William Irvine

Personal Facts

• Born: November 3, 1741, in County Fermanagh, Ireland.
• Parents: Unknown.
• Spouse: Ann Callender (1722).
• Died: July 29, 1804, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 62 years old.
• Buried: Gloria Dei Episcopal Church Burial Ground, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
• Significance: William Irvine is important to American History because of his military service during the American Revolutionary War.

Biography

Early Life

• William Irvine was born in County Fermanagh, Ireland, on November 3, 1741.
• He briefly served in the British army but resigned after a disagreement with a superior.
• Irvine studied medicine at Dublin University and served as a surgeon in the British Royal Navy during the Seven Years’ War.
• In 1764, he moved to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and started a medical practice.

American Revolution

Irvine supported the Patriot Cause and organized a non-importation agreement to protest the Tea Act (1773).

He represented Cumberland County in the Pennsylvania Provincial Meeting of the Deputees (Pennsylvania Convention) in Philadelphia in July 1774. On July 15, the Meeting issued resolutions in protest of the Boston Port Act. The Convention declared:

• It wanted to restore peace with Great Britain.
• Americans were entitled to the same rights as the King’s subjects born in England.
• Parliament’s taxes on the colonies were unconstitutional.
• The Intolerable Acts were unconstitutional.
• There was an “immediate” need for a Continental Congress.
• It would adopt the recommendations of Congress.
• It would send aid to Boston.

American Revolutionary War

On January 9, 1776, Irvine became Colonel of the 6th Pennsylvania Regiment. Soon after, he marched to Canada under the command of General John Thomas.

• Invasion of Quebec (1775–1776) — The first military expedition carried out by the Continental Army during the war. Congress hoped to seize Quebec City and convince the Canadians to join the Patriot Cause. Americans were defeated in the Battle of Quebec (December 31, 1775) and laid siege to the city until the spring of 1776.
• Retreat from Canada (1776) — British forces arrived at Quebec City in May 1776 and immediately attacked the Americans. The Americans fled and retreated down toward Montreal. General John Sullivan’s army joined the retreat at Fort St. John on June 1, 1776. Sullivan took command of the army after General John Thomas died. Sullivan hoped to regroup the army and march back to Quebec.

Battle of Three Rivers

Sullivan sent General William Thompson to seize Three Rivers (Trois Rivières) between Montreal and Quebec, hoping to move back toward Quebec City. Irvine and his troops were with Thompson. When Thompson arrived on July 8, 1776, a scout led his army through a swamp instead of directly to Three Rivers. Meanwhile, the British received reinforcements and attacked the Americans as they approached. The Americans were forced to retreat to the swamp, where Native American Indians, who were allied with the British, attacked them.

• This defeat ended Sullivan’s hopes of continuing the campaign.
• Thompson and Irvine were captured and taken as prisoners by the British.

Battle of Monmouth Courthouse

Irvine was paroled on August 3, 1776, but was not officially exchanged until May 6, 1778, which allowed him to return to active duty in the Continental Army.

He returned to active duty and fought at the Battle of Monmouth, New Jersey, on June 28. The following month, he served on the court-martial that convicted Charles Lee for failure to do his duty.

• Battle of Monmouth Courthouse (June 28, 1778) — American forces attacked the British after they left Philadelphia and started their march to New York City. General Charles Lee led the attack on the rear of the British column, but made tactical errors that helped the British gain an advantage. General George Washington removed Lee from command and rallied the Americans. Washington prepared to fight the next day, but the British withdrew.
• Charles Lee (1732–1782) — Lee was an officer in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He helped defend Charleston during the American victory at the Battle of Sullivan’s Island but fell out of favor with George Washington. Lee was critical of Washington, tried to help British forces win the war, and was then relieved from command during the Battle of Monmouth. Lee was court-martialed, found guilty of the charges against him, and suspended from the army.

AHC Notes

• Some accounts indicate that Mary McCauley Hays, also known as “Molly Pitcher,” was a servant in the Irvine family. 
• Her husband, William Hays, was involved in Irvine’s protest of the Tea Act and went on to serve in an artillery unit in the Continental Army.
• While he fought in the Battle of Monmouth Courthouse, Mary carried water to wounded American soldiers.
• According to legend, when William was forced to withdraw due to heat exposure, she took his place at his cannon and helped fire on the British.

