The Militia General

The Militia General: Philemon Dickinson

The role of the militia during the struggle for independence can best be described as uneven. For a variety of reasons, militias were unreliable and often ill-equipped. But mostly they were poorly led. But in Philemon Dickinson they had a leader any Continental soldier would be proud to follow.  Like the militia, Dickinson is a mix of understated service and quiet achievement. Unlike many militia units, Dickinson was always reliable. Like the militias he led, Dickinson always had one eye on the home front.

Philemon Dickinson

The Making of a Citizen

Philemon Dickinson was born at "Crosiadore”, in Talbot County, Maryland on 5 April 1739.  The son of a local judge, Philemon was also the younger brother of fellow first-patriot and signer John Dickinson. Following his graduation from the College of Pennsylvania (now the University of Pennsylvania) in 1759, the younger Dickinson clerked briefly at his brother John’s law office. But Dickinson abandoned the profession shortly after and began to manage their father’s estates. In 1767 he married, Mary Cadwalader, a member of one of the area's most prominent families.  The couple moved to a farm just outside Trenton, New Jersey. 

Dickinson attended the College of Pennsylvania

A Call to Arms

With a family caught up in revolutionary politics, it was natural that Philemon would eventually play a role along with big brother John. In 1775 he was offered a colonelcy in the Hunterdon County militia. This first patriot quickly accepted. By October the following year, he had risen to the rank of brigadier general – he also held a seat in the state’s provincial congress. During the Continental Army’s retreat across the Jerseys in 1776, Dickinson proved a valuable asset to the beleaguered George Washington. Dickinson’s performance under fire at Trenton in December 1776 was most noteworthy. There the sturdy militia general ordered his own home shelled in the heat of battle after he learned it was an enemy command post!

The American attack on Trenton

Kicking Off the Forage War

On 20 January 1777, Dickinson led a combined force of 350 Jersey militiamen and 50 Pennsylvania riflemen in a bold strike against a British foraging party of some 500 Regulars and Hessians. Dickinson split his force into two wings.  His determined band of men waded through the icy waist-deep Millstone River and surprised the enemy in a running gun battle that drove them back to their base at New Brunswick. Dickinson’s men captured three dozen supply wagons and over 100 horses. 

This was possibly Dickinson’s most noted single battle where he held overall command. The bold attack sent shock waves through the British command for, although they portrayed it as a successful rearguard action, it showed the militia was not going home for the winter. Instead, these citizen soldiers (and some Continental troops) eschewed home and hearth to pound an enemy desperate for “winter quarters.” The skirmish set the tone for a series of militia attacks, ambuscades, and raids against the British attempts to forage in the Jerseys – the so-called forage war. That June, Dickinson was promoted to Major General and named commander in chief of the New Jersey militia. 

Jersey Militia and Pennsylvania Riflemen
waded the icy Millstone River

Militia General

In May of 1778, he was tested as the New Jersey militia commander when his men fended off an attack on Trenton by British forces under Major John Maitland. The clash presaged the British “retrograde” from the occupied American capital. His mettle was soon tested once more. Washington dispatched him and his militia to disrupt and interdict the British column when the British commander, Sir Henry Clinton, ordered a retreat from Philadelphia. The bulk of the British Army had to march across the Jerseys to reach the safety of the highlands and the transports back to New York. Dickinson’s 800 men stayed ahead of the advancing column, felling trees and destroying bridges to slow its movement for Washington to attack it from the rear at the battle of Monmouth on 28 June.

The Jersey militia slowed the retrograde of the British Army
leading to the American attack at Monmouth 

Crushing the Cabal

John Cadwalader

A staunch supporter of General Washington during one of the great military-political controversies of the war, the so-called Conway Cabal, Dickinson served as a second to his wife’s cousin, Pennsylvania General John Cadwalader. Cadwalader dueled with Franco-Irish General John Conway over the latter’s disparaging remarks against George Washington. In the 18th century’s dueling protocol, the Code Duello, the second played a key role in arranging, supporting, and sometimes partaking in the duel.  Clearly, Dickinson proved a loyal family member as well as a badass supporter of his commander in chief. Cadwalader for his part won the duel - firing a pistol round into Conway’s mouth. The unlucky Conway survived and in a twist, professed loyalty to Washington before resigning from the Continental Army.

John Conway's opposition to Washington
led to a dual

War’s Last Gasp in the Jerseys

The course of the war would soon turn south but New Jersey’s proximity to New York made it a battleground of covert war and slashing small scale attacks. On 23 June 1780, the last battle in the north was fought at Springfield, New Jersey where Dickinson played a prominent role in repulsing the famed Hessian general Wilhelm von Knyphausen.

The Battle of Springfield

Soldier to Citizen

Remarkably, but not unusually, Dickinson played a political role as well during his war years. With the action moving to the Southern theater, he turned to a less kinetic form of public service.  He ran for governor of New Jersey three times but lost them all. In 1782, however, he became a member of the Continental Congress 1782-1783. Two years later he was vice president of the New Jersey state council. He served as a member of the commission to choose a site for the national capital in 1784. When factions broke out, the staunch Washington supporter turned to the Federalists. In 1790 he was selected to serve New Jersey as a US Senator, which he did until 1793. Mary had died in 1791 but typical for the age, Dickinson remarried.

Dickinson retired to his estate
near Trenton

Ever the model citizen-soldier, Philemon Dickinson eventually retired to his New Jersey estate “the Hermitage” outside Trenton in 1794. He died there on 4 February 1803 and was interred in the Friends Meeting House Burying Ground in Trenton.