That's so interesting about John Trumbull, thanks for answering! And just... of /course/ he would brag and conveniently leave off the 19 days part, I don't blame you for making a point to mention it lmao, I would too. Do you mind if I ask what the duties of the aides were? I'm new to this particular branch of history but it's fascinating... I never would have expected that there were so many of them!
I don’t mind at all! I probably should have talked about the duties of the aides-de-camps, like, months ago, but I never got around to it so I’m glad you asked so that I’d finally sit down and do it (even though it took me forever to get to your ask because I’ve been busy and it’s a lot to talk about) xD I’ll break it down into parts because the answer is probably a lot longer than you thought it would be xD [While I mostly work from the Context of Washington, all the other generals also had aides that were similarly tasked in many ways] :
Drafting, copying, editing, translating, and docketing letters.
This is the most well-known duty of the aides-de-camp. I like to call them Washington’s Ghost Writers for this reason. The bulk of their jobs was, in large part, doing letter related things. Over 12,000 letters and orders were “written by” Washington during the course of the Revolution and he wouldn’t have been able to do it without his aides.
Often times Washington would dictate a letter that they would write down, or he would just inform them of what needed to be addressed and the aide would take care of it themselves.
With the involvement of the French in the Revolution, translation became invaluable. Several of Washington’s aides were fluent in French and it fell to them to communicate with their French allies.
Aides fluent in French included Tilghman, Hamilton, Laurens, and B. Walker.
Another facet of this is determining whether or not a letter is worth Washington’s attention.
Washington is a busy man. He doesn’t have time to look through every single letter that crosses his desk but Washington would ultimately go over any letter that required a response and then direct the response.
In one instance, his aides refused to accept a letter from General Howe of the British simply because it did not properly address George Washington as “General.”
They would also edit each other’s letters if necessary.
Communicating with Congress, while technically falling under the previous duty, is important enough to specify on its own.
The aide assigned the duty would occasionally write to Congress, keeping them updated on the goings-on of the army, actions that have occurred, the movements of the enemy, the state of the army, requests etc.
This duty was, for the most part, assigned to Robert Hanson Harrison, being Military Secretary. In most cases when you find a letter written to “Inform Congress” of anything, it’ll be either from Harrison directly or be from Washington but in Harrison’s handwriting. When he’s not available, the task gets delegated to Tilghman, him being assistant Secretary and all. If neither of them can do it then the task falls to someone else like Hamilton or, on occasion, Meade, as far as I’ve seen.
Attending/Recording meetings and councils
Being his staff, many of Washington’s Aides and Secretaries would attend meetings with him inside and outside of camp.
The aide’s unique position allowed them the privilege of being privy to every single action, plan, decision, movement etc. of the War that was made by George Washington.
An aide (usually Harrison) or few would always be present with Washington at every meeting, Council of War, secret discussion, or whatever other occasion required Washington’s presence.
Whenever Washington would leave camp for a meeting, many in his flock of aides would follow.
At these meetings, it’s understood that the aides (mostly Harrison as Militar Secretary) occasionally played an active role at the table in advising, discussion, and decision making
The military secretary would also often be tasked with writing down the minutes of the proceedings.
Hosting/entertaining guests
Another duty of the aide-de-camp at Headquarters was hosting dinners.
The aides-de-camp would serve and entertain the guests at dinner time.
They would also give the toast, the task rotating around the Military Family.
Some Generals would even have their aides be the ones to serve dinner and make sure everyone’s cups remain filled.
In some cases, the aides would refuse to be subjected to that kind of work (e.g. Richard Varick telling Benedict Arnold straight up that he will not be his maid because he does not have time for that shit with his law studies)
Entertaining Guests and Hosting Dinners was one of the jobs that overwhelmed John Trumbull. It put you into contact with a lot of powerful and influential people - and there was a lot of pressure not to fuck it all up. You had to be at the top of your game because much of those people were of the social elites and the highest ranking in the army and your actions reflected back on Washington. Trumbull had overwhelmingly felt like he didn’t belong there.
On the battlefield, the aides weren’t even armed with anything more than a pistol and a sword because they were not expected to engage in fighting, they had other important duties to attend to.
Washington would often rely on his aides-de-camp to go out and gather intel on the enemy’s troop movements and of the battlefield in general, especially whenever he was lacking in mounted troops. (e.g. the Battle of Monmouth)
The reconnoitering was done by the aides both in and out of battle.