New York and New Jersey

On May 12, 1779, Irvine was promoted to Brigadier General and led the 2nd Brigade of General Anthony Wayne’s Pennsylvania Line. In 1780, Irvine participated in failed attacks on Staten Island (January 14–15, 1780) and Bull’s Ferry, New Jersey (July 21, 1780).

• Staten Island Raid (January 15, 1780) — General William Alexander, Lord Stirling, led a raid on Staten Island with 3,000 men, who traveled on sleighs. The British were alerted to the attack. Many civilians, posing as militiamen from New Jersey, participated in the attack and looted the homes of Staten Island Loyalists. The British retaliated a few days later by attacking Newark and Elizabethtown.
• Battle of Bull’s Ferry (July 21, 1780) — General Anthony Wayne led American forces in an attack on a Loyalist blockhouse in New Jersey. The Americans could not force the Loyalists to abandon the post and withdrew. This incident is most famous for being the subject of a poem written by Major John André called “The Cow Chace.”

Command at Fort Pitt

In September 1781, Irvine was appointed commander of the Western Military Department. He arrived at Fort Pitt in November. Finding he only had 200 regular soldiers available, he asked for volunteers to help deal with threats from Indians in the area. 

Irvine traveled to Philadelphia to discuss the issue with Congress, leaving Colonel John Gibson in command. While Irvine was away, hostilities with Indians living in Ohio and Western Pennsylvania intensified. Pennsylvania Militia forces decided to take action and organized an expedition that attacked and brutally murdered nearly 100 Indians living near present-day Coshocton, Ohio. This incident is known as the “Gnadenutten Massacre.”

The Gnadenhutten Massacre

• In March 1782, Colonel David Williamson led a Pennsylvania militia expedition against Gnadenhutten, an Indian village on the Tuscarawas River in Ohio.
• The Indians living there were “Christian Indians,” who followed the teachings of missionary David Zeisberger. They were peaceful and were not involved in any hostilities.
• Williamson arrived on March 7 and gathered the Indians in Gnadenhutten and Salem. He indicated he would guide them to Fort Pitt, where they would be safe.
• The Pennsylvanians proceeded to murder nearly 100 Indians and then burned the towns and fields.

The first reports of the event presented it as a victory for the militia, won in battle. However, missionary John Bull called for an investigation. Williamson and another officer, Colonel James Marshel, provided insight into the truth. Irvine learned about the incident when he returned to Fort Pitt in late March.

AHC Notes

• Many consider the Gnadenhutten Massacre to be the worst atrocity of the war.
• The name of the central Indian village in the area was Goschochking. This event is also known as the “Goschochking Massacre.” Gnadenhutten and Salem were smaller villages nearby.

The Crawford Expedition

In June 1782, Irvine issued orders to Colonel William Crawford to lead an expedition to present-day Upper Sandusky, Ohio, to destroy villages where hostile Indians were living.

• Crawford had 400 Pennsylvania troops, including David Williamson and others who had been involved in the Gnadenhutten Massacre.
• The expedition left on May 25, 1782, and marched to Gnaddenhutten and then to Sandusky Old Town.

On June 6, a scouting party was ambushed by hostile Indians, who killed around 50 Americans. Afterward, Crawford and his officers decided to retreat. The next day, June 7, the Indians attacked again. Crawford and others were captured, and the survivors, including Williamson, fled.

• Crawford was tortured and killed on June 11 in retaliation for the Gnadenhutten Massacre.
• The survivors ended the expedition and returned to Pennsylvania.
• The Crawford Expedition, which is also called “Crawford’s Defeat,” was the final campaign in the Western Theater.

According to some accounts, the Loyalist scout, Simon Girty, tried to convince the Indians to let Crawford live. However, the Indians, who were primarily Delaware and Wyandot, refused.

• Simon Girty (1741–1818)  — Girty was a well-known Frontiersman who abandoned the Patriot Cause in 1778 and went to work for the British Department of Indian Affairs at Fort Detroit. He participated in several frontier raids on American forces, including Lochry’s Defeat (1781). Girty fought at the Battle of Fallen Timbers (1794), where American forces defeated the Northwest Indian Confederacy.

