The Men of Marblehead
The fishermen and sailors of Marblehead, Massachusetts, played a crucial role in two of the Continental Army’s most desperate moments in 1776.
By Megan Hamby
Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Leutze, a German American artist, 1851. On view at The Met Fifth Avenue, New York. Public Domain
For most of the 17th and 18th centuries, life along the Massachusetts coast depended on the sea. Fishing, whaling, shipyards, and busy harbors shaped daily life. Marblehead was one of the largest and wealthiest coastal towns in Massachusetts, and its economy relied almost entirely on exporting salted cod. Merchants and fishermen joined forces to eliminate the middleman and manage overseas trade with Spain, Portugal, and the West Indies on their own, turning the town into a coastal powerhouse.
When the American Revolutionary War began, these maritime skills became a military asset. Men who had spent years hauling fish, navigating coastal waters, and working on ships now found themselves with a new purpose.
As the nation approaches the 250th anniversary of Washington’s daring crossing of the Delaware River, the Marblehead men who made that crossing possible deserve a closer look.
A Seaport in Revolt
Marblehead’s revolutionary story started years before the first shots were fired in the nearby towns of Lexington and Concord. Because Marblehead residents depended on the sea for their livelihoods, they often had frequent, hostile encounters with the British Royal Navy.
During the 18th century, the British Royal Navy relied heavily on impressment, essentially forcing men into service against their will. Historians estimate that between 1740 and 1815, nearly 40% of men in the British Royal Navy were there because of impressment. “British naval expansion could not have occurred without the coercion of maritime labor,” writes historian Christopher P. Magra in an article for International Review of Social History.
Tensions rose in 1769, when four Irish sailors headed home to Marblehead from Spain aboard the Pitt Packet, a ship owned by a local fish merchant. When a British press gang tried to force them into naval service, the sailors fought back. One of them threw a harpoon and killed a British lieutenant. All four men were arrested and charged with murder, but they were eventually acquitted, thanks to a young lawyer named John Adams, who successfully argued that impressment itself was illegal.
The fight on the Pitt Packet was an early indicator that Marblehead’s relationship with Britain was fraying. After the Boston Massacre in March 1770, merchants such as John Glover, Elbridge Gerry, and Azor Orne began to turn public opinion against the British. They served on committees that organized shadow governments, coordinated defense, and oversaw local militias.
The Massachusetts Provincial Congress ordered all towns to have troops ready to act at a moment’s notice. Marblehead already had an active militia and was better prepared than almost any other town, explains historian Patrick K. O’Donnell in The Indispensables: The Diverse Soldier-Mariners Who Shaped the Country, Formed the Navy, and Rowed Washington Across the Delaware.
A Unique Regiment
In 1775, the Marblehead militia was reorganized, with its men joining the Continental Army and John Glover becoming colonel. The 14th Continental Regiment was diverse for its time, including white, Black, Hispanic, and Native American soldiers who served together. Many of these men had already spent years working side by side on the Massachusetts coast as fishermen, tradesmen, and laborers.
“They were one of the first and most diverse units of their kind in the army, and they determined how Americans should fight—intermingled, not segregated, amalgamating a unity of purpose,” writes O’Donnell in The Indispensables. “… An integrated regiment would not fight in another American war for nearly two centuries.”
Because they had spent their lives at sea, the men of the 14th Continental Regiment had skills that no other regiment could match. This experience at sea earned Washington’s trust and confidence.
America’s Dunkirk
In August 1776, Washington’s army suffered a devastating defeat on Long Island. British forces outflanked the Continental Army and drove the American troops toward Brooklyn Heights, leaving thousands of soldiers with the East River at their backs and the British closing in. Capture seemed imminent.
But the British did not attack right away. British General William Howe stopped the advance to fortify his position. The pause gave Washington something he desperately needed: time. Washington ordered his troops to evacuate, and on the night of August 29, soldiers crowded into small boats to be ferried across the East River to Manhattan. Rowing the boats? The men of Marblehead. Working in near-total darkness, the Marbleheaders navigated strong currents and shifting fog, ferrying soldiers across the river and returning again and again for more, all while risking discovery by the British.
The evacuation continued through the night and into the early morning. A thick fog settled over the river, helping conceal the movement from the British. By dawn, nearly 9,000 American soldiers had made it to Manhattan. The retreat is now known as “America’s Dunkirk,” a reference to the British evacuation during World War II. For the Marblehead Mariners, their maritime experience had suddenly become a military advantage.
The men behind the painting
Most people know this story from Emanuel Leutze’s 1851 painting, which shows Washington standing tall in the bow of a boat as soldiers push through the ice around him. It is one of the most famous images in American history, but historians have long pointed out that it is not very accurate. The Delaware River was narrow. The boats weren’t tiny rowboats; they were large, flat-bottomed freight boats. Even the time of day is wrong.
What the painting cannot explain is who was actually doing the rowing.
Washington may have been the most famous man in that boat, but the crossing depended on the men at the oars. They were fishermen and sailors from Marblehead, putting years of experience on the water to work for an army fighting for its survival.
