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The Light Infantry Division At Yorktown (1781)
The Light Infantry Division was a large unit of the Continental Army that fought in the American Revolutionary War. It was formed by unifying the detached light infantry companies from several infantry regiments in September 1781. Its two brigades were made up of three battalions each, though the second brigade was later reorganized into four. The light infantry were regarded as the elite troops of the army. As such they participated in an important assault during the Siege of Yorktown in October 1781. History Major General Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette commanded the light infantry division at the Siege of Yorktown, and it comprised two brigades. These brigades were formed on Washington's orders of 24 September 1781. This division was on the American right flank with the infantry division under Major General Benjamin Lincoln. The 1st Brigade was commanded by Brigadier General Peter Muhlenberg, and consisted of the light infantry brigade that was formed on 1 February 1781 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Continental Congress
The Continental Congress was a series of legislative bodies, with some executive function, for thirteen of Britain's colonies in North America, and the newly declared United States just before, during, and after the American Revolutionary War. The term "Continental Congress" most specifically refers to the First and Second Congresses of 1774–1781 and, at the time, was also used to refer to the Congress of the Confederation of 1781–1789, which operated as the first national government of the United States until being replaced under the Constitution of the United States. Thus, the term covers the three congressional bodies of the Thirteen Colonies and the new United States that met between 1774 and 1789. The First Continental Congress was called in 1774 in response to growing tensions between the colonies culminating in the passage of the Intolerable Acts by the British Parliament. It met for about six weeks and sought to repair the fraying relationship between Britain and t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jean-Joseph Sourbader De Gimat
Jean-Joseph Sourbader de Gimat was a volunteer French officer who served in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Born into a military family, he entered the French royal army in 1761. By 1776 he was a first lieutenant but went to America with Gilbert Motier, marquis de La Fayette with the promise of becoming a major. After serving as La Fayette's aide at Brandywine, Gloucester, Barren Hill, and Monmouth, he went back to France for one year. Returning to America in 1780, he was appointed to command a light infantry unit which fought at Green Spring in 1781. He led his men in a successful assault at Yorktown that same year. He returned to France in 1782 and was named colonel in command of a colonial regiment in Martinique. He later was governor of Saint Lucia Saint Lucia ( acf, Sent Lisi, french: Sainte-Lucie) is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean. The island was previously called Iouanalao and later Hewanorra, names given ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Laurens
John Laurens (October 28, 1754 – August 27, 1782) was an American soldier and statesman from Province of South Carolina, South Carolina during the American Revolutionary War, best known for his criticism of slavery and his efforts to help recruit slaves to fight for their freedom as U.S. soldiers. In 1779, Laurens gained approval from the Continental Congress for his plan to recruit a brigade of 3,000 slaves by promising them freedom in return for fighting. The plan was defeated by political opposition in South Carolina. Laurens was killed in the Battle of the Combahee River in August 1782. Early life and education John Laurens was born in Charleston, South Carolina, on October 28, 1754, to Henry Laurens and Eleanor Ball Laurens, both of whose families were prosperous as Planter (American South), planters cultivating rice. By the 1750s, Henry Laurens and his business partner George Austin had become wealthy as owners of one of the largest slave trading houses in North Americ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jean François Hamtramck
Jean-François Hamtramck (sometimes called John Francis Hamtramck) (1756–1803) was a Canadian who served as an officer in the US Army during the American Revolutionary War and the Northwest Indian War. In the Revolution, he participated in the Invasion of Quebec, the Sullivan Expedition, and the Siege of Yorktown. In the history of United States expansion into the Northwest Territory, Hamtramck is connected to 18th century forts at modern Midwest cities such as Steubenville, Vincennes, Fort Wayne, and Detroit. The town of Hamtramck, Michigan is named for him. Life and career Hamtramck was born in Montreal, Canada (then part of New France). He was the son of Charles David Hamtramck, a barber who had immigrated from Trier, Germany (born in Luxembourg), and Canadian Marie Anne Bertin. Hamtramck was baptized in the Catholic Church in August 1756. By the time the American Revolution came to Canada, he was fluent in French, English, German, and Latin. American Revolution Canada ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first United States secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795. Born out of wedlock in Charlestown, Nevis, Hamilton was orphaned as a child and taken in by a prosperous merchant. He pursued his education in New York before serving as an artillery officer in the American Revolutionary War. Hamilton saw action in the New York and New Jersey campaign, served for years as an aide to General George Washington, and helped secure American victory at the Siege of Yorktown. After the war, Hamilton served as a delegate from New York to the Congress of the Confederation. He resigned to practice law and founded the Bank of New York. In 1786, Hamilton led the Annapolis Convention to replace the Articles of Confederation with the Constitution of the United States, which he helped ratify by writing 51 of the 85 installments of ''The Federalist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander Scammell
