Francis “Swamp Fox” Marion Biography & Facts
Quick facts Francis Marion was born in 1732 on the family plantation in Berkeley County, South Carolina. He joined the military in 1756, later fighting in the French and Indian…
Biographies
Learn about some of the most important people involved in the American Revolution.
King Charles III of Spain Biography & Facts
Quick facts Charles III of Spain was born on January 20, 1716, in Madrid, Spain. He initiated the Bourbon Reforms in Spanish America and the Philippines to revitalize the empire.…
Tadeusz Kosciuszko Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: February 1746 in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Tadeusz Kościuszko played a significant role in the American Revolution, contributing as a colonel in the Continental Army. He was responsible…
Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea) Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 1743 in Ohio Country near the Cuyahoga River. Joseph Brant was a prominent Mohawk military and political leader closely allied with Great Britain during the American Revolutionary…
Wilhelm von Knyphausen Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 4 November 1716 at Lütetsburg in Hesse-Cassel. Wilhelm von Knyphausen was a German general serving under the British during the American Revolutionary War as part of the…
Johann Gottlieb Rall Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: c. 1726 in Hesse-Kassel (now part of Germany). Johann Gottlieb Rall was a Hessian colonel in the British service during the American Revolutionary War, known for his…
Friedrich Adolf Riedesel Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 3 June 1738 in Lauterbach, Hesse (now in Germany). Friedrich Adolf Riedesel was a German baron and lieutenant general in the British army, commanding Hessian troops during…
Carl Emil von Donop Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 1 January 1732 in Hesse-Kassel (now part of Germany). Carl Emil von Donop was a Hessian colonel who served under the British during the American Revolutionary War,…
Baron von Steuben Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 17 September 1730 in Magdeburg, Duchy of Magdeburg (now part of Germany). Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben was a Prussian military officer who significantly contributed to the…
Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 24 January 1732 in Paris. Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais was a French polymath, best known as a playwright, inventor, musician, diplomat, spy, and arms dealer. He is…
Marquis de Lafayette Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 6 September 1757 at the château de Chavaniac in the province of Auvergne, France. Lafayette joined the French army in 1771; he was 14 years old. Military…
Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 20 December 1719 in Dijon, France. Charles Gravier, Count of Vergennes, was a prominent French diplomat and statesman, serving as the Foreign Minister under King Louis XVI.…
François-Joseph Paul, comte de Grasse Biography
Quick facts Born: 13 September 1722 in Provence, France. François-Joseph Paul, comte de Grasse-Tilly, was a French admiral best known for his command of French naval forces during the American…
Jean Baptiste Charles Henri Hector, comte d’Estaing Biography
Quick facts Born: 24 November 1729 in Auvergne, France. Jean Baptiste Charles Henri Hector, also known as Comte d’Estaing, was a French general and admiral notable for his involvement in…
François Jean de Beauvoir, Marquis de Chastellux Biography
Quick facts Born: 1734 in Paris, France. François-Jean de Chastellux was a French general and philosopher, playing a notable role during the American Revolutionary War as a major general in…
William Alexander, Lord Stirling Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 1726 in New York, New York. William Alexander married Sarah Livingston in 1748. She was the sister of Philip Livingston, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and of…
Thomas Paine Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 9 February 1737 in Thetford, Norfolk, England. Prior to arriving in Philadelphia (30-Nov-1774) at age 37, Thomas Paine had only succeeded at failure. He had been a…
Thomas Jefferson Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 13 April 1743 at Shadwell, in Albermarle County, Virginia. Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence and the third President of the United…
Jean Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau Biography
Quick facts Born: 1 July 1725 in Vendôme, Loir-et-Cher, France. Jean Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, was a French nobleman and general who played a pivotal role in…
Thomas Hutchinson Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 9 September 1711 in Boston, Massachusetts. Born and raised in the Province of Massachusetts, Thomas Hutchinson was an American who was also British subject — forced by…
Silas Deane Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 24 December 1737 in Groton, Connecticut. Silas Deane was an American diplomat and politician, serving as one of the first foreign diplomats from the United States to…
Roger Sherman Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 19 April 1721 in Newton, Massachusetts. Roger Sherman was a founding father of the United States, known for his significant contributions as a politician and lawyer. He…
Robert Morris Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 20 January 1734 in Liverpool, England. Robert Morris was a Founding Father of the United States, known for his critical role in financing the American Revolution and…
Robert R. Livingston Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 27 November 1746 in New York, New York. Robert R. Livingston was a prominent American lawyer, politician, and diplomat, playing an influential role in the early years…