A close-up of the men on Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Leutze, a German American artist, 1851. On view at The Met Fifth Avenue, New York. Public Domain.
Victory or Death
Four months later, Washington’s army was in trouble again. Things had gone badly since the defeat at Long Island, with more losses at Kip’s Bay and White Plains. By November, the British controlled Fort Washington in Manhattan and Fort Lee in New Jersey. The British chased Washington’s men across New Jersey, but General Howe eventually stopped the pursuit, thinking the Americans’ enlistments would soon expire and the army would fall apart on its own. This was the second time Howe’s decision to halt gave Washington the time he needed to escape and make a new plan. He led his troops across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania on December 7 and 8, 1776.
Washington knew he was running out of time. His army was, as he had relayed to Benjamin Rush, “ragged and dissolving,” and he needed a win. Days before Christmas, he gathered his officers to talk through a possible attack on the Hessian garrison.
Secrecy was extremely important. British spies were reporting on American movements, so Washington used that first meeting partly as a decoy. Later that evening, he gathered a smaller, more trusted group, including Glover, to actually plan the attack. The plan was to cross the Delaware River at several points, march nine miles south to Trenton, New Jersey, and block any chance for the Hessians to escape or send for help.
To move more than 2,000 soldiers, along with artillery and supplies, across the Delaware River at night, Washington again turned to the men who knew the water best: Glover and his Marblehead regiment.
Washington asked if it could even be done. Glover’s answer: “You need not be troubled about that, General, my boys can handle that.” After the successful evacuation from Long Island, Glover had confidence in his men.
The plan did not go smoothly. Ice clogged the river. Rain, sleet, and snow pounded the men all night long. The army was supposed to be across the river and marching toward Trenton by midnight, but the weather delayed everyone for hours. Many Marbleheaders had faced Atlantic storms before, and their steady hands on the oars kept the overloaded boats from capsizing in the icy current. The Marbleheaders worked the oars and poles of the Durham boats, which were flat-bottomed cargo boats packed with 30 to 40 men, hour after miserable hour. The last boats did not reach the Jersey shore until around 3 in the morning.
From there, it was a 9-mile march through the freezing dark to Trenton. The Continental Army attacked shortly after daybreak, still hidden by the storm. The Hessians never saw it coming. American troops took nearly 900 prisoners and control of the town.
At last, Washington had a victory. The attack on Trenton came at a critical moment for Washington’s army: a win when Washington was running out of men, supplies, and time. In The Indispensables, O’Donnell writes that Washington’s plan was a “desperate gamble” and one that “involved some of the riskiest military maneuvers an eighteenth-century army could perform.” And once again, it was the 18th Marblehead Mariners who got the army where it needed to be.
The Men Behind the Painting
Most people know this story from Emanuel Leutze’s 1851 painting, which shows Washington standing tall in the bow of a boat as soldiers push through the ice around him. It is one of the most famous images in American history, but historians have long pointed out that it is not very accurate. The Delaware River was narrow. The boats weren’t tiny rowboats; they were large, flat-bottomed freight boats. Even the time of day is wrong.
What the painting cannot explain is who was actually doing the rowing.
Washington may have been the most famous man in that boat, but the crossing depended on the men at the oars. They were fishermen and sailors from Marblehead, putting years of experience on the water to work for an army fighting for its survival. P
John Glover
John Glover, DAR Ancestor A045712, was born November 5, 1732, and died January 30, 1797, in Marblehead, Massachusetts. He was a member of the Committee of Correspondence and a merchant, ship owner, and militia officer in 1775 when he joined the colonial army.
His local regiment of “Marbleheaders,” primarily comprising seamen and fishermen, became the 14th Continental Regiment, known to be well-armed, highly disciplined, and diverse in nature, with African Americans and American Indians counted as members. Glover’s leadership and maritime skills became legendary.
Learn more about John Glover. Visit DAR's Pathway to the Patriots page dedicated to him.
John Glover Statue, Boston, by sculptor Martin Milmore (1844 - 1883). Public Domain.
John Glover Memorial Stone at Old Burial Hill Cemetery, Marblehead, Essex County, Massachusetts. Photo courtesy NSDAR.
Another view of the John Glover Memorial Stone at Old Burial Hill Cemetery, Marblehead, Essex County, Massachusetts. Photo courtesy NSDAR.
Washington’s First Warship
In August 1775, John Glover offered up his own schooner, Hannah (named for his wife), for Washington to use as an armed vessel. The crew included soldiers from the 14th Continental Regiment, and the ship was sent out to intercept British supply ships along the Massachusetts coast.
Historians suggest that Hannah’s service marked the beginning of organized naval operations, and the Continental Navy was formed in October 1775.
The drawing depicts a British flat-bottomed boat during the American Revolution. The artwork is titled The Occupation of Newport, Rhode Island, December 1776 by Robert Cleveley (1749-1809). Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. The British landing at Kip's Bay, New York Island, 15 September 1776.
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2026
