Benedict Arnold
Benedict Arnold began as a successful businessman
in New Haven ,Connecticut. He served in the
Continental Army, working with soldiers such as
Ethan Allan to bring about the capture of Fort
Ticonderoga in 1775. The next year, he led the
Americans in invading Quebec. IAs a major
general, he was an important part of the American
victory at Saratoga. After that point, his career
began to disintegrate. Arnold's debt grew after his
second marriage; He was unfairly criticized by
political enemies, and he felt that he was
unappreciated by his fellow Americans. Possibly for
these reasons, he made a secret deal with a British
Commander to surrender West Point to the British
in exchange for a royal military command position
and a large onetime payment, followed by a high
salary in his new position. When the patriots
discovered his plan, he fled to the British and was
given a lesser position with much less pay. After the
war, Arnold worked as a merchant shipper in
England, where he died.
Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea)
Joseph Brant, born Thayendanegea, was the leader
of the Mohawk tribe, part of the Iroquois. He was
educated by British ministers. He worked as an
interpreter for visiting missionaries for about ten
years; by 1774, he was interpreting for the British
Indian Department as well. The next year, he
traveled to London, was presented at court, and
even dined with Royalty. After his return to
America in 1776, Brant and his warriors supported
the loyalists. Brant worked with Iroquois Mohawks
in both Canada and what would become the United
States, resisting American invasions of Native
American homelands. He obtained a special rank of
general from the British Army. He was a skillful
leader but, although he was once called "the most
ferocious being" ever born, he was never a butcher.
Brant was actively involved in the political,
economic, and religious life of the Canadian
Mohawks from 1785 until his death.
John Burgoyne
Benjamin Franklin
John Burgoyne was a British General and
Politician: Although Burgoyne was in Boston
during the Battle of Bunker Hill, he was without
command. He returned to Britain, then came back to
America in 1777 to command an army that was
directed to enter New York through Canada and
join Sir William Howe's troops at Albany. In the
midst of this mission, however, Burgoyne and his
troops were defeated and taken prisoner at Saratoga.
It is not clear to what degree Burgoyne was
responsible for the British defeat at Saratoga, one of
the major turning points of the war. Although he
earned the nickname "Gentleman Johnny," implying
a casual attitude toward his military responsibilities,
modern historians feel that Burgoyne was a good
and innovative leader. When he was released in
1778, Burgoyne sailed to Britain, where he took a
seat in Parliament and spoke out against the war.
Benjamin Franklin was the oldest and one of the
most famous signers of both the Declaration of
Independence and the Constitution. He gained fame
for his generosity and the general interest he
showed in causes such as libraries and hospitals.
Franklin was also a talented scientist. Primarily,
Benjamin Franklin was quite active politically. In
addition to serving on the colonial legislature he
lived in England, acting as an ambassador for the
colonies. When Franklin returned to Philadelphia in
May of 1775, he became a member of the
Continental Congress. During the Congress he was
part of the committee that helped draft the
Declaration of Independence. When the war broke
out he traveled to Europe as a diplomat. Between
1776 and 1779 he worked in France, negotiating for
an alliance. At the end of he war he remained in
Paris to negotiate the peace treaty. From 1785 to
1787 Franklin was back in Pennsylvania continuing
his life in politics and eventually helping to write
the Constitution.
Lord Charles Cornwallis
Although he was politically somewhat opposed to
Britain's policies toward her American colonies,
Charles Cornwallis volunteered to fight against the
Americans once the war began. He began as a major
general, and after the 1780 surrender of Charles
Town, South Carolina, Cornwallis was left in
charge of British forces in the South. Cornwallis
was never able to adapt to fighting against the
guerilla warfare techniques, which the Continental
Army Militia learned from Native Americans. This
eventually led him to the surrender at Yorktown,
leading to Britain’s unconditional surrender.
Cornwallis was the only senior British general who
was not blamed for the loss of the American
colonies. After the war, he had a distinguished
career, and served as governor-general of British
India, where he died.
