With America’s 250th Independence Day less than a month away, President Donald Trump is honoring the heroes who fought to bring forth this great nation, erecting statues of the often-overlooked patriots in Washington, D.C.’s Freedom Plaza. The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) erected 13 statues last week, part of a temporary display commemorating the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. At the center of the display is a statue of Caesar Rodney, one of the signers of the declaration, surrounded by 12 Revolutionary War soldiers, ranging from freed slaves to physicians, from teenagers to retirees, from pastors to spies.

“Diverse as they were, what this eclectic group had in common was a strong patriotism and love for their country — a fierce patriotism that hated tyranny,” the DOI said in a statement announcing the display. “These stories reinvigorate the spirit of patriotism and sacrifice that gave birth to the most prosperous, most stable, and most benevolent nation in the history of the world. Although the names represented by these statues are largely unknown today, they have never been lost to history,” the statement continued. “These twelve heroes are waiting for a new generation to rediscover, appreciate, and be inspired by their courage, sacrifice, and faith.”

Who are the patriots commemorated in Freedom Plaza?

Caesar Rodney

Perhaps the best-known name on the list, Rodney was a Delaware lawyer and militia officer. Born in modern-day Kent County in Delaware, Rodney was the grandson of William Rodney, who accompanied William Penn to the colonies and represented Delaware politically in the early 18th century. When he was 18 years old, Rodney’s father, a wealthy plantation owner, died, and his son’s care and education were entrusted to Delaware Supreme Court Justice Nicholas Ridgely, who ensured that Rodney received a formal classical education.

Following in the footsteps of his deceased father and Ridgely, the young Rodney became involved in Delaware politics, serving as Kent County Sheriff, a judge in the colonial courts, and an officer in the Delaware militia during the French and Indian War. While Rodney showed interest in several Delaware women during his early adulthood, he soon withdrew from courtship altogether and remained a bachelor for the remainder of his life, likely due to a disease (believed to have been a form of skin cancer) that severely damaged the flesh of his face. Later in life, Rodney would wrap his head and face in bandages and handkerchiefs to cover up scarred skin and open sores.

At the time, Delaware was divided politically between the elitist, Anglican “Court Party” and the more populist “Country Party,” which eventually advocated for American independence, while the Court Party supported British rule. Despite his affluence, wealth, education, and Anglican faith, Rodney, along with his younger brother Thomas, aligned himself with the Country Party, a minority faction in Kent County. This set Rodney in opposition early on to George Read, a Court Party-affiliated Delaware representative in both the First and Second Continental Congresses. Read repeatedly advocated for reconciliation with Britain and initially opposed independence, but once the colonists decided to sever ties with Britain, Read exerted all of his intellectual and political prowess to help establish the United States of America.

Famously, when the Second Continental Congress was voting on the matter of independence, Read was opposed, while the only other Delaware representative present, Thomas McKean, was in favor. The deadlock would have kept Delaware from joining the cause and thus kept the decision for independence from being a unanimous one among the colonies. On July 2, 1776, Rodney was managing militia duties and fighting Loyalist rioters when he received word from McKean about the vote. Despite illness, Rodney quickly mounted a horse and rode through the night, through a thunderstorm, to cast the deciding vote in Philadelphia. He and McKean were joined by Read in signing the Declaration of Independence.

Throughout the Revolutionary War, Rodney served as a brigadier general in the Kent County militia and a major general in the Delaware militia, suppressing Loyalist rebellions and supplying George Washington with troops, weapons, munitions, supplies, and funding. Rodney and Washington became close friends and carried on a lengthy correspondence throughout the course of the war. Later, Rodney served as the wartime governor of Delaware. Following the war, he served as both a Delaware legislator and a Delaware Supreme Court justice, before passing away on June 26, 1784, at age 55. Rodney was beloved and honored by the people of Delaware, who named him Speaker of the Legislative Council in his final year of life. Even though he was bedridden from his cancer, fellow legislators gathered in his home to conduct their business and allow him to be a part of it.

Joseph Warren

Sometimes called the “forgotten Founding Father,” Warren was a Boston physician and a leader in the Massachusetts militia who gave his life fighting at Bunker Hill. Born in Massachusetts more than three decades before the Revolutionary War began, Warren studied medicine as a young man and soon became one of the colony’s best-known and most respected physicians. His patients included John Adams and his family and John Hancock and his family.

In the 1760s, amid the Stamp Act crisis, Warren emerged as a fierce advocate for American liberty, aligning himself with Hancock and Samuel Adams and organizing protests and demonstrations throughout Boston. He also authored the Suffolk Resolves in 1774, which proved to be critical in furthering the revolution, rallying patriots, and even influencing the Declaration of Independence. It was Warren who, as president of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, sent Paul Revere on his notorious midnight ride.

