American Revolution Round Table of Philadelphia

American Revolution Round Table of Philadelphia Our Meetings are held at MaGerk's 582 S. Bethlehem Pike, Fort Washington, PA 19034. arrtop.org The business meeting starts promptly at 7:15 p.m.

The American Revolution Round Table of Philadelphia brings together a diverse group of people united by a common interest in the American Revolutionary Era. If you want to join our membership, the dues are only $30 per calendar year. Beginning with our September gathering of 2017, ARRTOP will meet at MaGerk's Pub at 582 S. Meetings will usually be held on the LAST TUESDAY OF THE MONTH, then the LA

ST MONDAY'S OF THE MONTH IN 2024 but there could be some adjustment of meeting dates, depending upon proximity to certain holidays (Memorial Day). Please refer to the "Future Meetings and Speakers" section of our website for updated information. We invite folks to arrive early and eat and drink in the back room of MaGerk's Fort Washington. and the speaker will start approximately at 7:30 p.m. The main event of the evening is a speaker on some aspect of the American Revolutionary Era. The American Revolution Round Table of Philadelphia Inc. (ARRTOP) is a 501(c)(3) organization under the Internal Revenue Code. Contributions to us are deductible under section 170 of the Internal Revenue Code. We are also qualified to receive tax deductible bequests, devises, transfers or gifts under section 2055, 2106 or 2522 of the Code. We are classified as a public charity. If you wish to help support ARRTOP in its mission, contact anyone of the officers. Your assistance is greatly appreciated. Please visit http://arrtop.org for more information.

The Battles of Lexington and Concord At about 5 a.m., 700 British troops, on a mission to capture Patriot leaders and se...
04/19/2026

The Battles of Lexington and Concord
At about 5 a.m., 700 British troops, on a mission to capture Patriot leaders and seize a Patriot arsenal, marched into Lexington to find 77 armed minutemen under Captain John Parker waiting for them on the town's common green. British Major John Pitcairn ordered the outnumbered Patriots to disperse, and after a moment's hesitation, the Americans began to drift off the green. Suddenly, the "shot heard around the world" was fired from an undetermined gun, and a cloud of musket smoke soon covered the green. When the brief Battle of Lexington ended, eight Americans lay dead or dying, and 10 others were wounded. Only one British soldier was injured, but the American Revolution had begun.
By 1775, tensions between the American colonies and the British government approached the breaking point, especially in Massachusetts, where Patriot leaders formed a shadow revolutionary government and trained militias to prepare for armed conflict with the British troops occupying Boston. In the spring of 1775, General Thomas Gage, the British governor of Massachusetts, received instructions from England to seize all stores of weapons and gunpowder accessible to the American insurgents. On April 18, he ordered British troops to march against the Patriot arsenal at Concord and capture Patriot leaders Samuel Adams and John Hancock, known to be hiding at Lexington.
The Boston Patriots had been preparing for such a military action by the British for some time, and upon learning of the British plan, Patriots Paul Revere and William Dawes were ordered to set out to rouse the militiamen and warn Adams and Hancock. When the British troops arrived at Lexington, Adams, Hancock, and Revere had already fled to Philadelphia, and a group of militiamen was waiting. The Patriots were routed within minutes, but warfare had begun, leading to calls to arms across the Massachusetts countryside.
When the British troops reached Concord at about 7 a.m., they found themselves encircled by hundreds of armed Patriots. They managed to destroy the military supplies the Americans had collected but were soon advanced against by a gang of minutemen, who inflicted numerous casualties. Lieutenant Colonel Frances Smith, the overall commander of the British force, ordered his men to return to Boston without directly engaging the Americans. As the British retraced their 16-mile journey, their lines were constantly beset by Patriot marksmen firing at them Indian-style from behind trees, rocks, and stone walls. At Lexington, Captain Parker's militia had its revenge, killing several British soldiers as the Red Coats hastily marched through his town. By the time the British finally reached the safety of Boston, nearly 300 British soldiers had been killed, wounded, or were missing in action. The Patriots suffered fewer than 100 casualties.
The battles of Lexington and Concord were the first battles of the American Revolution, a conflict that would escalate from a colonial uprising into a world war that, seven years later, would give birth to the independent United States of America.

