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List of military leaders in the American Revolutionary War

The list of military leaders in the War of American Independence includes those in the forces of the United States; those in the forces of Great Britain, which fought without European allies, but with Hessian auxiliaries; and, as the war widened to an international conflict after 1778 to a war between European powers, the list includes leaders in the forces of the U.S. ally France, and France's ally Spain. This is a compilation of some of the most important leaders among the many participants in the war, including Native Americans. The British counted on the colonists Loyalists fighting in the American Revolution to aid the king's cause, but the numbers were below what they had expected.

In order to be listed here an individual must satisfy one of the following criteria:

  • Was a nation's top civilian responsible for directing military affairs
  • Held a commission of at least brigadier general or rear admiral in an organized military during the conflict
  • Was the highest-ranking member of a given nation's force that participated in the conflict (if that rank was not at least major general)
  • Was the highest-ranking member of a given state/colonial militia
  • Was a provincial or territorial governor who is documented to have directed a military action
  • Was a Native American tribal leader who had a documented leadership position in military action

Some individuals held concurrent positions in more than one organization, and a number of Continental Army generals also held high-ranking positions in their state militia organizations. Many U.S. combatants were militiamen, not regular troops. Militia are defined as being a part of the organized armed forces of a country liable to call only in emergency or a body of citizens organized for military service.

United States

When armed hostilities began between colonial insurgents and the British Army began outside of Boston, Massachusetts in April 1775, there was no unified colonial army, but rather local militias in each colony. The Second Continental Congress, the elective body from each of the Thirteen Colonies, established the Continental Army in June 1775. It appointed Virginian George Washington as commander-in-chief. The Continental Congress established a standing committee, the Board of War and Ordnance, to function like the British Ministry of War. The board's official seal has military symbolism but also the Phrygian cap of freedom. The Continental Army was established as a regular standing army, with regiments recruited from each state (former colonies), with artillery and cavalry regiments with men from different states.

General and Commander-in-chief

Continental Army

Major generals in chronological order

Brigadier generals

  • John Armstrong Sr. (born Ireland; settled in Pennsylvania). Fought in the French and Indian War; civil engineer; delegate to the Continental Congress.
  • George Clinton (New York). Fought in the French and Indian War; served as governor of New York simultaneously with his leadership in the war for independence; became 4th vice president of the U.S.
  • Amasa Davis (Massachusetts). Began as quartermaster to a Boston regiment. Served with his brother Robert Davis. Amasa and his brother both participated in the Boston Tea Party.
  • Elias Dayton (New Jersey). Fought in the French and Indian War and Pontiac's War; father of a signer of the U.S. Constitution
  • Joseph Frye (Massachusetts), initially a member of the militia, became a brigadier in the Continental Army, but resigned his commission due to incapacity for active service.
  • David Wooster participated in the Quebec invasion, serving as military governor of Montreal. He led the Canadian Department after the death of Richard Montgomery. Following the retreat from Quebec, he returned to his native Connecticut, where he led the state militia. He was killed in the 1777 Battle of Ridgefield.

