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How George Washington Recruited a Whole New Army Under British Noses

George Washington had a problem he believed no one had ever encountered before. On January 1, 1776, the Continental Army would disappear unless Washington recruited enough men to replace it.

Somehow, he managed.

It wasn’t quite like that.

His ragtag fighting force, strung out along the hills surrounding Boston, had bottled up British troops despite having little gunpowder, inferior weapons and no heavy artillery. Nearly all enlistments expired on December 31. But somehow Washington recruited a whole new army within firing range of the world’s most powerful fighting force.

On Jan. 4, 1776, he wrote a letter to John Hancock, president of the Continental Congress, to explain.

“It is not in the pages of History perhaps, to furnish a case like ours, to maintain a post within Musket Shot of the Enemy for Six months together without — and at the same time to disband one Army and recruit another, within that distance, of Twenty off British regiments, is probably more than ever was attempted.”

George Washington Recruited by Congress

The Continental Congress authorized a standing army on June 14, 1775, and the next day named George Washington “captain general” of American fighting forces.

It took nine days for Washington to ride from Philadelphia to Cambridge, delayed by public demonstrations along the way. He arrived on July 2, 1775, 15 days after the Battle of Bunker Hill. He knew little about the battle, though he learned along the way that 1,000 British troops had perished during the conflict. They were still encamped on top of the hill, peppering the Americans with artillery fire.

Washington was dismayed at what he saw. Few soldiers had uniforms or tents, and they lived in shantytowns of lumber and cloth. Some lived in vacated Tory homes, in one case, 250 men to a house. They hadn’t dug latrines and the camps stank.

The officers were not only ignorant and quarrelsome but scandalously disobedient, wrote Washington’s aide Joseph Reed to Elias Boudinot on Aug. 13, 1775. “Many had proven themselves notorious cowards.”

It took him a week to find out how many men he commanded.

He thought he had 20,000. He had 16,500 and only 14,000 were fit for duty. The rest were sick or wounded. The british had 6,000, but he figured they could form a fighting force of 12,000 if they armed slaves and Loyalists left in Boston.

“We are in an exceeding dangerous situation,” he wrote to his friend Richard Henry Lee on July 10.

Gunpowder

In early August, Washington learned the shocking truth about his gunpowder supply. During a war council, he was told his men barely had enough gunpowder for eight, maybe nine rounds each.

For a half hour, Washington sat in silence before speaking again, reported one of his generals, John Sullivan.

From then on, Washington didn’t dare order a morning or evening gun fired. When the British bombarded his forces with cannonade he couldn’t order their fire returned.

General Gage by John Singleton Copley

Fortunately, the enemy couldn’t believe how bad things were, according to the journal of Elias Boudinot. A member of the Committee of Safety of Massachusetts knew the secret, wrote Boudinot. He deserted and went over to Gen. Thomas Gage, the British commander, and told him.

“The fact was so incredible that General Gage treated it as a stratagem of war and the informant as a spy, or coming with the express purpose of deceiving him and drawing his army into a snare, by which mean we were saved from having our quarters beaten up,” wrote Boudinot.

“Few people know the predicament we are in,” wrote Washington to his friend Joseph Reed.

Had they known, the American Revolution might have ended right then and there.

Countermoves

On November 16, Washington ordered a 25-year-old former bookseller named Henry Knox, a colonel, to ask Congress for cannon. If he couldn’t get any, he should go to Fort Ticonderoga, captured in May, to retrieve the heavy artillery.

Henry Knox by Gilbert Stuart 1806

He also sent two men – his muster-master general, Stephen Moylan, and Col. John Glover — to outfit privateers to capture unarmed enemy supply ships. On November 29, Capt. John Manley, commanding the privateer Lee, captured the British brigantine Nancy, along with thousands of musket, shot and a cannon.

Washington also knew about a lightly guarded cache of gunpowder in the British colony of Bermuda. So he asked Rhode Island Gov. Nicholas Cooke to send an armed vessel to the island to capture it. Cooke obliged, sending Abraham Whipple on the mission.

But the right hand didn’t know what the left was doing. Congress also sent an armed vessel to Bermuda to steal the British store of gunpowder there. Bermudans who shared the colonies’ displeasure with Britain stole enough gunpowder to quadruple Washington’s supply. When Whipple arrived, the powder was already on its way to Washington.

