Being George Washington (36 page)

Guinea
—A former unit of British currency. Made of gold and equivalent to twenty shillings. Issued from 1663 to 1813.

Hesse-Kassel
—A central German state of the Holy Roman Empire ruled by a “landgrave” or count. The landgrave of Hesse-Kassel at the time of the American Revolution was Friedrich II, uncle of Great Britain’s King George III.

Hessian
—Specifically refers to a soldier from Hesse-Kassel, which supplied so many mercenaries to Great Britain, but applied broadly to any German mercenary soldier who fought for the British in the Revolutionary War.

Loyalist
—An American colonist loyal to the British Crown.

Musket
—A muzzle-loaded, flintlock-fired firearm, a predecessor of the modern rifle.

Pleurisy
—An inflammation of the cavity surrounding the lungs.

Prussia
—Former north German kingdom, which formed the core of the new German Empire in 1871. Famous for its military prowess.

Quinsy
—A complication of tonsillitis.

Sloop
—In the eighteenth century, a warship with a single gun deck, armed with less than twenty guns.

Spanish dollar
—The Spanish dollar was originally a silver coin worth eight reals, and thus the dollars were often called “pieces of eight.”

Sugar House
—A notorious British prison built in 1763 at lower Manhattan’s Duane and Rose streets. Hundreds of American prisoners of war died there from 1776 to 1783.

Tory
—A sympathizer of the British; royalist; Loyalist.

John Adams (1735–1826)
—Massachusetts attorney and patriot. At the Second Continental Congress, Adams will nominate Washington to be commander of the Continental Army. Ambassador to the Netherlands and to Great Britain. Washington’s vice president and his successor as president. Appoints Washington commander of the American army in 1798.

Ethan Allen (1738–1789)
—Vermont patriot. Alongside Benedict Arnold, Allen’s “Green Mountain Boys” will seize Fort Ticonderoga in May 1775. With Washington at Valley Forge.

Major John André (1750–1780)
—Cultivated and highly popular chief of British intelligence. A close friend of Benedict Arnold’s wife Margaret “Peggy” Shippen. Offered Arnold twenty thousand dollars to betray the American cause. Captured by patriots. Ordered hanged as a spy by Washington.

Major General Benedict “the Hannibal of the Revolution” Arnold (1741–1801)
—Connecticut merchant and patriot. The real hero of Ticonderoga, Valcour Bay, and Saratoga. Court-martialed for corruption as military governor of Philadelphia. Arnold’s treasonous plot to betray West Point—and Washington—to the British fails and he is appointed as a British brigadier general. Has an illegitimate child in exile in Canada. Dies of dropsy in London.

Margaret “Peggy” Shippen Arnold (1760–1804)
—Benedict Arnold’s second wife. Member of a prominent Philadelphia family, the daughter of suspected Loyalist judge Edward Shippen IV. Friend of John André.

General John “Gentleman Johnny” Burgoyne (1722–1792)
—His march down from Canada is key to the British plan to dividing the colonies and crushing the rebellion. Burgoyne’s defeat in the Second Battle of Saratoga in October 1777 is crucial to bringing France into the Revolutionary War on the American side.

General Edward Braddock (1695–1755)
—Washington’s British commander in the French and Indian War (1754–63). Mortally wounded in the Battle of the Monongahela.

John Cadwalader (1742–1786)
—Wealthy Philadelphia merchant and American military officer. Unable to cross the Delaware to join Washington at Trenton. General Howe will occupy Cadwalader’s home during the British occupation of Philadelphia. Challenges Horatio to duel following the Conway Cabal affair.

General Sir Henry “the Knight” Clinton (1730–1795)
—The final and perhaps the ablest of Britain’s three North Americans commanders during the Revolutionary War. Clinton will, nonetheless, tarry in New York City with his mistress, Mary Baddeley, the Irish-born wife of a sergeant in his army, and fail to relieve Cornwallis at Yorktown. Major John André is his adjutant and spymaster.

General Thomas Conway (1735–ca. 1800)
—Irish-born French general whom Congress will appoint inspector general of the Continental Army. Ambitious and conceited. At the heart of the Conway Cabal against Washington.