Foreigner Officers in the Continental Army

Militia leaders by state

  • Caesar Rodney, signed the Declaration of Independence, and led the Delaware state militia until 1781, when he resigned due to poor health. He was active in suppressing Loyalist dissent, and raising men and provisions for the national effort.
  • Georgia
  • Samuel Elbert (Major General of the Georgia militia)
  • James Gunn (Brigadier General in the Georgia militia and U.S Congressman)
  • Maryland
  • Thomas Johnson
  • John Stricker
  • Massachusetts
  • Oliver Brown Lead the soldiers who took down the statue of King George III in New York City, 1776
  • Timothy Danielson Lead the Hampshire County Militia, was a brigadier general in the Massachusetts Militia throughout the Revolutionary War.
  • John Fellows
  • James Frye Senior Colonel and Commander of the Essex County Militia, known as "Frye's Regiment"; later absorbed into the 10th Massachusetts Regiment (Cambridge Brigade) with Frye as the senior Colonel of the Bridge; was in command of this Brigade at Bunker Hill as the senior militia Colonel in the state of Massachusetts.
  • Samuel McClellan
  • Joseph Palmer
  • Peleg Wadsworth
  • Jonathan Warner Colonel Jonathan Warner's Regiment of Minute Men, commanded by Captain Jonathan Barns, marched from Brookfield, Massachusetts on April 19, 1775 upon news of the British advance on Lexington and Concord.
  • Joseph Warren an American physician who played a leading role in American Patriot organizations in Boston in the early days of the American Revolution, eventually serving as President of the revolutionary Massachusetts Provincial Congress. Warren enlisted Paul Revere and William Dawes on April 18, 1775, to leave Boston and spread the alarm that the British garrison in Boston was setting out to raid the town of Concord and arrest rebel leaders John Hancock and Samuel Adams. Warren participated in the next day's Battles of Lexington and Concord. Warren had been commissioned a major general in the colony's militia shortly before the June 17, 1775 Battle of Bunker Hill. Rather than exercising his rank, Warren served in the battle as a private soldier, and was killed in combat when British troops stormed the redoubt atop Breed's Hill.
  • New Hampshire
  • Nathaniel Folsom
  • William Whipple
  • New Jersey

Continental Navy

  • John Adams Famous Bostonian and Son of Liberty member, wrote the Navy's Code of Discipline. Additionally, through the Continental Congress commissioned the first war ships for defending the Colonies and seizing British resources from reaching enemy troops.
  • John Barry was a captain in the Continental Navy. During his time as a commander he oversaw the commands of four American warships. He is known, along with John Adams and John Paul Jones, as the "Father of the American Navy".
  • John Hazelwood was a commodore in the Pennsylvania and Continental Navies, active in the Philadelphia campaign and siege of Fort Mifflin.
  • Esek Hopkins was an established Sea Captain and Brigadier General of Militia from Rhode Island who was named commodore and commander in chief of the Continental Navy in 1776. He disregarded his instructions from Congress to take the fleet to cruise the Southern colonies, instead attacking British colonial holdings in the Caribbean in the Battle of Nassau. This act was Initially hailed as heroic, he was subsequently censured by Congress in August 1776, and was relieved of his command in January 1778.
  • James Nicholson of Virginia was the designated Senior Captain in the Navy for political reasons in October 1776. He was the senior officer in the navy after Commodore Hopkins's relief in 1778, but never exercised command over the whole navy because it had ceased to operate as an organized fleet.
  • Abraham Whipple was a commodore in the Continental Navy. In one of the first military actions of the revolution in 1772, Whipple led 50 Rhode Islanders in the capture and burning of the British revenue cutter Gaspee.
  • William Sisk was a captain in the Continental Navy under Commodore Whipple on the Notre Dame and a spy for Washington, Jefferson and Franklin. William's father John was a lead spy and in-law to Washington with more than sixty family members spying and fighting in the American Revolution.

Great Britain

At the head of the British forces was the King, George III. From 1772 to 1778 the office of Commander-in-Chief was vacant, but from 1778 to 1782 Sir Jeffery Amherst held the post, with the title of general on the Staff. He was succeeded in February 1782 by Henry Seymour Conway.

Next in importance to the Commander-in-Chief was the Secretary at War, who served as head of the War Office, and was bidden "to observe and follow such orders and directions as he should from time to time receive from the King or the general of the forces". Not until 1783 was he a minister responsible to parliament. At the start of part of the war the secretary was Lord Barrington. He was replaced in 1778 by Charles Jenkinson who held this position until the fall of Lord North's government.

Crown and Government officials

Commander-in-Chief of the Forces

Secretaries at War

Commander-in-Chief, North America

Until the war was widened into a global conflict by France's entry in 1778, the war's military activities were primarily directed by the Commander-in-Chief, North America.