The Army Dwindles

On October 31, King George III delivered a speech to Parliament declaring the Americans in open rebellion and asking for more troops to put down the uprising.

King George III

Winter was coming. Washington’s army had few blankets and no winter clothing. Enlistments started to expire on December 1 and every man could leave on January 1.

The patriotic fervor that inspired thousands to rush to Boston had worn off. Men started to flock back home. Whole regiments packed up and left.

By late November, Washington had only 3,500 men. “Could I have foreseen what I have, & am like to experience, no consideration upon Earth should have induced me to accept this Command,” he wrote in a Nov. 28, 1775 letter to Joseph Reed.

How Washington Recruited an Army

Enlistments came in slowly. News of the army’s harsh condition had spread. Washington, too, had introduced discipline: the lash, the pillory and the court martial.

And so the army offered a signing bonus: a dollar, big money in those days.

Joseph Plumb Martin described the allure of a dollar on a drum head.

A dollar deposited upon the drum head was taken by some one as soon as placed there, and the holder’s name taken, and he enrolled . . . My spirits began to revive at the sight of the money offered; the seeds of courage began to sprout . . . O, thought I, if I were but old enough to put myself forward, I would be the possessor of one dollar, the dangers of war notwithstanding.

Some enlistees tried to game the system, waiting until the last minute to enlist in the hopes the army in its desperation would raise the bounty.

On New Year’s Eve Washington had 9,650 men – about half of what Congress authorized.

Nathanael Greene

To minimize disruption, Washington asked the men who enlisted for 1776 to join their new regiment a few days before the new year. He asked dismissed soldiers to stay longer and called up militias to reinforce the army.

On Jan. 1, 1776, Washington ordered the soldiers who didn’t reenlist to their parade grounds. They were then sent home, leaving by the hundreds and thousands.

Gen. Nathanael Greene lost three-fourths of his brigade and had fewer than 700 men.

Slowly, the Continental Army returned to its strength of 1775. The British stayed put, failing to take advantage of their enemy’s weakened position. By March, Henry Knox would arrived with his noble artillery train, and the British would soon evacuate.

This story last updated in 2022.

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Stephen Moylan, the Irishman Who Coined “United States of America”

Stephen Moylan had a mostly distinguished career in the American Revolution. But it wasn’t his sword that kept him in the history books. It was his way with words. For Stephen Moylan, an aide-de-camp to George Washington, gets credit as the first to write the words, “United States of America.”

It wasn’t until the late 20^th century that Moylan was recognized for coining the country’s name. He may not even have realized he did it.

He suffered several setbacks during the war and faced criticism and court martial. But each time he bounced back and acquitted himself honorably.

A dragoon in Moylan’s regiment

Stephen Moylan

Moylan was born around 1737 in Cork, Ireland, to a large and devout Catholic family. His father, John, was a businessman, his mother, Ann Doran. Two sisters took vows as Ursuline nuns and his brother Francis was consecrated Bishop of Kerry.

The laws then forbade educating Catholics, so his parents smuggled him out of the country to get an education.

Some say he was educated in Paris, others say Lisbon or Spain. He did acquire social graces as well as good penmanship. Writing was an important skill for an 18^th century businessman and one that would give Stephen Moylan distinction as the first to write “United States of America.”

His father, John Moylan, apparently suffered financial reverses. In his will, dated June 1797, he wrote,

I lament that I have it not in my power to leave my children in better circumstances, but my own misfortunes were great and heavy for a number of years, and it was only within these last three years that it pleased God to give me some little success.

Young Stephen Moylan lived in Lisbon for three years, working in the family shipping business. In 1767, he immigrated to Philadelphia, a city more tolerant of Roman Catholics than, say, Boston.

He prospered there in merchant shipping and moved in elite social circles. Moylan was a clotheshorse with a pleasant manner that won him friends. He belonged to the Gloucester Fox Hunting Club, and in 1771 won election as the first president of The Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, a fraternal and charitable society.

American Revolution

As dissatisfaction with Britain grew, Moylan sided with the patriots. When war broke out, his friend John Dickinson wrote a letter of introduction to George Washington. Dated July 25, 1775, Dickinson wrote that Moylan was “much esteemed” in Philadelphia.

George Washington, 1776

Washington, then quartered in Cambridge, struggled to make an army of his untrained, undisciplined and undersupplied men. He must have been delighted when an educated gentleman with logistics experience offered his services.

