The American Revolution, Episode 3, Family Connections

 

The third episode of Ken Burns’s The American Revolution, “The Times That Try Men’s Souls,” covered some of the darkest months of the war, from July 1776 to January 1777. Through a series of blunders, George Washington’s forces lost the Battle of Long Island, fled Manhattan, and were chased south through New Jersey. We had two 6th great-grandfathers who fought alongside Washington at that time.

 

The first was Benoni Cutler from the Cross/Torrance branch of our tree. He was born in Connecticut in 1737 and fought in the French and Indian War as part of two different state militias, one led by Capt. Israel Putnam. After that conflict, he married Laurana Leavens, and they had five children before the Revolution broke out. Cutler served first in 1775, again under Israel Putnam, after the Lexington Alarm and possibly the Battle of Bunker Hill (written about here).

 

Cutler then accepted a commission as a captain in Colonel Andrew Ward’s Regiment in May 1776—you can see his name on the roster here. According to the same source, Ward’s Connecticut Regiment “joined Washington’s army at New York in August, and was stationed at first near Ft. Lee [and marched] with the troops to White Plains, and subsequently into New Jersey.” They could have all been wiped out, which would have been trouble for us, because his daughter Lucy Cutler, our 5th great-grandmother, was not yet born. Lucky us!

 

Washington rallied his troops in Pennsylvania, north of Philadelphia, in the fall of 1776. It was here that our other 6th great-grandfather, John Hull, joined the patriot forces. He was a lieutenant in the 2nd New Hampshire Regiment, led by Col. Enoch Poor.

 

Both Benoni Cutler’s and John Hull’s regiments marched under the command of General John Sullivan, meaning they crossed the Delaware with George Washington on Christmas Day 1776. After all troops had reached the New Jersey side in the early morning of December 26, they marched in two columns south to Trenton. They would both have been on the right column, along the river, while Gen. Washington and Gen. Greene were farther inland.

 

 

 

It was a rout—the 1,500 German Hessians at Trenton did not expect an attack on the holiday and did not hear the patriots coming. Almost 900 were captured; few were killed. Only two patriots died, and both from exposure after the crossing.

 

 

I plan to write a more detailed entry on the Delaware River crossing and the Battle of Trenton, once I’ve had a chance to read McCullough’s 1776. Look for it on the blog this Christmas. 

 

Mom, Joe, and I visited Washington Crossing Historic Site in 2018, which had a museum on the Pennsylvania side and a replica of a ferry flatboat on the New Jersey side. (Soldiers went in Durham boats, like the one shown in the famous painting above, but artillery and horses crossed in flatboats.) There’s now a bridge at the crossing.

 

The crossing in 2018. 

 

Mom and Joe on a flatboat replica, 2018.

 

In an interesting coincidence, these two ancestors came from opposite side of the family tree—John Hull was Marion Mae Baer’s 3rd great-grandfather, and Benoni Cutler was Jesse Ray Green’s 3rd great-grandfather. Grandma was a 4th great-grandaughter to them both.