Sons of the American Revolution - Binghamton Chapter

06/19/2026

This week in New York’s American Revolution History...

June 19, 1776 – Pond reports two prizes to Washington

“Sloop Schuyler fire Island [N.Y.]

“June 19th 1776

“I have the Pleasure of Informing His Excellency of our taking two Prises one A Ship of 250 Tons Burthen the Sloop 35 Tons Bound to Sandy hook the Ship from Glasgow with one Compy of the 42d Regt Who was taken by one of Admiral Hopkins’s fleet who took the Soldiers on Board & Sent the Ship for Rhode Island Soon after was Taken by the Cerberus Frigate & Sent her under Convoy of the Above Sd Sloop for Sandy hook. Remaining on Board the Ship 5 Commission’d officers with 2 Ladies & 4 Privates, Prisoners Total 20.

“Stores on Board the Ship Crawford 13 tierces of Beef 11 Do of Pork, 3000 Wt of Bread 4 Puncheons of Rum, 100 barrels of Coal, 10 firkins of Butter 1 Cask of Cheese.

“On Board the Sloop 15 Cask of Molasses 2 Chests of Dry Goods 1 Tierce & 1 Barrel of Cags of Powder 1 Case of flints, Some Salt Petre.

“The Ship is part of the way In the Inlet but at Present is Aground Pray Send Direction About the Prisoners as I am Short handed.

“Charles Pond Capt:”

Read Pond’s dispatch to Washington in the above transcription at the following “Founders Online” link from the US National Archives:

https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-05-02-0022



The annotations at the above link note that:

“Charles Pond (1744–1832), a first lieutenant in Col. Charles Webb’s 19th Continental Regiment, served as captain of the Continental armed sloop ‘General Schuyler’ from June to December 1776. A merchant shipmaster in Milford, Conn., before the war, Pond joined Webb’s 7th Connecticut Regiment in July 1775 as an ensign and became a first lieutenant in the 19th Continental Regiment on 1 Jan. 1776…

“The Continental brig ‘Andrew Doria’ captured the British transports ‘Oxford’ and ‘Crawford’ near the Grand Banks on 29 May. The ‘Crawford,’ which was manned by a Continental prize crew, was recaptured on its way to Newport on 12 June by the British warship ‘Cerberus,’ but the transport again became an American prize several days later when it and the unidentified sloop escorting it were taken by the ‘General Schuyler’ near Fire Island.”

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Image Credit:

“Continental Sloop Providence” (1974) by W. Nowland Van Powell

Catalog #: NH 85201-KN

Donation of the Navy League Memphis, Germantown, TN (1976)

U.S. Navy Art Collection, U.S. Naval History & Heritage Command, Washington, D.C.

Via Wikipedia at:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/11/Continental_Sloop_Providence_%281775-1779%29.jpg

06/18/2026

Online Conference from The New York Genealogical & Biographical Society - NYG&B:

Empire State Exploration: Mohawk Valley (7/20 - 7/22)...

(11:30 a.m. to ~4:30 p.m., ET each day)

"Central New York’s Mohawk Valley region is steeped in both natural beauty and fascinating history—from Native American culture to a hotbed of Revolutionary War activity to Erie Canal engineering marvels.

"Join the NYG&B and guest experts for an online exploration of resources for tracing ancestors in the Mohawk Valley from the 1700s to the 1800s. New York counties covered during these sessions include Fulton, Herkimer, Montgomery, Oneida, Otsego, and Schoharie (in addition to relevant resources and discussions of each county’s various predecessors)."

Online sessions include:

Lectures on a range of topics
Individual consultation sessions with expert genealogists
Group Q&A periods
Independent research time

Program Fee:

NYG&B Members Early Registration Rate: $399 (ends June 8, 2026)
General Registration: $469

Prior to this Empire State Exploration program, you will be given special free access to the NYG&B’s on-demand New York State Family History School course, New York State Research Fundamentals to help refresh your understanding of processes for conducting family history research in New York State. This online course includes sessions on vital records, census records, religious records, probate records, and more. Access continues through the last day of the program.

Visit the link below for additional details, including speaker biographies, and to register:

https://www.newyorkfamilyhistory.org/events/empire-state-exploration-mohawk-valley

06/18/2026

A great write-up & photos from Saturday’s William G. Pomeroy Foundation / Empire State Society - Sons of the American Revolution Patriot Burials marker dedication at Layton Cemetery in Kirkwood via Kirkwood Town Historian Karen Ferguson and the Kirkwood Historical Society…

06/17/2026

06/16/2026

This week in New York’s American Revolution History...

