- SC
- May 8, 2023
Updated: Nov 8, 2023
Posting some liner notes and thoughts on researching and writing in the 2nd Light series as I continue to write in Draft 1 of Book 4 - Soldiers.
Correspondences and letters can only tell so much regarding the personalities of some of the officers of the 2nd Light. So some of the spots I filled in with people's actions and also how they were written into reports and so forth. One of the officers I did want to focus on is Captain John "Jack" Webb. The 3rd son of the prominent Webb family of Connecticut.
The Webbs still exist today through their very famous 2nd son, Colonel Samuel Blatchley Webb (and other descendants of the large Webb clan). So not to draw the ire or potentially any defamation that may arise from writing about the family, I've based it mostly to correspondences and actions of Samuel and Jack.
Since Jack was an officer of the 2nd Light, the focus is more on him, with Samuel in the background as a peripheral - partially due to his capture and limited parole - but also because he leads a separate regiment after his release. Tallmadge's letters also indicate a friendship of sorts was struck up with Samuel, owing to their mutual friendship with Wadsworth and social circles during the winter months (hooray for fetes!). It's rather interesting that in Jack's letters to his brother (most of the personality of Jack is drawn from his letters to Samuel and Samuel's replies to his younger brother - "Reminiscences of General Samuel B. Webb of the Revolutionary Army" as the source), ask after the family, but mostly consist of complaints. Complaints about army life, about running out of money, about borrowing money, about how he wants to do more, how he wants to be more prominent and how he perceives he's not getting his due. In the beginning of this series, Jack is presented as a go-getter and eager. As were a lot of the officers of the 2nd Light and in the American Revolution. A lot thought that not only was the cause ideal, but it was a way for them to gain prominence in the eyes of their peers - and thus more respect, more business prospects, etc. Jack was surely one of them because as the 3rd son of his family, he needed and wanted to be seen outside of his already-famous brother's shadow.
By the time Jack joined the Rev War in early 1777, Samuel had already served as Washington's aide-de-camp, tellingly at the Siege of Boston, Evacuation of New York and in the famous crossing of the Delaware and capture of Trenton. So, naturally, Jack felt the need to do something impactful, something that would make him equal, if not more famous than his brother.
Then Samuel got captured in 1777 in his ill-fated expedition to Long Island. Jack, feeling the effects of the capture of a family member, especially that of his older brother whom he adored and looked up to (and the affection was reciprocated by Samuel's return letters), probably not only wanted to rescue his brother, but a part of him thought he could make his mark now. With the 2nd Light, he was in a regiment that was highly unique for its time as dragoons were not really a thing in the American army and mostly regulated to European warfare. He was not a common officer leading men - he was an officer leading mounted men.
But there was one trait that was implicitly mentioned in subsequent letters and in research, Jack was not the most subtle nor quiet regarding gossip and rumors in the regiment. Not exactly material that Tallmadge was looking for when he wanted an officer he could trust to not only keep his mouth shut, but to not make a fuss about the "ungentlemanly" style of warfare he was tasked to conduct for Washington. It also did not help Jack's case that he was impressionable and carried on correspondences and acquaintances with some of the regiment's more volatile officers at that time. Good for networking, but kind of bad for the work that Tallmadge was trying to do and to keep on the DL (so to speak).
So this thread and storyline weaved itself in and out of the 2nd Light series. About Jack making decisions that rubbed Tallmadge the wrong way or even rubbed fellow officers the wrong way. Webb being one of the fourteen of eighteen officers that signed the petition against Sheldon was also a point against Tallmadge. Truth be told, he probably also felt betrayed by Edgar and Belden who also both signed (Rogers did not sign). But by that point, Tallmadge had a working relationship with Edgar and Belden and so somewhat forgave them - or at least was willing to work more with them than with Webb whom he kept at arm's length due to his own actions.
Book 4 concludes the Webb storyline, so I hope people enjoy it. Ultimately, my own thoughts on Jack Webb is that he had the makings of a good and ambitious officer, but he was too impatient, too blind to his own faults and perhaps too selfish with his own needs instead of that of the regiment.