New England Citizen Soldiers of the Revolutionary War by Robert A. Geake

Author:Robert A. Geake [Geake, Robert A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, United States, State & Local, General
ISBN: 9781467142601
Google: dsewDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Published: 2019-01-15T16:06:11+00:00

Chapter 6

THE MEN OF MARBLEHEAD

Any introduction to the reader of those fishermen and dockworkers from the Cape Cod town of Marblehead, Massachusetts, would not do justice to the words of Frank A. Gardner, MD, their first biographer, who wrote, “Few regiments in the entire Continental Army were in more important engagements, or rendered greater service.”135

Incorporating a militia unit on January 10, 1775, the town made provisions “to pay persons who may enlist as minutemen, and take other suitable steps for perfecting the militia in the arts of war.” Then £800 was granted and a committee of three assigned to oversee the distribution of funds by James Mugford, the appointed paymaster, at the following rates: “2 shillings a day to a private, 3 shillings to sergeants, clerks, drummers and fifers, 4 shillings to second lieutenants, 8 pence to first lieutenants, and six shillings a day to captains.”

The men of Marblehead would become best known for the handful of them represented in the 1850 painting Washington Crossing the Delaware by German American immigrant Emanuel Leutze. It is those men of Marblehead around Washington, scanning the river ahead, breaking up the ice before the bow and rowing through the prevailing blizzard. The painting depicts just one episode of many that displayed their navigational skills, hardiness and grit—as stealthy as the riflemen on water—as well as their adaptability to fight on both sea and land, all of which would place them in a distinction of their own.

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