Washington also appreciated the discipline of Glover’s Regiment. As seafarers, they were used to instantly obeying their officers — unlike the other New Englanders in the Continental Army. Sea captains made up many of the regiment’s 10 company captains, each of whom commanded about 50 privates, .a lieutenant, an ensign, several sergeants and corporals, clerks, drummers and fifers. After the Boston Massacre Glover was elected to the Committee of Correspondence. He was lieutenant commander of the militia when Col. Jeremiah Lee died in April 1775. Shortly thereafter, Glover’s Regiment marched to the Siege of Boston. A few years later, Edward Augustus Holyoke took charge of the a smallpox hospital in Salem. Six hundred patients received the smallpox inoculation, and the disease never took hold in the town.

The night was fearfully cold and dark, with rain turning to sleet, then snow, and the northeast wind beating on the men’s faces. Gen. Henry Knox thought it impossible to cross the river. The disease continued its fearful ravages till late in the summer of 1731, and gathered its victims with an unsparing hand,” wrote Samuel Roads in 1881. “Rich and poor, old and young, the learned and the unlettered were alike afflicted by this impartial agent of death.” History Repeats Itself In 1773, there was a deadly smallpox outbreak in the town of Marblehead. John Glover along with Azor Orne and Elbridge Gerry petitioned the town of Marblehead for a hospital to be built on Cat Island. [7] 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 from Salem. [7] Known as the Essex 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. [8] Military career [ edit ] Around 6:00 PM on Christmas night, the Marbleheaders began shuttling soldiers, artillery, and horses across the river. The process would continue into the early morning, much of it in the face of a relentless Nor’easter. Part of the reason may have to do with his personal friendship with the bold, burly John Glover, forged during the Siege of Boston. Glover, like Washington, exercised good taste and decorum. He dressed well, always with two silver pistols and a Scottish broadsword. The rest of the regimental leadership also came from some of Marblehead’s leading families — Ornes, Lees and Gerrys — tied together by blood and friendship. “The officers seem to have mixed with the world,” noted one observer.

Washington and Glover

The Marblehead, Massachusetts, unit was originally formed in January 1775 after a town meeting voted to reorganize the militia, stripping the existing Tory commanders of their military powers and assigning Jeremiah Lee as the regimental commander. John Glover was elected second lieutenant colonel. The regiment armed itself in part using captured weapons and powder seized during a night time raid of HMS Lively led by Samuel Trevett in early February. [1]

Following the Boston Massacre in 1770, Committees of Correspondence were formed. Marblehead elected Glover along with future revolutionists Elbridge Gerry and Azor Orne to committee posts. [6] After the First 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. Rendered unemployed and angry by the strict trade measures imposed by British Parliament, virtually every able-bodied man in Marblehead, Massachusetts, rallied to fight against their common enemy. (Accounts vary significantly as to exactly how many men the group included at its inception.) The Origins of the MarbleheadersJohn Glover and his family lived in Marblehead, MA where he built a house in 1762, now known as the John Glover House, a National Historic Landmark. The General Glover farmhouse, in Swampscott, MA, and also built in 1700s, is where Glover lived beginning in 1782 after retiring from the military. While living here, he served as a local selectman and Massachusetts State representative. The house still stands today in Swampscott, MA but threatened by demolition. [21] Memorials and legacy [ edit ]

There are 408 names on the Vietnam plaque and 379 on the Korea plaque. There are asterisks next to the names of people killed in action — nine in Vietnam and four in Korea. On Christmas Day, 1776, the Americans had suffered a series of defeats since the debacle on Long Island. Washington’s army had grown tired of retreating. Washington desperately needed to motivate his men to re-enlist at the end of the year.

Few regiments in the Continental Army have been given such attention as that of the 14th Continental Regiment, a short-lived band of brothers that history remembered for their grizzled, hard-nosed ruggedness and willingness to assist in some of the war’s earliest, most dire moments. The ‘men of Marblehead’ have earned the mythical treatment of our respect and pause, but most have only heard of the town that brought these soldiers into combat. Who were they and how exactly did their service earn them a place in annuals of American military history? On the stormy night of August 29, 1776, the Continental Army faced capture or annihilation after losing the Battle of Brooklyn. The British had trapped George Washington’s forces against the East River, and the fate of the Revolution rested upon the shoulders of the soldier-mariners from Marblehead, Massachusetts. Serving side by side in one of the country’s first diverse units, they pulled off an “American Dunkirk” and saved the army by transporting it across the treacherous waters of the river to Manhattan.