Revere, Dawes, and Prescott Warn of British AttackOn this day in 1775, British troops marched out of Boston on a mission...
04/18/2026

Revere, Dawes, and Prescott Warn of British Attack
On this day in 1775, British troops marched out of Boston on a mission to confiscate the American arsenal at Concord and to capture Patriot leaders Samuel Adams and John Hancock, known to be hiding at Lexington. As the British departed, Boston Patriots Paul Revere and William Dawes set out on horseback from the city to warn Adams and Hancock and rouse the Minutemen.
By 1775, tensions between the American colonies and the British government had approached the breaking point, especially in Massachusetts, where Patriot leaders formed a shadow revolutionary government and trained militias to prepare for armed conflict with the British troops occupying Boston. In the spring of 1775, General Thomas Gage, the British governor of Massachusetts, received instructions from Great Britain to seize all stores of weapons and gunpowder accessible to the American insurgents. On April 18, he ordered British troops to march against Concord and Lexington.
The Boston Patriots had been preparing for such a British military action for some time, and, upon learning of the British plan, Revere and Dawes set off across the Massachusetts countryside. They took separate routes in case one of them was captured: Dawes left the city via the Boston Neck peninsula and Revere crossed the Charles River to Charlestown by boat. As the two couriers made their way, Patriots in Charlestown waited for a signal from Boston informing them of the British troop movement. As previously agreed, one lantern would be hung in the steeple of Boston's Old North Church, the highest point in the city, if the British were marching out of the city by Boston Neck, and two lanterns would be hung if they were crossing the Charles River to Cambridge. Two lanterns were hung, and the armed Patriots set out for Lexington and Concord accordingly. Along the way, Revere and Dawes roused hundreds of Minutemen, who armed themselves and set out to oppose the British.
Revere arrived in Lexington shortly before Dawes, but together they warned Adams and Hancock and then set out for Concord. Along the way, they were joined by Samuel Prescott, a young Patriot who had been riding home after visiting a lady friend. Early on the morning of April 19, a British patrol captured Revere, and Dawes lost his horse, forcing him to walk back to Lexington on foot. However, Prescott escaped and rode on to Concord to warn the Patriots there. After being roughly questioned for an hour or two, Revere was released when the patrol heard Minutemen alarm guns being fired on their approach to Lexington.
About 5 a.m. on April 19, 700 British troops under Major John Pitcairn arrived at the town to find a 77-man-strong colonial militia under Captain John Parker waiting for them on Lexington's common green. Pitcairn ordered the outnumbered Patriots to disperse, and after a moment's hesitation, the Americans began to drift off the green. Suddenly, the "shot heard around the world" was fired from an undetermined gun, and a cloud of musket smoke soon covered the green. When the brief Battle of Lexington ended, eight Americans lay dead and 10 others were wounded; only one British soldier was injured. The American Revolution had begun.
Images below are 2 of the 3 riders, Paul Revere and William Dawes.

Colbert Launches Raid on Fort Carlos, ArkansasAbout 2 a.m. on the morning of April 17, 1783, British Captain James Colbe...
04/17/2026

Colbert Launches Raid on Fort Carlos, Arkansas
About 2 a.m. on the morning of April 17, 1783, British Captain James Colbert, along with a group of 82 British partisans, launched a surprise attack on the Arkansas post of Fort Carlos (modern-day Gillett, in Desha County), located on the banks of the Arkansas River. The "Colbert Raid" was the only Revolutionary War action to take place in Arkansas.
Colbert launched the British attack on the Spanish-controlled fort in response to Spain's decision to side with the Americans during the revolution. Forty Spanish soldiers defended the fort with help from their Quapaw Indian allies. After a six-hour battle, Spanish Commander Jacobo Du Breuil ordered a sortie, which forced the retreat of the British contingent.
The raid took place nearly two months after America's preliminary peace treaty was signed with Great Britain, but word of the peace treaty did not reach either the British or American troops located in the Mississippi Valley until well after the raid. The area did not become part of the United States until 1803; in 1800, the Spanish ceded it to France and the French in turn sold it to Thomas Jefferson as part of Louisiana Purchase three years later.
The first European to recognize the value of this location, at the intersection of the Arkansas and Mississippi Rivers, had been a French trader, Henri de Tonty. In 1686, he established the Poste de Arkansea near a Quapaw Indian village in the area.
The state of Arkansas now maintains the fort and its surroundings as the Arkansas Post Memorial and Arkansas Post Museum State Park.