At the age of 34, Warren led patriot militiamen against the British at Bunker Hill. Rallying his men, he was struck in the head by a British musket ball. As the British took the hill, they mutilated Warren’s body before hastily burying him. News of Warren’s death prompted Adams, then in Philadelphia, to lead the Continental Congress to form a Continental Army led by Washington.

Simon Knowles

One of the youngest soldiers of the Revolutionary War, Simon Knowles was only 15 years old when he signed up to fight in the Continental Army. Knowles’s father fought in the Battle of Bunker Hill, where he was critically wounded and later died of his injuries. A month later, the young Knowles joined a Massachusetts militia regiment and, shortly afterwards, the Continental Army to fight for the nation for which his father had given his life.

Knowles served through the remainder of the Revolutionary War, nearly eight years. He crossed the Delaware River with Washington, participated in the attack on Trenton, the Battle of Princeton, the Saratoga campaign, and the conclusive Battle of Yorktown. At the time, most terms of enlistment in the Continental Army were only one year long, while terms of enlistment in militias were generally only six months. Knowles continually reenlisted, until he finally achieved the goal for which his father had fought and died: winning the independence of the United States of America.

After the war, Knowles moved to what is today Northport, Maine, which had been part of Massachusetts until 1820. He married a young woman named Lydia, raised several children with her, and lived and worked as a farmer until his death in 1834. His descendants today include The Daily Wire podcast host and author Michael Knowles. His gravestone reads, simply, “Solider of the Revolution.”

Samuel Whittemore

While Knowles may have been among the youngest soldiers of the Revolution, Whittemore holds the distinction of being the oldest. At the age of 78, Whittemore signed up to fight in the Continental Army, becoming a Massachusetts military legend. In 1775, Whittemore ambushed a group of British grenadiers. Armed with a musket, pistol, and sword, he shot and killed three before charging the remaining troops with his sword. The British responded by shooting Whittemore in the face, stabbing his body with bayonets repeatedly (at least six times and as many as 14 times), and clubbing his head with the butts of their rifles. Miraculously, the 78-year-old patriot not only survived, but dragged himself to a doctor and proceeded to live for another nearly 20 years. Whittemore was 96 years old when he passed away in 1793.

While this story has earned the Continental Army’s oldest recruit status as a legend, Whittemore was active in support of the patriot cause long before the signing of the Declaration of Independence. A farmer and former British dragoon who had seen service in King George’s War and the French and Indian War, Whittemore was a Massachusetts politician and a vocal opponent of the Stamp Act who advocated that the colonial legislatures introduce viewing galleries in a bid to increase transparency — and hold accountable elected representatives who voted against the will of the people.

Whittemore was elected to multiple positions representing his town of Cambridge in Massachusetts politics, including being entrusted with authoring multiple letters to the British government and to the colonial leaders of other Massachusetts towns, negotiating with British authorities, and representing Cambridge at revolutionary conventions.

Caesar Glover

Kidnapped as a child in Africa and sold into slavery, Caesar Glover was purchased by John Miles in Marblehead, Massachusetts. Following Miles’s death, he was purchased by merchant Jonathan Glover, who allowed the enslaved Glover to enlist in the Continental Army, where he fought under his master, a captain, and the celebrated Colonel Henry Jackson. He left the Continental Army in 1778, after having served three years, and was awarded his freedom.

Glover settled in Boston, where he worked as a wharf laborer near Beacon Hill. He married a woman named Susannah Hill in 1801, and they had one daughter together before Hill died of tuberculosis in 1817. At the age of 76, unable to work and providing for his 48-year-old daughter, Glover applied for a soldier’s pension, which he was awarded and which sustained him through the remainder of his life. Glover passed away in 1822, having not only fought for America’s independence, but earned his own.

Jude Hall

Another enslaved patriot, Jude Hall, earned a reputation as one of the longest-serving black soldiers in the Continental Army. Likely born into slavery in New Hampshire, Hall enlisted with the Continental Army in 1775, fighting in the Battles of Bunker Hill, Ticonderoga, Trenton, Hubbardton, Saratoga, Monmouth, and more. Like Knowles, Hall reenlisted again and again, serving until 1783, when the Treaty of Paris officially ended the Revolutionary War.

Having won his freedom fighting, Hall returned to New Hampshire, built a home, married, and raised a family. Three of his sons, tragically, were kidnapped and sold into slavery in the largely British-controlled West Indies. Hall died in 1827, but left a legacy as a black patriot unwilling to die a slave. Three of his grandsons later fought in the Civil War.

