Yankee Doodle Spies Mothers Day

I just thought I'd take a short post to salute all of the mothers of the American Revolution. Motherhood was an unrelenting, painful, tedious, demanding, unforgiving, and too often under-appreciated vocation in the time of the Yankee Doodle Spies. Sadly, not unlike today in many cases. I use this blog in great part to hail the so-called second tier of first patriots. The untold and little mentioned men and women who played important roles in the struggle that birthed the first modern republic. Okay, I do post on the top tier from time to time but that is to fill out the story. This one is for the moms...



Mary


I posted a previous blog about the greatest (sorta) mother of the American Revolution: Mary Ball Washington. This steely widow birthed the ages "indispensable man" George Washington. She was kind of a Beeyoche, but her stubborn and strong-willed nature clearly passed on to George. The result: a leader who although flawed managed to adapt to adversity, rally diverse peoples, and keep a nation (and himself) together for eight long years until the millennium's most unlikely victory came to being. Despite their often strained relationship, Washington doted on his mother. We can be thankful to the woman who raised a son to become the leader of a new nation and the idol of most of his age.

Mary Ball Washington's fire and
stubbornness passed on to her noted son

Martha


I truly think the lord above was having fun with these two mothers who influenced, molded, and simply made George Washington the man he was. Martha Custis was a wealthy widow when she married George. She was also his senior and was already a mother. George adopted her children as his own and doted on the family he married into. Martha was short and tended in middle age to stout. But although Washington was admired by the most glamorous women in the hemisphere, Martha was his lodestone. Her strength in maintaining his farm and family enabled him to ride off from Mount Vernon to return a long eight years later. But he could not remain apart from Martha that long. Almost every winter he requested she leave their farm and join him in winter quarter where she became the surrogate mother of his officers and men.

Martha as a young woman

Abigail


Abigail Smith is most widely known as Abigail Adams. The great John Adams book by  David McCullough and the resultant TV series has made her the most renowned of "First Mothers." Adams admired and encouraged Abigail's outspokenness and intelligence. She supported him by running the family farm, raising their children, listening to him, and trying to help him with his problems. Despite her own bouts with illness, she gave birth to five children. One daughter, Susanna, born in 1768, lived for only a year. Besides being the bedrock of the founding father who would become America's second (and first controversial) president, Abigail was mother to the nation's sixth president - their son John Quincy Adams.

Abigail's letters bolstered her husband
while informing him of family doings

Caty


Nathaniel Greene is considered the second greatest (and for some the greatest) commander in the American army.  Catharine Littlefield married Nathaniel Greene in 1774 at the tender age of nineteen. With her husband marching off to war a year later she was thrust abruptly into the role of head of household. Eager to be with her husband, she joined Gen. Greene at his military headquarters whenever possible. Over the course of the war (and shortly after), Catharine had five children. Conflicted by the caring for her children but longing to be with her husband, Caty (as she was also called) settled on a compromise. In order to have a normal family life when conditions allowed, she brought her young children with her to camp. At other times she left them in the care of family or friends. It was during these separations that Caty most felt the effects of the war upon her family. She was a staple at winter quarters and her presence had a positive effect not only on her husband but the other officers and the commander in chief himself - they were often dance partners.

Happy Mothers Day! 

Mother of Her Country?

Mary Ball

Happy Mother's Day

I was not going to write a blog for Mother's Day, but I thought at the last minute a small piece on George Washington's mother would be in order. The lady, born Mary Ball in 1708 or 1709 in Lancaster County, Virginia, is a fitting subject. She was the only child of Joseph Ball and his second wife, Mary Johnson.  Joseph Ball was a leader in the militia and a ranking justice on the Lancaster County court, making him a member of the gentry class.  He was also elected to the House of Burgesses in 1695 and served until 1702.  Mary Johnson was a young widow who caught the eye of Joseph Ball.  At the time of their meeting, she was most likely a housekeeper for the Ball family.

Mary's Early Life

Mary had good prospects of being born into Virginia-landed folk. For the first few years of Mary’s life, she was raised at her father’s plantation, “Epping Forest.”  But life would turn on her at an early age. Her father died when she was three years old and left Mary three slaves, fifteen cattle, a good feather bed, and 400 acres of land up the Rappahannock River. Mary's mother remarried Captain Richard Hues, and they moved to Cherry Point on the Potomac River.  When Hues died, he left all of his assets to his wife and her children. But Mary Hues herself died when Mary Ball was twelve. Mary was then placed under the guardianship of Colonel George Eskridge, a lawyer, under the terms of her mother's will. Although under

Colonel George ESkridge

Eskridge's guidance, Mary continued to live at Cherry Point with her sister Elizabeth Bonum, not with her guardian.  Mary had three horses and numerous acres of land by age eighteen. As part of the landed gentry, she learned social graces and to ride, handle a boat, and shoot. Clearly, her streak of independence was forged during this period. When John, her half-brother, died in 1721, Mary also received 600 acres in his will.  At age 14, Mary had acquired over 1000 acres to her name. She was a prime marriage prospect for any up-and-coming man.

