Right Hand Man

This edition of the Yankee Doodle Spies will continue with the theme of profiling Revolutionary War personalities who play a role in my upcoming novel, The Winter Spy. Coincidentally, we will once more profile a native of Ireland, this time our first-patriot is from the south.

School and Service

Edward Hand was born into a prominent Anglo-Irish family in King’s County (now Offaly), Ireland, on December 31, 1744. His family was able to send him to Dublin’s Trinity College, where he studied medicine and received a surgeon’s certificate in 1766.

Trinity College

True to the Irish way, rather than a 5-year apprenticeship, young Edward joined the 18th Regiment of Foot (later known as the Royal Irish Regiment) of the British Army, as a surgeon’s mate. In 1767, his regiment sailed from Cobh (Cork) to the colony of Pennsylvania. The regiment was quickly marched west to garrison the area around Fort Pitt ( today's Pittsburgh).  On the road, they passed through Lancaster, in the heart of today’s Amish country. Hand was impressed with the beauty and promise of the region and it would play a role later in his life.

Private of the 18th Regiment of Foot

Frontier Doctor

Edward Hand the surgeon’s mate took an interest in some of the local native tribes, particularly their use of plants for medicine. Surgeon duties must have not been too taxing as Hand became interested in land speculation. He also made the acquaintance of a Virginia planter named George Washington, who visited Fort Pitt as colonel of the Virginia militia in 1770. The two hit it off and bonded, which would have a positive impact on young Hand’s future. As tensions grew between the Americans and the British government, the 18th was pulled back east to Philadelphia.  Here, Hand witnessed the buildup of resentment and the growing calls for liberty among the people of Philadelphia. As with many British officers, he evinced some sympathy for the growing cause.

Ft Pitt was the key British bastion in the west

Domestic Tranquility

Although Hand was able to afford an ensign’s commission by 1772, he did not hold it long. He sold off his commission for some 400 pounds in 1774 and moved to Lancaster, where he set up a private practice. He quickly assimilated into the local community. His medical practice took off, and he was financially set, as his land investments on the frontier had paid off. He was welcomed into Lancaster society, and through a local judge met 23-year-old Katharine (Kitty) Ewing.  Kitty’s parents, Captain John Ewing and Sarah Yeates were one of Lancaster’s most prestigious families. She and Hand married in March 1775. Events of the next month would soon take him far from his new bride.

Lancaster

The Surgeon Rebel

Over the previous year, Hand had become involved with the local patriot cause. So when the call to arms went out after Lexington and Concord, Doctor Hand was named a lieutenant colonel of the 1st Pennsylvania Rifles. This band of crack shots marched with other regiments gathering from throughout the colonies to face the British ensconced in Boston. Hand quickly developed a reputation for working directly with his men, making him well-liked by the soldiers he led.  Colonel Hand’s riflemen soon gained a reputation as expert marksmen but wildly undisciplined. Hand nevertheless performed capably and eventually smoothed out the rough edges of the troops. Ironically, Hand's old regiment, the 18th, was part of the British garrison that abandoned Boston to the rebel besiegers. In March 1776, he was appointed colonel in command of the regiment when it was re-designated the 1st Continental Line.

Colonel Hand's Pennsylvania Rifles sniping skills were put to
good use during the seige of Boston

Stopping Cornwallis 

Hand and his men served well during the New York campaign of 1776. But his hallmark achievement of the campaign was his masterful handling of his troops and canny use of the ground near Pell's Point at Throg’s Neck on October 12, which helped prevent disaster. Under his steady hand (sic), his riflemen coolly shot up the advancing British, completely thwarting a landing by General Charles Cornwallis. Hand’s men moved quickly, torching the bridge over a small creek and placing themselves behind a wood stack. From this vantage position, Hand’s riflemen sniped at the regulars marching steadily into their field of fire and successfully held off a vast force until more Americans came up. Hand’s measured application of firepower allowed Washington’s main army to escape. After similar good service at White Plains, Hand’s regiment retreated with the dwindling Continental Army across New Jersey that winter. 

Hand's Pennsylvanians stymied Lord Cornwallis's
British regulars and Hessians at Pell's Point

His next battlefield masterpiece would soon come, and again at the expense of Lord Cornwallis. On the cold day of 2 January 1777, Hand again stymied Cornwallis’s advance, this time at Assunpink Creek, near Trenton. This action is where Edward Hand appears in The Winter Spy. His masterful handling of several regiments thrown together to slow the British column enabled his friend, General George Washington, escape a British trap and take Princeton. Hand’s performance was noted and Washington soon recommended him for promotion to brigadier general, which was approved on 1 April 1777. At the time, that made Edward Hand the youngest general in the Continental Army.

