Samuel Ward Jr. (November 17, 1756 – August 6, 1832) was an

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of ...

soldier, politician, and delegate to the secessionist

Hartford Convention The Hartford Convention was a series of meetings from December 15, 1814, to January 5, 1815, in Hartford, Connecticut, United States, in which the New England Federalist Party met to discuss their grievances concerning the ongoing War of 1812 and ...

Early life

Ward was born in

Westerly, Rhode Island Westerly is a town on the southwestern shoreline of Washington County, Rhode Island, first settled by English colonists in 1661 and incorporated as a municipality in 1669. It is a beachfront community on the south shore of the state with a popula ...

on November 17, 1756. He was the fifth child of Anne Ray and Samuel Ward, a founding trustee of Brown University,

Continental Congress The Continental Congress was a series of legislative bodies, with some executive function, for thirteen of Britain's colonies in North America, and the newly declared United States just before, during, and after the American Revolutionary War. ...

delegate and colonial

governor of Rhode Island The governor of Rhode Island is the head of government of the U.S. state of Rhode Island and serves as commander-in-chief of the state's Army National Guard and Air National Guard. The current governor is Democrat Dan McKee. In their capac ...

. Samuel graduated from Brown University with high honors, in 1771.

Career

American Revolution

Ward was commissioned a captain in the Kings and Kent County militia in 1775 and served in that rank in the regiment under the command of Colonel Varnum when it was mobilized in April 1775. On May 3, 1775, Varnum's Regiment became part of the Army of Observation during the

Siege of Boston The siege of Boston (April 19, 1775 – March 17, 1776) was the opening phase of the American Revolutionary War. New England militiamen prevented the movement by land of the British Army, which was garrisoned in what was then the peninsular tow ...

. Ward volunteered with 250 Rhode Islanders under

Christopher Greene Christopher Greene (May 12, 1737May 14, 1781) was an American legislator and soldier. He lead the spirited defense of Fort Mercer in the 1777 Battle of Red Bank, and for leading the African American 1st Rhode Island Regiment during the American R ...

to support

Benedict Arnold Benedict Arnold ( Brandt (1994), p. 4June 14, 1801) was an American military officer who served during the Revolutionary War. He fought with distinction for the American Continental Army and rose to the rank of major general before defect ...

on his expedition to Quebec. Ward was captured, along with most members of the expedition, on the night of December 31, 1775 and was exchanged sometime in 1776. Ward was promoted to a major of the 1st Rhode Island Regiment on January 12, 1777, and was promoted to lieutenant colonel on 5 May 1779 (with date of rank retroactive to May 26, 1778). With the 1st Rhode Island Regiment he fought at the

Battle of Red Bank The Battle of Red Bank was a battle fought on October 22, 1777 during the American Revolutionary War in which a British and Hessian force was sent to take Fort Mercer on the left bank (or New Jersey side) of the Delaware River just south of Ph ...

(October 1777) and the

Battle of Rhode Island The Battle of Rhode Island (also known as the Battle of Quaker Hill) took place on August 29, 1778. Continental Army and Militia forces under the command of Major General John Sullivan had been besieging the British forces in Newport, Rhode Is ...

(August 1778).

Post war life

Ward retired from the Continental Army on January 1, 1781, when the 1st and 2nd Rhode Island Regiments were consolidated. In 1783 he became an original member of the

Society of Cincinnati The Society of the Cincinnati is a fraternal, hereditary society founded in 1783 to commemorate the American Revolutionary War that saw the creation of the United States. Membership is largely restricted to descendants of military officers wh ...

. After the war, Ward became a merchant and traveled extensively to trade to Asia and Europe. Ward was elected to the

Annapolis Convention (1786) The Annapolis Convention, formally titled as a Meeting of Commissioners to Remedy Defects of the Federal Government, was a national political convention held September 11–14, 1786 at Mann's Tavern in Annapolis, Maryland, in which twelve del ...

. In 1814, Ward was served as a delegate to the

. He was elected a member of the

American Antiquarian Society The American Antiquarian Society (AAS), located in Worcester, Massachusetts, is both a learned society and a national research library of pre-twentieth-century American history and culture. Founded in 1812, it is the oldest historical society in ...

in 1815.

Personal life

In 1778 Ward married Phebe Greene (1760–1828), daughter of Governor William Greene Jr. Together, they were the parents of: * Samuel Ward III (1786–1839), who married

Julia Rush Cutler Ward Julia Rush Cutler Ward (January 5, 1796November 9, 1824) was an American occasional poet. One of her poems is preserved in Rufus Wilmot Griswold's ''Female Poets of America'' (1878). Early life Julia Rush Cutler was born in Boston, January 5, ...

(1796–1824). * Richard Ray Ward (1795–1873) Ward died on August 6, 1832, in New York City.Ward, John. ''A Memoir of Lieut.-Col. Samuel Ward, First Rhode Island Regiment, Army of the American Revolution; with a Genealogy of the Ward Family.'' New York: Privately printed, 1875. Reprinted from New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, 6 (July 1875), pp. 113-12

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ward, Samuel 1756 births 1832 deaths Rhode Island politicians Brown University alumni Continental Army officers from Rhode Island Patriots in the American Revolution People of Rhode Island in the American Revolution American people of English descent People from Westerly, Rhode Island People of colonial Rhode Island Members of the American Antiquarian Society