Continental Army rather than its detested turncoat as he became in 1780). But his American regiment failed to dislodge the British and take Lower Canada. Arnoldâs star suddenly dimmed, and Lieutenant Return Jonathan was taken prisoner. Liberated in an exchange, Meigs lost no time vindicating his fortunes by leading 170 men in an amphibious raid on a British redoubt at Sag Harbor on Long Island in May 1777. It was the kind of guerrilla action that was the stuff of Revolutionary Warlegends but which, in cool reality, seldom came off as planned. The rare success of the raid on Sag Harbor enhanced the young officerâs reputation while that of his erstwhile general Benedict Arnold collapsed into infamy. But the Meigs fame was richly deserved. In retaliation for the redcoat burning of Patriot farms in Danbury, Connecticut, Return Meigs had gathered together an enthusiastically angry company of local militiamen, among whom were scouts knowledgeable about the swift waters of Long Island Sound as well as the woods and fields that lined its shores. To this troop Return Jonathan added his own company of trained volunteers, and the little force rowed across the Sound in small boats, taking the British napping (in some cases literally). Twelve of His Majestyâs vessels were burned and eighty prisoners taken with no loss to the Americans. A grateful Continental Congress and General Washington presented Return Jonathan with a sword of honor for his welcome demonstration of both tactical competence and personal courage. Meigs was affected enough by this official vote of confidence to take his name seriously, returning to the fray, commanding a regiment under âMadâ Anthony Wayne and storming the British breastworks at the battle of Stony Point in July 1779.
Return Jonathan Meigs was, then, a paragon of all-action American patriotism, which, once peace came, was bound to make him restless. Unsuited to the steady round of the seasons as a Connecticut farmer, he rode northwest to pioneer in Ohio, where he planted a new branch of Meigses and became important enough to lay down the first homesteading regulations for incoming settlers, posted, it was said (for the Meigses were fond of these kinds of stories), on an ancient oak by the Ohio River. But RJ was not yet done. In 1801 he was appointed by President Jefferson as government agent to the Cherokee Nation in their ancestral homeland in what is now eastern Tennessee and west Georgia. He never moved again, though the Cherokee, as we shall see, were not so fortunate.
Inevitably there was a Return Jonathan Meigs Jr. who did what he could both to live up to his fatherâs dashing reputation and to make the family name as dependable as possible, first by fighting, and then by treating with, the Indians. The rewards for his more orthodox manner of making his way in federal America were handsome, and Return Jonathan Jr. became, in succession, prospering Ohio attorney, state legislator, justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, governor (responsiblefor defending the border against the British in the war of 1812), United States senator, and finallyânot a job to sniff at in the early days of stagecoachingâpostmaster general of the United States.
His younger brother, Josiah, took a more cerebral turn, teaching math, astronomy, and ânatural philosophyâ at the local college, Yale, before publishing the Connecticut Magazine , principally, one suspects, to oblige old classmates like Joel Barlow and Noah Webster who had literary pretensions, an enterprise that swiftly and predictably brought Josiah to the edge of ruin. Turning to the law, where his brother had done so well, Josiah took another wrong turn by defending privateers taken by the British in Bermuda, a move that got him indicted for treason, and that understandably made the quieter life of a mathematics professor seem suddenly attractive. Yale took him back, gave him years of assiduous respectability, out of
Return Jonathan Meigs was, then, a paragon of all-action American patriotism, which, once peace came, was bound to make him restless. Unsuited to the steady round of the seasons as a Connecticut farmer, he rode northwest to pioneer in Ohio, where he planted a new branch of Meigses and became important enough to lay down the first homesteading regulations for incoming settlers, posted, it was said (for the Meigses were fond of these kinds of stories), on an ancient oak by the Ohio River. But RJ was not yet done. In 1801 he was appointed by President Jefferson as government agent to the Cherokee Nation in their ancestral homeland in what is now eastern Tennessee and west Georgia. He never moved again, though the Cherokee, as we shall see, were not so fortunate.
Inevitably there was a Return Jonathan Meigs Jr. who did what he could both to live up to his fatherâs dashing reputation and to make the family name as dependable as possible, first by fighting, and then by treating with, the Indians. The rewards for his more orthodox manner of making his way in federal America were handsome, and Return Jonathan Jr. became, in succession, prospering Ohio attorney, state legislator, justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, governor (responsiblefor defending the border against the British in the war of 1812), United States senator, and finallyânot a job to sniff at in the early days of stagecoachingâpostmaster general of the United States.
His younger brother, Josiah, took a more cerebral turn, teaching math, astronomy, and ânatural philosophyâ at the local college, Yale, before publishing the Connecticut Magazine , principally, one suspects, to oblige old classmates like Joel Barlow and Noah Webster who had literary pretensions, an enterprise that swiftly and predictably brought Josiah to the edge of ruin. Turning to the law, where his brother had done so well, Josiah took another wrong turn by defending privateers taken by the British in Bermuda, a move that got him indicted for treason, and that understandably made the quieter life of a mathematics professor seem suddenly attractive. Yale took him back, gave him years of assiduous respectability, out of
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