Daniel Bissell, The Spy -- Recipient of the Badge for Military Merit:
The Purple Heart of the American Revolution
Daniel Bissell was born in Windsor, CT 30 Dec 1754. According to the Center of Military History of the United States Army, after the Revolutionary War began on April 19, 1775, the Connecticut State Assembly created several Regiments of militia from Connecticut, including approving the 8th Connecticut Regiment in July 1775.
Washington arrives to take charge of the troops in Boston.
Daniel enlisted on July 7, 1775 in the new 8th Connecticut Regiment. The history of service of the 8th Connecticut Regiment is that after its creation, the Regiment was first stationed on Long Island Sound until September 14, 1775 when it was detailed to assist in the siege of Boston (which had begun in April 1775 when the Revolution began). Daniel, along with the 8th Regiment, served at Roxbury in General Spencer's Brigade. The 8th Regiment was then disbanded at the expiration of the terms of service of its men in December 1775.
The siege of British troops stationed in Boston was the first phase of the Revolutionary War, with American militiamen surrounding Boston to prevent movement by the British troops there. George Washington arrived to take command of the troops on July 3, 1775, setting up his headquarters in a house in Cambridge (the house that would later become the home of American poet and Bissell cousin Henry Wadsworth Longfellow). After 11 months, the siege proved successful. The British withdrew by sea in March 1776 after Henry Knox arrived in January with cannons he had captured at Fort Ticonderoga, N.Y. Daniel Bissell apparently spent 1776 back on his father's farm in Windsor, CT.
Military records show that on January 1, 1777 Bissell re-enlisted as the 8th Connecticut Regiment was being re-organized as the Connecticut Line, part of the Continental Line. His unit may have had some brief involvement in the New York Campaign, which began in July 1776 and ended March 1777 and involved fighting with the British for control of the New York City area and of New Jersey. Bissell then signed on for the duration of the war on April 1, 1777 (after Congress finally approved a permanent army) and became a sergeant on September 1, 1777. The new 8th Regiment first saw action in the Battle of Germantown on Oct. 4, 1777.
General Washington had planned a daring campaign to liberate the city that was then the U.S. Capital -- Philadelphia -- which was under British occupation. His plan (according to the website "Revolutionary Germantown") was a pre-dawn raid on Germantown, where British soldiers were camped. To launch his attack, Washington had to move down Germantown Road.
The Battle of Germantown at Cliveden House, Oct. 4, 1777 outside Germantown, Pennsylvania.
A mere 120 British troops took control of the large stone house "Cliveden," which belonged to a wealthy Philadelphian loyal to the British named Benjamin Chew. Although Washington had many more troops (nearly 12,000 in all), after several hours of fierce fighting the Americans were unable to take the house and were forced to retreat while the British strengthened their grip on Germantown. About 150 Americans were killed, half of them at Cliveden house, and about 70 British soldiers died.
The next assignment for Bissell and the 8th Connecticut Regiment after the Battle of Germantown was the Siege of Fort Mifflin near Philadelphia, in October and November 1777, one of the battles in what became known as the Philadelphia Campaign. Fort Mifflin was a British-built fort on Delaware River that had been taken over by American troops in 1775. Strategically located just below Philadelphia, the Fort was in a position to prevent the British from getting their supply ships up to their soldiers garrisoned in Philadelphia. It was imperative for the British to take the Fort.
The Fort was garrisoned by about 400 American troops, including reinforcements sent in by Gen. Washington, along with only 10 cannon. While it's unclear exactly which units were sent to the Fort, records indicate the 8th Connecticut served at the Siege of Fort Mifflin. On the morning of November 10, 1777 the British began a naval bombardment on the Fort which was to become the largest bombardment of the Revolutionary War. For five days the British bombarded, and each night the American troops worked to repair the damage done by the day's bombardment.