June 16, 1776 – Lady Johnson complains to Washington about Schuyler detaining her

“Albany June 16th 1776

“Sir

“I take the Liberty of Complaining to you as it is from you I expect redress. I was Compell’d to leave home much against my inclination & am detained here by General Schuyler, who I am Convinced acts more out of ill nature to Sr John than from any reason that either he, or I have given him, as I am not allowed to return home & my situation here made as disagreeable as it Can be by repeated messages & Threats from General Schuyler, too indelicate & Cruel to be expected from a gentleman I shou’d wish to be with my friends at New York, & wou’d prefer my Captivity under your Excellencys protection to being in the power of General Schuyler who rules with more severity than Cou’d be wished by your Excellencys Humble Servant

“M. Johnson”

Read Mary Watts Johnson’s request to George Washington in the above transcription at the following “Founders Online” link from the US National Archives:

https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-05-02-0003



The annotations at the link above provide this additional background:

“Lady Johnson had been removed from her home in the Mohawk Valley two or three weeks earlier and was being held at Albany in hopes that her detention would prevent her husband, Sir John Johnson, from attacking frontier settlements with his Loyalist followers or Indian allies…(Washington refused to intervene on her behalf)…Lady Johnson received permission from the New York convention in December 1776 to live at Walkill in Ulster County, N.Y., and she moved there the following month with three children, an unmarried sister, a nurse, and two servants...A short time later Lady Johnson escaped in disguise to New York City where she rejoined her husband.”

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Image Credit:

“Mary Watts Johnson” (1797) by Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin

Object Number: S/NPG.74.39.16.25

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

National Portrait Gallery USA, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

https://npg.si.edu/media/74S1476B.jpg

06/15/2026

Another installment of "Meet Us Monday" from our friends with Alden’s 6th-7th Massachusetts Reg’t, 1776-1783...

06/15/2026

"Bucks of America flag"

"This flag was probably made in Boston, Massachusetts, and was presented to a local militia company known as the 'Bucks of America' sometime around the close of the American Revolution. This hand sewn flag is made of white and blue silk in an unbalanced plain weave. The flag's blue canton is inset from the reverse and contains thirteen stars painted on both sides. The central painted image is of a bounding stag beneath a pine tree. There is a large cartouche with 'The Bucks of America' and smaller cartouche at the top of the image containing the initials 'J-G-W-H.' painted in gold.

About the Bucks of America

"The Bucks of America, an all-Black Militia company, may have operated in a quasi-military capacity in Massachusetts during the American Revolution. Very little is known about their service and they do not appear in any official military records. The unit was recognized in a ceremony near the end of the Revolutionary War in which Governor John Hancock presented this silk flag. The significance of the initials 'J.G.W.H.' that are painted on the flag remains unclear. In 'The Liberator,' 12 March 1858, Theodore Parker interpreted them as abbreviations of the names of John Hancock and George Washington - '[t]hus John Hancock embraces George Washington' - but it is more likely that they are the initials of John George Washington Hancock (1778-1787), the young son of Governor John Hancock, who may have been the unit’s 'mascot.' (In 'The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution,' historian William C. Nell wrote that the governor and his son presented the banner to the Bucks of America.)

Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, MA

Text Credit:

https://www.masshist.org/database/viewer.php?item_id=788&pid=38

Image Credit:

https://www.masshist.org/database/images23/0070_flag_work_lg.jpg

06/14/2026

Congress Establishes the Board of War and Ordnance

"The United States Army traces its birthday back to June 14, 1775—the date the Second Congressional Congress voted to adopt the New England army then encircling the British in Boston.

Almost a year later to the day—June 12, 1776—the Congress voted to establish the Board of war and Ordnance, the precursor to today’s Department of Defense.[1] One could therefore make the argument that June 12, 2026, is the 250th birthday of the department. At the very least, one could directly trace the department’s ancestry back that far.

"Congress voted to establish the board in response to pressure from Gen. George Washington, who desperately needed help managing the logistics of feeding, clothing, arming, equipping, and otherwise supplying the army. He spent at least as much time begging (in a dignified but humble way) various colonies for support as he did planning and executing military strategy and tactics. Supply worries were never far from his mind. 'The reflection upon my Situation, & that of this Army, produces many an uneasy hour when all around me are wrapped in Sleep . . .' he wrote a confidant..."

Read the rest of Chris Mackowski's article at this Emerging Revolutionary War link:

https://emergingrevolutionarywar.org/2026/06/14/congress-establishes-the-board-of-war-and-ordnance/

"Chris Mackowski, Ph.D., is the editor-in-chief of Emerging Civil War and managing editor of the Emerging Civil War Series. He is a professor of journalism and mass communication at St. Bonaventure University in Allegany, NY, and historian-in-residence at Stevenson Ridge, a historic property on the Spotsylvania battlefield in central Virginia. He has also worked as a historian for the National Park Service at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County Battlefields National Military Park, where he gives tours at four major Civil War battlefields (Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Wilderness, and Spotsylvania), as well as at the building where Stonewall Jackson died. Chris has authored or co-authored a dozen books on the Civil War, and his articles have appeared in all the major Civil War magazines. Chris serves on the national advisory board for the Civil War Chaplains Museum in Lynchburg, Virginia."