Following the incident with Crawford, Irvine sent a letter to General Washington, who replied on August 6, 1782, saying:

“I lament the failure of the former Expedition — and am particularly affected with the disastrous fate of Colo. Crawford — no other than the extremest Tortures which could be inflicted by the Savages could, I think, have been expected, by those who were unhappy eno’ to fall into their Hands, especially under the present Exasperation of their Minds, for the Treatment given their Moravian friends. For this reason, no person should at this Time, suffer himself to fall alive into the Hands of the Indians.”

Post-War Career

Irvine left Fort Pitt on October 1, 1783, and resigned from the army on November 3. Afterward, he continued to serve the public on behalf of Pennsylvania.

In 1785, he worked on Pennsylvania’s behalf, securing land for war veterans. He was responsible for the purchase of the “Lake Erie Triangle.”Irvine served in Congress from 1786 to 1788 and from 1793 to 1795.

Pennsylvania Militia

Irvine commanded troops from the Pennsylvania Militia during three key events:

• Whiskey Rebellion (1791–1794) — Upset over the tax Congress placed on whiskey, farmers and distillers who lived on the western frontier found the tax excessive and resorted to harassment of federal tax collectors. By 1794, hostilities escalated, and the insurgents threatened Pittsburgh. President George Washington led an army over the Allegheny Mountains to confront them. In the face of this army, the uprising collapsed.
• Quasi-War with France (1798–1800) — An undeclared naval war with France that grew out of tensions over the French Neutrality Crisis and the XYZ Affair. In preparation for hostilities, Congress authorized a military buildup, which was paid for by taxing the public through a property tax known as the Window Tax.
• Fries’s Rebellion (1798–1800) — John Fries and his followers opposed the Window Tax, which helped fund the military buildup for the Quasi-War. Fried led a small uprising and was sentenced to death. However, President John Adams pardoned him because he disagreed with the harsh penalty.

Later Years and Death

• He moved to Philadelphia and became Superintendent of Military Stores in March 1801.
• Irvine was one of the original trustees for Dickinson College.
• From 1801 to 1804, he was President of the Society of the Cincinnati’s Pennsylvania branch.
• Irvine died of cholera in Philadelphia on July 29, 1804.

Society of the Cincinnati — Led by Henry Knox, the officers from the Continental Army organized a fraternal organization. It was named after Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus, a Roman military leader who gave up his political and military power after defeating the Roman Empire’s enemies. The Society continues to operate, calling itself the “nation’s oldest patriotic organization.”

Appendix

Biographical Sketch

This biographical sketch of William Irvine is from the Biographical Sketches of the Generals of the Continental Army of the Revolution (1889). Please note that minor text corrections have been made.

William Irvine, born near Enniskillen, Ireland, on the 3rd of November, 1741, was educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He preferred a military career but adopted the medical profession to gratify his parents’ wishes. During the latter part of the Seven Years’ War between England and France, he served as surgeon on board a British man-of-war, and shortly before the restoration of peace, he resigned his commission. Coming to America in 1764, he settled at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where he soon acquired a great reputation and a large medical practice. Warm-hearted and impulsive, at the opening of the Revolution, he adopted the cause of the colonists as his own, and after serving in the Pennsylvania Convention, he was commissioned in 1776 to raise a regiment in that State. At the head of these troops, he took part in the Canadian expedition of that year, and being taken prisoner, was detained for many months. He was captured a second time at the Battle of Chestnut Hill, New Jersey, in December 1777. On the 12th of May, 1779, Congress conferred on him the rank of Brigadier General. From 1782 until the close of the war, he commanded Fort Pitt, an important post defending the Western frontier, which was then threatened by the British and Indians. In 1785, he was appointed an agent to examine the public lands, and to him was entrusted the administration of an act for distributing the donation lands that had been promised to the troops of the Commonwealth. Appreciating Pennsylvania’s advantage of having an outlet on Lake Erie, he suggested the purchase of that tract of land known as “the triangle.” From 1785 to 1795, he filled various civil and military offices of responsibility. Being sent to treat with those connected with the Whiskey Rebellion, and failing to quiet them by arguments, he was given command of the Pennsylvania Militia to carry out the vigorous measures afterward adopted to reduce them to order. In 1795, he settled in Philadelphia, held the position of intendant of military stores, and was president of the Pennsylvania Society of the Cincinnati until his death on the 9th of July, 1804.