British ship of the line HMS Asia, similar to the HMS Augusta which bombarded Fort Mifflin with its 64 cannons in two decks. Augusta ran aground, caught fire likely as a result of American cannon fire and exploded (an explosion so loud it broke windows in Philadelphia nearly 30 miles away)
On November 15, with good weather and high tides, the British Navy sailed two ships with 19 cannon, the Vigilant and the Fury, up a back channel to the west of the Fort. In the main channel of the Delaware River, they anchored three ships with 158 cannon directly offshore of the Fort and sailed three more ships with another 51 cannon to the east on the Delaware. The Vigilant was so close that British Marines were throwing hand grenades from the crow's nest onto the soldiers in the Fort. At the heighth of the bombardment, the British were firing 1,000 cannon balls in an hour at the Fort. The Americans evacuated the Fort, using boats with muffled oars, the night of November 15, leaving the Fort ablaze and the flag still flying.
At about the same time that the British were preparing to attack Fort Mifflin, in mid-October 1777 they were also preparing to attack Fort Mifflin's counterpart American fort on the opposite bank of the Delaware River, Fort Mercer, New Jersey. These two forts together operated to control shipping in the river and so the British had to take both forts. On October 22, 1777 Hessian mercenary troops employed by the British attacked Fort Mercer were repulsed by the Americans. It is possible, if not likely, that Daniel Bissell's Connecticut troops were deployed at Fort Mercer as well as Fort Mifflin. Your author also notes that the commander of Fort Mercer, Col. Christopher Greene of Warwick, R.I., is a "notable cousin" in the author's paternal ancestry, the Greenes of Warwick, R.I.
Following the Siege of Fort Mifflin, Daniel Bissell spent the winter at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.
The soldiers spending the winter at Valley Forge endured extremely harsh conditions. Whether the Continental Army would survive the winter or would collapse (and end the revolution) was an open question. In a December 1777 letter to Congress, Washington warned that unless the "total failure of supplies" was addressed, the Army might "dissolve."
This painting, Washington Reviewing His Ragged Army at Valley Forge, is from a painting by William T. Trego and became a U.S. Bicentennial Postage Stamp
The Army was in danger of freezing and starving to death. As President Barack Obama noted in his first inaugural address, "In the year of America's birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At the moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words to be read to the people: "Let it be told to the future world...that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive...that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet [it]."
By February 1778, deaths from illness, starvation and freezing along with desertions had reduced Washington's army from 12,000 men to 8,000 men. However, with the assistance of Baron Friedrich Wilhem von Steuben beginning that February, the army significantly improved its training, discipline and organization and truly became an army. It was a turning point in the war.
According to the website Valley Forge Legacy Muster Roll, Sergeant Daniel Bissell was in the First Division of Huntington's Brigade of the 5th Connecticut Regiment, his company under the command of Capt. Abner Prior.
According to the muster roles kept by the military units at that time, Bissell was "Present" for Dec. 1777; "On Roll without Comment" in Jan. and Feb. 1778; on Furlough in Connecticut in March and April 1778; on Guard in May 1778; and at Brunswick, New Jersey in June 1778.
This stamp was issued at the 150th anniversary of Valley Forge, showing Gen. Washington kneeling in prayer as tradition says was witnessed by soldier Isaac Potts.
Barely a week after they broke camp at Valley Forge, the Continental Army met the British June 28, 1778 at the Battle of Monmouth in New Jersey. The battle was important because it demonstrated that the American army had gained discipline over the winter and fought the British -- then considered the most powerful army in the world -- to a standstill.
General George Washington rallies retreating American troops at the Battle of Monmouth, 1778.
The unsteady command of the leading American units by General Charles Lee had allowed the British to get the upper hand but George Washington, arriving late at the battle, managed to rally the American troops along a hilltop. Washington re-positioned his troops and flanked the British with his artillery, causing them to retreat. Per the history of Windsor, CT, Daniel Bissell served at the Battles of White Plains and Trenton and was wounded at this Battle of Monmouth.
This battle also saw "Molly Pitcher" a woman named Mary Hays bringing water to American soldiers and by legend helping the American cannoneers.
I'm not sure what the activities of Washington's Army, and particular the 8th Connecticut Regiment, were after the Battle of Monmouth and until 1781, when as described below Daniel Bissell was given a special assignment to spy on the British for General Washington. The 8th Regiment was merged into the 1st Connecticut Regiment January 1, 1781 at West Point, New York and re-designated as the 5th Connecticut Regiment.