Richard Montgomery Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 2 December 1738 in Swords, Ireland Richard Montgomery was an Irish-born soldier who played a prominent role in the American Revolutionary War as a major general in…
Philip Schuyler Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 20 November 1733 in Albany, New York Third generation, from a Dutch immigrant family, Philip Schuyler married well (to Catherine Van Rensselaer, 1755) and became one of…
Peyton Randolph Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 10 September 1721 in Williamsburg, Virginia. Peyton Randolph was an influential figure in early American history, serving as the first President of the Continental Congress. Before his…
Paul Revere Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: baptized 1 January 1735 in Boston, Massachusetts. Paul Revere was a silversmith, engraver, and Patriot in the American Revolution, renowned for his midnight ride to alert colonial…
Patrick Henry Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 29 May 1736 in Studley (in Hanover County), Virginia. Patrick Henry was a prominent figure in the American Revolution, best known for his declaration “Give me liberty,…
Nathanael Greene Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 7 August 1742 in Warwick, Rhode Island. Nathanael Greene was a major general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, known for his successful military…
William Lee Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 1739 at Stratford Hall Plantation in Westmoreland County, Virginia. William Lee, son of Thomas Lee (1690 – 1750) and Hannah Harrison Ludwell (1701 – 50), was born into one…
Richard Henry Lee Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 20 January 1732 at Stratford Hall Plantation in Westmoreland County, Virginia. Richard Henry Lee, son of Thomas Lee (1690 – 1750) and Hannah Harrison Ludwell (1701 – 50), was…
Henry Lee III Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 29 January 1756 at Leesylvania, the family plantation near Dumfries, Virginia. Henry Lee III, also known as “Light-Horse Harry”, was an American Patriot, politician, and cavalry officer…
Arthur Lee Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 20 December 1740 at Stratford Hall Plantation in Westmoreland County, Virginia. Arthur Lee, son of Thomas Lee (1690 – 1750) and Hannah Harrison Ludwell (1701 – 50), was born…
Joseph Warren Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 11 June 1741 in Roxbury, Massachusetts. Joseph Warren was an influential American physician, soldier, and Patriot, known for his key role in the early stages of the…
John Witherspoon Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 5 February 1723 at Gifford, East Lothian, Scotland. John Witherspoon was a Scottish-American Presbyterian minister and a signatory of the United States Declaration of Independence as a…
John Sullivan Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 17 February 1740 in Somersworth, New Hampshire. John Sullivan was a general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War and later served as a delegate…
John Rutledge Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 17 September 1739 in Charleston, South Carolina. As Governor of South Carolina (1779 – 82) when the War moved South, he had such broad emergency powers and…
John Paul Jones Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 6 July 1747 in Scotland. John Paul Jones was a Scottish-American naval captain and is often referred to as the “Father of the American Navy.” He is…
John Marshall Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 24 September 1755 near Germantown (in what is now Fauquier County), Virginia. As a boy, Marshall was influenced and encouraged by his father’s friend, George Washington. During…
John Laurens Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 28 October 1754 in Charleston, South Carolina. John Laurens’ father, Henry, was a partner in the largest slave-trading house in North America. While studying law in England,…
John Jay Biography & Facts
Quick facts Peter Jay, a wealthy trader and merchant, married Mary Van Cortlandt in 1728. John Jay, the eighth of ten children (seven of whom survived into adulthood), was born…
John Hancock Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 23 January 1737 in Braintree, Massachusetts. John Hancock was a prominent Patriot of the American Revolution, best known for his large and bold signature on the United…
John Dickinson Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 8 November 1732 at the family plantation in Talbot County, Maryland. John Dickinson was known as the “Penman of the Revolution” for his influential letters and writings…
James Wilson Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 14 September 1742 in Carskerdo, Scotland. Wilson’s family wanted him to become a minister, and at 15 he entered St. Andrews University — but a family crisis…
James Otis, Jr. Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 5 February 1725 in Barnstable, Massachusetts. James Otis Jr. was a prominent lawyer and political activist in colonial Massachusetts, famously arguing against the Writs of Assistance and…
James Monroe Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 28 April 1758 in Westmoreland County, Virginia. James Monroe was the fifth President of the United States, serving two terms from 1817 to 1825, a period known…
James Madison Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 16 March 1751 at Belle Grove Plantation near Port Conway, Virginia. James Madison, known as the “Father of the Constitution,” was instrumental in drafting and promoting the…
Israel Putnam Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 17 January 1718 in Salem Village (now Danvers), Massachusetts. Beginning as a private during the French and Indian War (1754 – 1763), Israel Putnam became a major…
Horatio Gates Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 26 July 1727 in Maldon, Essex, England. Horatio Gates was a British-born military leader who served as a general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary…