General Sir Henry Clinton is BornOn this day in 1738, Henry Clinton, the future commander in chief of British forces cha...
04/16/2026

General Sir Henry Clinton is Born
On this day in 1738, Henry Clinton, the future commander in chief of British forces charged with suppressing the rebellion in North America, is born in Newfoundland, Canada.
Henry Clinton's father, George, was the royal governor of Newfoundland at the time of his birth. He was made the royal governor of New York in 1743, and Henry spent eight years in that colony before moving to England and taking a military commission in the Coldstream Guards in 1751. By 1758, Henry Clinton had earned the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Grenadier Guards. He continued to distinguish himself as a soldier during the Seven Years' War and, in 1772, achieved two significant feats for a man born in the colonies--the rank of major general in the British army and a seat in Parliament.
Clinton's part in the War of American Independence began auspiciously. He arrived with Major General William Howe and, after the draw at Bunker Hill, served in the successful capture of New York City and the Battle of Long Island, which earned him the rank of lieutenant general and membership in the Most Honourable Order of Bath as a KCB, or Knight Commander of the British Empire, which conferred to him the title of Sir.
After Howe resigned, Clinton was promoted to commander in chief of Britain's North American forces in 1778. Clinton oversaw the concentration of British troops in his former home state of New York and went on to successfully capture Charleston, South Carolina, in 1779. However, the persistent ineptitude of General Cornwallis, his second in command, caused him consternation and, ultimately, defeat at Yorktown in 1781.
As commander in chief, Clinton was blamed for the loss of the 13 colonies and was replaced by Sir Guy Carleton after the defeat at Yorktown. Afterward, Clinton attempted to rebuild his reputation by publishing his own account of the war. By the time of his death in 1795, he had managed to gain a seat in Parliament, the title of General and an appointment as the Governor of Gibraltar.

Congress Ratifies Peace with Great BritainOn this day in 1783, the Continental Congress of the United States officially ...
04/15/2026

Congress Ratifies Peace with Great Britain
On this day in 1783, the Continental Congress of the United States officially ratifies the preliminary peace treaty with Great Britain that was signed in November 1782. The congressional move brings the nascent nation one step closer to the conclusion of the Revolutionary War.
Five months later, on September 3, 1783, the Treaty of Paris was signed by representatives of the United States, Great Britain, Spain and France, officially bringing an end to the Revolutionary War. It also formalized Great Britain's recognition of America's independence.
The treaty established the Mississippi River as the western boundary of the new United States; allowed U.S. fishermen to troll the waters off Newfoundland, Canada; recognized the legitimacy of pre-war debts owed by Americans and Britons; and promised to reunite American Loyalists with property seized from them during the war. The American and Britons were satisfied with the agreement. However, western Indians who had allied themselves to Britain discovered that their land had been handed over by the British to the Americans without consultation or compensation. As they had neither lost their battles nor negotiated a treaty with the Americans, they continued to fight until 1795. Spain assisted southern Indians as they fought to protect their land from encroaching Georgians.
North of the Ohio Valley, the British maintained their forts at Niagara and Detroit, despite their promise to withdraw in the Treaty of Paris. They argued that Americans had breached the treaty by failing to return Loyalist property and pay British creditors as promised. American willingness to trade with revolutionary France further angered the British, and increased their promises of British aid to aggrieved Indians. The British only retreated from the Northwest Territory following the negotiation of the controversial Jay treat with Britain, which was ratified in 1795.

First American Abolition Society Founded in PhiladelphiaThe Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bo...
04/14/2026