Washington appointed him muster-master general, a job that involved tracking personnel, finances and logistics. He then ordered Moylan to work with Col. John Glover and his Marblehead regiment to outfit vessels so they could seize unarmed enemy supply ships. The nine vessels they fitted out, starting with Hannah, began the Navy of the United Colonies.

Replica of the Hannah

The Brothers Moylan

Stephen Moylan also had three brothers who also served the American side in the Revolution.

James worked for the American cause in France and obtained a French vessel, renamed the Bon Homme Richard, for John Paul Jones.

John served as Clothier General of the Continental Army in Morristown, N.J.

Jasper served as an ensign in the Philadelphia militia.

Quartermaster General

Stephen Moylan helped Washington with his paperwork, and on March 7, 1776 Washington named him aide-de-camp and gave him the rank of lieutenant colonel. Two months later, Moylan replaced Thomas Mifflin as quartermaster general. It didn’t go well, as Moylan faced enormous challenges and he wasn’t a terrific administrator.

After the British evacuated Boston, Washington marched his men to New York. There the British routed them. Moylan’s job was to transport materiel and supplies as the army fled, and he left quite a lot behind. Even Washington pointed a finger at him. The commander in chief blamed the loss of supplies on “a defect in the department of the Quarter Master Genls not providing Teams enough.”

In September 1776, Moylan resigned, but stayed on as a volunteer aide to Washington.

More Ups and Downs

He then redeemed himself with dedicated service to the cause and won promotion to colonel. In January 1777 he was given command of a dragoon regiment.

Things went well for his unit, foraging, scouting and doing picket duty.

Then in September of that year, Casimir Pulaski took charge of the cavalry. Moylan couldn’t stand Pulaski’s overbearing manner, and they clashed.

Pulaski

Change of Clothes

Moylan’s dandyism got him into a bit of trouble with Washington, too. His unit had chosen impressive red coats faced with blue for its uniform, probably influenced by their colonel.

Washington was horrified when he found out. On May 12, 1777, he wrote to Moylan saying a party of his regiment had arrived at headquarters in Morristown, N.J. Their similarity to the British uniforms meant they alarmed the inhabitants of the countryside. They might have gotten shot at, Washington wrote.

“I therefore desire that you will immediately fall upon means for having the colour of the Coats changed, which may be done by dipping into that kind of dye that is most proper to put upon Red. I care not what it is, so that the present Colour be changed.” Moylan went for a green coat faced with red.

Military Career Winds Down

The Van Horne house

After an altercation with one of Pulaski’s officers, Pulaski brought charges against Moylan. A court martial then found him innocent.

Pulaski resigned in March 1778, and Moylan took over the cavalry. He led his men well during the Monmouth campaign that summer.

On Sept. 12, 1778, he married Mary Ricketts Van Horne, one of five “handsome and well-bred” daughters of a wealthy New Jersey judge named Philip Van Horne. Moylan continued to serve, and was present at the surrender at Yorktown. After the war he won a brevet promotion to brigadier general.

Moylan’s commission as brigadier general

Stephen Moylan After the War

Moylan returned to the Philadelphia area, prospered in business and involved himself in civic affairs. The Friendly Sons of St Patrick elected him president again.

He and Mary had two boys and two girls, but only the girls, Elizabeth Catherine and Maria, survived to adulthood. He stayed friendly with Washington, once paying him a visit at Mount Vernon. As president,

Washington appointed him commissioner of loans in Philadelphia in 1793.

He died in Philadelphia on April 11, 1811, and is buried in St. Mary’s Churchyard.

Stephen Moylan Pens “United States of America”

In 1998, New York Times columnist William Safire set himself to the task of finding out who named the United States of America. Safire, with scholarly help, concluded Stephen Moylan had done it.

Moylan wrote “United States of America” while serving as an aide to Washington, then headquartered in Cambridge. That was six months before the words appeared in the Declaration of Independence.

On Jan. 1, 1776, Washington paraded the newly reorganized Continental Army in Charlestown, now Somerville. He raised the first American flag, called the Grand Union Flag, on Prospect Hill. It had 13 stripes, though it didn’t have stars yet – just the crosses of England and Scotland in the canton. Some people call that New Year’s Day flag-raising the first real Declaration of Independence.

Grand Union Flag

The next day, Moylan wrote a letter to his friend Joseph Reed. He thought the colonies could use an ambassador to Spain. He knew the country and thought he could do the job. And so he wrote to Reed in Philadelphia.

