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<\/p>\nOfficially known as the 14th Continental Regiment, the Marblehead militia was an extraordinary fighting force.<\/p>\n
It was a fully integrated unit of Latin, White, Black and Native American troops, and at least one Jewish member, who worked together on the high seas before battling the Brits. About 20 percent of the unit was non-White, according to regimental rolls.<\/p>\n
Three races of Glover\u2019s unit are represented in the oarsmen in Leutze\u2019s painting: a Black man by Washington\u2019s knee, rowing on the starboard side; several White militiamen; and a Native American in moccasins and bead-pattern pouch steering the boat in the back.<\/p>\n
Powering Washington\u2019s assault across the Delaware was only one of three miracles delivered by Glover and his Marblehead men to save the rebellion in that terrible-turned-glorious year of 1776.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cWashington relied on Glover to do a lot of very difficult things,\u201d Pam Peterson of the Marblehead Historical Commission told Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd Glover always came through.\u201d<\/p>\n
The \u2018codfish aristocracy\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\nJohn Glover was born on Nov. 5, 1732, in Salem, Massachusetts, to Jonathan and Yabitha (Bacon) Glover.\u00a0They moved to nearby Marblehead when he was a young boy.<\/p>\n
The Glovers were of modest means. So John took to the sea at a young age.<\/p>\n
The colonial Massachusetts economy was built upon cod fishing. Glover was at the forefront of the trade, working his way to the top of what historians call the\u00a0\u201ccodfish aristocracy.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\u201cHe was a self-made man,\u201d Paul Beck, a reenactor from Glover\u2019s Marblehead Regiment, told Fox New Digital. \u201cHe was a tough cookie, a rough guy, a disciplinarian.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\nGlover had red hair and stood just 5 foot 4 inches tall, but struck others as a natural leader in a world inhabited by hardened men.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
He wore pistols with silver handles, \u201creminiscent of Patton\u201d and his ivory-handled revolvers, said Beck.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was not a radical by nature, but he and his townsmen felt the sting of tyranny in writs of assistance, corrupt customs officers, and the illegal impressments of Marblehead crews by the Royal Navy,\u201d David Hackett Fischer writes in his 2005 Pulitzer Prize-winning history, \u201cWashington\u2019s Crossing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThese repeated acts turned a conservative ship captain into a revolutionary.\u201d<\/p>\n
Glover was pushed to rebellion by the Boston Massacre in 1770. He joined the local committee of correspondence, which helped coordinate anti-British activities across New England.<\/p>\n
He had no formal military training, but soon came to lead the local militia.<\/p>\n
It was a unit of rugged seamen used to hard labor. They wore tarred trousers \u2014 an uncomfortable form of weather proofing \u2014 and were adept at handling both muskets and bayonets.<\/p>\n
\u201cJohn Glover ran his regiment like a taut ship with the same system of command that prevailed at sea,\u201d writes Fischer.<\/p>\n
\n\nGlover met George Washington in the summer of 1775, during the siege of Boston that followed the Battles of Lexington and Concord in April.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Washington found in Glover a rare and reliable leader among the ragtag militiamen.<\/p>\n
He commissioned one of Glover\u2019s Marblehead schooners, the Hannah \u2014 named for the seaman\u2019s daughter \u2014 into service confronting the British navy.<\/p>\n
Glover\u2019s Hannah today is widely considered the first vessel in the history of\u00a0the U.S. Navy<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Glover had red hair and stood just 5 foot 4 inches tall, but struck others as a natural leader in a world inhabited by hardened men.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
He wore pistols with silver handles, \u201creminiscent of Patton\u201d and his ivory-handled revolvers, said Beck.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was not a radical by nature, but he and his townsmen felt the sting of tyranny in writs of assistance, corrupt customs officers, and the illegal impressments of Marblehead crews by the Royal Navy,\u201d David Hackett Fischer writes in his 2005 Pulitzer Prize-winning history, \u201cWashington\u2019s Crossing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThese repeated acts turned a conservative ship captain into a revolutionary.\u201d<\/p>\n
Glover was pushed to rebellion by the Boston Massacre in 1770. He joined the local committee of correspondence, which helped coordinate anti-British activities across New England.<\/p>\n
He had no formal military training, but soon came to lead the local militia.<\/p>\n
It was a unit of rugged seamen used to hard labor. They wore tarred trousers \u2014 an uncomfortable form of weather proofing \u2014 and were adept at handling both muskets and bayonets.<\/p>\n
\u201cJohn Glover ran his regiment like a taut ship with the same system of command that prevailed at sea,\u201d writes Fischer.<\/p>\n
Glover met George Washington in the summer of 1775, during the siege of Boston that followed the Battles of Lexington and Concord in April.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Washington found in Glover a rare and reliable leader among the ragtag militiamen.<\/p>\n
He commissioned one of Glover\u2019s Marblehead schooners, the Hannah \u2014 named for the seaman\u2019s daughter \u2014 into service confronting the British navy.<\/p>\n
Glover\u2019s Hannah today is widely considered the first vessel in the history of\u00a0the U.S. Navy<\/a>.<\/p>\n