Lt. Colonel John Laurens – 1754-1782

John Laurens was from a wealthy South Carolina family. He was educated in England and arrived in Charleston in 1777. He wanted to join the Continental Army, and his father Henry secured a position for his 23 year old son. His father would serve in the Continental Congress. George Washington invited him to join his stall in August of 1777 as a volunteer aide-de-camp. Laurens became close friends with two other aides – Lafayette and Alexander Hamilton. On September 11, 1777 he served at the Battle of Brandywine and later the Battle of Germantown in which he was wounded. He was known for his recklessness, but he was given his official position of aides-de-camp to Washington and commissioned a lieutenant colonel. He served at the Battle of Monmouth in June of 1778.

John Laurens
Silas Talbot

Major Silas Talbot – 1751 – 1813

Talbot was born in Dighton, Massachusetts. He was trained as a mariner and as a builder and made his home in Providence. In the aftermath of the burning of the Gaspee and the Boston Tea Party, Rhode Island merchants were alarmed.  Independent militias were forming and Talbot joined and was commissioned as a Lieutenant.  He joined others of his company in learning military skills in a Providence warehouse, but he didn’t have any real military experience. On June 28, 1775 Talbot answered the Rhode Island Assembly’s call to send units to Boston.  He marched with his men to join the Second Rhode Island Regiment and by July 1, he was commissioned a captain.  Talbot and the other 1200 men in the Rhode Island brigade took part in the Siege of Boston watching over the Red Coats but not in direct battle.  Talbot’s skills as a bricklayer came in handy as they built barracks on Prospect Hill.  By April of 1776 the Siege was over and Rhode Islander Esek Hopkins, Commander in Chief of the Continental Navy needed a crew to sail the ships home to Providence.  Washington offered to loan Hopkins men from the Rhode Island Regiment and Talbot switched from soldier to sailor. Silas Talbot was intimately involved in the Rhode Island Campaign. As someone with experience as a mariner and builder, Talbot helped to construct the flatboats that would take American forces to Portsmouth on August 9th of 1778.