250 years ago, the Declaration of Independence announced to the world that the United States of America was its own sovereign nation. Though the message was clear, the war to uphold that declaration would last another seven years. Thousands of individual stories, from heartbreaking to heroic and everything in between, are contained within the span of the American Revolutionary War. Walking among the stones that mark these complex human lives, these centuries-old histories grow more familiar, bit by bit.

WILLIAM BARTON

Sometimes gravestones quite literally share the stories of the lives they memorialize. Such is the case with William Barton, a Continental Army officer whose marker is etched with the summary of one of his proudest moments—the capture of British Major General Richard Prescott. 

The early years of the war saw Barton rise through the ranks in the Rhode Island militia. Meanwhile, General Prescott and his British forces had occupied several areas of Rhode Island. One of these was the coastal town of Newport, where Prescott was said to reside in a local farmhouse. 

Barton concocted a rather daring plan. One night in July 1777, he and thirty-eight hand-picked soldiers piled into whale boats and set out toward Newport from the peninsula of Warwick Neck. They slid across Narragansett Bay undetected by three looming British frigates, silently subdued a sentinel who noticed their landing, then simultaneously stormed all entrances of Prescott’s headquarters. Prescott was captured where he slept and carried half-dressed back toward Warwick before the alarm was even raised. 

George Washington personally praised Barton and his men for their exploit, and Barton was granted a sword in thanks. It’s said in later battles he wielded the sword aloft as he recounted his story as “the man who took Prescott,” so it’s fitting the tale continues to be told in stone. 

“CAPTAIN MOLLY” CORBIN

In 1775, a soldier named John Corbin joined thousands of others in enlisting in the Continental Army. His 25-year-old wife, Margaret, was not one to let her husband go into danger alone. So she joined him as one of the many camp followers who stayed with the soldiers in exchange for useful work like cooking, cleaning, and nursing. Margaret’s no-nonsense ways earned her the name “Captain Molly” among the other wives and followers. 

On November 16, 1776, John Corbin was part of the defense in the Battle of Fort Washington, fighting back against the much larger attacking British forces. Margaret was with him, loading artillery at his side, when he was killed. She stepped in to take his place on the cannon crew as the situation around her grew ever more dire, until enemy fire tore through her chest and jaw and nearly severed her left arm. The British ultimately captured the fort, but Margaret lived. She was treated and paroled with the rest of the wounded, but she never regained the use of her arm. 

In 1779, the Continental Congress granted Margaret Corbin lifetime compensation for her injury and heroism, making her the first woman in U.S. history to receive a pension for military service. The location of her remains is unknown, but she has been honored with plaques and memorials throughout New York, including one at her official military gravesite in West Point Cemetery.

THE CULPER SPY RING

Many of us have heard of the heroism of the young soldier-turned-spy Nathan Hale, whose last words before his execution have lingered through time: “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.” Hale’s tragic death was one of several failures that pushed Washington to develop more organized spying operations.

Like any good spy organization, the Culper Spy Ring came about through a series of useful connections. In 1778, Washington chose a former Yale classmate of Hale’s, Captain Benjamin Tallmadge, as his head of intelligence. He felt that soldiers on solitary missions were more likely to be suspected as spies, as in the case of Nathan Hale, and Tallmadge favored a different approach: using civilians already embedded behind enemy lines. 

Tallmadge’s primary task was to establish a reliable spy network on British-controlled Long Island. He suggested his trusted friend Abraham Woodhull as their first contact in New York City. Woodhull’s alias? “Samuel Culper.” The first member of the Culper ring was officially in business. 

Woodhull, aka Samuel Culper, moved around Long Island mostly without suspicion, collecting information on the British under the guise of visiting his sister in New York. Local folklore says that in these early days he was also helped by a woman named Anna Strong. As the story goes, Anna used her laundry to signal where and when Townsend could meet the group’s courier to hand off his gathered intelligence. The story is unverified, but not necessarily unlikely—her husband, Selah, also later participated in the Culper Ring’s activities. 

Woodhull continued collecting precious intel from New York for months until a stray accusation turned attention his way. Anxiety over being discovered became too much to bear; Woodhull retreated further afield and recruited Robert Townsend, a local businessman, to take his place in the city. Woodhull became Samuel Culper Sr., a watchful link in the communications relay between Townsend and Washington. Townsend became Samuel Culper Jr., primary informant in New York City. 

Secrecy was so key to the Culper Ring’s operation that not even Washington knew all his agent’s true identities. Townsend was especially wary of discovery—he demanded Woodhull never reveal his name to anyone, wrote pro-Tory essays to conceal his true sympathies, and ultimately went to his grave with only a handful of people ever knowing the role he played as Samuel Culper Jr. In fact, Townsend’s connection to the Culper Ring wasn’t discovered until 1929, when handwriting comparisons matched his personal letters with those in Washington’s collection. 

Together, the knowledge gathered by “Samuel Culper” and the agents of the Culper Ring uncovered enemy timelines, fortifications, troop movements, supplies, morale, and more. They concealed information in code names and numbers, hid messages in newspapers, and wrote secrets in invisible ink between the lines of mundane letters. Their intel contributed to victory at Yorktown and helped thwart Benedict Arnold’s traitorous plans at West Point. Their biggest success came in 1780, when Townsend learned a British force 8,000 strong planned to ambush Rochambeau’s recently arrived (and exhausted) French troops. Armed with this knowledge, Washington led an advance on Manhattan that distracted British forces long enough for Rochambeau’s men to rest and ready themselves for action—a move that likely saved thousands of lives. And through it all, not one agent of the Culper Ring was ever discovered by the British.

It’s easy to get swept away in daring tales, especially with heroes who lived hundreds of years ago. But ultimately each of these graves honors a human life as complex and personal as yours or mine, made significant because they chose to act with hope for a better future.

Do you have an American Revolutionary War story in your family or local cemetery? We’d love to hear about it in the comments. And be sure to check out our 1776 Homepage, where you can discover more individual histories, explore Revolutionary War burial sites, and suggest memorial pages to be given the 1776 badge. We hope this resource helps connect you to the stories behind the graves as you research this defining moment in U.S. history.