Anyone who has grown up in Marblehead has heard the story of our town’s pivotal role in the Revolutionary War countless times. This repetition may lead locals to think that we know the whole story, that any retelling of it will just be old hat.
At Abbot Hall on July 19, historian and author Patrick K. O’Donnell gave a talk on Marblehead’s Revolutionary War history that demonstrated that there is always more to learn. By poring through archives, examining newly discovered artifacts and providing new forms of analysis, historians like O’Donnell constantly shed new light on our past by uncovering previously unknown stories and perspectives.
O’Donnell is the author of “The Indispensables: The Diverse Soldier-Mariners Who Shaped the Country, Formed the Navy, and Rowed Washington Across the Delaware,” a New York Times bestseller about the Marbleheaders in Gen. John Glover’s Regiment whose perseverance, dedication and military know-how played decisive roles in the patriots’ defeat of the British and, by extension, the establishment of American independence.
The story of Glover’s Regiment is often told as if the only role Glover and his men played in the establishment of American independence was by engaging in direct combat with the British. But in his lecture, O’Donnell laid out a much richer and more fascinating narrative that held the packed audience in rapt attention.
Seeming to side more with Marblehead in its longstanding dispute with Beverly over which town is the true birthplace of the American Navy, O’Donnell explained that the creation of any navy is more than a matter of which harbor the first naval vessel sailed from. According to O’Donnell, there are much larger considerations that need to be addressed in forming a navy, such as creating a structure of hierarchical command, developing a system of signals to communicate between vessels and finding creditors who can provide the funds necessary for building ships.
Glover’s Regiment pioneered all of these essential steps, which were in turn crucial to the country’s founding.
“We were moving closer and closer to independence with a navy,” O’Donnell said. “If you have a navy, you are an independent country.”
O’Donnell also focused on the more human elements of the country’s founding, which often get lost in dry historical retellings that are little more than lists of battles. He explained that in his research for “The Indispensables,” a book he described as a “true labor of love,” he went through the Glover’s Regiment muster rolls and “dug into the archives to sketch autobiographies of each of the men.”
What he found was a fascinating cast of characters, each with his own story to tell.
O’Donnell spoke of Marblehead’s youngest contributors to the war effort: drummer boys who kept up morale by providing a steady, driving beat. He talked about the diversity of the regiment, having among its ranks several African Americans, two Spaniards and even a Jewish soldier.
A particularly poignant moment came when O’Donnell read a brief excerpt from George Washington’s diary in which the future first president is experiencing a crisis of self-confidence, doubting his own ability to lead and wishing “there were a more experienced officer to ask for advice.”
At one point, the author and historian earned a huge round of applause by relaying an anecdote about the time he referred to a World War II veteran as a member of the “Greatest Generation,” only to have that man correct him. The true greatest generation were those who fought the War for Independence, the man insisted.
O’Donnell conceded that point and now sees his task as a historian to show people just why “the boys of ‘76” were the greatest Americans in our nation’s history.
