John Glover | |
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| Born | November 5, 1732 |
| Died | January 30, 1797(1797-01-30) (aged 64) |
| Occupation(s) | Military general, Massachusetts politician, Cordwainer, Fisherman, Rum trader, Merchant |
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John Glover (November 5, 1732 – January 30, 1797) was an American fisherman, merchant, politician, and military leader fromMarblehead, Massachusetts, who served as abrigadier general in theContinental Army during theAmerican Revolutionary War.[1][2] He is most famous in American history for his role in helping found what would become theUnited States Navy,[3] along with hisregiment rowing Washington across the Delaware, theBattle of Long Island, and leading one of the first integrated regiments in the American Revolution.[4]
Glover was born inSalem, Massachusetts, the son of a house carpenter. When John was four years old, his father died. Shortly thereafter, his mother and three brothers moved to the neighboring town of Marblehead.[5] As a young man, Glover became acordwainer and rum trader and eventually a ship owner and international merchant.[6] He married Hannah Gale in October 1754.[7]
Following theBoston Massacre in 1770,Committees of Correspondence were formed. Marblehead elected Glover along with future revolutionistsElbridge Gerry andAzor Orne to committee posts.[8] After theFirst Continental Congress passed the non-importation agreements sanctioning trade with the British, Glover was elected to enforce the embargo as a member of the committee of inspection.
In 1773, there was a deadlysmallpox outbreak in the town of Marblehead. John Glover along withAzor Orne andElbridge Gerry petitioned the town of Marblehead for a hospital to be built onCat Island.[9] After the town voted against it out of suspicions, they took it upon themselves to privately build the hospital on the island after receiving permission fromSalem.[9] Known as theEssex Hospital, it was successful in treating majority of the patients. However, many of Marblehead's citizens were still uneasy about it, forcing it to close, with a few locals eventually burning it down.[10]
Glover was active in the militia for many years before the Revolution, with his earliest service dating back to 1759.[11] In 1775 he was elected lieutenant colonel of the 21st Massachusetts Regiment from Marblehead, and became commander of the unit after the death of ColonelJeremiah Lee in April 1775.
Glover marched his regiment to join thesiege of Boston in June 1775. At Boston, GeneralGeorge Washington chartered Glover's schoonerHannah to raid British supply vessels, the first of manyprivateers or warship authorized by Washington. For this reason theHannah has been occasionally called the first vessel of theContinental Navy or its later successor theUnited States Navy.[12]
The Marblehead militia or "Glover's Regiment" became the14th Continental Regiment. John Glover was able to raise a regiment of 500 men composed of both his militia and Marblehead mariners, and termed by Washington as soldiers “bred to the sea.”[13] This regiment became known as the "amphibious regiment" for their vital nautical skills. It was composed almost entirely of seamen, mariners and fishermen.[14] Many of these men of were Native Americans, Jewish, African-Americans, and Spanish forming the first integrated units in the newAmerican military.[4] The regiment's muster rolls listed one-third of the men as dark complexioned. A Pennsylvania general was shocked by the “number of negroes” treated as equals in Glover's Regiment.[15] Most of the regiment lived in Marblehead, and came together before the war, fishing in the Grand Banks. At sea, everyone worked toward a common goal, and an individual's background did not matter, a philosophy carried over to the regiment.[4]
After Washington lost theBattle of Long Island (akaBattle of Brooklyn) in August 1776, Glover's Marbleheaders evacuated the army across theEast River toManhattan Island in a surprise nighttime operation, saving them from being entrapped in their fortified trenches onBrooklyn Heights.[16] In subsequent actions of theNew York campaign the regiment fought well against the British atKip's Bay when the Redcoats invaded, landing on Manhattan andPell's Point.
