The aides-de-camp: George Baylor, Samuel B. Webb, William Grayson, and Richard Cary. Also: Joseph Reed, adjutant general and advisor. Robert Hanson Harrison, military secretary, with Alexander Contee Hanson as his assistant. Washington's Guard and special aides: Capt. Caleb Gibbs and Lt. George Lewis.
I've been reading "George Washington's Indispensable Men" by Arthur S. Lefkowitz to learn more about the aides, especially the ones I'm not familiar with, and naturally I had to draw them. I enjoy visual aides and having a face to the name, and so I tried my best in finding references for my depictions of them. References are below the cut.
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*Note: These references are primarily portraits and engravings. Their hair is typically powdered for portraits, and/or etched in black and white, so creative liberties were taken for their hair and eye colors. I tried to make educated guesses based on the lightness of their brows and irises (and based on portraits of family members). Feel free to correct me, and I apologize for any inaccuracies.
References:
George Baylor, from this etching c. 1889 by Albert Rosenthal.
Samuel B. Webb, I referred to this miniature portrait c. 1779 by C. W. Peale, this engraved portrait by H.B. Hall after Peale, and this portrait c. 1790 by John Trumbull.
William Grayson, from this portrait (artist and date unlisted), courtesy of the U.S. Senate Historical Office.
Richard Cary, from this miniature portrait (artist and date unlisted).
Joseph Reed has many portraits: this profile engraving c. 1783 by B. Reading after Du Simitière, this profile engraving c. 1781 by B.L. Prevost after Du Simitière, this painted portrait c. 1783 by Charles Wilson Peale, this engraved portrait by H.B. Hall, and this printed portrait by J. Sartain after C.W. Peale.
Robert Hanson Harrison, from this portrait etching c. 1889 by Albert Rosenthal after John Trumbull, and this portrait engraving by Albert Rosenthal.
Alexander Contee Hanson, from this profile etching c. 1889 and this portrait engraving c. 19th century.
Caleb Gibbs does not seem to have any portraits. I referred to "An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Uniforms From 1775– 1783 (The American Revolutionary War)" (pages 94-95) for his uniform and helmet. I took inspiration from @nerenight's rendition of Gibbs, and some consideration in this alleged image of Caleb Gibbs (original source unidentified; it is very unlikely to be Caleb Gibbs, take it with a pinch of salt). This same image was used here.
George Lewis does not seem to have any portraits. I referred to the painted portraits (c. 1750-57 by John Wollaston) of his parents: Elizabeth "Betty" Washington Lewis and Fielding Lewis. Also, he is George Washington's nephew (and after whom Lewis is named), so GW was also considered in my depiction of Lewis.
The Signatures of some Aides-de-Camp (part 2)
William Palfrey | Hodijah Baylies
George Baylor | Robert Hanson Harrison
Richard Kidder Meade | Edmund Randolph
Samuel Blachley Webb | George Johnston
John Trumbull | William Stephens Smith
Washington tried to halt [the retreating men], to rally them. "Take the walls!" he cried. "Take the cornfield!" Some of them ran to the walls, some into the cornfield. With Putnam and several other officers he tried to form them behind the walls, but there was no controlling them. Washington's anger was spectacular. "He dashed his hat upon the ground in a transport of rage," crying out, "Are these the men with whom I am to defend America?" He snapped a pistol at them. With his riding cane, "he flogged not only private soldiers, but officers as well," a colonel, even a brigadier general. But nothing would do. At the sight of sixty or seventy Hessians coming at them they broke, flung away muskets, knapsacks, even coats and hats, and ran "as if the Devil was in them." "The ground was literally covered" with such discarded encumbrances. And they left Washington almost alone within eighty yards of the oncoming Hessians. Blinded with rage--or with despair--he sat his horse, taking no heed of his imminent danger. He would have been shot or captured had not an aide-de-camp seized his bridle and "absolutely hurried him away."