Henry Laurens Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 6 March 1724 in Charleston, South Carolina. Henry Laurens was an apprentice in Crokatt’s Counting House (a record-keeping office) in London (1744 – 47). Unable to become…
Henry Knox Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 25 July 1750 in Boston, Massachusetts. Henry Knox was a key figure in the American Revolutionary War, serving as the chief artillery officer of the Continental Army.…
Gouverneur Morris Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 31 January 1752 at the family estate, Morrisania, in New York (now in the Bronx). At age 14, Morris accidentally scalded his right arm with boiling water,…
George Washington Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 22 February 1732 at the family Pope Creek Estate (near present-day Colonial Beach, Virgina). George Washington served as the first President of the United States from 1789 to 1797…
George Mason Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 11 December 1725 at the family plantation in Fairfax County, Virginia. George Mason was a prominent Virginia planter, politician, and delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention of…
George Clinton Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 26 July 1739 in New Britain, New York. George Clinton was an American soldier and statesman, serving as the first Governor of New York from 1777 to…
Ethan Allen Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 21 January 1738 in Litchfield, Connecticut. Ethan Allen was a farmer, businessman, land speculator, philosopher, writer, and American Revolutionary War patriot, best known as one of the…
Elbridge Gerry Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 17 July 1744 in Marblehead, Massachusetts. Elbridge Gerry was a statesman and diplomat who played a significant role in the American Revolution and early American politics. He…
Edmund Randolph Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 10 August 1753 in Williamsburg. Edmund Randolph was a prominent lawyer and statesman who served as the seventh Governor of Virginia, the first United States Attorney General,…
Daniel Morgan Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 1736 in New Jersey. Daniel Morgan was a distinguished general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, known for his leadership and innovative tactics. He…
Charles Pinckney Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 26 October 1757 in Charleston, South Carolina. Charles Pinckney was taught privately and studied law under his father. He was admitted to the South Carolina bar in…
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 25 February 1746 in Charleston, South Carolina. Largely educated in England, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney was admitted to the bar there in 1769. He returned to South Carolina…
Charles Carroll of Carrollton Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 19 September 1737 in Annapolis, Maryland. A Catholic, educated in France by Jesuits, Carroll achieved widespread political influence in Annapolis through his writings, since by law Catholics…
Benjamin Rush Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 4 January 1746 in Byberry, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania. Following graduation from Medical School at the University of Edinburgh (1768), Rush met some of the famous men of…
Benjamin Franklin Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 17 January 1706 in Boston, Massachusetts. Though associated with Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin was born and raised in Boston. He did not arrive in Philadelphia until he was…
Benedict Arnold Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 14 January 1741 in Norwich, Connecticut. Arnold began his career as a pharmacist and a bookseller in New Haven, CT (1762). When the Revolutionary War started, Arnold…
Anthony Wayne Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 1 January 1745 in Easttown Township, Pennsylvani. Anthony Wayne was a United States Army officer, statesman, and member of the United States House of Representatives. He is…
Alexander Hamilton Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 11 January 1755 (or 1757) in Charlestown on the island of Nevis in the British West Indies. Hamilton was born on the West Indian Island of Nevis,…
Samuel Adams Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 27 September 1722 in Boston, Massachusetts. Samuel Adams was a Founding Father of the United States, known for his leading role in organizing the American Revolution’s early…
John Quincy Adams Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 11 July 1767 in the north precinct of Braintree, Massachusetts (now Quincy). John Quincy Adams was the sixth President of the United States, serving from 1825 to 1829, and was the…
John Adams Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 30 October 1735 in the north precinct of Braintree, Massachusetts (now Quincy). John Adams was the second President of the United States (1797–1801) and a leading advocate for American independence as…
Aaron Burr Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 6 February 1756 in Newark, New Jersey. Grandson of Congregationalist preacher and theologian Jonathan Edwards (1703—58). Prevented a duel between James Monroe and Alexander Hamilton, 1797. Nearly…
Thomas Gage Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: March 10, 1718 or 1719 in East Sussex, England. Thomas Gage was a British general best known for his role as the military governor of Massachusetts Bay…
John Burgoyne Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 24 February 1722 in Sutton, Bedfordshire, England. John Burgoyne was a British army officer, politician, and playwright who is best known for his role in the American…
John André Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 2 May 1750 in London, England. John André was a British Army officer hanged as a spy during the American Revolutionary War, known for his involvement in…