Alexander Scammell (March 22, 1747 – October 6, 1781) was a Harvard educated attorney and an officer in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He was wounded on September 30, 1781, near Yorktown and subsequently died on October 6 in Williamsburg, Virginia, making him, a colonel, the highest ranking American officer killed during the Siege of Yorktown. __TOC__ Biography Scammell was born March 22, 1747, in the part of Mendon, Massachusetts, which eventually became Milford, Massachusetts. His father, Doctor Samuel Leslie Scammell died in 1753 and Alexander and his older brother, Samuel (b. 1739) were placed under the care and guidance of Reverend Amariah Frost. As a young man, Alexander graduated from Harvard College in 1769, and then moved to Plymouth County, MA where he taught school in the towns of Kingston and Plymouth and became a member of the Old Colony Club celebrating the Plymouth landing. In 1772 he moved to Portsmouth, NH where he worked surveying ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scammell's 1781 Light Infantry Regiment
Most commonly referred to as Scammell's light, light corps, or detachment, this was a light infantry regiment under the new organization of the Continental Army prescribed by George Washington in his General Orders of November 1, 1780. The regiment was formed on May 17, 1781. Washington's intent for the regiment is clearly stated in a letter from him Scammell on the same date: George Washington to Alexander Scammell Formation and Early Operations in the Highlands General Washington gave command of the regiment to Alexander Scammell to honor his services as Adjutant General and to honor Scammell's wishes to command an active line unit.Scammell, Nov 16, 1780 The men of this unit were selected from the Continental Line regiments from Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. Among the men under Scammell's command was Henry Dearborn who later became U.S. Secretary of War under President Thomas Jefferson. Prelude to Yorktown The regiment was active in the subterfuge that e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward Antill (soldier)
Lieutenant colonel (United States), Lieutenant Colonel Edward Antill (April 11, 1742 – May 29, 1789) was an American soldier from New Jersey who served in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He is known for his actions during the Invasion of Quebec (1775), Invasion of Quebec in 1775–76. Background and early years Antill was born on April 11, 1742 in Piscataway, New Jersey, Piscataway ("Piscataqua"), Province of New Jersey. He was the fourth of six children born to Edward Antill (colonial politician), Edward Antill (1701–1770), a colonial plantation owner, attorney, and early politician in New Jersey, and Anne Morris (1706–1781). His maternal grandfather was Lewis Morris (1671–1746), Royal Governor of New Jersey, and his paternal grandfather was Edward Antill (attorney), Edward Antill ( 1659–1725), an English-born merchant and attorney. In 1762, Antill graduated from Columbia College, Columbia University, King's College (now Columbia University) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2nd Canadian Regiment
The 2nd Canadian Regiment (1776–1783), also known as Congress' Own or Hazen's Regiment, was authorized on January 20, 1776, as an Extra Continental regiment and raised in the province of Quebec for service with the American Continental Army under the command of Colonel Moses Hazen. All or part of the regiment saw action at Staten Island, Brandywine, Germantown and the Siege of Yorktown. Most of its non-combat time was spent in and around New York City as part of the forces monitoring the British forces occupying that city. The regiment was disbanded on November 15, 1783, at West Point, New York. The regiment was one of a small number of Continental Army regiments that was the direct responsibility of the Continental Congress (most regiments were funded and supplied by a specific state). Commanded by Colonel (later Brigadier General) Moses Hazen for its entire existence, the regiment was originally made up of volunteers and refugees from Quebec who supported the rebel caus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moses Hazen
Moses Hazen (June 1, 1733 – February 5, 1803) was a brigadier general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Born in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, he saw action in the French and Indian War with Rogers' Rangers. His service included particularly brutal raids, during the Expulsion of the Acadians and the 1759 Siege of Quebec. He was formally commissioned into the British Army, shortly before the war ended, and retired on half-pay outside Montreal, Province of Quebec, where he and Gabriel Christie, another British officer, made extensive land purchases in partnership. During his lifetime he acquired land in Quebec, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York, but lost most of his Quebec land due to litigation, with Christie and the negative effects of the Revolution. In 1775 he became involved in the American invasion of Quebec early in the American Revolutionary War, and served with the Continental Army, in the 1775 Battle of Quebec. He went ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1st New Jersey Regiment
The 1st New Jersey Regiment was the first organized militia regiment in New Jersey, formed in 1673 in Piscataway "to repel foreign Indians who come down from upper Pennsylvania and western New York (in the summer) to our shores and fill (themselves) with fishes and clams and on the way back make a general nuisance of themselves by burning hay stacks, corn fodder and even barns." The first commander and founder of the regiment was Captain Francis Drake (1615-1687) who served from 1673 to 1685. All of New Jersey's regular organized military forces trace their lineage to this first provincial militia unit. The regiment's allegiance was to the British Crown until 1775, when the regiment was raised for service in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. "Jersey Blues" Although the unit had existed long beforehand, it was not until the mid-eighteenth century that the term "Jersey Blues" came into popular usage. The term "Jersey Blues" derives from the uniform adopt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Francis Barber (Colonel)
Francis Barber (1750–1783) was a colonel in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He was in the Sullivan Expedition and at the Siege of Yorktown with the 3rd New Jersey Regiment. He was wounded at the Battle of Monmouth and again at the Battle of Newton. He was killed in New Windsor, New York, where the army was camped in 1783, when a tree that was being cut fell on him as he was riding his horse to dine with George Washington in Newburgh, New York Newburgh is a city in the U.S. state of New York, within Orange County. With a population of 28,856 as of the 2020 census, it is a principal city of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown metropolitan area. Located north of New York City, a ....''Who Was Who in American History, the Military''. Chicago: Marquis Who's Who, 1975. Elizabethtown Academy Barber was appointed headmaster of the classical prep school Elizabethtown Academy in 1771. His student's included Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