Narrative

This narrative of William Irvine is from the Dictionary of American Biography (1943). Please note that minor text corrections have been made and additional spacing has been added to improve readability.

William Irvine was born near Enniskillen, Fermanagh County, Ulster Province, Ireland. The Irvines were of ancient Scotch extraction; a branch of the family had migrated to Ireland and built Castle Irvine in Fermanagh under a grant from the Stuarts. 

William Irvine was educated at Enniskillen and at Trinity College, Dublin. After a brief and unfortunate career at arms, he studied medicine under the celebrated Cleghorn. He was appointed surgeon on a British ship of war and served in the Seven Years’ War. 

After 1764, he practised his profession in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Here, he married Anne Callender, daughter of Captain Robert Callender. Like most Scotch Ulstermen, Irvine supported American independence from the outset. He was a member of the provincial convention in Philadelphia on July 15, 1774, which denounced British tyranny in Boston and declared for American rights. 

He raised and commanded the 6th (later 7th) Pennsylvania Regiment, being appointed Colonel in 1777, to rank from January 9, 1776. His command participated in the expedition against Canada, where he was captured in the encounter at Three Rivers. He was released on parole soon afterward, but was not exchanged until May 6, 1778. 

Immediately thereupon, he resumed arms and participated in the battle of Monmouth, in which Mary McCauley, also known as “Molly Pitcher,” who had been a servant in the Irvine family, made a name for herself in history. He was a member of the court martial that sat in judgment over General Charles Lee, declared him guilty, and suspended him from his command.

On May 12, 1779, Irvine was promoted to Brigadier General in the Continental Army. His brigade was employed in New Jersey around Trenton, taking part in Lord Stirling’s expedition against Staten Island, and the unsuccessful attack of General Anthony Wayne at Bull’s Ferry. 

In the fall of 1781, upon the recommendation of Washington, Irvine was entrusted with the defense of the northwestern frontier. He was stationed at Fort Pitt (Pittsburgh) and retained command there until the close of the war. His troops were poorly trained and inadequately supplied, and his task was aggravated by mutinies from within and Indian raids from without. He received indispensable assistance during these years from his aide-de-camp, a gifted Russian who called himself John Rose and, after the war, was identified as Gustavus de Rosenthal of Livonia, a baron of the Empire.

When peace was declared, Irvine wrote to General Washington, to whom he was both personally and professionally attached, complimenting him on his success. “With great sincerity,” the Commander-in-Chief replied, “I return you my congratulations.” 

Pennsylvania rewarded Irvine with a generous land grant, and, in 1785, he was appointed agent to direct the mode of distributing the donation lands promised to the troops. In exploring the territory, he became convinced of the advisability of the purchase by Pennsylvania of a tract of land called the “Triangle,” which would give the state a considerable front on Lake Erie. The suggestion was incorporated in his report and accepted by the government. 

On closing the business of the land agency, he was elected a delegate to the Continental Congress of 1786–1788. While in New York in this capacity, he sat for his portrait to Robert Edge Pine, the English artist in America. A handsome copy of this painting was later made by Bass Otis of Philadelphia.

In 1790, Irvine was elected to sit in his state’s constitutional convention, which framed the document adopted on September 2 of that year. He served as one of the commissioners who settled the financial account between the several states and the United States government in 1793, and in that year was sent to the Third United States Congress by the Cumberland District. 

In 1794, he was active as an arbitrator and commanding officer of the state troops in quelling the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania. 

He was appointed superintendent of the military stores at Philadelphia on March 13, 1800, in which capacity he had charge of the arsenals, ordnance, and supplies of the army, and supervision of Indian affairs. He held this office until he died. 

He is said to have been austere and somewhat forbidding; he was an excellent, if strict, disciplinarian. From 1801 to 1804, he was president of the Pennsylvania branch of the Society of the Cincinnati. He died in Philadelphia.