James Armistead Lafayette

Born into slavery in Virginia, Armistead was 21 years old when, with his master’s encouragement, he became a spy for the Marquis de Lafayette. The young slave pretended to be a runaway in order to infiltrate British ranks. He relayed critical information to Lafayette regarding the treachery and movements of former Continental Army officer Benedict Arnold, who had defected to the British and was wreaking havoc on colonial Virginia. Having been taught by his master to read and write, Armistead became employed by the British as a courier and often overheard officers discussing plans, strategies, troop movements, and even the state of supplies or weaponry. All of this he reported back to the Continental Army.

Once Arnold was forced to flee Virginia, Armistead stayed behind to spy on Lord General Charles Cornwallis, delivering written reports to Lafayette and other officials with the Continental Army. Information collected and reported by Armistead proved crucial in the American victory at Yorktown, where Cornwallis admitted defeat and surrendered.

While a Virginia law granted freedom to slaves who had served in the Revolutionary War, it was amended to only extend freedom to those who had carried firearms, leaving Armistead still enslaved. However, his master lobbied the Virginia government to recognize the enslaved spy’s freedom, and Lafayette himself personally testified in support of Armistead’s liberty. Upon receiving his freedom, Armistead added “Lafayette” to his name, in honor of the French general. Twenty-seven years later, when Lafayette was touring the U.S. at the invitation of President James Monroe, he spotted his faithful spy in a crowd in Richmond. The French commander halted his carriage, leapt into the crowd, and rushed to embrace Armistead.

Armistead purchased land in Virginia and ran a farm with his wife and several children. He also purchased several slaves. There is some dispute over where — Virginia or Baltimore, Maryland — and when — 1830 or 1832 — Armistead died, but Virginia erected a historical marker at the site of the historic New Kent County courthouse honoring Armistead’s service.

Jack Sisson

A slave from Rhode Island, Jack Sisson was as devoted to the cause of freedom as the most ardent of colonial patriots. In 1777, Sisson volunteered to join the Rhode Island militia and Lieutenant Colonel William Barton’s daring raid on British-held Newport and aided in the capture of British Lieutenant General Richard Prescott, who was exchanged for the return of captured Continental Army General Charles Lee. Sisson served as the pilot for one of the boats used to reach Prescott’s residence and, upon reaching the British officer’s quarters, he used his head to smash the door open.

Sisson then joined the Continental Army and fought in several battles, including the Battle of Rhode Island and the Battle of Yorktown, and was awarded his freedom by the end of the war. Sisson’s heroics in the capture of Prescott led his fellow patriots to write songs in his honor. He died in 1821.

Peter Salem

Born into slavery in 1750 in Massachusetts, Salem was freed by his master prior to enlisting in the Continental Army. He first served in the local militia, where he fought at the Battles of Lexington and Concord and Bunker Hill. At the Battle of Bunker Hill, Salem was credited with killing British Major John Pitcairn, and he is depicted in the painting “The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker’s Hill” by John Trumbull, who personally witnessed the battle. Salem continued fighting for the Continental Army until the war’s end, including fighting at the Battles of Saratoga and Stony Point.

Following the war, Salem returned to Massachusetts and settled in Leicester, where he worked as a cane weaver and received a military pension. He died in 1816.

Salem Poor

Also born into slavery in Massachusetts, Salem Poor purchased his own freedom in 1769 for £27 (the equivalent of roughly $8,600 today) and, six years later, joined the Massachusetts minutemen. He fought at Bunker Hill and is credited with killing British Lieutenant Colonel James Abercrombie. When patriot soldiers were forced to retreat, Poor was one of those who volunteered to cover the retreat, risking capture and death to ensure that his comrades escaped to safety. He was the only soldier present whom patriot officers singled out for commendation.

Poor continually reenlisted with the Continental Army, serving until 1780. He fought in the Battles of Saratoga and Monmouth and camped with Washington at Valley Forge. Following the war, Poor fell on financial difficulty, due at least in part to the debts of his second wife. He lived for a time in the Boston Almshouse and died in poverty in 1802, at the age of 55. In 1975, ahead of America’s bicentennial celebration, his likeness was included on a commemorative postage stamp.

Peter Muhlenberg

Born in Pennsylvania, Peter Muhlenberg was 30 years old when the Revolutionary War broke out. As a youth, Muhlenberg was sent to Germany for a classical education, including studying Latin. Back in colonial Pennsylvania, he served briefly in the British infantry and in the German dragoons, where he was nicknamed “Teufel Piet” (Devil Pete). He later studied at the Academy of Philadelphia (today the University of Pennsylvania) and was ordained a Lutheran minister in 1768. He moved to Virginia, where he was required to be ordained an Anglican cleric to preach, even though his congregation was Lutheran.

A member of Virginia’s House of Burgesses, Muhlenberg was made a colonel of the Continental Army’s Virginia Line once war began. He was the youngest commander in the Virginia Line and had less experience than any of the other seven colonels, with the exception of Patrick Henry. While preaching in his church in 1776, Muhlenberg read from Ecclesiastes:

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.”