  • General Thomas Gage was commander-in-chief of North American forces from 1763 until 1775, and governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay from 1774 to 1776. He presided over the rising tensions (with his actions sometimes contributing to them, in the opinions of some historians) that led to the outbreak of the war. He was recalled after the Battle of Bunker Hill.
  • General William Howe replaced Gage, and personally directed the war effort in 1776 and 1777, including the British captures of New York City and Philadelphia. He failed to gain control over New Jersey, and his actions in taking Philadelphia contributed to the failure of John Burgoyne's Saratoga campaign. He resigned in early 1778.
  • Sir Henry Clinton served as commander-in-chief from 1778 to 1782. He oversaw the British army's retreat from Philadelphia, and then directed the Siege of Charleston, the landing of a large body of troops early in the "Southern strategy". He directed most British activities afterward from his base in New York, and played a role in negotiating Benedict Arnold's change of allegiance. Following Cornwallis' surrender at Yorktown, he was replaced by Guy Carleton.
  • Sir Guy Carleton was governor of Quebec from 1768 to 1777, overseeing the province's defense against the 1775 invasion, and its first counterattack. Denied command of what became John Burgoyne's campaign, he resigned in 1777. In 1782, King George appointed him to replace Clinton as commander-in-chief. He directed the withdrawal of British troops from the states and helped to organize the relocation of thousands of Loyalists to other British territories.

Lieutenant and Major Generals

  • John Burgoyne was a lieutenant general who led a British attempt to gain control of the Hudson River valley in 1777 that was stopped at Saratoga, and surrendered his army. Paroled to England and eventually exchanged, he did not serve further in the war.
  • Archibald Campbell, while a lieutenant colonel, regained control of Georgia in 1779 and served as its royal governor. Promoted to major general, he served in Jamaica, becoming its governor in 1782.
  • John Campbell served in the Boston campaign and the New York and New Jersey campaign early in the war, before being given command of the defense of West Florida. Captured in the 1781 Siege of Pensacola, he ended the war in the New York City garrison.
  • Henry Clinton, was sent into Massachusetts along with William Howe and John Burgoyne to aid Thomas Gage. He was one of the men responsible for planning the Battle of Bunker Hill. He would later serve as commander in Chief, a variety of operations, and leading the relief of the 1779 Penobscot Expedition. Thereafter he served in European waters, where he participated in one of the relief convoys to Gibraltar.
  • Sir Eyre Coote was the commander-in-chief of British forces in India. While not personally involved in combat against the French and Dutch there, troops that were part of his command were involved in engagements against French and Dutch targets, while he was preoccupied with the Second Anglo-Mysore War.
  • Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis participated in many campaigns in North America. He served under Howe and Clinton in the New York and Philadelphia campaigns and was given control of the southern army by Clinton after the Siege of Charleston. At first successfully driving the Continentals from South Carolina, he was eventually forced to surrender his army at Yorktown in the last major engagement between American French and British forces.
  • Sir John Dalling, 1st Baronet was a general and governor of Jamaica until 1781, where he coordinated British military affairs throughout the Caribbean and the West Indies.
  • William Dalrymple commanded British troops in Boston when 3-400 civilians provoked 8 soldiers into firing their muskets without orders, killing five. Patriots subsequently publicized it heavily as the "Boston Massacre". He served as quartermaster general of the British Army in North America from 1779 to 1783.
  • Sir William Erskine, 1st Baronet was a general who served under Howe and Clinton in the New York and Philadelphia campaigns. He also served for a time as quartermaster general before leaving active service in 1779.
  • Sir William Fawcett became the army's adjutant general in 1781. His most important role in the war was overseeing the embarkation of Hessian troops for deployment to the various theaters of war.
  • Charles Grey, 1st Earl Grey was one of the more successful army leaders. He led a brigade at the Battle of Brandywine, led forces in the Battle of Paoli and in raids on New Bedford and Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.
  • Frederick Haldimand was responsible for the British troops in the Siege of Boston, although his authority was often superseded by Thomas Gage, who had overall command. Haldimand served as governor of Quebec from 1778 to 1786, with responsibility for the defense of the province and the organization and support of frontier attacks in the Ohio Country.
  • William Howe Before taking over as the commander in chief, North America, Howe, along with Henry Clinton were sent into Massachusetts to serve with then commander in chief, North America Thomas Gage. Howe was the main person in charge of the British forces in the Battle of Bunker Hill.
  • The Hon. Alexander Leslie served under Cornwallis in the southern campaigns, but was commanding forces in Charleston at the time of Cornwallis' surrender at Yorktown.
  • William Medows distinguished himself in the Philadelphia campaign and the Battle of St. Lucia in 1778. He was then despatched to India, where he was primarily involved in the Second Anglo-Mysore War.
  • Hector Munro, 8th of Novar was a general active in India. He led the forces that captured Pondicherry in 1778, and led forces against the Mysoreans.
  • William Phillips was an artillery general. He served under Burgoyne and was captured at Saratoga in 1777. Exchanged in 1780, he took over leadership of Benedict Arnold's army in Virginia, before becoming ill and dying.
  • William Picton was a major general who served in the Gibraltar garrison during the siege.
  • Francis Smith. As a major general, he oversaw the expedition of Concord to find weapons that were being smuggled by rebels. The British troops were halted by rebels on the way in Lexington, causing a skirmish to break out. The first battle of the war.