General Charles Cornwallis (1738–1805)
—British veteran of the battles of Long Island, Brandywine, Monmouth, and Charleston. Defeated at Princeton. In charge of Britain’s Southern Campaign after Henry Clinton’s departure for New York. Victorious at Camden and Guilford Courthouse. His surrender at Yorktown effectively ends the Revolutionary War.

Admiral François-Joseph-Paul, Comte de Grasse (1722–1788)
—Commander of French naval forces in the West Indies. At General
Rochambeau’s urging, the massively built Comte de Grasse will sail northward to trap Cornwallis at Yorktown. Victory in hand, de Grasse will ignore Washington’s entreaties to remain in American waters, and return to the Caribbean.

Brigadier General James Ewing (1736–1806)
—The western Pennsylvanian who despite valiant efforts failed to ferry his men across the hopelessly ice-choked Delaware River to assist Washington at Trenton.

Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790)
—Printer and newspaper editor. Inventor. Author of
Poor Richard’s Almanack
. Member of the Committee of Five, which drafts the Declaration of Independence. American envoy to France.

General Thomas Gage (1719 or 1720–1787)
—Survivor of the Battle of the Monongahela. British commander at Boston during the Boston Massacre, the march to Lexington and Concord, and the Battle of Bunker Hill. Replaced by William Howe.

General Horatio Gates (1727–1806)
—British-born Revolutionary War general. Served alongside Washington during the French and Indian War. Refuses to join Washington before the Battle of Trenton—and connives against him with Congress. American commander at Saratoga. Part of the Conway Cabal. Disgraced at the Battle of Camden.

Edmond-Charles Genêt (1763–1834)
—Revolutionary France’s incendiary envoy to America. He will try to incite opinion in his nation and against the policy of neutrality practiced by Washington.

Rear Admiral Sir Thomas Graves (1725–1802)
—British naval commander at Yorktown, defeated by the Comte de Grasse.

General Nathanael Greene (1742–1786)
—The Rhode Island Quaker merchant who became Washington’s most-trusted general. Appointed quartermaster general at Valley Forge. His campaign against Cornwallis in the South (including Cornwallis’s pyrrhic victory at Guilford Courthouse) helped lead to Yorktown.

Half King (ca. 1700–1754)
—Seneca leader (real name: “Tanacharison”) allied with the Virginians against the French. With George Washington, he defeats the French under Ensign Jumonville in May 1754.

Alexander Hamilton (1755 or 1757–1804)
—West Indian-born aide-de-camp to Washington. Coauthor, with James Madison and John Jay, of the
Federalist
papers. America’s first secretary of the Treasury. Rival of Jefferson. Founder of the Federalist Party. Assists with the Farewell Address. Killed in a duel with Aaron Burr.

John Honeyman (1729–1822)
—Scottish weaver turned New Jersey farmer. An American spy, key to victory at Trenton.

Admiral Richard Howe (1726–1799)
—Brother of General William Howe. He accompanies his brother William on Britain’s successful 1776 and 1777 campaigns to capture New York and Philadelphia. Sympathetic to the colonists, he left his command in September 1778. Replaced by Henry Clinton.

Major General Robert Howe (1732–1786)
—North Carolina–born Continental Army general. Lost Savannah to the British. Replaced by Benedict Arnold as commandant of West Point. Helped crush January 1781’s troop mutiny in New Jersey.

General William Howe (1729–1814)
—Second commander of British forces during the Revolutionary War. Howe evacuates Boston after Washington fortifies Dorchester Heights but defeats him at Long Island and Brandywine. Howe’s occupation of New Jersey proves disastrous and helps lead to Rall’s defeat at Trenton and Cornwallis’s defeat at Princeton. In 1777, Howe captures Philadelphia but refuses to move against Washington at Valley Forge. Disgusted with the war, he resigns his command and returns to England in 1778.

John Jay (1745–1829)
—New York attorney. President of the Continental Congress (1778–79). Coauthor of the
Federalist
papers. First chief justice of the United States. Negotiator of the controversial Jay Treaty with Britain.

