John Glover (general)


John Glover was an American fisherman, merchant, politician, and military leader from Marblehead, Massachusetts, who served as a brigadier general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He is most famous in American history for his role in helping found what would become the United States Navy, along with his regiment rowing Washington across the Delaware, the Battle of Long Island, and leading one of the first integrated regiments in the American Revolution.

Early life

Glover was born in Salem, 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. As a young man, Glover became a cordwainer and rum trader and eventually a ship owner and international merchant. He married Hannah Gale in October 1754.
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. 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.
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. 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. 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.

Military career

Glover was active in the militia for many years before the Revolution, with his earliest service dating back to 1759. In 1775 he was elected lieutenant colonel of the 21st Massachusetts Regiment from Marblehead, and became commander of the unit after the death of Colonel Jeremiah Lee in April 1775.

American Navy

Glover marched his regiment to join the siege of Boston in June 1775. At Boston, General George Washington chartered Glover's schooner Hannah to raid British supply vessels, the first of many privateers or warship authorized by Washington. For this reason the Hannah has been occasionally called the first vessel of the Continental Navy or its later successor the United States Navy.

Leader of one of the first integrated American Regiments

The Marblehead militia or "Glover's Regiment" became the 14th 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.” This regiment became known as the "amphibious regiment" for their vital nautical skills. It was composed almost entirely of seamen, mariners and fishermen. Many of these men of were Native Americans, Jewish, African-Americans, and Spanish forming the first integrated units in the new American military. 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. 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.

Battle of Long Island

After Washington lost the Battle of Long Island in August 1776, Glover's Marbleheaders evacuated the army across the East River to Manhattan Island in a surprise nighttime operation, saving them from being entrapped in their fortified trenches on Brooklyn Heights. In subsequent actions of the New York campaign the regiment fought well against the British at the battles of Kip's Bay and Pell's Point.

Battle of Pell's Point

On October 18, 1776 General Howe landed 4,000 men at Pell's Point 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 Hessian soldiers, firing from behind concealed positions. As the Hessians 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 Hessians 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 New York.

Battle of Trenton

The last action of the regiment was its most famous: ferrying Washington's army on confiscated river coal ore boats from upstream across the Delaware River at night for a surprise attack on Hessian forces at the Battle of Trenton in New Jersey on the morning of December 26, 1776.

Saratoga campaign

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 successful Saratoga campaign with General Schuyler along the Hudson River in the summer and fall of 1777. He would later join the attack on the British encampment with General Gates, leading to the surrender and capture of 5,791 troops under the command of General John Burgoyne. General Glover was assigned to escort the prisoners back to Cambridge, MA, where his regiment was greeted all the way back with victorious cheers by spectators along the road.

West Point and Battle of Rhode Island

In the winter of 1778, his brigade joined Washington's encampment at Valley Forge. In June of that year, Washington assigned him the command of Fort Arnold, at West Point, where he surpervised the construction of the forts and redoubts in the area. In the following years he would take part in Battle 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. For the remainder of the war, he was stationed back along the Hudson River at West Point, guarding against British moves up the river from New York City.

Retirement from military service

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.

Later life

Hannah, Glover's first wife, died in 1778. He married again, in 1781, to widow Frances Fosdick, a relative of Paul Revere. John Glover moved to the Glover Farm in 1782, on the current day border of Marblehead, Salem and Swampscott. He had purchased it the year before in 1781 from the state, that had confiscated the property from a British loyalist. In 1784, the Marquis 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."

Political career

Glover served in local offices including six terms as a town selectman, delegate to the state convention that ratified the U.S. Constitution, and two-term member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. During his 1789 tour of the United States, President George Washington made a detour to see Glover and thank the residents of Marblehead for their service during the war.

Death

Glover died on January 30, 1797, after contracting hepatitis. He was buried in a brick tomb on Marblehead's Old Burial Hill. His death is now commemorated annually by , with a memorial lantern procession to his tomb and a three-volley gun salute.

Historic residences

Glover and his family lived in house he built in 1762, now known as the John Glover House, a National Historic Landmark. The General Glover Farmhouse, originally built in what was then Salem, and now in Swampscott, was also built in the 1700s, and it is where Glover lived beginning in 1782 after retiring from the military, until his death in 1797. The house stands today but was threatened by demolition in 2025, resulting in a preservation effort to prevent the loss of Glover's final home.
File:General Glover Farmhouse.jpg|thumb|General Glover's Farmhouse and final home in Swampscott, MA

Monuments and legacy

Monuments and sites