A Military History of America Created for Free Use in the Public Domain American Philatelic Society ©2012 •
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Expanded Descriptions & Biographies A Military History of America Created for free use in the public domain American Philatelic Society ©2012 • www.stamps.org A Military History of America Volume I: French & Indian War — War of 1812 French & Indian War (1756–1763) Revolutionary War (1775–1781) Braddock’s Field Issue: Statue of Col. George Military Leaders Washington (1930) • 2¢ • Scott 688 George Washington (1860) • 90¢ • Scott 39 The issue marks the 175th anniversary of the Battle of The earliest stamp to show General George Washington Braddock’s field battle, July 9, 1755; also known as Braddock’s (1732–1799) in American military uniform is one of the rarest Defeat or the Battle of Monongahela. Newly arrived British general and most valuable of the Washington portrait stamps. The Edward Braddock ignored the advice not only of the Virginia portrait is taken from the large painting by John Trumbull titled officers assigned to his staff, such as George Washington, but that George Washington Resigning His Commission (1824), which of the members of his own senior command. So convinced was now hangs in the Capitol Rotunda. The complete scene shows Braddock of his troops’ invincibility that he had them pause before Washington resigning his commission as commander in chief of covering the last leg of the journey and take the time change to the Continental Army on December 23, 1783 before members of the Continental Congress. full dress uniform, including white piping and brass buttons. Assuming that the French would likely have fled at their advance George Washington (1932) • 6¢ • Scott 711 or else be preparing to surrender, the soldiers advanced cheerfully An affordable alternative is the red orange reprint issued in as the drummers played the Grenadier’s March. They were almost 1932 as part of the Washington Bicentennial issue. annihilated by a party of around 300 Indians and perhaps thirty French soldiers, before fleeing back across the Monongahela River Army Issue: Washington, Nathanael Greene & Mt. to safety. Shot in the lung, Braddock died during the retreat. Vernon (1936) • 1¢ • Scott 785 Nathanael Greene (1742–1796) was Washington’s most Washington Bicentennial: George Washington in the trusted general during the Revolutionary War, and the only officer Uniform of a British Colonial Colonel other than Washington to serve throughout the conflict with the (1940) • 1½¢ • Scott 706 rank general. Although born into a family of Quakers, Greene The original oil painting by Charles Willson Peale (1741– was fascinated by the study of military science. Even as a young 1827) is the only authenticated pre-Revolution portrait of George man he had a reputation as dependable, efficient, and possessed Washington. It was painted at Mount Vernon in 1772 and shows of an uncommon amount of common sense. Following the Washington in his uniform as a colonel of the Virginia Regiment, battles at Lexington and Concord, Greene was made commander which he wore during the French and Indian War. A full color of the Rhode Island forces with the rank of Major-General. version of the portrait can be seen at http://marthawashington.us/ His subsequent meeting with Washington in July 1775 was the beginning of a lifelong friendship between the two men. (His wife, archive/fullsize/gw-by-charles-willson-peale_637081de11.jpg Catharine, would become a close friend of Martha Washington Fort Duquesne Bicentennial: Occupation of Fort as well.) Desperate for supplies in the winter of December 1777 Duquesne (1958) • 4¢ • Scott 1123 when the Continental Army was quartered at Valley Forge, Following two failed efforts by the British to capture Fort Washington appointed Green Quartermaster-General with a special condition allowing him to keep his active duty rank as Duquesne (one by George Washington in 1754 and the disastrous well. Greene was returned to active duty when the treachery of attempt by Maj. Gen. Edward Braddock in 1755), a large force Benedict Arnold was uncovered and placed in command of West under the command of Brig. Gen. John Forbes and including Point, successfully denying that prize to the British. After the Washington’s 2,000-man contingent of Virginia militiamen ignominious defeat of General Horatio Gates by British forces headed out in late summer 1758, laboriously constructing a new at Camden, South Carolina on August 16, 1780, the Continental road as they went instead of using the existing Braddock Road. Congress asked Washington to appoint a replacement capable of While the ill Forbes vacillated about delaying an offensive until stopping the British advance. Washington immediately placed spring, Washington gathered information that the fort was now Greene in command of the Southern Campaign. Greene was able undermanned and poorly supplied, and ordered an advance. to keep General Cornwallis in pursuit until the over-extended On November 23, as the British troops