Tench Tilghman - Service During The Revolution

Service During The Revolution

Tilghman was Washington's trusted confidant throughout the war. From his appointment on August 8, 1776, as Washington's aide-de-camp, it did not take Tench long to impress Washington. He stayed by Washington during the disastrous Battle of Harlem Heights on September 16, 1776, escaping with him on the last boat from Manhattan Island. As the war was ending, Washington sent Tilghman a worried letter about King George III’s actions.

Washington's letter to Tench on January 7, 1783, from Newburgh, New York:

The obstinacy of the King and his unwillingness to acknowledge the independency of this country, I have ever considered as the greatest obstacles in the way of a peace.

Tench Tilghman’s Yorktown Journal October 17, 1781 at the Siege of Yorktown:

In the morning Lord Cornwallis put out a letter requesting 24 hours must be granted to the commissioners to settle terms of capitulation of the posts of York and Gloster. The General answered that only two hours would be allowed for him to send out his terms. He accordingly sent them out generally as follows, that the Garrisons should be prisoners of war, the German and British soldiers to be sent to England and Germany. The General answered on the 18th that the terms of sending the troops to England and Germany were inadmissible. Lord Cornwallis closed with all the terms except the same honors granted at Charlestown.