Brigadier generals

Other notable officers

  • Lieutenant Colonel James Abercrombie, while leading the retreat at the Battle of Bunker Hill, he was fatally injured in the thigh from being shot by a rebel.
  • Lieutenant Colonel John Graves Simcoe, he was a captain who traveled across the Northeast to look for American spies. He was featured in the AMC Series , as one of the main antagonists.
  • Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton, a cavalry officer who led the British Legion, a regiment of American loyalist cavalry and light infantry. Though reviled by Americans for alleged atrocities, Tarleton’s successes on the battlefield made him one of the few British heroes of the war.
  • Major John André had just become head of British intelligence operations across the 13 Colonies, working under General Clinton. He negotiated with Benedict Arnold and, after being captured, was ordered hanged by George Washington.
  • Major John Pitcairn physically led the British forces in the expedition of Concord, in which it was speculated that rebels were hiding weapons. He died soon after the Battle of Bunker Hill after sustaining 6 gunshot wounds, including one to the head.
  • Captain Thomas Preston Five years before war broke out, Preston was in charge of the eight-man squad who shot several of a crowd of three or four hundred who were harassing them verbally and throwing various projectiles in what became known to Americans as the Boston Massacre.

Royal Navy

  • Samuel Graves was the admiral in charge of the navy's North American station at the outbreak of the war. He directed naval activities for much of the Siege of Boston, and gave orders resulting in the politically and literally inflammatory Burning of Falmouth in October 1775. He was recalled in January 1776, and saw no more service in the war.
  • George Rodney was the commander of the naval station in the West Indies. He also participated in one of the expeditions to relieve Gibraltar, and, after capturing de Grasse in the Battle of the Saintes, famously boasted, "Within two little years I have taken two Spanish, one French and one Dutch admirals." However, his Capture of Saint Eustatius, an undefended Dutch island in the West Indies and a center for contraband trade, he stayed to take loot, pack it, and ship it to Britain, for which other Royal Navy officers scathingly criticised him. In particular, Viscount Samuel Hood said that Rodney should have sailed to intercept a French fleet under Rear Admiral Francois Joseph Paul de Grasse, travelling to Martinique. The French fleet instead turned north and headed for the Chesapeake Bay of Virginia and Maryland, fighting the Battle of the Chesapeake. The French victory there blocked the Royal Navy from rescuing Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia. The surrender of his army to the combined Franco-American armies of Washington and Rochambeau in October 1781, effectively ended the British war in North America.

Royal governors

Loyalists

Frontier leaders

Native Americans

The following Native American leaders from various nations took part in the American Revolution:

Chickamauga Cherokee

Lenape

Miami

Mohawk people

Ojibwe

Odawa

Seneca people

Cayuga people

Shawnee people

Sioux

Wyandot people

German principalities' forces hired by Great Britain

Great Britain hired the services of military troops from a number of German dominions of the Holy Roman Empire. The largest number arrived in 1776 pursuant to agreements signed in late 1775 or early 1776, but additional forces were recruited in 1778, with only limited success. The single largest contingent came from Hesse-Kassel, hence the term "Hessians".

Allies of the United States

France

France made a formal treaty of alliance with the United States in 1778. France sent ground forces to fight with the Continental Army. The French Navy played a key role in the victory of the Continental Army and French Army's victory over the British army, trapped in at Yorktown, Virginia, essentially ending the war in North America in October 1781. The war between France and Great Britain continued in other theaters, including the Caribbean West Indies, the Mediterranean, and India.