First American Abolition Society Founded in Philadelphia
The Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bo***ge, the first American society dedicated to the cause of abolition, is founded in Philadelphia on this day in 1775 by Leading Quaker educator and legendary abolitionist Anthony Benezet.
At their first meeting in Philadelphia's Rising Sun Tavern, the members agreed to fight the sale of Nevill and her three children in Bethlehem to a man from Virginia who claimed to be their master. The fledging organization failed but did manage to arrange for her family's freedom and return to Philadelphia in 1779.
The group stopped holding regular meetings during the Revolutionary War, but the movement for abolition continued to grow, and on March 1, 1780, the Pennsylvania Assembly passed a law calling for the gradual emancipation of slavery. The new law, the first legislative act against slavery in the United States, did not free those who were enslaved at the time.
But the measure did stipulate that all "Negro and Mulatto children born within the state after the passage of the act on March 1, 1780" were bound for twenty-eight years as indentured servants, and that if they had children before age twenty-eight the children, too, would serve for twenty-eight years.
Benezet's society reorganized in 1784 to become to the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery and the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bo***ge in 1784.
Three years later became the Pennsylvania Abolition Society (PAS). (Later that year, several of its African American members helped to begin the Free African Society.
Anthony Benezet persuaded the Quakers to create the Negro School at Philadelphia. Benezet was born in France to a Huguenot (French Protestant) family that had fled to London in order to avoid persecution at the hands of French Catholics. The family eventually migrated to Philadelphia when Benezet was 17. There, he joined the Society of Friends (Quakers) and began a career as an educator. In 1750, Benezet began teaching slave children in his home after regular school hours, and in 1754, established the first girls' school in America. With the help of fellow Quaker John Woolman, Benezet persuaded the Philadelphia Quaker Yearly Meeting to take an official stance against slavery in 1758.
Benezet's argument for abolition found a trans-Atlantic audience with the publication of his tract Some Historical Account of Guinea, written in 1772. Benezet counted Benjamin Franklin and John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, among his sympathetic correspondents. He died in 1784; his funeral was attended by 400 black Philadelphians. As the anti-slavery movement gained nearly nationwide support, the PAS, led by Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush, did more than any other group to assist slaves seeking freedom.
The "gradual" nature of emancipation meant that slavery still existed in Pennsylvania into the 1830s, although the numbers of slaves declined steadily. Of the 14,564 African Americans residing in Pennsylvania in 1800, 1,706, or 10.5 percent were slaves. By 1820, a statewide population of 30,202 African Americans included only 211 slaves. By 1840, only 64 slaves remained in a state-wide black population of 47,854.
The passage of the Gradual Abolition Act made Pennsylvania a destination of choice for many fugitives escaping bo***ge from northern Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware on the clandestine route to freedom that later became known as the "Underground Railroad." Free blacks from those states also found that Philadelphia offered more opportunities and its free black community better protection than their own southern homes.
To discourage slaves' flight to free states, Congress in 1793 passed a fugitive slave law that gave slave owners or their agents the authority to reclaim their fugitives in the local courts and fined anyone harboring runaways $500. Growing abolitionist activity in the state and the increased influence of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society made the law difficult to enforce. PAS members, many of whom were lawyers, defended runaways in the courts and lobbied the state legislature to broaden the scope of the 1780 law to include complete emancipation. In the late 1700s, they were taking on forty to sixty cases a year in Pennsylvania courts to prevent those who had escaped from being returned to slavery; to ensure that masters freed their slaves when their indentures expired, and to prevent black Pennsylvanians from being sold into slave states.
The PAS continued this work until the Civil War and acquired a nation-wide reputation as the place where abolitionists and African Americans could go if they believed someone had been enslaved unjustly. The society also repeatedly petitioned to end slavery. The PAS acquired a nation-wide reputation for its work; African Americans from throughout the United States appealed to it and were rarely turned down. The Society also fostered friendly relations between black and white abolitionists, as Alexander Addison of Washington County noted in 1793: "In Pennsylvania, at least, it will not be thought fanatical to protect a man, though black, and improve him, though born in Africa. Those cruel prejudices which have so long given a property in man seem to wear out faster than their friends could have supposed."
The very year that Addison made his optimistic statement; however, Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin, which helped revitalize slavery in the South. In the decades that followed, the PAS and new anti-slavery organizations would carry on the struggle against slavery until the Civil War finally realized their goal. List below is the historic marker, seal of the PAS, and an image of Quaker educator and legendary abolitionist Anthony Benezet.

British Attack at Bound Brook, New JerseyIn the early morning hours of April 13, 1777, General Lord Charles Cornwallis l...
04/13/2026