Nathanael Greene
Nathanael Greene was born into a Quaker family
and worked as a merchant when he reached
adulthood. Although he did not receive a formal
education, he read devotedly and became a capable
writer. When Greene was appointed commander he
became the only one of Washington's generals to
serve throughout the entire war. Known as a brave,
level-headed, and resourceful leader, he won the
respect of commanders and soldiers alike. Although
he never won any clear-cut military victories, his
repeated guerrilla warfare attacks on the British
weakened their military strength and weakened
some of the popular support they had enjoyed in
England. Although he was a member of the Army,
he was looked at and remembered as a true Militia
leader. What Greene was able to accomplish with
such a small number of poorly-equipped and unfed
troops is a tribute to his ability to inspire others and
earn their respect and loyalty. His willingness to
switch tactics to ambushes is often credited with the
failure of the British at Yorktown.
Nathan Hale
Nathan Hale worked as a schoolteacher in
Connecticut until the outbreak of the Revolutionary
War. In 1775, he was appointed a lieutenant and
was quickly promoted to captain the next year. In
1776, Hale was sent to gain secret information from
behind enemy lines. In the midst of his return to the
Continental Army, he was captured by the British
and hanged as a spy, without any kind of trial. His
last words are supposed to have been, "I only regret
that I have but one life to lose for my country,"
although historians feel that he probably did not say
anything as memorable as that his sacrifice
strengthened the view of the American people.
Patrick Henry
Patrick Henry received little formal education but,
after unsuccessful attempts at farming and operating
a general store, he began studying law informally.
His passion for learning got him into law school
where he quickly established a positive reputation
and law practice. He served in the First Continental
Congress in 1774, and gave his famous "Give me
liberty or give me death" speech in May 1775.
Henry's speaking style was a passionate and some
argued it drew to people’s passion rather than their
reason. This made Henry one of the first popular
politicians in the emerging United States.
Throughout the war he used his heartfelt speeches
in congress to sway popular opinions and moved
many people to support the war. After the war,
Henry was a strong opponent of the proposed
federal Constitution, believing that too much power
was being given to the central government.
Thomas Jefferson
John Paul Jones
Thomas Jefferson was born at Shadwell
Plantation in Albemarle County, Virginia. His
father was a well-to-do Virginian tobacco farmer
who died when Thomas was 14, leaving him heir
to the family's 14,000 acre plantation. Jefferson
attended William and Mary College then went on
to study law. He was admitted to the Virginia bar
in 1767. In 1775-1776 Jefferson was a delegate
to the Continental Congress. There he headed the
committee charged with writing the Declaration
of Independence. He was chosen for his superior
writing skills that were admired throughout the
colonies. In 1779, Jefferson became governor of
Virginia; he oversaw the states’ militia and kept
the Virginia public informed of the latest war
information. After the war he continued to serve
as a member of the Continental Congress.
Eventually he becomes the 3rd President of the
United States.
Jones began his naval career in his homeland,
Scotland, at the age of 12, advancing from
apprentice to merchant captain by adulthood. He
was accused of murdering a careless ship's
carpenter and a disobedient crewman. Cleared of
the first charge, he fled to American to avoid a
trial for the second charge. He changed his name
to Jones to hide his identity. Congress made him
an official commander in the Continental Army
despite is past because they needed a navy
leader. He had many navel victories over in
Europe fighting as an American. His ship the
Bonhomme Richard was engaged in an intense
naval struggle with the British ship called the
Serapis. Jones' ship sank but, when he was asked
to surrender, he yelled, "I have not yet begun to
fight." In this most famous naval battle of the
war, Jones was able to sink the enemy ship
despite the destruction of his own vessel. Known
as a Self-obsessed, ambitious, and
argumentative, Jones was nevertheless a
courageous man. After the War he retired in
France.
John Adams
Adams was born in, Massachusetts. He had a
playful childhood, putting only minor effort into
his early schoolwork. But Adams went on to
attend Harvard, where he became a lawyer.
Adams served from 1774 to 1777 as a member
of the Continental Congress. It was he who
nominated Washington to be commander of the
armed forces. From 1778 to 1788, Adams served
abroad as a diplomat. In France, with Benjamin
Franklin, then in the Netherlands, where he
succeeded in gaining Dutch recognition, and
loans, for the United States, he earned a
reputation as a skillful negotiator and
spokesman for his inexperienced country. In
1882, he returned to France to help negotiate the
Treaty of Paris which ended the war.
Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine was radical political writer born
in England. Paine drifted from occupation to
occupation until he was 37 years old. At that
point, after two failed marriages and several
professions, he moved to America. Paine served
in the Continental Army during the war. During
that time he wrote a series of essays called The
American Crisis. Later he would write his most
famous piece, Common Sense. Together these
written works propelled him to fame. American
patriots loved what he wrote. He was looked at
as the first great American political writer. His
works were very anti-British and Proindependence. After the war he returned to
Europe where he wrote a political piece
criticizing religion. This ill received book labeled
him an atheist and ruined his future career.
Paul Revere
Paul Revere was born in Boston, Massachusetts.
He studied the silver trade with his father. He
took over the family shop in 1754, and soon was
one of the leading silversmiths in the city. He
became a leader of the Sons of Liberty, and took
part in the Boston Tea Party of 1773. His most
famous action in service to the revolutionary
cause, however, was his midnight ride on April
18-19, 1775. Revere, who was a member of the
militia, rode to Lexington, Massachusetts to warn
the colonists that the British were marching to
seize weapons stored at Concord. He also
warned patriot leaders of their pending arrests.
He was caught by the British but not before is
message got out. During the war, Revere
continued as a militia officer. After the war,
Revere became a prosperous businessman.
Mercy Otis Warren
Warren developed as a literary talent in
Revolutionary War period, with popular plays.
Although she wrote poetry and essays on
patriotic and other subjects, her most influential
creations were plays that she wrote on the
American Revolution. Her plays were found to
be incredibly entertaining. They often insulted
the intelligence of British soldiers and rulers.
Her comedic plays were usually the “hot ticket”
in town to have. Viewers of the plays were often
said to have been moved to join the cause after
seeing them. Although Warren was much more
publically active than most women of her time,
none of her writings dealt with issues of
women's rights. She believed that women could
affect events indirectly through their influence
on husbands, fathers, and other male relations.
After the war she wrote a three-volume digest
out of concern that the post-Revolution
generation was forgetting the ideals of the
revolution in its greedy desire to obtain wealth.
George Washington
George Washington was born to a respectable
plantation farming family in 1732 in Virginia. He
built his reputation by serving in the French and
Indian War. He later served in the Continental
Congress but politics was never his passion. He
really enjoyed life on the plantation and was
reluctant to join the congress at all. In fact, he
didn’t serve long because Congress appointed
him Commander-in-Chief of the Continental
Army. Washington's troops lost battles at Long
Island, Brandywine, and Germantown, but they
fought well and inflicted heavy casualties on
their opponents. At the end of the war,
Washington's troops surrounded the main
British Army near the Yorktown peninsula, and
the French forces, cut of the British troops'
escape route. Lord Cornwallis surrendered on
October 19, 1781, and Washington held the army
together until he resigned in 1783, following the
peace treaty. After the War, Washington would
be unanimously elected the 1st President of the
United States.
Ann Bates
Ann Bates was a loyalist spy who secretly
worked for the British during the Revolutionary
War. Ann lived in Philadelphia, working as a
schoolteacher, and began her spy career
sometime in 1778. Because her husband was in
the British army, it was easy for Bates to identify
and report on the types of equipment and
numbers of men being employed by the
American army; her husband made her familiar
with that kind of information. Common thinking
during the American Revolution conveyed that
women were not smart enough to understand
the issues relating to war. As a result, many
women could easily overhear classified
information by listening to the conversations of
the men surrounding them. Ann Bates took the
alias "Mrs. Barnes," posed as a merchant, and
sold her goods to Americans while secretly
reporting information back to the British. She
even managed to gain access to George
Washington's camp, which may be considered
one of her biggest accomplishments.
Deborah Sampson
Deborah Sampson was born in Massachusetts to
a poor family. She didn’t go to school but learned
by bribing some of the boys in the family to teach
her all they learned in school. She learned so well
that later she became a teacher. When Deborah
heard about the Revolutionary War, she wanted
to help in some way. So in October of 1778 she
disguised herself as a young man and signed in
under the name of Robert Shirtliffe. For three
years she did various jobs in the army and was
wounded twice. Her true identity went
undetected until she came down with brain
fever, which was widespread in the camp at the
time. When the physician, discovered her
deception, he said nothing. Instead, he took her
to his house saying that he could treat her better
there. When she was better, General Washington
summoned her and gave her a letter and enough
money to get home safely. After the war,
Deborah Sampson married Benjamin Garrett,
and they had three children. During George
Washington's presidency she received a letter
inviting her to visit Washington. During her stay
at the capital a bill was passed granting her an
allowance and land, which she was to receive as
an acknowledgment for her services to the
country as a soldier.