Government leaders

Admirals

Generals

  • Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau was the commander of French army forces in North America for most of the French participation in the war. Arriving in 1779, they were largely inactive due to the successful British blockading of Rhode Island's ports. In 1781 Rochambeau led the French forces south to participate in the siege of Yorktown, and then remained to garrison southern states until 1783.
  • Charles du Houx de Vioménil was a major general. He served as Rochambeau's second in command during the French Army's time in North America.
  • was a major general, and brother to Charles du Houx. He also served under Rochambeau.
  • Claude-Anne de Rouvroy de Saint Simon was a major general serving in the West Indies when France entered the war. His troops sailed north with de Grasse and were present at Yorktown.

Spain

Spain entered the conflict as an ally of France and not formally an ally of the United States. One of its main motivations in entering the war against Britain was to regain Gibraltar as well as recapture valuable sugar islands in the Caribbean and prevent further British incursions in Central America.

Dutch Republic

The Dutch Republic played a significant economic role in the war, but its military participation was limited, in part due to internal political divisions.

References

Notes

Cited literature

  • Adams, James Truslow. (1934). "Montgomery, Richard." In: Dictionary of American Biography. American Council of Learned Societies, vol. 13, pp. 98–99.
  • Adams, Randolph G. (1930). "Conway, Thomas." In: Dictionary of American Biography. American Council of Learned Societies, vol. 3, pp. 365–366.
  • Adams, Randolph G. (1931). "Gates, Horatio." In: Dictionary of American Biography. American Council of Learned Societies, vol. 7, pp. 184–188.
  • Adams, Randolph G. (1933). "Lee, Charles." In: Dictionary of American Biography. American Council of Learned Societies, vol. 11, pp. 98–101.
  • Alden, Edmund Kimball (1928). "Alexander, William." In: Dictionary of American Biography. American Council of Learned Societies, vol. 1, pp. 175–176.
  • Alden, Edmund Kimball (1928). "Armstrong, John." In: Dictionary of American Biography. American Council of Learned Societies, vol. 1, pp. 353–354. [cited as Kimball 1928a]
  • Anonymous (1847). Washington And The Generals Of The American Revolution.
  • Barnes, Viola F. (1931). "Glover, John." In: Dictionary of American Biography. American Council of Learned Societies, vol. 7, pp. 331–332.
  • Broadwater, Robert P. (2012). American Generals of the Revolutionary War. McFarland & Company.
  • Chernow, Ron (2011). Washington. Penguin Books.
  • Clark, Jane (1934). "Parsons, Samuel Holden." In: Dictionary of American Biography. American Council of Learned Societies, vol. 14, pp. 270–271.
  • Coburn, Frederick W. (1936). "Varnum, James Mitchell." In: Dictionary of American Biography. American Council of Learned Societies, vol. 19, pp. 227–228.
  • Curtis, Edward E. (1933). "Larned, Ebenezer." In: Dictionary of American Biography. American Council of Learned Societies, vol. 11, pp. 77–78.
  • Curtis, Edward E. (1934). "Nixon, John." In: Dictionary of American Biography. American Council of Learned Societies, vol. 13, p. 530.
  • Ferreiro, Larrie D. (2016). Brothers at Arms. New York.
  • Fitzpatrick, John C. (1936). "Washington, George." In: Dictionary of American Biography. American Council of Learned Societies, vol. 19, pp. 509–527.
  • Fredriksen, John C. (2006). Revolutionary War Almanac. Facts on File.
  • Heitman, Francis B. (1914). Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army. Washington, D.C.
  • Hannings, Bud (2008). Chronology of the American Revolution. McFarland & Company.
  • Hubbard, Robert E. (2017). Major General Israel Putnam. McFarland & Company.
  • Kapp, Friedrich (1862). Leben des amerikanischen Generals Johann Kalb. Stuttgart.
  • Kohn, George C. (2008). Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence. New York.