British Attack at Bound Brook, New Jersey
In the early morning hours of April 13, 1777, General Lord Charles Cornwallis leads 4,000 British troops and Hessian mercenaries in a surprise attack on a small garrison of American troops in the village of Bound Brook in central New Jersey.
Cornwallis' decision to launch the four-column attack at daybreak caught American Major General Benjamin Lincoln and the Continental Army completely by surprise; they were unable to launch a counterattack. Surprised and outnumbered, Lincoln ordered his men to retreat and was able to escape along with most of his 500 troops; his losses totaled 60 men killed or taken prisoner. The British also captured several cannons and nearly all of Lincoln's artillery detachment, which they took with them, returning to their camp at New Brunswick.
Hessian mercenaries were critical to the British victory. Hessian Johann Ewald, captain of the elite Lieb Jaeger Korps, developed the successful four-column strategy at Cornwallis' request; his diary is the major source of information regarding the ensuing battle. Ewald was so respected by his colonial counterparts that General Henry Knox invited Ewald to West Point after Cornwallis' surrender at Yorktown. Ewald would eventually publish eight books on military strategy, including a Treatise on Partisan Warfare, published in 1785, which earned the praise of Prussia's Frederick the Great.
Since the British chose not to stay in Bound Brook, the Continental Army re-occupied the village under Major General Nathanael Greene. Ultimately, though, General George Washington decided that it would be easier to defend Bound Brook from a loftier vantage point, moving troops to the Watchung Mountains of north-central New Jersey

British Repeal Hated Townshend ActOn this fateful day in 1770, the British government moves to mollify outraged colonist...
04/12/2026

British Repeal Hated Townshend Act
On this fateful day in 1770, the British government moves to mollify outraged colonists by repealing most of the clauses of the hated Townshend Act. Initially passed on June 29, 1767, the Townshend Act constituted an attempt by the British government to consolidate fiscal and political power over the American colonies by placing import taxes on many of the British products bought by Americans, including lead, paper, paint, glass and tea.
The measure bore the name of its sponsor, Charles Townshend, the chancellor of the Exchequer, who was notoriously conservative in his understanding of colonial rights. Townshend's annual Revenue Act levied a controversial package of taxes on the colonists, including duties on lead, painters' colors, paper and tea. The chancellor also undermined the colonial judiciary by increasing the power of the British navy's vice-admiralty courts over American colonists and initiating an American Board of Customs Commissioners charged with enforcing his new import taxes. These taxes were used at least in part to fund the salaries of colonial governors and judges to ensure their financial, and thus political, independence from the colonial assemblies. Townshend also moved British troops from the western frontier to the eastern seaboard, where they were both less expensive to supply and more troubling to colonists, who feared that they were being asked to cover the expenses of their own military oppression.
Riotous protest of the Townshend Acts in the colonies often invoked the phrase no taxation without representation. Colonists eventually decided not to import British goods until the act was repealed and to boycott any goods that were imported in violation of their non-importation agreement. Colonial anger culminated in the deadly Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770.
Also on March 5, Townshend's successor (he had died soon after proposing the hated act), Lord Frederick North, asked Parliament to repeal the Townshend Acts except for the duty on tea; he considered all the duties bad for trade and, thus, expensive for the British empire. However, he wished to avoid the appearance of weakness in the face of colonial protest and thus left the tea tax in place. This strategy successfully divided colonial merchants, eager, for their own enrichment, to resume trade in all British goods barring tea, from colonial craftsmen, who profited from non-importation agreements, and wished to leave them in place as long as the tax on tea remained in effect.

Moravian Missionary David Zeisberger is BornDavid Zeisberger, a Moravian missionary whose Native American converts were ...
04/11/2026

Moravian Missionary David Zeisberger is Born
David Zeisberger, a Moravian missionary whose Native American converts were slaughtered by Pennsylvania militiamen in the Gnaddenhuetten Massacre of 1781, is born in Zauchental, Moravia, near Ostrava, in what is now the Czech Republic, on this day in 1781.
The Zeisberger family moved to Herrnhut, Saxony, to join a Moravian community there in the late 1720s. In 1736, David's parents left for the Moravian settlement in the new colony of Georgia, leaving their son to complete his schooling in Herrnhut. Zeisberger joined his parents in 1738 and traveled with them to Pennsylvania, where they settled in 1740. Although he was slated to return to Germany in 1743, leading Moravian Bishop David Nitschmann noticed the young man's reluctance to depart and convinced him to remain in Pennsylvania.
Zeisberger then began learning the languages essential to his future role as a missionary among Native Americans. Beginning with Delaware and Mohawk, Zeisberger eventually mastered Onondaga, Cayuga, Mahican and Ojibwa, as well as a second dialect of the Delaware language. Zeisberger succeeded in his relationship with the Delaware where others had failed due to his unswerving respect and compassion. As the Revolutionary War and expansion of the population of the new nation squeezed the Delaware from their ancestral lands, Zeisberger fought for their rights
The Moravians pacifism placed them and their Native American converts in a difficult position during the violent second half of the 18th century. In 1781, David Zeisberger was taken to Detroit for questioning by the British. Although he was eventually released, the Indians he had converted and offered shelter at Gnaddenhuetten, Ohio, were murdered by members of the Pennsylvania militia in his absence.
Tension between Euro-Americans and Native Americans in the Ohio Valley forced Zeisberger and his followers to mover further north into Michigan and Ontario in the late 1780s and early 1790s.