Molly Pitcher
The actions of Molly Pitcher are usually
attributed to one Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley.
(The nickname "Molly" was common for women
named "Mary".) Mary Ludwig was born to a
German family in Pennsylvania circa 1744.
Details of her childhood are unknown. She
married William Hays, a barber, in 1769. Hays
was a Patriot involved in the 1774 boycott of
British goods. In 1777, Hays enlisted in the
Continental Army and was trained as an
artilleryman. Mary followed and joined a group
of women camp followers. They took care of the
troops, washed clothes, made food, and helped
care for the sick or injured soldiers. In the Battle
of Monmouth in June of 1778, Mary Hays carried
water from a spring to the thirsty soldiers under
heavy fire from the British. When her husband
collapsed (sources claim either heat stroke or
injury) and was carried off of the battlefield,
Mary Hays took his place at his cannon.
Sybil Ludington
John Howe
On the night of April 26, 1777, Colonel Henry
Ludington, commander of the militia in Duchess
County, New York, received a messenger to his
house. The British had entered nearby Danbury
and found some American military storage
locations, stolen some, destroyed others and
drank the whiskey. Drunk, they began
ransacking and burning the town. Col.
Ludington's militia, some 400 men, was on
vacation. His oldest daughter, Sybil, was 16years-old and bravely volunteered to spread the
word. Around 9 p.m., she set off in the rain to
warn the men. She completed her mission
around daybreak, covering nearly 40 miles,
waking 400 men, and even fighting off a highway
man with her father's musket. The militia caught
up with the retreating British, too late to stop the
attack, but not too late to make them pay dearly.
Sybil received personal thanks from Gen. George
Washington and made her an honorary member
of the militia. At age 23, Sybil married a farmer
and innkeeper, and lived to be 78 years old.
John Howe was an American Loyalist who was
born in Boston. He was well educated and
wanted a career in journalism. He was present
at the battle of Lexington and Concord and wrote
an article for Massachusetts Gazette and Boston
Weekly News which was said to be the first to
report the major story. Throughout the war his
writings turned more political and when he
found it hard to find a paper that would print his
essays he bought his own print shop in Boston.
Here he was free to write any Loyalist story he
wished. His writings were very popular among
the Loyalist elite in New York City and were
often quoted in those social circles. After the
war he moved to Canada and established the
Nova Scotia Royal Gazette where he continued to
write pro-royal political essays.
Marquis de Lafayette
Marquis de Lafayette, was born into a family of
noble military ancestry on September 6, 1757, in
Chavaniac, France. He joined the Royal Army the
in 1773. Inspired by stories of the colonists'
struggles against British oppression, Lafayette
sailed to the newly declared United States in
1777 to join the uprising. He was named a majorgeneral in the Continental Army. During his first
major combat he was shot in the leg while
helping to organize a retreat. General George
Washington requested doctors to take special
care of Lafayette, which began a strong bond
between the two that lasted until Washington's
death. Following a winter in Valley Forge with
Washington, Lafayette polished his credentials
as an intelligent leader while helping to draw
more French resources to the colonial side. He
travelled back to France to press Louis XVI for
more aid, Lafayette assumed increased military
responsibility upon his return to battle. As
commander of the Virginia Continental forces in
1781, he helped keep British General Lord
Cornwallis' army pinned at Yorktown, Virginia,
while divisions led by Washington and the
French navy surrounded the British and forced a
surrender in the last major battle of the
Revolutionary War.
Henry Knox
Knox was born in Boston and taught himself
military science so skillfully that, despite his lack
of battlefield experience, Congress appointed
him a colonel in charge of the Continental
Artillery (cannons) in 1775. He then proceeded
to transform the small artillery into a major force
in the Continental Army. Knox's artillery
supported the ground troops at Trenton,
Princeton, Brandywine, Germantown, and
Monmouth. The artillerymen later displayed
their proficiency with siege warfare at Boston
and Yorktown. In recognition of his
achievements, Congress appointed him a major
general in March 1782. After the war, Knox
worked to establish a strong central government
and effective military for the emerging United
States. He served as the United States first
Secretary of War.