  • Krout John A. (1935). "Schuyler, Philip John." In: Dictionary of American Biography. American Council of Learned Societies, vol. 16, pp. 477–480.
  • Lefkowitz, Arthur S. (2020). Colonel Hamilton and Colonel Burr. Stackpole Books.
  • Lockhart, Paul (2008). The Drillmaster of Valley Forge. New York.
  • Meriwether Robert L. (1931). "Gadsen, Christopher." In: Dictionary of American Biography. American Council of Learned Societies, vol. 7, pp. 82–83.
  • Metcalf, Bryce (1938). Original Members and Other Officers Eligible to the Society of the Cincinnati, 1783-1938: With the Institution, Rules of Admission, and Lists of the Officers of the General and State Societies. Strasburg, VA: Shenandoah Publishing House, Inc.
  • Monaghan, Frank (1933). "Kalb, Johann." In: Dictionary of American Biography. American Council of Learned Societies, vol. 10, pp. 253–254. [Cited as Monaghan 1933a]
  • Monaghan, Frank (1933). "Lafayette, Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier." In: Dictionary of American Biography. American Council of Learned Societies, vol. 10, pp. 535–539.
  • Monaghan, Frank (1935). "Pulaski, Casimir." In: Dictionary of American Biography. American Council of Learned Societies, vol. 15, pp. 259–260.
  • Moody, Robert E. (1931). "Frye, Joseph." In: Dictionary of American Biography. American Council of Learned Societies, vol. 7, pp. 50–51.
  • Pierpaoli, Paul G. (2018). "Maxweell, William (ca. 1733-1796)" In: American Revolution: The Definitive Encyclopedia and Document Collection. ABC-CLIO, vol. 3, p. 948-949.
  • Peeling, James H. (1933). "Mifflin, Thomas." In: Dictionary of American Biography. American Council of Learned Societies, vol. 12, pp. 606–608.
  • Nelson, Paul David (2018). "Lewis, Andrew (1720-1781)." In: American Revolution: The Definitive Encyclopedia and Document Collection. ABC-CLIO, vol. 3, p. 866.
  • Robinson, William A. (1933). "Lincoln, Benjamin." In: Dictionary of American Biography. American Council of Learned Societies, vol. 11, pp. 259–262.
  • Rossie, Jonathan Gregory (1975). The Politics of Command in the American Revolution. Syracuse University Press.
  • Shelton, Hal (1994). General Richard Montgomery and the American Revolution. New York University Press.
  • Straubel, Rolf (2012). "Er möchte nur wißen, daß die Armée mir gehöret." Friedrich II. und seine Offiziere. Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag.
  • Taafe, Stephen R. (2019). Washington's Revolutionary War Generals. University of Oklahoma Press.
  • Tarbox, Increase N. (1876). Life of Israel Putnam. Boston.
  • Thomas, William Sturgis (1929). Members of the Society of the Cincinnati, Original, Hereditary and Honorary; With a Brief Account of the Society's History and Aims. New York: T.A. Wright
  • Tucker, Spencer C. (2018). "Coudray, Philippe-Charles-Jean-Baptiste Tronson du." In: American Revolution: The Definitive Encyclopedia and Document Collection. ABC-CLIO, vol. 1, p. 272.
  • United States Congress (1961). Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1961. Washington, D.C.

Literature

  • Black, Jeremy. War for America: The Fight for Independence, 1775–1783. St. Martin's Press (New York) and Sutton Publishing (UK), 1991. (1991), (1994 paperback), (2001 paperpack).
  • Boatner, Mark Mayo, III. Encyclopedia of the American Revolution. New York: McKay, 1966; revised 1974. .

Further reading

  • Anderson, Troyer Steele. The Command of the Howe Brothers During the American Revolution. New York and London, 1936.
  • Buchanan, John. The Road to Valley Forge: How Washington Built the Army That Won the Revolution. Wiley, 2004. .
  • Fischer, David Hackett. Washington's Crossing. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. . Winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for History.
  • Lengel, Edward G. General George Washington: A Military Life. New York: Random House, 2005. .
  • McCullough, David. 1776. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005. .
  • de Wetter, Mardee. Incognito. An Affair of Honor. Las Cruces: Yucca Tree Press, 2006. .

External links