John Paul Jones Sets Out to Raid British ShipsOn April 10, 1778, Commander John Paul Jones and his crew of 140 men aboar...
04/10/2026

John Paul Jones Sets Out to Raid British Ships
On April 10, 1778, Commander John Paul Jones and his crew of 140 men aboard the USS Ranger set sail from the naval port at Brest, France, and head toward the Irish Sea to begin raids on British warships. This was the first mission of its kind during the Revolutionary War.
Commander Jones, remembered as one of the most daring and successful naval commanders of the American Revolution, was born in Scotland, on July 6, 1747. He became an apprentice to a merchant at 13 and soon went to sea, traveling first to the West Indies and then to North America as a young man. In Virginia at the onset of the American Revolution, Jones sided with the Patriots and received a commission as a first lieutenant in the Continental Navy on December 7, 1775.
After departing from Brest, Jones successfully executed raids on two forts in England s Whitehaven Harbor, despite a disgruntled crew more interested in "gain than honor." Jones then continued to his home territory of Kirkcudbright Bay, Scotland, where he intended to abduct the earl of Selkirk and then exchange him for American sailors held captive by Britain. Although he did not find the earl at home, Jones crew was able to steal all his silver, including his wife s teapot, still containing her breakfast tea. From Scotland, Jones sailed across the Irish Sea to Carrickfergus, where the Ranger captured the HMS Drake after delivering fatal wounds to the British ship’s captain and lieutenant.
In September 1779, Jones fought one of the fiercest battles in naval history when he led the USS Bonhomme Richard frigate, named for Benjamin Franklin, in an engagement with the 50-gun British warship HMS Serapis. After the Bonhomme Richard was struck, it began taking on water and caught fire. When the British captain of the Serapis ordered Jones to surrender, he famously replied, "I have not yet begun to fight!" A few hours later, the captain and crew of the Serapis admitted defeat and Jones took command of the British ship.
One of the greatest naval commanders in history, Jones is remembered as a "Father of the American Navy," along with fellow Revolutionary War hero Commodore John Barry.
John Paul Jones is buried in a crypt at the U.S. Naval Academy Chapel in Annapolis, Maryland, where a Marine honor guard stands at attention in his honor whenever the crypt is open to the public.

Jeremiah Wadsworth Named Commissary GeneralOn this day in 1778, Jeremiah Wadsworth is named commissary general of purcha...
04/09/2026

Jeremiah Wadsworth Named Commissary General
On this day in 1778, Jeremiah Wadsworth is named commissary general of purchases for the Continental Army at the insistence of General George Washington.
Born in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1743 to a minister who died when he was four, Wadsworth was raised by his uncle, Matthew Talcott, a ship-owner from Middletown, Connecticut. At the age of 18, Wadsworth embarked on a 10-year career as a sailor aboard one of his uncle's ships, where he rose to the rank of captain. In 1767, he married a minister's daughter, Mehitable Russel, also of Middletown; they had three children.
An early and vocal Patriot, Wadsworth began the next step of his career in April 1775, when he was appointed to work in a supply commissary for Connecticut troops. Wadsworth's experience as a sailor and merchant aboard his uncle's ships helped him understand the supply commissary, and he quickly rose in rank. The Continental Congress elected Wadsworth as deputy commissary-general of purchases on June 18, 1777. Upon the retirement of Joseph Trumbull, Wadsworth was appointed commissary general in April 1778, a post he held until December 1779, when he resigned.
Wadsworth earned Washington's favor as a provider of good and ample supplies and went on to work as the commissary for the French troops in America. After submitting his accounting records in Paris at the end of the war, Wadsworth made purchases in England and Ireland, which he resold on the commercial market for profit upon his return to America. The transactions helped to make Wadsworth the wealthiest man in Connecticut.
Wadsworth later served as a member of the Continental Congress and Connecticut ratification convention in 1788, the U.S. Congress from 1789 to 1795, the Connecticut House of Representatives in 1795 and, finally, on Connecticut's executive council from 1795 to 1801.

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