The War of the Revolution, Vol. 1, by Christopher Ward [pg 243]
Chernow mentioned aides (plural) in Washington: A Life when describing this scene, McCullough specified two aides pulled him away “with great difficulty” in 1776, and Lefkowitz used the same source as Ward did in Washington’s Indispensable Men, stating that there was just one aide.
Regardless, none of the books or their sources, when followed back, specify which aide(s)-de-camp galloped out there to save Washington’s life at Kip’s Bay, but possible candidates for the role include any of the following who were on staff September 15, 1776:
Military Secretary: Robert Hanson Harrison
Assistant Secretaries: Stephen Moylan and Tench Tilghman
Aides-de-camp: George Baylor, Samuel Blachley Webb, Richard Cary, and William Grayson
The very first known usage of the phrase “United States of America” is found in a letter from Stephen Moylan to Joseph Reed, both aides-de-camp, on January 2, 1776 (Moylan being Reed’s temporary stand-in as Military Secretary while Reed was on leave) [x x]. Until then they had been the “United Colonies” or the “United Provinces of North America” and Moylan himself had even written “United Colonies” just eight days before his letter to Reed on January 2nd. Something changed in that week between Christmas and New Years. Likely candidates are two things that had happened on January 1st: The arrival of King George III’s speech to Parliament in which he announced his determination to crush the Rebellion in the Colonies for good with the help of foreign powers, and the unfurling of the Grand Union Flag for the very first time.
It’s quite possible that the aides-de-camp were the ones who named America. It’s unknown who exactly we can credit with the naming of the country, but it’s quite certain that the first time the phrase was ever uttered was most likely within that small house in Cambridge being used as Washington’s headquarters. At the time, headquarters staff consisted of Stephen Moylan, George Baylor, and Robert Hanson Harrison and any one of them or even Washington himself could have been the first person to ever utter the phrase.
The scene at head-quarters was altogether new and strange to me, for the ruined state of my father's fortune, and the retirement in which he lived at Lebanon, had prevented my having seen much of elegant society. I now suddenly found myself in the family of one of the most distinguished and dignified men of the age; surrounded at his table, by the principal officers of the army, and in constant intercourse with them--it was further my duty to receive company and do the honors of the house to many of the first people of the country of both sexes. I soon felt myself unequal to the elegant duties of my situation, and was gratified when Mr. Edmund Randolph (afterwards secretary of state) and Mr. Baylor arrived from Virginia, and were named aids-du-camp, to succeed Mr. Mifflin and myself.
Autobiography, Reminiscences, and Letters of John Trumbull
John Trumbull was incredibly overwhelmed by the atmosphere of Headquarters, the duties required of him, and the people who surrounded him which lead to his resignation just 19 days after his appointment to the position of Aide-de-camp. He stayed long enough for his replacement, George Baylor, to arrive and then he was gone.
It just hit me.
When Richard Kidder Meade turned down the appointment to become a Lieutenant Colonel in charge of a command of Horses they wanted to be formed as one of the several new battalions being raised in Virginia in December of 1776, George Baylor, another aide, got it instead. At first, when I saw the name George Baylor I thought to myself, “Maybe it’s just a guy with the same name as Washington’s aide because that’s a heck of a coincidence” But that was highly unlikely. It had to be the same guy. So I considered it for a second and wondered if the dates would line up, and then I realized that they did.
George Baylor was Washington’s Aide-de-Camp from August 15, 1775 [x], until January 9, 1777, when Washington allowed several of his aides to resign their commissions and take command of the new battalions that were being raised in Virginia and other colonies [x]. On December 4, 1776, the Virginia House of Delegates “Resolved, therefore, that the said George Baylor, Esq. be appointed a Lieutenant Colonel, in the room of Richard Kidder Meade, Esquire.” [x] It’s the same guy. Meade took Baylor’s place on Washington’s Staff, having been appointed in March of 1777. Baylor was Washington’s horse guy, Meade became Washington’s new horse guy, and Baylor took the commission of Lt. Col to form a battalion that would come to be called the Baylor’s Dragoons which Meade had just turned down the commission for. They just. Everything went all flippy floppy.