“I should like vastly to go with full and ample powers from the United States of America to Spain.”

No one has found an earlier reference to those four words. Washington and others may have used the expression in conversation.

Still, Stephen Moylan was, apparently, the first.

Images: Friendly Sons of St. Patrick medal By Daly, Thomas A – Internet Archive identifier, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=99181649. Van Horne House By Zeete – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=66486694. Model of Hannah By Sturmvogel 66 – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17835548. Grand Union Flag By Makaristos – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4988150. Stephen Moylan, light dragoon, from Stephen Moylan by Martin I.J. Griffin via Internet Archive. This story updated in 2022,

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History Lover’s Gift Guide: The 16 Best New History Books for the Holidays

It’s always hard to buy books for book lovers because you just don’t know if they’ve read them already. But you can’t go wrong if you buy a book just published. So here are 16 of the best new history books for the holidays — focusing on New England, of course.

Ben Franklin wouldn’t have missed any of these new history books

You can buy them with just a click — and help independent bookstores and The New England Historical Society.

The Indispensables: The Diverse Soldier-Mariners Who Shaped the Country, Formed the Navy, and Rowed Washington Across the Delaware

Patrick O’Donnell turns five years of research into a fast paced story of the solder-mariners from Marblehead, Mass. Known best for ferrying George Washington over the Delaware, they were a diverse band of brothers who knew they needed to work together in life-or-death circumstances. Led by John Glover, a trusted confidante of George Washington, they served as a highly-skilled special operations unit.

They saved the Continental Army from total destruction after the Battle of Long Island, and they ferried Washington and his army across the Delaware — a near-impossible feat.

Bestselling author Patrick O’Donnell tells a riveting story, bringing new stories to light about the white, black and red men of the Marblehead regiment. (He has written xxx books)

Mighty Storms of New England: The Hurricanes, Tornadoes, Blizzards, and Floods That Shaped the Region

Weather junkies will love this new history book about snowstorms, droughts, heat waves, tornadoes, blizzards and floods. Meteorologist Eric Fisher goes beyond the damage and loss caused by weather events. He also discusses how severe storms changed the course of history. New warning systems, government agencies and technologies developed in their aftermath.

Many New Englanders know Eric Fisher as the chief meteorologist for WBZ-TV and as a contributor to CBS News. He says few places on earth produce such varied weather as New England does. And that, he explains, is why the region breeds one of the highest concentrations of meteorologists in the United States.

Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty

Anderson Cooper’s last name may not be Vanderbilt, but he’s a true scion of the dynasty founded by his great-great-great grandfather, Cornelius Vanderbilt.

The CNN anchor teams up with New York Times bestselling historian Katharine Howe to write a new history book about his fabled family. Though Cornelius Vanderbilt — the “Commodore” — made his fortune in New York, the Vanderbilts frittered away their money in Bar Harbor, Maine, Shelburne Farms, Vt., and Newport, R.I.

Cooper brings an insider’s perspective to the triumphs and failures of the Vanderbilts. He takes us from the rough-and-tumble wharves of old Manhattan to the ornate summer palaces of Newport. He tells us about the secret Vanderbilts who lived on a floor of the Breakers and reveals that he attended Truman Capote’s famous “Black and White” ball at the Plaza Hotel in utero.

One critic described Vanderbilt as a “smart, soulful, page turner.” Another called it “the most interesting and most human of the books that I have read about the super-rich American families of the 19th century.”

Travels with George: In Search of Washington and His Legacy

A new history book from Nathaniel Philbrick is always good news in New England, though this one is a bit different. Philbrick, his wife Melissa and their dog followed the path taken by Washington during his presidential visits to the new nation. So the book reads as part history, part memoir and part travelogue. One reader noted the author and his wife “make pleasant company.”

Why do Washington’s travels matter? Because in 1789 the United States was still a loose, quarrelsome confederation. The former colonists didn’t think of themselves as Americans. Washington, beloved by all, set out to change that. He went from Mount Vernon to the new capital in New York and then took a month-long tour of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. He ventured onto Long Island and then headed south. Travels with George includes extensive maps, pictures and documents along the way.

The Boston Globe called it “a lively, courageous, and masterful achievement.”