Wherever Washington went on the battlefield, his flock of aides not delegated a task at the moment followed. People would often remark “The General did/went ____ attended by his flock of aides” when moving about the battlefield
This was because they needed to be near Washington so that when Washington issued an order, they’d be able to gallop off in an instant to relay the message to those it was for or do whatever it is that Washington needed them to do in that moment.
Advising/Assisting Washington
When Washington debated a plan of action, his aides would provide him with their input or find someone that they knew would be able to assist him in making a decision.
Carrying, delivering, and issuing information/orders in the field
Aides were frequently on the move during battle, traveling between divisions in order to relay information and make sure that all of the generals remained on as much the same page as possible.
They also had the authority to issue orders if the situation called for it and there was no other higher authority to give them at the time.
The best way to explain this is to provide an example: At the Battle of Monmouth, Washington sent out all of his aides to rally the confused troops, quickly and efficiently forming them into a line of battle as directed.
Saving Washington’s life when he’s being a tad too daring for anyone’s comfort.
Washington had a tendency to put himself where it’s a wee bit (Read: extremely) dangerous and his aides would sometimes have to be the ones to go out and reign him back a little bit if they could convince him to go. (Convincing Washington to take himself out of danger was a battle all on its own.)
If a letter was important enough, an aide delivered it to the recipient personally.
Important letters to Congress and/or big news was a major one for this category.
When important battles happened, an aide would deliver the news himself. (e.g. Gates’s Aide, Wilkinson, after winning Saratoga, Washington’s aide Tilghman after winning Yorktown, etc.)
If an aide delivered a letter it gave the letter a weight of importance and immediacy. You better open the letter immediately, read it, and respond to it right now.
Delivering personal letters from Washington or the other aides was also a thing that an aide might do. But, usually, if an aide was carrying personal letters than he was probably going on leave.
If they’re heading that way, anyway, might as well take the letters with them, y’know? Kind of thing.
It generally fell to one of the aides to provide escort for Martha Washington and whoever was with her to/from camp or wherever it was that she was going. Not always for the duration of the whole journey, she had other escorts it’s just that when Washington got news that she would be arriving soon, an aide was usually sent out to meet her and travel with her the rest of the way to camp.
Another example of this is Richard Kidder Meade escorting Charles Lee back to camp after he was released in a prisoner exchange during Valley Forge.
The aides would also occasionally provided escort for prisoners, but not often. You were a pretty high profile prisoner if an aide was escorting/watching you because these dudes are busy as fuck and were needed for other things.
As mentioned above, Reconnoitering
Aides occasionally sent out to get a lay of the land and see what they can find of the enemy outside of battle as well.
Super top secret missions and shit
Honestly, have no idea what any of this was specifically aside from the fact that it happened at least once with Meade and that they were never put to paper because it was too risky to write them down.
Occasionally Aides were sent out to complete specific tasks out in the field. e.g.:
Joseph Reed was sent out to form the Washington’s Cruisers, a small naval force created by Washington in the absence of a Continental Navy not yet authorized by Congress.
Alexander Hamilton and Caleb Gibbs sent out to meet Gates in Albany and get him to send to Washington troops/reinforcements.
John Laurens was sent to Rhode Island to be the liaison between the recently arrived French Fleet and the American forces there.
Not all tasks were universal. Washington was adept at tailor-making tasks to fit each of his aides’ unique skill sets in order to get the most out of them and their service. This wasn’t always the case, some tasks were entirely circumstantial but here’s a rundown on what some of those things looked like:
As I’ve mentioned throughout this, there were actually two separate job titles among the aides: Military Secretary and Aide-de-Camp.
There were only four Military Secretaries over the course of the War: Joseph Reed, Edmund Randolph, Robert Hanson Harrison, and Jonathan Trumbull Jr.
I’ve mentioned some of their duties already but others include things like:
Robert Hanson Harrison, when he wasn’t going with Washington out of camp, running Headquarters in Washington’s absence, acting kinda like a pseudo-Chief of Staff in that regard.
He brought the aides their work, got them up in the morning, made sure they were on task and that their work was getting done etc.
There were also Assistant Secretaries.