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
—Virginia planter. Author of the Declaration of Independence. Governor of Virginia. Minister to France. Washington’s first secretary of state. Rival of Alexander Hamilton. Third president of the United States.

Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer (1723–1790)
—Maryland planter. Attended the Mount Vernon conference of 1785. Among the oldest of delegates to the Constitutional Convention.

General Henry “the Ox” Knox (1750–1806)
—The 280-pound Boston bookseller who became the Continental Army’s chief of artillery. He served at Bunker Hill, during the New York campaign, Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth. Knox’s transporting of fifty-nine cannons and mortars from Fort Ticonderoga and Crown Point to Cambridge triggered the British evacuation of Boston. In overall command of December 1776’s Delaware crossing.

Marquis de Lafayette (Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier) (1757–1834)
—Scion of one of the wealthiest families of aristocratic France. Passionate believer in liberty. Volunteer in the Continental Army. Almost a son to the childless Washington. Key to trapping Cornwallis at Yorktown.

Henry Laurens (1724–1792)
—South Carolina rice planter and slave merchant. President of the Continental Congress (1777–78). A firm Washington ally. Captured by the British, he will be the only American prisoner in the Tower of London. Exchanged for General Cornwallis. Ultimately opposes slavery.

John Laurens (1754–1782)
—Son of Henry Laurens. Aide to Washington. Assisted von Steuben in authoring the army instruction manual. Attempted to raise a black regiment in South Carolina. Helped negotiate Cornwallis’s surrender.

General Charles Lee (1732–1782)
—British-born Revolutionary War general. Slovenly and strangely ill-mannered for his highborn
background. Served alongside Washington during the French and Indian War and later in armies on the European continent. Resentful of Washington. Collaborates with the British after his December 1776 capture by Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton at Basking Ridge, New Jersey. Disgraced at the Battle of Monmouth.

General Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee III (1756–1812)
—Revolutionary War general. Governor of Virginia. Commander of American forces during the Whiskey Rebellion. Eulogizes Washington as “First in War, first in Peace, and first in the hearts of his Countrymen.” Killed by a Democratic-Republic mob in Baltimore.

Richard Henry Lee (1732–1794)
—Virginia patriot. Author of the Continental Congress resolution first calling for independence from Britain. Signer of the Declaration of Independence.

William “Billy” or “Will” Lee (ca. 1750–1728)
—Washington’s slave and personal assistant. He serves with Washington throughout the Revolutionary War. An invalid by the late 1780s. Freed by Washington in his will.

Elizabeth “Betsy” Lloyd Loring (ca. 1752–1831)
—Wife of Joshua Loring Jr. Mistress of General William Howe. Howe’s tarrying with Betsy Loring may have saved Washington at Valley Forge.

Joshua Loring Jr. (1744–1789)
—Loyalist deputy commissary of prisoners. Under his command thousands of American prisoners of war will perish from starvation and disease.

James “Jemmy” Madison (1751–1836)
—Virginia-born planter. “Father of the Constitution.” Contributor to the
Federalist
papers. Author of the Bill of Rights. Virginia congressman. Drafts the 1792 version of Washington’s Farewell Address. Fourth president of the United States.

General Francis “the Swamp Fox” Marion (1732–1795)
—South Carolina–born Continental Army officer. Master of guerrilla warfare in the southern campaigns. Given his nickname by Banastre Tarleton.

Luther Martin (1748–1826)
—Maryland attorney. Delegate to the Constitutional Convention. He will, however, refuse to sign the Constitution. Aaron Burr’s defense lawyer in the shooting of Alexander Hamilton.

George Mason (1725–1792)
—Virginia planter. Author of that state’s Declaration of Rights. Delegate to the Constitutional Convention. Refuses to sign the new constitution and argues for a Bill of Rights.

James Monroe (1758–1831)
—Virginia planter. A member of the advance party at Trenton, where he is seriously wounded in the left shoulder. Secretary of state and of war under James Madison. Fifth president of the United States.