Letters From Red Farm: The Untold Story of the Friendship Between Helen Keller and Journalist Joseph Edgar Chamberlin

When Helen Keller was eight years old, she and Annie Sullivan visited Boston. There she met a man who would change her life: Joseph Edgar Chamberlin, popular Boston Transcript columnist. Chamberlin owned Red Farm in Wrentham, Mass., and Keller visited often. So did artists and intellectuals of the day, like Louise Guiney, Fred Holland Day and Edward Everett Hale.

The book tells the story of Keller’s friendship with Chamberlin, who became her literary mentor. It also reintroduces Chamberlin to the public and explores how Keller grew interested in social activism. Letters From Red Farm, written by Chamberlin’s great-great-granddaughter, uses previously unpublished letters and new research.

Disability lawyer Haben Girma called the revelations in the book “stunning.” “The letters from Keller and her friends make her feel even more relatable to contemporary readers,” she wrote.

Bette Davis Black and White

Film star Bette Davis was a Yankee gal committed to civil rights for African Americans. Bette Davis Black and White tells the story of Davis’ outspoken advocacy for civil rights. It also describes her black co-stars’ efforts to disrupt America’s racial fantasies.

The book analyzes four of her best known films against Americans’ historic attitudes about race. It includes testimonies from Davis’ black contemporaries and letters from her African-American fans,

University of Chicago Press has scheduled the book’s release for Dec. 13, 2021.

Reading the Gravestones of Old New England

Author John G.S. Hanson has walked through many an old New England graveyard and learned a thing or two along the way. During his explorations of old cemeteries he found an incredible range of poetic messages. They express not only emotions, but the culture, religion and literature of their age.

Hanson identifies the texts and authors that inspired the messages carved in stone. He also interprets the tastes and beliefs of the survivors who did the choosing.

McFarland & Company has scheduled the book’s release for Nov. 5, 2021.

Passing Through the Fire: Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain in the Civil War

Civil War buffs and fans of Joshua Chamberlain will welcome this new history book about the hero of Gettysburg. It tells the story of his miraculous survival from battlefield surgery after getting hit in the groin with a bullet. While convalescing he considered leaving the Army. His decision to return affected the outcome of the war.

Passing Through the Fire follows Chamberlain’s during his Civil War years, from Maryland to Pennsylvania to Virginia. Author Brian Swartz takes the reader beyond the battlefield as well, reveals the real person behind the legend. He includes photos and maps not seen by the “average Civil war” student.

“If you have an interest in the Civil War and its leadership this is a book must,” writes one happy reader.

The Isolation Artist: Scandal, Deception and the Last Days of Robert Indiana

Pop artist Robert Indiana had fame and lots and lots of money, but he died alone and uncared for in horrendous living conditions. Born Robert Clark in Indiana, he changed his last name and eventually moved to Vinalhaven Island in Maine. He wanted fame, and he got it with his iconic Love sculpture in 1965.

Indiana had no interest in the business of art, and so he surrounded himself with people to manage his life and career. When he died in 2018, suspicions arose about fraudulent artwork, elder abuse, a coerced will and an inconclusive autopsy.

Author Bob Keyes tells a fast-paced story of an artist’s life that straddled Downeast Maine and the unscrupulous world of high-end art.

Deliberate Evil: Nathaniel Hawthorne, Daniel Webster, and the 1830 Murder of a Salem Slave Trader

When a Salem slave trader was murdered in cold blood in 1830, the national press took notice. Not only did two of the conspirators come from the wealthy and influential Crowninshield family, but Daniel Webster led the prosecution. A young Nathaniel Hawthorne knew several of the people involved in the murder. As always, he observed and took notes.

Edward J. Renehan, Jr., uses previously unavailable source materials about the murder, the investigations, the scandal-ridden trials and the grisly execution at the end. The Chicago Review Press has scheduled its release for Dec. 7, 2021.

Justice Rising: Robert Kennedy’s America in Black and White

In this new history book, Robert F. Kennedy belongs with Martin Luther King, Jr., James Baldwin and Cesar Chavez. Patricia Sullivan, a civil rights historian, presents Robert Kennedy at the center of the 1960s civil rights movement.

She tells how protests against Jim Crow started out as a political problem for the young attorney general, but then became a moral one. Under Kennedy, the Justice Department battled Southern resistance to voter registration and school desegregation.

Justice Rising is an eye-opening account of Kennedy’s vision and energy drove momentum for change. Until his death, he led what he called “the revolution within our gates, the struggle of the American Negro for full equality and full freedom.”