Hand's delaying action helped Washington's army
defend Assunpink Creek from another onslaught
by Lord Cornwallis

A New General, an Old Doctor

What to do with a new general? Well, since he had knowledge of the west, Washington soon dispatched Hand to the place they first met.  Brigadier General Hand reported for duty at his old post, Fort Pitt, where he had a challenge protecting western Pennsylvania from pro-British Indians and Loyalists. But Hand was immediately faced with something more dangerous than the marauding tribes and Loyalists - an outbreak of smallpox. Switching hats from General Hand to Doctor Hand, he had a hospital built to quarantine and treat the afflicted. Hand even donated six acres of a 331-acre plot of his own land in Westmoreland County for the site. The “smallpox hospital” was a log building, two stories high and three rooms on each level, guarded by ten surrounding blockhouses for its defense.

Hand's organizational skills garnered support
for Colonel George Rogers Clark's campaign

Hoping to take the offensive against the hostile British allies, he attempted to send expeditions against the tribes in the Ohio River. However, he could never muster enough men and supplies until February 1778.  In the dead of winter, Hand assembled 500 men, but the column was doomed to failure. But Hand was able to provide critically needed assistance to Colonel George Rogers Clark whose campaign in the Illinois territory was instrumental in breaking British power in the west.

Returning East

Frustrated in the western backwater, Hand requested and received a reassignment back east. Along the way he found time to visit Kitty in Lancaster. From there Hand traveled to Albany, New York where he assumed command of the Northern Department. As such, he provided support to General John Sullivan’s punitive expedition and conquest of the Iroquois heartland in 1779, a more successful but no less tragic foray against the natives of New York.

Sullivan's campaign against the Iroquois was as tragic
as it was successful

Spy Catcher

No, he was not really a spy-catcher. But Hand was selected by General Washington to be part of the “blue ribbon” assembly of officers assigned to sit on the court-martial of British Major John Andre, the officer who recruited American traitor Benedict Arnold. Hand was in the company of such luminaries as Nathanael Greene, Arthur St. Clair, Steuben, Lafayette, Henry Knox, John Glover, and others. On 29 September 1780, they held André as guilty of being behind American lines "under a feigned name and in a disguised habit" and ordered that "Major André, Adjutant-General to the British Army, ought to be considered as a Spy from the enemy, and that agreeable to the law and usage of nations, it is their opinion, he ought to suffer death."

Major John Andre's court-martial had an all-star
cast of jurors, including Edward Hand

The Right Hand

A month later, Brigadier General Hand assumed command of a special light infantry brigade under the Marquis de Lafayette.  But Hand was soon called to Washington’s side, replacing Colonel Alexander Scammel as the adjutant general on the Continental Army staff. The adjutant general was the key figure on 18th-century military staffs, responsible for issuing orders to the army, receiving monthly returns from the regiments, the regulation of officers' appointments and leaves of absence, and oversight of military reviews, exercises, maneuvers, and military discipline. Essentially, they ran the army for the commander. In that sense, Edward Hand had become General Washington's "right-hand man."

Brigadier General Hand
was indispensable
to General Washington as Adjutant General

He remained in this key position at Washington’s request, playing an important role in the complex campaign that resulted in the dramatic victory at Yorktown in October 1781.  The war extended over two years past Cornwallis’s surrender – did I mention he had a way with confounding Cornwallis? Hand’s role was critical in keeping the Continental Army together as the peace accords dragged on.  He had to reach into his leadership kit sack once again in 1782.  Just as Colonel Hand worked well with his soldiers outside Boston, Brigadier General Hand was instrumental in squelching the army’s unrest and the infamous “conspiracy” at Newburgh, New York. In large part as an honorific for excellence service, Hand was made a brevet Major General before mustering out in late 1782.

Soldier to Surgeon to Politico to Soldier

With the eight-year struggle for independence over, Hand returned to the comforts of his wife and children. Besides his medical practice, he engaged in civics, serving in the Continental Congress, 1784-85, and the Pennsylvania assembly 1785-86. As factions developed in parties, Doctor Hand stood with his friend and mentor Washington. He became a staunch Federalist and was appointed Customs Collector of Pennsylvania’s Third District by President Washington in 1791.

Hand served as Adjutant General in the Provisional Army
raised by President John Adams to fight the French

Hand managed to find time in 1794 to serve a short stint with the army, once more as adjutant general, during the Whiskey rebellion. And when war with France threatened four years later, Hand was commissioned major general and appointed adjutant general of the Provisional Army by President John Adams.  But with the election of Thomas Jefferson in 1800, our surgeon lost his position as a customs collector and returned to beloved Lancaster.

Family Man

Hand and his wife Kitty had four daughters and two sons, some born during the war, some after. Another daughter died in infancy. So, when he left his customs appointment, Hand had much to return home to. Unfortunately, he only had two more years of domestic bliss. Stricken with a sudden illness, he died at his home in Rock Ford, Pennsylvania on 3 September 1802.

Hand's home at Rock Ford

As both doctor and general, Edward Hand was certainly one Pennsylvania’s most illustrious citizens and political leaders, having served as a surgeon, businessman, a military and political leader at both ends of the state. He also is one of the important but little-known circle of leaders, I call them first-patriots, whose dedicated efforts, patriotism, and talents help win a nation.