Whatever Happened to Major Box?

After the Revolutionary War, Maj. Daniel Box petitioned the Rhode Island government for support, stating that his fall from a horse back in December 1776 had “so fractured the arm that several pieces of the bone have been extracted, and the wound is still open and the hand entirely useless.”

The state granted him a pension. And when I first read that, I assumed it meant that the fall had put him out of action.

But other records show that Box remained active in the Continental Army despite his injury. He was still a brigade-major until 1779, when the Continental Congress reorganized its military and did away with that post. That December, the Rhode Island legislature voted to pay Box over £449 “for his pay and subsistence as major of brigade.” The following July, the state recognized him as having been “in Continuous service since 1775.”

Box’s name also appears in a report on the Continental Army mutinies of 1781, but it’s unclear to me which side of that conflict he was on. It’s striking that he remained at the same rank from 1775 on.

In 1782, Daniel Box married Polly Field of Rhode Island. Six years later, he was the administrator of her father’s estate. They had one child, also named Polly, according to Frederick Clifton Pierce’s Field Genealogy.

On 14 Sept 1782, the Newport Mercury ran the first of many advertisements from Box announcing the tobacco he had on sale as a wholesaler in Providence. (The thumbnail above shows a 1777 map of Narragansett Bay, with Providence at the upper left; Box had his business at “Colonel William Wall’s Wharff.”)

Five years later, Box and George Tiffany advertised a school for “READING, WRITING, and ARITHMETIC.” Box taught the same subjects in the evening while Tiffany offered lessons in Latin and Greek. There are also records of the state paying Box as a teacher in the late 1780s and 1790s. He was probably supporting himself in his old age with the same writing skills that had allowed him to rise to sergeant in the British army, and then an administrative officer in the American.

Box died in May 1800 at an “advanced age,” according to the United States Chronicle of Providence. That newspaper called him “an active and useful Officer during our Revolutionary War.” The Providence Journal reported that his funeral included “Masonic honours.”

Major Box in Brooklyn

Maj. Daniel Box, once a sergeant in the British army who released himself on his own recognizance, became quite prominent in the Continental Army in the summer of 1776.

As a military administrator, he was a brigade-major for Gen. Nathanael Greene’s brigade, and then for Gen. John Nixon’s. He also laid out fortifications to defend New York. By June 1776, “Fort Box” stood alongside Fort Greene and Fort Putnam in Brooklyn. On 26 August, Gen. John Sullivan made Box his interim adjutant general.

And the next day, the British army swept past the American lines in the Battle of Brooklyn. They drove the Continentals off Long Island, coming close to trapping most of those troops. Capt. Stephen Olney of Rhode Island wrote:

Had it been left to the British Generals to make a disposition of our troops, it is a chance if they would have made it more advantageous to themselves, and but from their tardiness they might have taken our main fort. All that seemed to prevent it was a scarecrow row of palisades from the fort to low water in the cove, which Major Box had ordered set up that morning.

The Americans withdrew to Manhattan and tried to hold that island. In September, Box had his run-in on the Harlem plains with Ens. Matthew Macumber, as he described back here.

On 30 September, Greene’s orders stated: “Major Box is appointed & requested in conjunction with the Engineers of this Department & Col. [Thomas] Bull to oversee & forward the fortifications at Fort Constitution.” That encampment on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River was also called Fort Lee, the name that stuck. In early October, Box was still spending all his time there. On 16 Nov 1776, the British army swarmed over Fort Washington and captured all of Manhattan.

Gen. William Howe and his troops then chased the American army south through New Jersey. In December 1776, Maj. Daniel Box fell off a horse at Neshaminy Ferry, Pennsylvania, badly breaking his arm.

TOMORROW: Whatever happened to Major Box?

Daniel Box, from Deserter to Brigade-Major

Maj. Daniel Box, chief administrative officer of a brigade of the Continental Army, was the chief accuser in the court-martial of Ens. Matthew Macumber in the fall of 1776.

In 1779 Gen. Nathanael Greene (shown here) wrote to Timothy Pickering that Box had also been useful in “exercising and forming companies independent companies previous to the commencement of the war.” But what does that mean?

Don Hagist of British Soldiers, American Revolution recently reported on the Revlist that Daniel Box appears as a sergeant on the muster rolls of His Majesty’s 43d Regiment of Foot from as early as December 1772 until 9 Dec 1774, when he deserted in Boston.