On October 18, 1776 General Howe landed 4,000 men at Pell's Point (Present-day Pelham Bay Park in The Bronx, NY) to cut off Washington's escape from New York City. Col. John Glover and the 750 men of his regiment were there to stop this from happening. Without a superior officer to direct his actions, Glover took command and positioned his men behind stone walls on both sides of the road. Glover's Marbleheaders inflicted heavy casualties on the British and Hessian soldiers, firing from behind concealed positions. As the British advanced Glover's regiment would fall back, leapfrogging past the next group who would, in turn, begin firing. The result was an unrelenting field of fire from which the British had little protection leaving them little choice but to retreat and regroup. Under Glover's leadership the regiment was able to delay the British advance long enough for Washington to complete his evacuation of NYC.
The last action of the regiment was its most famous: ferrying Washington's army on confiscated river coal ore boats from upstreamacross the Delaware River at night for a surprise attack onHessian forces at theBattle of Trenton inNew Jersey on the morning of December 26, 1776.
After Trenton, Glover went home to tend to his sick wife and look to business affairs. He turned down a promotion to brigadier general in February 1777, but rejoined the war and accepted the promotion after a personal appeal from General Washington. As commander of a brigade made up of four Massachusetts regiments, he served in the successfulSaratoga campaign withGeneral Schuyler along theHudson River in the summer and fall of 1777. He would later join the attack on the British encampment withGeneral Gates, leading to the surrender and capture of 5,791 enemy troops under the command of GeneralJohn Burgoyne.[9] General Glover was assigned to escort the prisoners back toCambridge, MA, where his regiment was greeted all the way back with victorious cheers by spectators along the road.[9]
In the winter of 1778, his brigade joined Washington's encampment atValley Forge. In June of that year, Washington assigned him the command ofFort Arnold, atWest Point, where he surpervised the construction of the forts and redoubts in the area.[9] In the following years he would take part inBattle of Rhode Island, where he was able to muster two entire companies in Boston and Salem, with the majority of the volunteers from Marblehead to help reinforce the effort to take back Rhode Island.[9] For the remainder of the war, he was stationed back along the Hudson River atWest Point, guarding against British moves up the river from New York City.
After Cornwallis' surrender at Yorktown in October 1781, it would take two years for a peace treaty to be signed, so the army was not yet disbanded. During this time, General Glover was ordered to Massachusetts to take charge and muster recruits. In July 1782, General John Glover retired from the army, due to his failing health and was placed on the half-pay established by a resolution of Congress.[9]
Hannah, Glover's first wife, died in 1778. He married again, in 1781, to widow Frances (Hitchborn) Fosdick, a relative ofPaul Revere.[18] John Glover moved to theGlover Farm in 1782, on the current day border ofMarblehead andSwampscott. He had purchased it the year before in 1781 from the state, that had confiscated the property from aBritish loyalist.[19] In 1784, theMarquis de Lafayette visited Glover, who fought with him in the American Revolution during which they "had shared the hardships and victories of the battlefield as well as the friendship of Gen. George Washington."[20]
Glover served in local offices including six terms as a town selectman, delegate to the state convention that ratified theU.S. Constitution (1788), and two-term member of theMassachusetts House of Representatives (1788-1789). During his 1789 tour of the United States,President George Washington made a detour to see Glover and thank the residents ofMarblehead for their service during the war.[21]
Glover died on January 30, 1797, after contractinghepatitis. He was buried in a brick tomb in Marblehead'sOld Burial Hill.[22] His death is now commemorated annually byGlover's Regiment, with a memorial lantern procession to his tomb and a three-volley gun salute.[23][24]
Glover and his family lived in house he built in 1762, now known as theJohn Glover House, aNational Historic Landmark. TheGeneral Glover House, originally built in what was thenSalem, and now inSwampscott, was also built in the 1700s, and it is where Glover lived beginning in 1782 after retiring from the military. The house stands today but was threatened by demolition in 2024,[25][26] resulting in a preservation effort Save the Glover to prevent the loss of Glover's final home.[27]
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In honor of General Glover's legacy, founded for the bicentennial, and continued to this day,Glover's Marblehead Regiment, a dedicated group of re-enactors take part in special events throughout the year commemorating the achievements of Glover and his regiment.[23]
In the 2000 television movieThe Crossing, the part of Glover is a pivotal character, and played bySebastian Roché.[36]
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