GENERAL JOHN GLOVER AND HIS MARBLEHEAD MARINERS

by George Athan Billias ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

Carefully documented and refreshingly free from fictionalization, this book by a University of Maine professor tells of the exploits of a ""minor but able"" Revolutionary War general, John Glover, a ""tough little terrier"" of a man, and the 4th Continental Regiment, his Marblehead Mariners. In 1776, when he was 44, Glover recruited his amphibious regiment of fishermen and sailors from Marblehead, his native town, and nearby Massachusetts ports; taking part in the Battle of Long Island in August, 1776, and trapped, together with Washington and 9000 men, by the British on Brooklyn Heights, Glover and his Mariners saved both his commander and his army by ferrying them at night across the East River to Manhattan. After fighting in various engagements, one of them the almost forgotten Battle of Pelham Bay, Glover's Mariners again acted as ferrymen on the stormy Christmas night of 1776, when they rowed Washington through the ice-floes of the Delaware to defeat the Hessians at Trenton. When their term of enlistment expired most of the Mariners went home, but Glover stayed with the Army until 1782, when he retired on half-pay, replenished his diminished fortune, entered politics, and died in 1797 at the age of 65. Telling far more of the Revolution than the mere exploits of Glover and his Mariners, this solidly-written book is an important contribution to the background of the War for Independence. Not for the amateur historian, it will be welcomed by specialists in Revolutionary history, and particularly by New Engladers.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Holt

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1960

Categories: NONFICTION