According to George Washington Greene’s biography of his grandfather, sometime in late 1774 Nathanael Greene went to Boston and “engaged a British deserter to go back with him as drill-master to the ‘[Kentish] Guards,’” the upper-class militia company he and his friends got chartered in October. G. W. Greene isn’t always reliable, but he appears to have guessed correctly that this man was Daniel Box.

After Gen. George Washington organized his army by brigades, on 15 Aug 1775 he appointed Box brigade-major for the Rhode Island and Massachusetts troops under Greene. Box threatened to resign a few months later, but was convinced to stay on. In August 1776, Washington announced that the Continental Congress had promoted Greene to major general, and that Box would continue in his role under a new brigadier, John Nixon.

Maj. Box’s personal history might help explain why he couldn’t exercise any authority over Ens. Macumber and his men in September. Box had no solid status within New England society. American officers knew that he was a deserter, and not a gentleman in England, so they might have held him in some contempt.

As for Box himself, he appears to have hit a glass ceiling within the British army, unable to advance beyond sergeant. Entering American society offered more opportunity to rise, even if it wasn’t always easy.

TOMORROW: Major Box and the Battle of Brooklyn.

The Retrial of Matthew Macumber

On 21 September 1776, Col. Comfort Sage reconvened a court-martial to consider the case of Ens. Matthew Macumber. Just the day before, that panel had found Macumber not guilty of disobeying orders by plundering, but guilty of defying an officer who had tried to stop him. But then Gen. George Washington had ordered the court to reconsider the sentence.

It seems to me that everyone knew the generalissimo really wanted a reconsideration of the verdict. Which left little doubt about what verdict he preferred. But how could the same panel (minus two members) justify a reversal?

They called a new witness for the prosecution:

Captain [NATHANIEL?] RAMSAY being sworn, deposes. Last Tuesday, in the beginning of the afternoon, I was crossing Harlem Plains; I saw a number of men loaded with plunder. I went up to them and told them they had been acting exceeding wrong, and would have to answer for their conduct; they said they had acted in obedience of their officers’ orders. Presently Ensign Macumber came up, and I renewed the conversation with him; he told me he had gone out by orders of his officer, and that he had a right to take any thing outside of our lines.

Ensign Macumber had at this time a knapsack full on his shoulder, out of which stuck two waxen toys, which I took hold of, and jested with him on his having such a pretty sort of plunder; he made me no reply, but ordered them to proceed with what things they had; they had a large chair full, consisting of poultry and some house furniture; some were loaded with kettles and kitchen furniture.

Just upon this, Major [Daniel] Box came up, and spoke to the foremost of the party, who told him they had got the plunder at Harlem; on which the Major, with a pistol in his hand, ordered the man to lay it down; the man hesitated and looked round on his party; upon this, Major Box ordered the whole party to lay down their plunder, or he would shoot the first man that refused; immediately on this, Ensign Macumber called out to his men, “my lads, stand to your arms and form,” and said to Major Box, “we’ll see who has the strongest party,” or words to this effect; the men instantly formed; on this, Major Box asked the Ensign if he knew him; the Ensign replied, yes, that he knew him to be Major Box. The Major replied that he was so, and that he came with express orders from his Excellency to act as he did, and to prevent plundering; the Ensign told him that he had acted by orders of a superiour officer.

Major Box said, I must put you under an arrest, and ordered a man to take his arms. Macumber said he would not be disarmed, but would go with them and his plunder to his General, who might act with them as he pleased, and that he would spill his blood before he would give them up there. At this time his men were exceeding mutinous; several of them cocked their pieces and brought them nearly to a present at Major Box. The Major asked for the Ensign’s name, and went off.

The men were exceeding abusive to the Major, and Ensign Macumber ordered them to be quiet. I have no doubt but if any attempt had been made to disarm the prisoner, his party would have fired; and I was so apprehensive of this, that I stood on my guard.

Dramatic as this testimony was, it didn’t provide significant new information about Box’s confrontation with Macumber. (Well, I guess the wax dolls was a new detail.) Witnesses the day before had already described how Macumber had defied Box, claiming that his colonel’s orders justified the taking of that property, and also how Macumber had tried to restrain his men from going too far.

But the new testimony would be enough to justify a new verdict. Macumber, who may have sensed what was coming, offered no additional witnesses.

Following “the maturest consideration of the further evidence,” the panel rendered its new decision:

the prisoner is guilty of plundering and of mutiny, and the Court annul the sentence of yesterday, and are of opinion that the prisoner be cashiered for said offence; and he is accordingly cashiered.

Washington endorsed that decision, and apparently decided to make an example of the incident. His general orders for 25 September said:

Colonel [Paul Dudley] Sargent is to send to the Provost-Guard the soldiers who were with Ensign Macumber, and charged with plundering at Harlem.