Historian Douglas Brinkley called Justice Rising “a profound and uplifting account of Robert F. Kennedy’s brave crusade for racial equality.”

The Last King of America: The Misunderstood Reign of George III

George III, America’s last king, got a reputation for stupidity and evil that never went away. Until now. Historian Andrew Roberts shows how revolutionary propagandists like Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine gave George a bad rap.

In reality, George was wise, humane, and even enlightened. Unfortunately, he had talented enemies and incompetent ministers, and he suffered from debilitating mental illness and horrible luck. Roberts paints a nuanced portrait of George and describes his forgotten accomplishments.

The Best Ever! Parades in New England 1788-1940

Every New England town has a parade tradition, according to historian Jane Nylander, who specializes in domestic life in New England from the 1850s to the 1950s. She observes that those traditions tell us much about the culture, both locally and nationally.

Nylander, former president of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, includes nearly 300 photos, some of them quite rare, in The Best Ever! They include the Federal Ship carried in the 1788 Ratification parade at New Haven, Conn., to 1940 when the parade tradition largely ended when World War II began.

It’s Better To Be Feared: The New England Patriots Dynasty and the Pursuit of Greatness

In this instant classic, Seth Wickersham tells the story of the most dominant — and secretive — NFL team ever. Wickersham, a Connecticut resident, is one of the country’s premier investigative sportswriters.

He has covered the Patriots since 2001, when Brady took over as starting quarterback. Drawing on hundreds of interviews and previously confidential documents, he presents the definitive account of the Patriots’ dynasty. The book is chock full of fresh and revealing information about the team’s two dominant personalities, Bill Belichick and Tom Brady.

Wickersham explores Belichick’s tactical brilliance, strange work habits, affection for his players and determination to dominate the league. He shines especially in his portrait of Brady, though, taking the reader from Brady’s childhood in northern California to his split from the Patriots.

Even for Jets fans, this New York Times bestseller is as hard to put down as a bowl of salted peanuts.

Two Centuries of Maine Shipbuilding

This lavishly illustrated book begins with the dugout and birchbark canoes made by the Wabanaki and their ancestors. When Europeans began to settle in the 17th century, they immediately began building vessels and never really stopped.

Author Nathan Lipfert takes the reader from the first merchant and fishing vessels, through the great schooners, decline of deepwater sail, the steel shipyards and World War II all the way to the present. Lipfert, curator emeritus of the Maine Maritime Museum, relies on a trove of resources about Maine’s historic industry. The book includes a bibliography, two appendices, a glossary and hundreds of illustrations.

The Peyton Place Murder: The True Crime Story Behind The Novel That Shocked The Nation

The Peyton Place Murder is not a sequel to the novel Peyton Place, but a new history book about the murder that inspired Grace Metalious to write her sensational best seller back in the 1950s. The murder, though, known as “the Sheep Pen Murder,” took place in Gilmanton, N.H., in the late 1940s.

Author Renee Mallett weaves together the story of Grace Metalious, who grew up poor in Manchester, N.H., and Barbara Roberts, the young woman who confessed to the killing.

This book is for anyone who enjoys reading about true crime and small-town life in new England.

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How the Codfish Started the American Revolution

The American Revolution was to some extent a fight over the big, stupid, slow-moving codfish.

Codfish were by far colonial New England’s biggest export. The codfish was so important to New England that John Adams made sure the British allowed U.S. fishermen access to the Grand Banks and other banks off Newfoundland as part of the Treaty of Paris.

Adams believed the fledgling country needed a thriving fishery in order to have trained mariners who could serve in the navy. The U.S. Congress agreed with him, and in 1792 decided to pay fishermen a bounty for catching codfish.

The codfish had special importance to Massachusetts, where to this day the wooden Sacred Cod hangs above the chambers of the commonwealth’s House of Representatives.

The Sacred Codfish

Between 1768 and 1772, fish accounted for 35 percent of all the money New England made overseas. Livestock came in a poor second, at 20 percent.

When the American Revolution broke out, 10,000 New Englanders worked as fishermen, or eight percent of the adult male working population.

In Massachusetts, Marblehead and Gloucester ranked as the top fishing ports, with Salem, Beverly, Cape Cod, Ipswich and Plymouth heavily engaged in fishing.

The fisheries had a multiplier effect, generating income for people engaged in overseas trade, timbering, shipbuilding, ship rigging, sail making and other waterfront industries.

