'My Dearest Girl': A soldier's love letter from the frontlines of American Revolution

“My Dearest Girl,” a soldier during the American Revolution wrote, “I am now in Philadelphia on my way to camp.” Little is known about the soldier, who signed his letter with the initials “J. S.”

Writing on Nov. 20, 1779, his letter contained few details about the war for independence, but it did reflect a soldier’s plight common to most wars, “This is the fourth time I have wrote to Lewes since I left it, but have not received one line from any friend.”

By the fourth year of the American Revolution, an uneasy stalemate had settled on the Delaware coast. British warships, led by H.M.S. Roebuck, patrolled the waters around Cape Henlopen without fear of attack from the feeble Continental Navy.

On land, the Tories from the inland areas and the patriots of Lewes had grudgingly reached an uneasy truce. The men of Lewes could not fight the British on the sea, but they were eager to fight them on land. After the Continental Congress ordered the formation of an army, Colonel David Hall raised a company in Lewes, which was one of the finest dressed units in the Continental army.

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The soldiers were smartly uniformed with blue coats that were trimmed in red, worn over white waistcoats. The coats had pewter buttons with the initials “ D. B.” for Delaware Battalion. Each soldier also wore a small, round, leather hat with a high peak inscribed in gilt with, “Liberty and Independence, Delaware Regiment.”

In the first years of the war, the Delaware troops fought in the battles near Philadelphia, including Brandywine, Germantown and Monmouth. In 1779, the Delaware regiment was ordered to join the American forces fighting in the South.

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The fighting had taken its toll on the finely dressed soldiers. As they marched through Philadelphia, an observer noted, “What an army, said both Whig and Tory, as they saw them pass. The shorter men of each company in the front rank, the taller men behind them — some in hunting shirts-some in uniforms — some in common clothes —some with their hats cocked, and some without, and those who did cock them, not all wearing them the same way, but each man with a green sprig, emblem of hope, in his hat, and each bearing hi firelock with what, even to uninstructed eyes, had the air of skillful training.”

Soldier's letter send love back to Lewes from the front

As with most soldiers, J. S. was not privy to the plans of the officers, and he was unsure where the fortunes of war would take him. In his letter, he wrote, “I shall leave this place [Philadelphia] immediately and cannot expect to hear from you God knows when. As soon as I arrive in camp I shall embrace the first opportunity of informing you of my situation.”

In the South, the Delaware troops would fight at Camden, Cowpens and other battlefields. Eventually, Cornwallis led his troops to Yorktown, where he would be trapped by the Americans in the war’s final episode. Throughout it all, the love-struck J. S. longed to return to Lewes and the love of his life.

In his November letter, he wrote: “Believe me, my dearest girl, I am often almost ready to leave every engagement and fly to the arms of her who I flatter myself wished to make me happy, which none else can do. Heaven’s choicest blessing ever attend you, I repose entire confidence in your declarations which makes me happy in a very great degree, farewell, my dearest girl, do not neglect me.”

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It is not known what happened to J. S. during the difficult campaign in the South. When he wrote his letter in November 1779, he expressed the wish of all soldiers: “God send a speedy & honorable end to our troubles.”

Principal sources

“Love Letter of a Soldier of the Revolution,” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. Vol. XXXI, Philadelphia, 1907, p. 255.

Christopher Ward, The Delaware Continentals, Wilmington: The Historical Society of Delaware, 1941, p. 9.

Pusey, Pennock, “History of Lewes, Delaware,” Papers of the Historical Society of Delaware, Wilmington, 1904, p. 25.

Whiteley, William G. “The Revolutionary Soldiers of Delaware,” Papers of the Historical Society of Delaware, Wilmington, 1896, p. 40.

This article originally appeared on Salisbury Daily Times: Soldier sends love back to Lewes in American Revolution letters