REVOLUTIONARY WAR: THE FIGHTING QUAKER

*** *** *** *** *** ***  The Thomas Carpenter House

THE FIGHTING QUAKER, THOMAS CARPENTER: The Fourth of July is fast approaching! As always Balladeer’s Blog will be marking the occassion with plenty of seasonal posts.  

Though his Quaker principles prevented him from taking on a combat role in the Revolutionary War, Thomas Carpenter became a Paymaster of militia units on March 19th, 1777.  

Later on in the war the man who came to be called “The Fighting Quaker” became Quartermaster for New Jersey’s First Battalion in the Continental Army. Carpenter would prove to be something of a genius at logistics, accounting and other administrative skills that an army relies on just as much as weaponry and combat troops.

Thomas Carpenter was a hands-on leader and toiled with the men under under him through icy cold winters, drenching rains and incredibly hot summers. Just like the front-line troops the Fighting Quaker risked being captured by the British while he and his men conveyed supplies to the Continental Army during virtually every memorable battle in New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania.

After the Revolutionary War Thomas and his son Edward went on to become highly-regarded figures in the art of glass making.