapons, clothing, grave sites, artifacts, and other curious, interesting, and little-known items.  Documents were not solicited, as there are so many great repositories online that highlight our founding documents, letters, newspapers, and other printed matter.

In this post, we present our first Object of the Revolution, the Sword of Honor of Marinus Willett.  Long-time member of the Board of Governors Michael Harris contributed this piece.  Mike is retired from the United States Navy; Queens, New York, is his home port.

Object of the Revolution #1: Marinus at the Met

Marinus Willett
Portrait by Ralph Earl circa 1791
Public domain, courtesy of www.wikipedia.com

Marinus Willett came from a family of dirt farmers who were among the original “Freeholders of Flushing.” Two of the men of the Willett clan were signers of the “Flushing Remonstrance.” This document, addressed to Dutch Governor General of New Amsterdam Peter Stuyvesant, demanded freedom of religion in the colony. It is recognized by the United States Congress as one of the first documents of American Freedom.

The land the Willett boys farmed was located in what is modern day Queens County, in areas now called Fort Totten and Willetts Point. The American Revolution on Long Island and in Queens County in particular was a complete disaster for the Patriots’ cause. (See the Battle of Brooklyn.) Our Mr. Willett, however, was no quitter.

Marinus was a street leader in the New York Chapter of the Sons of Liberty, located on Manhattan Island. It was here that he wholeheartedly launched himself into a lifelong career which foreshadowed the propensity of the district’s later denizens for forced acquisitions and hostile takeovers.  

  

Over on Wall Street just off Broad, was an arsenal, where, on April 23, 1775, our Marinus appropriated 600 muskets, along with their bayonets. Just a month later, also on Broad Street, about a two minute walk from today’s South Street Seaport; he commandeered several carts loaded with weapons which His Majesty’s troops were trying to evacuate from town. He let the troops go, but kept the guns.

You can imagine the expression on General Washington’s face when all these new toys were dropped into his lap. For these and other acts of daring-do, in his turn, the general presented our Marinus with the traditional warrior’s trophy, a sword of honor, as authorized by Congress in 1777. Today you can see that same sword, next to a full length portrait of Marinus Willett, on the magnificent stairway leading from the main floor of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.  For more information, visit www.metmuseum.org/content/interactives/knights/america_1.html and www.revolutionarywararchives.org/willett

Next time:  The Silver Oar

Battle Week Is Here

Each year, a number of organizations in New York City (and, yes, that includes Brooklyn) commemorate the Battle of Long Island (or, if you prefer, the Battle of Brooklyn).  The Old Stone House, an historic site, and Green-Wood Cemetery host a number of them.  Here's a link to the calendar:  http://theoldstonehouse.org/event/battle-week-the-237thcommemoration-of-the-battle-of-brooklyn/

Round Tabler Lynne Saginaw offers this summary of the beginning of the Battle, below:

Rendering of the Battle of Long Island, Alonzo Chappell, 1858
Courtesy of www.wikipedia.com

Also known at the Battle of Long Island (both perfectly appropriate), this engagement pitted a large but inexperienced Colonial force against the best that Britain could sire or hire. The engagement was too long and too complicated to cover fully in this modest blog. Look into the sources listed below; you’ll find a remarkable story.

The most compelling aspect of that story is what happened after it became clear that the British had broken American lines, that the day was lost. What followed has been described by historian Joseph Ellis as “one of the most brilliant tactical withdrawals in the annals of military history.”

Back to the beginning:  On August 22, 1776, the British landed 15,000 troops in Gravesend, Brooklyn, following up with 5,000 Hessians three days later. The Colonials, having had a week’s warning from deserters, met them with a defensive alignment which would allow the Americans to fight from cover, avoiding the need to give battle on open ground, where superior British discipline and experience would be a significant advantage.

Astonishingly, a gap in the American lines was left undefended. Guided by loyalists, the British penetrated Jamaica Pass under cover of darkness on the night of August 26^th. At nine in the morning on the 27th, the inexperienced Colonials were astonished to find 10,000 British soldiers behind their lines. Panic ensued.

A brave stand by experienced Maryland and Delaware troops provided some cover for the retreat. By noon, when the British halted, hundreds on both sides lay dead, and the Continental forces were traumatized by the sight of British (mostly Hessian) forces roaming the battlefield, bayoneting the wounded without mercy.

For two days Washington tried to rally the troops remaining on Brooklyn Heights, but it became apparent that his only options were flight or surrender. Neither course squared with Washington’s vision on honorable conduct in time of war. On August 29^th, the solution was found when Gen. Thomas Mifflin suggested to Washington that honor would be well served with a careful, clever evacuation, under Washington’s personal direction.

It wasn’t going to be easy. Major Benjamin Tallmadge described it thus: “To move so large a body, across a river full a mile wide, with a rapid current, in face of a victorious well disciplined army nearly three times as numerous as his own and a fleet capable of stopping the navigation, so that not one boat could have passed over, seemed to present most formidable obstacles.”¹
Such obstacles could only be tackled by experts. Fortunately for the army and the course of our history, we had them.

Sources: Ellis, Joseph. Revolutionary Summer: The Birth of American Independence. Knopf, 2013.
¹Papers of George Washington, August 29, 1776 Council of War.

