Revolutionary War Years
Unlike many of Philadelphia's lawyers, who had business ties with England and tended to be Loyalists as the Revolution became imminent, Peters sided with the Whig or American cause. A week after the Continental Congress created the Continental Army, they appointed him as the Secretary to their Board of War. Later his position title was changed to Commissioner of the Board of War. He held this post with honor throughout the active phase of the Revolutionary War. When he resigned in 1781, Congress passed a declaration to thank him for "long and faithful service".
Peters was a good friend and became a benefactor of Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, the German officer appointed as Inspector-General and trainer of the Continental Army. Peters often directly paid for his expenses and allowed him and his staff to stay at the family estate, Belmont. In early 1779, von Steuben and his staff completed writing the Blue Book, which was published as the first military manual of the United States Army.
Read more about this topic: Richard Peters (Continental Congress)
Famous quotes containing the words war and/or years:
“War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse.... A war to protect other human beings against tyrannical injustice; a war to give victory to their own ideas of right and good, and which is their own war, carried on for an honest purpose by their own free choice—is often the means of their regeneration.”
—John Stuart Mill (1806–1873)
“It’s no go the picture palace, it’s no go the stadium,
It’s no go the country cot with a pot of pink geraniums.
It’s no go the Government grants, it’s no go the elections,
Sit on your arse for fifty years and hang your hat on a pension.”
—Louis MacNeice (1907–1963)