NY, USA
John Glover
1732–1797 · Continental Army Colonel · Marblehead Amphibious Regiment Commander · Massachusetts Fisherman
1732–1797
Continental Army Colonel · Marblehead Amphibious Regiment Commander · Massachusetts Fisherman
John Glover was born in 1732 in Salem, Massachusetts, and grew up in Marblehead, a fishing and maritime community whose men were among the most skilled sailors and watermen in colonial America. Glover became a successful merchant, shipowner, and fish trader, and by the time of the Revolution he had built a comfortable life on the sea trade that defined Marblehead's economy. When the war came, Glover organized the town's seafaring men into the 14th Continental Infantry — the Marblehead regiment — a unit that reflected its membership's unusual competence in boats, tides, and water.
Glover's regiment played a decisive role in two of the most critical moments of the 1776 campaign. At Pell's Point on October 18 — just days before the Battle of White Plains — Glover's four small regiments encountered a British force of roughly 4,000 men who had landed on the Westchester shore to outflank Washington's position. Glover conducted a masterful delaying action, using stone walls and terrain to slow the British advance while suffering relatively light casualties. The delay bought Washington the time to reach White Plains and fortify before the British could cut off his retreat. The same regiment had previously executed the famous night crossing of the Delaware River on December 25-26, 1776, rowing Washington's army through ice and darkness to the surprise attack on Trenton.
Glover rose to brigadier general and continued to serve in subsequent campaigns, though recurring illness limited his effectiveness in later years. He retired from active service in 1782 and returned to Marblehead, where he spent his remaining years managing his business affairs. He died in 1797. Glover's career illustrated a truth that the Revolution repeatedly confirmed: the new nation's military survival often depended not on professional soldiers trained in European methods but on men who brought specific vocational skills — in Glover's case, the ability to move troops and supplies by water — that no army academy could have manufactured.
In White Plains
- Oct 1776Battle of Pell's Point(Continental Army Colonel)
On October 18, 1776, Colonel John Glover's Marblehead regiment encountered the British landing force at Pell's Point on the Westchester shore. The British had landed 4,000 troops to flank Washington's army; Glover had approximately 750 men in four regiments. What followed was one of the most skillful delaying actions of the entire war. Glover posted his regiments behind stone walls at intervals, ordering each to fire a volley, then fall back to the next position while the next regiment fired. The British advanced cautiously, unable to determine American strength. Glover sustained the action for most of the day, inflicting significant casualties on the larger force while taking relatively light losses himself. The military significance was profound: Glover's delay gave Washington ten critical days to withdraw from Harlem Heights, march to White Plains, choose his position, and construct earthworks before Howe arrived. Without Pell's Point, the British might have cut the American army off before it could reach defensible ground. Glover's action receives little attention in popular histories of the Revolution, but professional military historians consistently identify it as one of the most important small-unit actions of the war.
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