Next time: How it was done, and by whom

Around Town

Good morning, friends.  This week's post includes an item on Hamilton Grange, more on T-shirts (both from Lynne Saginaw), and links to August events in our area.  If you have news, please go to our Facebook page (American Revolution Round Table of New York) to add it and I will transfer it to the blog.  Or, post your comment below; all comments are moderated.

Here we go!  First up ...

The Peripatetic Adventures of Hamilton Grange

Photo by Jim Henderson
downloaded from wikipedia.com under Creative Commons CCO1.0

The following information is based on Myron Magnet's book, The Founders at Home: The Building of America, 1735-1817.  New York:  W.W. Norton & Company, 2014.

When Alexander Hamilton built his handsome country house, the Grange, he likely did not envision that the city of New York would grow up around  -- and eventually engulf -- it.  Herewith, how the Federal government freed it and redeemed the legacy of one of our greatest men.

By 1889, the handsome views and genteel placement of Hamilton Grange were already obscured. That year, a developer bought part of the thirty-five acre property to build row houses. Hamilton Grange was in the way. The developer offered the house, free of charge, to anyone who would move it. The original location, 143^rd Street and Convent Avenue, was two blocks from a local Episcopal Church. They moved it to 141^st Street to serve as the rectory.

To fit the site, the house had to be turned sideways. The verandas were removed, and the front door was moved to the side. The results were pitiful. The building grew more and more rundown. Pictures on the National Park Service website tell the tale.

In 2008, however, the National Park Service (NPS) found the funds and the energy to make good on its fifty-year-old ambition to restore Hamilton Grange to its’ proper place and beauty. The church, alas, was partially blocking the building, and refused to let the Park Service take down the apse (and later rebuild it) to get the house out.

Instead, the NPS had to jack up the house ten feet, which took several days, and slide it across a temporary steel bridge onto Convent Avenue. Then they jacked it most of the way down and put it on rollers, slowly moving the house around the corner. This took another two days.

The new site is on land that is part of the original Hamilton property and The Grange now looks out over a wooded hillside, as it did originally. The porticos and veranda are back, the front door is once again in the right place, and brilliant, sensitive restoration has given the American people a house to treasure, one that Hamilton would recognize.

  

The Hamilton Grange National Memorial is open Wednesday to Sunday year round, except Thanksgiving and Christmas. Admission to Hamilton Grange is free, but space is limited. (Only 15 people are allowed in the historic rooms at any given time.) It is handicapped accessible. No parking is permitted on West 141^st Street in front of the house; but there is ample public transportation in the area. Check the website for details:  http://www.nps.gov/hagr/ 

More great slogans for those late summer T-shirts:

“…the opinions of men are not the object of civil government, nor under its jurisdiction.”   Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826). A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom. Written in 1777, proposed to the Virginia Legislature in 1779.

 “If you are afraid, you have the liberty to step back”  George Washington (1732-99), in response to an aide who was worried about the exposed position in which the general stood to watch the siege of Yorktown, October 14, 1781.)

Stay tuned:

Alonzo Chappel, 1858; courtesy wikipedia.com

In late August, the Battle of Long Island will be commemorated with a series of events in Manhattan and Brooklyn.  Complete schedule at:  http://theoldstonehouse.org/event/battle-week-the-237thcommemoration-of-the-battle-of-brooklyn/

New feature coming:  15 Objects of the American Revolution.
Next week, this blog will feature unusual objects that tell the story of the American Revolution.  Visit us again next Friday, August 8.

A Musical Hamilton

Just one note this week for our readers, from Round Tabler Ronald Blumer:

"THE PUBLIC THEATER ANNOUNCES HAMILTON WRITTEN BY LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA INSPIRED BY THE BOOK Alexander Hamilton BY RON CHERNOW; DIRECTED BY THOMAS KAIL"

New Musical To Premiere January 2015 at New York City's Public Theater.

More details to come.  See you next week!

All around the Round Table

Greetings!  This week, we learned from our Round Tabler Jack Kelly that his new book, Band of Giants: The Amateur Soldiers Who Won America's Independence is due to be published this September by Palgrave Macmillan.  More information can be found at bandofgiants.org.  One of our intrepid reviewers might just be talking about this book at a Round Table meeting later this year.  Stay tuned.

Jack also reports on (thwarted) Revolutionary War ties to the silver screen:  "When actor Marion Morrison was cast in an early Western, director Raoul Walsh suggested he be called Anthony Wayne after the famous Revolutionary War general. Studio executives thought the name Anthony sounded 'too Italian.' They settled on a more Anglo-Saxon moniker: John Wayne. Too bad Duke never got to play Mad Anthony."

More T-shirt slogan ideas from Lynne Saginaw, our Board member and Book Review Chair:

“... Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors.” -- Abigail Adams (1744-1818) in a letter to her husband John, March 31, 1776.

Portrait of Abigail Adams by Blythe

 “If this is Treason, Make the Most of It.” -- Patrick Henry, 1736-1799. Speech to the Virginia Convention, March 23, 1777 as recorded in the minutes: “...George the Third [Treason! cried the Speaker] — may profit by their example.”

Finally, did any of our readers attend the Hamilton commemorations last week?  If you'd care to post a comment here, please do, or post on our Facebook page:  American Revolution Round Table of New York.  See you next week!