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Asgill Affair
The Asgill Affair was an event that occurred towards the end of the American Revolution. As a result of ongoing murders taking place between the Patriot and Loyalist factions, retaliatory measures were then taken by General George Washington against a British officer, Captain Charles Asgill, condemned to be hanged, in direct contravention of the Articles of Capitulation. To this end lots were drawn amongst 13 British Captains on 27 May 1782. As America's allies, the French monarchy became involved and let it be known that such measures would reflect badly on both the French and American nations. The French Foreign Minister, the comte de Vergennes, wrote to Washington on 29 July 1782 to express these views. After a six-month ordeal, awaiting death daily, the Continental Congress eventually agreed that Asgill should be released to return to England on parole. Background After the capitulation of the British forces at Yorktown in 1781, by tit-for-tat murders between the Patr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Revolution
The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), gaining independence from the British Crown and establishing the United States of America as the first nation-state founded on Enlightenment principles of liberal democracy. American colonists objected to being taxed by the Parliament of Great Britain, a body in which they had no direct representation. Before the 1760s, Britain's American colonies had enjoyed a high level of autonomy in their internal affairs, which were locally governed by colonial legislatures. During the 1760s, however, the British Parliament passed a number of acts that were intended to bring the American colonies under more direct rule from the British metropole and increasingly intertwine the economies of the colonies with those of Brit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Gordon (British Army Officer, Died 1783)
Lieutenant colonel (United Kingdom), Lieutenant-Colonel James Gordon, the third and last Laird of the barony of Ellon, Aberdeenshire, Ellon, (17 October 1783) was a highly regarded British Army officer who fought in the American Revolutionary War. In 1782, he played a role in the Asgill Affair, the controversial confinement and proposed execution of British Captain Sir Charles Asgill, 2nd Baronet, Charles Asgill. Early life James Gordon was born in Ellon, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, 1735. His father was James Gordon, the second Laird of the barony of Ellon (died April 1749). His mother was Elizabeth Glen (1712-1792), daughter of Alexander Glen and sister of James Glen (1701-1777), List of colonial governors of South Carolina, Governor of South Carolina and keeper of the Linlithgow Palace, Palace of Linlithgow. The Gordon family lived at Linlithgow Palace. On 1 February 1746, government troops, under the command of Lieutenant General Henry Hawley, were pursuing Jacobites in the ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Saumarez
General Sir Thomas Saumarez (1 July 1760 – 4 March 1845) was a British General who served in the American Revolutionary War. Early life: 1760–1776 Thomas Saumarez was born in Guernsey on 1 July 1760 to Matthew Saumarez (1718–1778) and Cartaret Le Marchant. He was the youngest of four. His brothers were Admiral James Saumarez, 1st Baron de Saumarez (1757–1836) and Richard Saumarez (1764–1835), a surgeon and medical author. Remainder: 1776–1845 Saumarez entered the British Army in 1776 where he fought in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783). He fought in the Siege of Charleston (1780). On 15 March 1781 Saumarez commanded one wing of the Royal Welch Fusiliers in the Battle of Guilford Court House. In October later that year, he was captured at the Siege of Yorktown. In 1787, he married Harriet Brock. In 1793, he was made Brigade major of the Guernsey military. In 1795, he was knighted by the Prince of Wales and promoted to Quartermaster-General to th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Welch Fusiliers
The Royal Welch Fusiliers ( cy, Ffiwsilwyr Brenhinol Cymreig) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, and part of the Prince of Wales' Division, that was founded in 1689; shortly after the Glorious Revolution. In 1702, it was designated a fusilier regiment and became the Welch Regiment of Fusiliers; the prefix "Royal" was added in 1713, then confirmed in 1714 when George I named it the Prince of Wales's Own Royal Regiment of Welsh Fusiliers. In 1751, after reforms that standardised the naming and numbering of regiments, it became the 23rd Regiment of Foot (Royal Welsh Fuzileers). In 1881, the final title of the regiment was adopted. It retained the archaic spelling of ''Welch'', instead of ''Welsh'', and ''Fuzileers'' for ''Fusiliers''; these were engraved on swords carried by regimental officers during the Napoleonic Wars. After the 1881 Childers Reforms, normal spelling was used officially, but "Welch" continued to be used informally until restored in 1920 by Army Ord ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Francis Greville
Lt-Col. Henry Francis Greville (10 August 1760 – 13 January 1816) was a British impresario. Early life and military career He was the son of Member of Parliament Fulke Greville and poet Frances Greville. In 1777 he was appointed an ensign in the Coldstream Guards, and in 1781 was promoted to lieutenant. Deployed to North America during the American Revolutionary War, he became a prisoner of war (POW) following the British surrender at Yorktown. In May 1782, he was one of 13 POWs forced to draw lots to determine which one should be executed in retaliation for the execution of a patriot captain by Loyalists, in what became known as the Asgill Affair. In 1790, he was appointed to the 4th Regiment of Dragoon Guards to serve in Ireland as lieutenant-colonel. Theatrical career While in the army he became interested in theatricals, and after leaving the army tried to organize professional theatre shows. His first "theatrical fête" was in 1801, and included supper for his friends, in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