Washington also passed on details of the case to the Continental Congress, which on 30 September resolved:

That General Washington be directed to call upon such of the Members of the Court-Martial as sat upon the trial and concurred, in the acquittal of Ensign Macumber, to assign their reasons for their first judgment; that those reasons, together with the names of such of the said Members who were for the acquittal, be returned to Congress:

The officers on the court-martial panel had to send a letter justifying their original decision. I haven’t seen it, but I suspect the task was a reminder that they had displeased Gen. Washington.

(The doll above comes from the collections of Colonial Williamsburg.)

The Trial of Matthew Macumber

On 19 September 1776, an officer with the delightful name of Col. Comfort Sage presided over the court-martial of Matthew Macumber, accused of “plundering and robbery, and also of mutiny.”

Macumber was an ensign (equivalent of second lieutenant) in the 16th Regiment under Col. Paul Dudley Sargent (1745-1828) from Maine. He pled not guilty.

Here’s part of the trial testimony, taken from Force’s American Archives.

Major [DANIEL] BOX. Last Tuesday, about two o’clock, I saw a number of people plundering down on Harlem Plain. I took a party and went down on the Plain, and met Ensign Macumber, with a party of upwards of twenty, all loaded with plunder, such as house furniture, table linen, and kitchen utensils, China and delf ware. I ordered him to lay it down, or carry it back to the place he took it from. He said he had his Colonel’s order for what he had done, and that he would defend the plunder as long as he had life. I asked him if he knew me, and told him who I was, and told him how express the General’s orders were about plundering. I told him if he did not deliver up the plunder, I should fire upon him, and jumped over a fence, and my little party followed. On this the prisoner and his party surrounded me, and the prisoner gave orders for the party to make ready; they did so, and told me they would die by the plunder, and Macumber, the prisoner, declared the same. When I found I could do nothing, I left them and went up and got a party, and went down. The prisoner seeing me coming, left his party and put off across the fields, loaded with something. I disarmed the party, and made them prisoners. The prisoner ordered his party to make ready, before I jumped over the fence.

Sergeant THAYER. I was one of the party with Major Box, on Tuesday, and met Ensign Macumber, as has been related. Major Box told the prisoner’s party to lay down their plunder; they all refused, and the prisoner said that he had obeyed the Colonel’s orders, and that he would carry the plunder to his Colonel. On Major Box presenting his pistol at the Ensign, he ordered the men to form themselves. The men were clamorous, and the Ensign was quieting them. He said he had orders from his Colonel, and had obeyed them, and would obey them to the spilling his blood; which I took to mean that he would defend his party and the plunder. The Major went off, and we returned soon after; but I know nothing more of the prisoner. There was women’s clothing among other articles of plunder.

WILLIAM THOMAS. Says he was one of the party, and confirmed Sergeant Thayer’s testimony.

SAMUEL BROWN. Confirmed Sergeant Thayer’s testimony, and adds that the prisoner told Major Box, after he had ordered his men to form, that he would see which had the strongest party, or that the ground should drink his blood. Several of his men said they would blow out Major Box’s brains, if he cocked his pistol again.

WILLIAM CORNISH. Confirms Brown’s testimony, and adds, that from every appearance, he doubts not the prisoner’s party would have fired upon them had they attempted to have rescued the plunder out of their hands.

Then came the witnesses for the defense.

JOHN PETTY. Just before we entered the town of Harlem, Ensign Macumber stopped the party and expressly ordered us not to plunder. I was posted as a sentry, and know nothing of the party plundering. I was one who drove the cattle off, and did not join the party who had the plunder.

GORDON SPENCER. After we got into Harlem, Ensign Macumber took some of the party and went off with them. After he was gone, some of the men broke into the house. I went and found the Ensign, and told him of it. He said it was against his orders, and bid me go and tell them to leave the house. Before we met Major Box, Ensign Macumber had told the men they should carry all the plunder to Colonel Sargent.

The court was cleared, and the officers on the court-martial panel discussed the case with “mature consideration.” Their verdict on Macumber:

the prisoner is not guilty of plundering or of robbery, nor of mutiny, but that he is guilty of offering violence to and disobeying Major Box, his superiour officer. And the Court sentence and adjudge that the prisoner ask pardon of Major Box, and receive a severe reprimand from the commanding officer at the head of the regiment he belongs to.

The records of all such proceedings were sent up to the commander-in-chief’s office.

TOMORROW: Gen. Washington is not happy.