Henry Clinton Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 16 April 1730 in Newfoundland. Henry Clinton was a British army officer and politician who served as the Commander-in-Chief of the British forces during the American Revolutionary…
George Germain Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 26 January 1716 in London, England. George Germain, 1st Viscount Sackville, was a British statesman and army officer, serving as Secretary of State for the American Department…
Edmund Burke Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 12 January 1729 in Dublin, Ireland. Edmund Burke was an Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist, and philosopher, who served as a member of the British Parliament…
Frederick North Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 13 April 1732 in London, England. The eldest of six children, Frederick North was educated at Eton and Oxford; after leaving university, he traveled for three years…
Charles Cornwallis Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 31 December 1738 in London, England. Charles Cornwallis was a British Army officer and colonial administrator, best known for his role in the American Revolutionary War as…
Richard Howe Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 8 March 1726 in London, England. Richard Howe, Earl Howe, was a British naval officer and admiral known for his command of the British fleet during the…
Banastre Tarleton Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 21 August 1754 in Liverpool, England. Banastre Tarleton was a British army officer known for his service as a cavalry commander during the American Revolutionary War, particularly…
William Rush Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 4 July 1756 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. William Rush became fascinated by ships as a boy (his father was a ship carpenter) and occupied himself by carving ship…
Thomas Sully Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 19 June 1783 at Horncastle, Lincolnshire, England. Died: 5 November 1872 at Philadelphia, PA. Thomas Sully was an English-born American painter, primarily known for his portrait work,…
Rembrandt Peale Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 22 February 1778 in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Rembrandt Peale was an American artist and one of the most celebrated portrait painters of his era, known for his…
Ralph Earl Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 11 May 1751 in Shrewsbury (or Leicester) Massachusetts. Although Ralph Earl’s father joined the militia to support the American cause, Earl remained a staunch Loyalist. Earl and…
John Vanderlyn Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 18 October 1775 in Kingston, New York. The patronage of Aaron Burr provided Vanderlyn with a number of opportunities throughout his career, and despite Burr’s later humiliations,…
Mather Brown Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: Christened 11 October 1761 in Boston, Massachusetts. Mather Brown was raised in Boston by his two maternal aunts, Catherine and Mary Byles, both staunch supporters of King…
John Singleton Copley Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 3 July 1738 in Boston, Massachusetts. Copley was the first native-born American artist to paint miniatures. Between 1755 and the early 1770s, he produced 37 of them.…
Jean-Antoine Houdon Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 20 March 1741 in Versailles, France. Houdon developed a consistent technique for creating his sculptures. He first modeled his sitter in terra cotta, a soft, unfired clay.…
Charles Willson Peale Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 15 April 1741 in Chester, Maryland. During his long career, Charles Willson Peale painted about 1,100 portraits. Peale had never even seen a painting, much less tried…
Gilbert Stuart Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 3 December 1755 in Saunderstown, Rhode Island. On the eve of the revolution in 1775, Bejamin Stuart left for England and did not return until 18 years later.…
Benjamin West Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 10 October 1738 in Springfield, Pennsylvania. Benjamin West was an American-born painter who gained fame and success in England as a history painter, particularly for his works…
Adam Link | Last Survivors of the American Revolution
“ Editor’s note The following is a biography of Adam Link, one of the last surviving veterans of the American Revolution. It was written by Rev. E. B. Hilliard in…
William Hutchings | Last Survivors of the American Revolution
“ Editor’s note The following is a biography of William Hutchings, one of the last surviving veterans of the American Revolution. It was written by Rev. E. B. Hilliard in…
Alexander Milliner | Last Survivors of the American Revolution
“ Editor’s note The following is a biography of Alexander Milliner, one of the last surviving veterans of the American Revolution. It was written by Rev. E. B. Hilliard in…
Lemuel Cook | Last Survivors of the American Revolution
“ Editor’s note The following is a biography of Lemuel Cook, one of the last surviving veterans of the American Revolution. It was written by Rev. E. B. Hilliard in…
Daniel Waldo | Last Survivors of the American Revolution
“ Editor’s note The following is a biography of Daniel Waldo, one of the last surviving veterans of the American Revolution. It was written by Rev. E. B. Hilliard in…
Samuel Downing | Last Survivors of the American Revolution
“ Editor’s note The following is a biography of Samuel Downing, one of the last surviving veterans of the American Revolution. It was written by Rev. E. B. Hilliard in…
Mary Long and Mrs. Jones Biography | Women of the Revolution
The influence of Colonel Hamilton, of the British army, contributed greatly – at the time Lord Cornwallis, on his last ill-fated expedition, was in the neighborhood of Halifax – to…