The American Revolution, Episode 4, Family Connections

The Death of General Mercer at the Battle of Princeton, January 3, 1777, by John Trumbull

Following George Washington’s victory at Trenton, patriot forces were (mostly) on a roll. Last night’s episode, “Conquer by a Drawn Game,” covered the year between Trenton and Valley Forge.

 

As discussed in yesterday’s post, we had two 6th great-grandfathers, Benoni Cutler and John Hull, who crossed the Delaware with Washington and captured the Hessian brigade at Trenton. Eight days after that battle, both men were part of the Continental Army’s victory at the Battle of Princeton.

 

After Princeton, Cutler’s and Hall’s units headed off in different directions. Hull’s 2nd New Hampshire Regiment headed north to Fort Ticonderoga, New York, where they spent the winter. Cutler’s Connecticut Regiment stayed with Washington in New Jersey, where they went into winter quarters at Morristown. I wrote an earlier post about Washington’s inoculation order, and our visit to the non-existent historic site. It was here that Benoni Cutler finished his one-year commitment, and in May 1777 he returned to his family in Connecticut. He and his wife Laurana had four more children (nine total), including our 5th great-grandmother Lucy Cutler in 1781.

 

Fort Ticonderoga today.

 

Farther north, 3,000 Continental soldiers, including John Hull, were run out of Fort Ticonderoga in early July. As shown in last night’s episode, 7,800 Redcoats seized the higher ground around the fort, and rather than be blown to bits, the patriots retreated toward Hubbardton, New Hampshire, chased by the British.

 

On July 7, 1777, the armies clashed again at Hubbardton. Of the 2,000 patriots, 150 soldiers were killed and another 450 were wounded, but John Hull escaped injury or capture. He would next see fighting at the Battles of Saratoga.

 

 

Jonathan Chase

 

In addition to Hull, there were two other family members who were at Saratoga: Jonathan Chase, our 1st cousin 8x removed on the Green/Stewart/Dudley branch, and Benedict Arnold, our 2nd cousin 10x removed on the same branch. I’ve written about Arnold’s treachery in an earlier post, but at this point he was still on the patriots’ side, and gave his left leg in the battle.

 

Jonathan Chase was appointed as a colonel in the 13th New Hampshire Militia Regiment, and at Saratoga he served under the command of Gen.William Whipple, a signatory to the Declaration of Independence.

 

There were two battle at Saratoga, the first on September 19 near Freeman’s Farm, and the second on October 7 at Bemis Heights. It was a complete victory for the patriots—Britain’s Gen. Burgoyne was forced to surrender his entire 6,800-man army, the first time that had ever happened to the British.

 

 

Surrender of General Burgoyne by John Trumbull, 1822, which today hangs in the US Capitol Rotunda.

 

 

According to Chase’s wiki page, “At the surrender of Gen. John Burgoyne, Col. Chase drew up the Articles of Convention for the Surrender of General Burgoyne’s Army for Gen. Horatio Gates.” When Mom, Joe, Joey, and I visited in 2018, we spoke to the historian at the Saratoga National Historic Park, and while he tossed some cold water on that claim, he didn’t drown it entirely. He had no evidence regarding who on the staff might have helped draw up the Articles of Convention and suggested that it wasn’t uncommon for family lore to be embellished . . . but he didn’t say NO conclusively. Maybe he was just being nice.

 

View from the hilltop overlooking the Saratoga battlefields, 2018.

 

Around the same time as Saratoga, George Washington was leading his troops against British forces in and around Philadelphia. As detailed in Burns’s documentary, things did not go as well for the patriots in Pennsylvania as they did in Saratoga. Though equally matched in terms of troop numbers, Washington lost at the Battle of Brandywine on September 11, 1777, but survived to fight another day. Four weeks later on October 4, Washington again had to retreat after the Battle of Germantown. But they didn’t go far; they ended up encamped 20 miles to the west at Valley Forge.

 

Another ancestor, William Woodard Jr., our 5th great-grandfather, fought at both Brandywine and Germantown, and spent the winter at Valley Forge. He was a 16-year-old private in Grayson’s Regiment. Woodard had been born in Nottinghamshire, England in 1761, emigrated to the colonies with his parents, and enlisted at Philadelphia in the spring of 1777.

 

Unfortunately, I have not been able to uncover too much information about Woodard, as he only lived to the age of 22, and only had one child, Ichabod Woodard, our 4th great-grandfather written about here. Valley Forge National Historic Park was our first stop on our trip in 2018, and we were able to find the historic marker and approximate location of where Woodard spent that brutal winter on 1777–78.