It is the US Army’s birthday month once again. The US Army will be 250 years old this month. That is a pretty big deal. If you didn’t pay attention in US History back in the day, you may not remember that the US Army was officially formed by the Second Continental Congress on June 14th 1775.
The same Continental Congress adopted the first US flag on June 14, 1777.
June 14th has been officially observed as Flag Day since 1916 during World War I. Flag Day became a more official holiday in 1949. The Army’s birthday and our country’s adoption of the official US Flag was regularly celebrated before that.
We might ask,
How Can the US Army be Older than the United States of America?
The US Army is indeed older than our country itself. The Army was formed more than a full year prior to the Declaration of Independence that was officially signed and released on July 4, 1776.
Hostilities between the American colonies and the British crown had already begun in June 1775. The British government in February 1775 declared the Massachusetts colony to be in a state of rebellion. In April, the British Navy seized the port of Boston and landed 4000 British Army troops.
On April 19th at Lexington and Concord, British soldiers attempted to seize stores of Massachusetts militia arms and ammunition. Most of us have heard about Paul Revere’s famous ride thanks to the poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow . The somewhat fictional account was written in 1860.
The small British force was confronted by colonial soldiers and gunfire was exchanged. The British forces retreated to Boston and were harassed by militia forces all the way back to Boston. This eventful day began what is known in American Revolutionary history as the Siege of Boston.
Congress always seems to take a while to do anything - particularly when the news travels by horseback.
Who Was the First Army Veteran?
Officially, everyone agrees that General George Washington was officially the first officer to be sworn into the US Army. That day Colonel Tench Tilghman became Washington’s aide-de-camp and so became the second officer in the Continental Army.
Unofficially, the man I am named after was perhaps the first person to take the oath. Say what?
Horse and Rider Bookends
Some accounts claim that earlier in the day and even before General Washington was sworn in, Tilghman rode out of Philadelphia. He was on official business for that Continental Congress to help secure a signed treaty with the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy.
Why did Congress send Tench to upstate New York to secure a signed Six Nations treaty. He spoke fluent French. The Six Nations treaty was important. No one wanted a repeat of the French and Indian War. Those diplomatic duties and horse rides between General Washington, the Congress, and those negotiations with the Six Nations appeared to take a while.
He did not generally remain with the Continental Army and Washington until the muster of the Army outside New York in the following year.
Six years later Tench Tilghman rode the official surrender of Cornwallis after the Battle of Yorktown to the Congress in Philadelphia in mid-October in 1781. The surrender officially ended the Revolutionary War.
Before 1860, Tench’s surrender ride was perhaps the most celebrated ride in US history albeit in a different time of the year.
The Colonies Becomes a Country
The United States of America became a country when the ninth colony ratified the US Constitution on June 21, 1788. Note that this was another seven years after the fighting had ended.
Tench Tilghman was later nominated to be the first Secretary of State. Sadly, he died of malaria contracted at Yorktown before he could take office in 1789. He was only 42 years old. Tench was survived by a wife and two daughters. I am descended from his father’s older brother.
It can be argued that the US President has a salary written into the Constitution because members of Congress were afraid that Tench Tilghman might die. Some feared Tench would not be around to watch over our first President’s expense accounts.
And the other hand Tench personally designed and built the famous Orange Tree Greenhouse at Mount Veron for Washington between the end of the war and that first inauguration in New York.
The Hero of the Revolution
Tench Tilghman was officially the only person allowed armed into the Continental Congress. Congress awarded him a pair of serviceable calvary sabers to replace the worn pair he wore and employed very effectively on many occasions during the war. The states of Pennsylvania and Maryland fought a legal battle over those same swords for almost 200 years.
Tench Tilghman was perhaps the most decorated soldier in the Revolutionary Army.
The records show that the man rode 50+ horses to death during the war. Remarkably, he paid for all of those horses himself.
It can be argued that he and his business partners partially financed and/or provided vital logistical support to the Army when the Congress could or would not.
Some Things are Best Left Unsaid
For perhaps understandable reasons there are almost no written correspondence about Tench Tilghman’s official duties for the Congress, the Army, or about his actual relationship with Washington who always remained his superior officer.
The absence of written records is remarkable since George Washington notoriously kept meticulous records of his correspondence regarding almost everything and everybody else.
Tench and George clearly knew each other well and spent many years together. Tench communicated Washington’s official orders on many battlefields and regularly reported for the Army to the Congress during and even after the war.
For reasons unknown none of it was written down.
It was My Turn
I like to joke that once every generation someone in my family gets picked to be a Tench. No Tench is allowed to name their son Tench. No juniors. I do have a distant cousin or two out there that share my name. I think we probably share some spam.
The tradition has been going on for hundreds of years – probably even before the founding of the American colonies. The name is certainly Middle English. It was probably originally a nickname.
A tench is technically the name of the world’s largest minnow that inhabits many ponds and lakes throughout England. I think the same or a similar fish may inhabit ponds and lakes in other places Northern Europe.
The fish is said to be inedible but for which there are a few interesting recipes. Some say the original recipe for Worcestershire sause is based on salted and pressed Tench.
Who knows?
Make Civil 3D Work
Get the Framework of Civil 3D
What Are They Thinking