But powerful British plantation owners and fish merchants viewed the colonial fishing fleets as a threat to their own business. In 1733, they began to pressure Parliament to crack down on their colonial competitors. Their increasing success inhibited the New England economy and fomented much of the anger that led to revolution.

Dried Codfish

In the early 17^th century, New England fishermen didn’t venture far from home. They fished in small boats near the shore.

But later in the 1600s they began to fish offshore in two-masted schooners with crews of seven or eight men. The skipper recruited the crews, chose where to fish, navigated and counted the fish. Sharesmen handlined for cod and processed the catch. The cuttails – inexperienced boys and young men – cut bait, baited the hooks and processed the catch.

Fishing schooner L. A. Dunton at Mystic Seaport.

By the time they reached 30, most fishermen retired from the trade or died from drowning, fishing accidents or fever caught in the West Indies. It was a physically demanding job in a profane work environment.

Nor was it always pleasant, as the fishermen cut up and salted the fish on board ship.

But as historian Christopher Paul Magra pointed out, “the nature of work in the commercial cod fishing industry uniquely prepared fishermen and fish merchants to play leading roles in securing American independence.”

The French

In the 18^th century the market expanded for dried codfish, which contained 80 percent protein. New England fish merchants began to ship dried codfish to the Catholic countries of Europe, where the Pope was declaring more and more meatless feast days. Dried codfish also fed the burgeoning slave populations on West Indian sugar plantations.

By the middle of the 18^th century, New Englanders shipped most of their dried codfish to the West Indies and exchanged it for sugar, molasses and rum. They found the French island plantations sold sugar cheaper, and the French slave populations grew faster, than the British. Plus, the New England fish merchants had so much fish to sell they couldn’t unload it all on British customers.

Slaves planting sugar cane in Antigua.

So the New Englanders began to trade with the French. But the powerful British plantation owners did not appreciate the British colonists buying from their French competitors. So they persuaded Parliament in 1733 to pass the Molasses Act. It imposed duties on imported – that is, French – sugar, molasses and rum. Parliament reenacted the law every five years, but rarely made sure it was enforced.

Parliament

By 1764, the British planters convinced Parliament to pass the Sugar Act, which put a tariff on sugar and banned the import of non-British rum.

Parliament did something else to harm New England fishing interests: It banned trade with the French in North America. British fish merchants in the West Country did not like the colonists trading with fishermen in Newfoundland – they wanted to do it themselves.

Edmund Burke

This time, Parliament ordered the Royal Navy to enforce the Sugar Act. British ships from Halifax began to seize New England’s fishing vessels. Edmund Burke, the Anglo-Irish statesman, condemned the Sugar Act. He described it as corrupt heads of state creating a monopoly to generate revenue and to use the military to enforce that monopoly.

The Sugar Act

The Sugar Act meant most of the dried fish processed in New England could not be sold. New Englanders retaliated by boycotting British goods. At the same time, fishing vessels lay idle in Massachusetts harbors and fishermen looked for work.

As tensions mounted between Britain and the colonies, some members of Parliament proposed a moratorium on the New England fishing industry. On March 30, 1775 – less than two weeks before the shot heard round the world – Parliament passed a law that limited New England’s trade to Britain and the British West Indies. It also banned New England ships from the fisheries off Canada. Under the law, ships couldn’t even carry fishing tackle unless granted special permission.

Revolution

Unsurprisingly, New England’s cod fishermen played a disproportionate role in combating the British. Their role in the war led leaders like Adams to argue the fisheries served as nurseries for fighting men.

They helped lay siege to British forces at Boston, and they converted their fishing vessels into warships. The fishing fleets turned into privateers or became part of state navies, the Continental Navy or the coast guard.

Glover’s Regiment crossing the Delaware with Gen. Washington

Fish merchants like Marblehead’s Elbridge Gerry and Jeremiah Lee used their commercial contacts in Spain and the West Indies to buy military supplies for the patriots.

And a former fish merchant played a key role in one of the most famous actions of the American Revolution. John Glover and his men ferried George Washington and the Continental Army over the Delaware River on Christmas Eve, 1776.

With thanks to The New England Cod Fishing Industry and Maritime Dimensions of the American Revolution by Christopher Paul Magra. This story was updated in 2022.

Images: L.A. Dunton By Ad Meskens – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20754268.

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