Upon reading “a time of war, and a time of peace,” Muhlenberg is reported to have shed his clerical robe, revealing his colonel’s uniform beneath. “And this is the time of war,” he said, leaving his pulpit and walking down the aisle. He was followed by 162 men who enlisted in his regiment. Muhlenberg and his men first saw action in Georgia and South Carolina before joining Washington’s army in the north, whereupon Muhlenberg was promoted to the rank of brigadier general. Muhlenberg saw service in the Battles of Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth, after which he was assigned to train and lead militia units in Virginia. Muhlenberg also fought in the Battle of Yorktown under Lafayette. He was tasked with defending the Continental Army’s right flank and manning the two trenches the patriots used to move their artillery close enough to damage Cornwallis’s lines.

After the war ended, Muhlenberg settled again in Pennsylvania, where he was elected as Benjamin Franklin’s deputy in the Supreme Executive Council of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He was also elected to the first and third U.S. Congresses as Pennsylvania’s at-large representative and was later elected to the fifth U.S. Congress. President Thomas Jefferson later appointed Muhlenberg the supervisor of revenue for Pennsylvania and customs collector for Philadelphia, a post he held until his death. The Lutheran minister, patriot soldier, and Pennsylvania politician died on his 61st birthday in 1807.

James Caldwell

Another preacher-turned-soldier, James Caldwell was born in Virginia in 1734, the youngest of seven children of Scots-Irish and French descent. After studying at the College of New Jersey (now known as Princeton University), Caldwell rejected the 500-acre farm he had inherited in favor of becoming a preacher. He led a Presbyterian congregation in Elizabethtown, New Jersey, before joining the New Jersey militia as a chaplain.

Caldwell was known as “the fighting parson” due to his vocal, active status as a patriot partisan. At the Battle of Springfield, when patriot troops ran out of wadding for their muskets, Caldwell famously handed them pages from an Isaac Watts hymnal, instructing the soldier, “Give ‘em Watts, boys!” In 1780, Loyalists burned down both his home and his church. British soldiers later shot and killed his wife Hannah, who was holding their three-year-old child, during the Battle of Connecticut Farms, while Caldwell was stationed with the Continental Army in Morristown, New Jersey. Less than two years later, Caldwell was shot and killed by James Morgan, a sentry in the Continental Army, when he refused to allow Morgan to inspect a package he was carrying. Morgan was hanged for murder, and it was alleged that he had been bribed by Loyalists to kill the vociferous chaplain. Caldwell’s nine orphaned children were raised by family friends.

Naphtali Daggett

An academic and educator, Naphtali Daggett nonetheless managed to give his life for his country. Born in Massachusetts in 1727, Daggett graduated from Yale College (now Yale University) at the age of 21 and became the pastor of a Presbyterian congregation in Smithtown, Long Island. Several years later, he was persuaded to return to Yale to assist Yale President Thomas Clapp. At the age of 29, Daggett became Yale’s first professor, the Livingstonian Professor of Divinity. When Clapp resigned in 1766, Daggett became president pro tempore of Yale, an office he held until 1777, when he returned to preaching.

British forces, led by New York’s royal governor General William Tryon, raided New Haven in 1779. Having torched several nearby Connecticut towns — namely, Danbury, Fairfield, and Norwalk — New Haven raised a militia, comprised predominantly of Yale students and led by Daggett, to defend the town. The professor and preacher led militiamen in firing upon the British, and managed to significantly delay their advance, but he was eventually left as the only survivor of the militia. Daggett mounted a horse and rode out to confront the approaching British, but was captured. When the British were dissatisfied with Daggett’s conscripted service as a guide to Connecticut, they stabbed him with bayonets and left him for dead. He survived, but died from his wounds the following year.

Independence Day 250

The brave heroes honored by the president in Freedom Plaza, more than 250 years after the Revolutionary War began, stand as a testament to the American spirit. Men like Rodney, Warren, and Daggett were influential intellectuals who boldly risked (and, in Warren’s and Daggett’s cases, gave up) their lives for love of their country. Their political and academic posts, their burgeoning careers and lucrative livelihoods meant nothing to them without liberty, without the opportunity to govern themselves independently of the British crown.

Knowles and Whittemore stand as proof that no one is too young or too old to love their country and to fight for the principles which he holds dear. Muhlenberg’s and Caldwell’s stories stand as a reminder to Christian leaders that being a good shepherd sometimes means fending off wolves when they come prowling. The lives of Glover, Hall, Armistead, Sisson, Salem, and Poor also confront the popular progressive narrative that America’s founders were racists, white elites fighting against invasive tax provisions. Instead, these patriots fought alongside their fellow Americans in support of the proposition that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

AUTHOR

S.A. McCarthy