approached, the French and exhausted British army was forced to withdraw from North realistically chose to withdraw under cover of night, setting fire Carolina. In the meantime, Greene’s forces maintained some of to the fort and the munitions they couldn’t carry before they the highest morale of all the American troops. His indomitable left. It was the Virginia Colonel of Militia who had the honor of will is reflected in a letter he wrote at about this time, describing personally raising the British flag over the ruined fort. Some of the his tactics against the British: “We fight, get beat, rise, and fight British troops remained to begin construction on a new fort to be again.” He said of his overall strategy: “There are few Generals that named Fort Pitt, the site of present-day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. have run oftener, or more lustily than I have done... But I have taken care not to run too far and commonly have run as fast forward as “Lieutenant General.” backward, to convince our enemy that we were like a crab, that In his own letter to Congress von Steuben wrote: “The object of could run either way.” my greatest ambition is to render your country all the service in my After his engagement with Cornwallis at Guilford Courthouse, power, and to deserve the title of a citizen of America by fighting for in which the British claimed the technical victory, the British the cause of liberty.” statesman Charles James Fox acidly remarked that, “Another such Congress instructed von Steuben to report to General victory would destroy the British Army.” Cornwallis himself said of Washington at Valley Forge. He arrived at the camp on February the American commander: “Greene is as dangerous as Washington. 23, 1778 and made a favorable impression on the Commander in I never feel secure when encamped in his neighborhood. He is Chief, who appointed him temporary Inspector General. After vigilant, enterprising, and full of resources.” inspecting the camp and the men, von Steuben set to work to Following the Peace Treaty of 1783, Greene surrendered his write down a consistent set of drills and maneuvers that would military commission, first paying his soldiers’ back wages out be used by all units in the Continental Army. Because he did of the money given him by a grateful South Carolina, and in not speak English, von Steuben wrote the drills in French, his 1785 moved his family from Rhode Island to a plantation named French secretary translated them into English, and John Laurens “Mulberry Grove” on the Savannah River, a gift from the State of and Alexander Hamilton (Washington’s aides-de-camp) turned Georgia. He loved his new home, boasting to friends up north the text into military language. Von Steuben set a precedent by of raising strawberries “which measure three inches around,” but working personally with the troops, demonstrating the moves tragically collapsed while touring a friend’s rice fields and died of as well as barking out the commands, impressing the soldiers sunstroke and heat exhaustion June 19, 1786. The entire nation by his willingness to drill them himself and by his multi-lingual mourned his passing. The Marquis de Lafayette wrote that “in the command of profanity. His insistence on strict record keeping and very name of Greene are remembered all the virtues and talents routine inspections of provisions and other supplies is estimated which illustrate the patriot, the statesman, and the military leader.” to have saved the Continental Army better than $600,000 General Anthony Wayne said, “He was a great soldier, greater as throughout the course of the war. a citizen, immaculate as a friend.” Thomas Jefferson described The following winter, the now officially commissioned Greene as, “Second to no one in enterprise, in resource, in sound General von Steuben turned his set of drills into a manual judgment, promptitude of decision, and every other military talent.” of regulations. It was illustrated by Captain Pierre Charles L’Enfant (the man who drew the plans for Washington, DC). The Von Steuben Issue: General Von Steuben (1930) Regulation for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United 2¢ • Scott 689 States was approved by Congress in March, 1779. It was printed Baron Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustin von in Philadelphia and distributed to the thirteen states for use with Steuben (1730–1794) was born in the fortress town of Magdeburg their militia as well as with the Continental Army units. Popularly in Prussia. His grandfather, Augustine Steuben, a minister in known as the “Blue Book,” it was used by the United States Army the German Reformed Church, had invented the family’s claim until 1814. that they were members of an old noble family, Steuben, and General von Steuben served with the Continental Army for inserted the “von” into his name. This claim to nobility allowed his the remainder of the war, and commanded the three divisions in Friedrich, William Augustine von Steuben, to become an officer the Continental Army at Yorktown in 1781.