Marriage: Better Late than Never?

Mary married Augustine Washington, of Pope's Creek, Westmoreland County, on March 6, 1731. Augustine was a widower with three children. He was also a leader in the area of iron mining enterprises. In fact, he mined the land adjacent to Mary's. Eskridge's sister in law, Jane Butler, was Augustine's first wife. When she died suddenly, Eskridge recommended that Mary be Augustine’s second wife, due to her immense wealth and assets. Augustine and Mary were married in 1731 at Yeocomico Church in Westmoreland County.  Augustine and his company gained Mary’s land and mined the 600 acres in Stafford County.

Augustine Washington

Mary Ball Washington

Mary and Augustine moved to his family home called Pope’s Creek Plantation, also located in Westmorland County.  Mary was twenty-two when she married Augustine.   Twenty-two was considered somewhat old for a woman (unless a widow) to marry during this time period.  Because there is a nine-year period of Mary’s life for which historians have little or no information, it is unclear why Mary wed at an older age.   In 1732, Mary gave birth to her first child, George, named after George Eskridge, at Pope’s Creek Plantation. Although the circumstances of her life were somewhat typical in that age of early deaths and many remarriages, Mary Ball Washington's would stand out from all others in Virginia: she gave birth to " the man of his age."

A Complex Woman and Mother

Virginia has several places
Dedicated to Mary Washington

I shall save a recounting of Washington's upbringing by his mother, and his very unusual relationship with her. For now, it can be said that Mary was a strong-willed person. Stubborn to the point of ornery. She loved her son to a fault. But she did not coddle him. As she aged, her personality grew more flinty, and although Washington loved her dearly, he stayed clear of her, especially during his time of ascent and the struggles of the times. I may save the second part of this tale for... Sigmund Freud's birthday...

Mother of Her Country?

Still, in the spirit of Mother's Day, we will close with a quote from Mary Ball Washington about the Revolution's success, and her son George, in 1784. Since Washington was the man of his age, his mother was, despite her traits, the mother of her age. And since a mother's greatest joy is to dote on their children, her understated compliment is telling: "I am not surprised at what George has done, for he was always a good boy."

The Mother of Her Country?

How I spent my Summer Vacation - Part II

Let me say upfront this is the first summer that I have been able to go on two different trips - one north - one south. However, both took me to coastal beaches. And both took me back in time...at least notionally. Part two took me to North Carolina.  I briefly lived in North Carolina many years ago but my Army duties and other interests kept me from truly exploring the state.  This trip convinced me of the error of my ways. I stayed at Kill Devil Hills on the Outer Banks.  My place was within sight of the place where the Wright brothers changed the world forever and about twenty-five yards from the beach.




Driving down to the Banks took me through some notable places during the time of the Yankee Doodle Spies.  I took Highway 15 and then 17 instead of the interstate. The route took me through the Virginia Piedmont to Fredericksburg, which was an operating seaport during the 18th century. There begins a trip through the upper tidewater region. Mary Washington's last home, purchased for her by her son in 1772, is in Fredericksburg, Va.

American field guns at Yorktown

Highway 17 takes you through Gloucester, which is across the York River from the famous town of that name. Crossing the York River you find yourself at historic Yorktown. The National Park Service maintains a fabulous battlefield center there and the park extends into part of the town itself. As most know, a combined French-American force besieged General Cornwallis there and caused his surrender in 1781, forcing the British to begin negotiations with the rebels and the French.

My GPS routed me through Yorktown, Newport News, Smith Island, and finally to Portsmouth and meandered south. At that point, I left 17 for the more traditional (and traffic-laden) approach to the Banks. Had I stayed on 17 I would have passed near the Great Dismal Swamp, a hundred-mile square area of marsh connected by a series of small streams - all heavily wooded at the time of the Yankee Doodle Spies.  George Washington and many of his Virginia peers lost a bit of money in a venture aimed at developing the swamp as an inland waterway.

Great Dismal Swamp

Little of this has anything to do with the time of the Yankee Doodle Spies but geography often dictates history.  And so I expand on that idea a bit. The British government's main advantage over their rebellious colonies was the Royal Navy. They had the largest and best navy in the world and the Americans had none at the war's start. However, navies need ports to make them most effective - and North Carolina had few of note. To that end, the Outer Banks served as a more than 100-mile long barrier against British naval supremacy in North Carolina. This limited British operations from the sea and thus no naval actions of note took place there. Late in the war, when the British invaded North Carolina, they did so over land, and the series of events leading to Yorktown ensued.

Fort George marker 

But further, down the coast from the Banks, there was an attempt to maintain a coastal base at New Bern, Wilmington, and Bald Head Island, which guards the mouth of the Cape Fear River. The main British forts were Fort George (on Bald Head itself) and Fort Johnston. The British clung to these but never found a way to exploit them, thanks to aggressive patriot actions that continued throughout the war.