When Washington and many of the staff had to leave camp to travel with the commander-in-chief, an assistant secretary was generally left behind to forward letters and keep things going a bit in headquarters while Washington was away.
When the prisoner exchange committees were formed, Robert Hanson Harrison was made a commissary and went out with others to negotiate prisoner exchanges with the British. Alexander Hamilton also became a commissary of prisoner exchange alongside him.
Gibbs is a bit of a unique case. He was Captain of Washington’s Guard and given aide-de-camp privileges and duties without ever being appointed one. He had a range of unique duties in addition to the other aides’ duties thanks to his actual job and those include
scoping out the best defensible position and choosing where Washington was to make his headquarters based on that.
Handling the Military Family’s finances.
He and his men screening visitors and anyone who approached headquarters in general so that the other aides wouldn’t have to be distracted from their work and so that they could keep the premise secure.
Organizing/was on night watch.
Overseeing the security of all of their papers and baggage
Things more suited for a post about the Life Guard than this one.
Despite being an aide-de-camp, Varick never resided at Headquarters as an aide. Instead, he was holed up in a little house in Poughkeepsie with a few assistants and all of Washington’s correspondence written over the course of the war.
Varick’s job as an aide was the compiling of what has come to be known as the Varick Transcripts. He organized and then transcribed every single piece of paper that came and went from headquarters, compiling them into 44 volumes, each 300+ pages long, over the course of two and a half years, finishing at the close of the war.
Washington called him his “Recording Secretary” and assigning Varick with the task of organizing and copying his papers was him showing the rest of the world the amount of trust and faith he had in Varick, his character, and his innocence during the Benedict Arnold debacle.
Was a French Merchant and appointed honorary aide-de-camp. He came to America to arrange a deal for supplying Washington with goods and then requested the privilege to be Washington’s aide so that he could conduct his business in Washington’s name while wearing the uniform of a continental soldier and the green sash of the aides despite never intending to come back to America while the war was still going on. The request was granted and Penet was made an aide.
An interesting case. Virginia’s Executive Council wanted an agent in Headquarters so that would regularly report to them the situation in the Continental Army. Washington was hesitant and also knew that if he accepted then all the other states would want that, too, but he couldn’t delegate the task to anyone in the staff, so the Virginia Executive Council nominated Walker and he was made an aide-de-camp while Walker’s real mission remained a secret. He didn’t stick around for long.
Directly interacting with the soldiers at times.
This wasn’t something that the aides commonly did and is something that, as far as my research has extended at this point, was unique to him.
The Orderly Books from Valley Forge stated things like
Officers report to Meade their troop numbers and the lists of all troops that have joined or reenlisted in their companies/regiments since the beginning of April.
Officers were to report to Meade for directions on how and where to build their huts
He was assigned Field Officer of the Day on multiple occasions (~once a month during Valley Forge) and I have yet to find any other of Washington’s staff in any orderly book having been assigned this task.
Tasks include what was essentially Policing Camp
Receiving reports from officers on watch/guard
doing rounds to make sure they were doing their jobs
Surveilling Troops and camp sutlers to make sure they were behaving themselves.
Sent out scouts and arranged patrols
reported to the Commander-in-Chief anything of note that day.
That probably gets the gist of it. I might have missed something in there but I’m pretty sure I’ve covered everything that’s important. Examples are also not all-inclusive lists, they’re just examples. The unique tasks section falls under that distinction as well. I’m really glad that you’ve taken enough of an interest in this particular branch of history to ask about it! But yeah, there were a lot of them. The war was long and the task was difficult. It wasn’t a job many particularly wanted, but it was a good job to have thanks to the immense networking capabilities that it offered which could help a guy vertically climb their way into other positions if they so desired. There were some that were perfectly content with the job, though.32 is just the number of aides Washington had over the course of the war!! Each of the other generals also had numerous aides, so there’s a lot of them.Again, sorry this took me so long to answer!! There was a lot and I have been busy.I’d provide all my sources but I don’t have time to hunt down where I got all my information from since I just spewed this information out cold, but I know a lot of what’s knocking around in my brain comes from Lefkowitz’s book, George Washington’s Indispensable Men. Stuff on Field Officers of the Day came from Ward’s Washington’s Enforcers. And what didn’t come from those places probably came from what I’ve gathered/absorbed/inferred/concluded from my own research.