We do know, however, that in the fall of 1781, Daniel Bissell was asked by his regimental commander to go behind enemy lines in New York and gather information. General George Washington was anticipating the need to attack the British in New York City and he needed information.
To assure that his mission was credible, Bissell would have to be listed as a deserter, bringing him disgrace in the eyes of his regiment, his friends and family. Only General Washington and a few of his senior officers knew of this mission. Washington was a masterful manager of intelligence-gathering, using a variety of sources, sending men behind enemy lines and sought to assure that those selected for such duty would be those "upon whose firmness and fidelity we may safely rely." Bissell wore an extra set of clothes so that he would appear to the British to really be a deserter.
Bissell pretended to be a British supply sergeant and collected information for more than a year on British troop locations and movements in New York city.
When Bissell got behind British lines on August 13, 1781, he was "impressed" (or arrested by the British military) and told by the British that he must either put up bail or pay 70 Pounds, or else he would be sent into service in the British Army or Navy. He made up a story about having an uncle in New York City who would pay the funds, and while he went to "look for his uncle" he went about gathering information on the British forces, even though he was accompanied by a British guard. Remarkably, he even managed to get a British officer to post three days of bail for him out of the officer's own pocket.
Within a few days, however, Bissell became violently ill and had no choice but to enlist in Benedict Arnold's "Loyal Americans" regiment, in order to get medical treatment. There is also the likelihood that he had to enlist because the British would no longer protect deserters who did not officially join them. After recovering from his sickness, he was a quartermaster moving supplies to British army units and was able to gather much valuable information. After a year of such work, in September 1782, he was finally able to escape from the British.
When he was captured by American soldiers, he was taken in chains to Washington's headquarters in Newburgh, New York where Washington personally vouched for him and he was unchained. From memory he drew maps of all the fortifications and troop deployment on Manhattan and Staten Island and presented incredibly detailed information to General Washington. Washington offered Bissell, as a reward for his service, the chance to be relieved of his military obligation and to return home to Connecticut. Bissell declined, saying that he wanted to continue through and so he continued service with his regiment for nearly another year, until May 1783.
Just a month before Bissell reported back to General Washington, in August 1782 General Washington had issued the following general order:
"The General, ever desirous to cherish a virtuous ambition in his soldiers, as well as to foster and encourage every species of Military merit, directs that whenever any singularly meritorious action is performed, the author of it shall be permitted to wear on his facings, over his left breast, the figure of a heart in purple cloth, edged with a narrow lace or binding. Not only instances of unusual gallantry, but also of extraordinary fidelity and essential service in any way shall meet with due reward.
Before this favor can be conferred on any man, the particular fact, or facts, on which it is grounded must be set forth to the Commander-in-chief accompanied with certificates from the commanding officers of the regiment and brigade to which the candidate for reward belonged, or other incontestable proof, and upon granting it,.the name of the regiment of the person with the action so certified are to be enrolled in the book of merit which will be kept at the orderly office."Men who have merited this last distinction to be suffered to pass all guards and sentinels which officers are permitted to do.
The road to glory in a patriot army and a free country is thus opened to all -- this order is also to have retrospect to the earliest stages of the war."
This was the creation of the Badge of Military Merit. Only three men were awarded this Badge of Military Merit during the Revolutionary War. They were Sergeant Elijah Churchill of Enfield, CT, a member of the 2nd Continental Dragoons; Sergeant Daniel Brown of Stamford, CT a member of the 5th Connecticut Regiment Continental Line; and Sergeant Daniel Bissell of East Windsor, CT, a member of the 2nd Connecticut Regiment Continental Line.
The first two awards of the Badge of Military Merit were made to Sgt. Brown and Sgt. Churchill in May 1783. The third award of the Badge of Military Merit was presented June 8, 1783 to 28 year old Sergeant Daniel Bissell of Windsor, Connecticut at General Washington's headquarters in Newburgh, New York. The award was presented by Jonathan Trumbull, Jr., Gen. Washington's military secretary. [Trumbull, Jr. was later the second Speaker of the House in the U.S. Congress, a U.S. Senator and Governor of Connecticut for 11 terms.] At that point, at the end of the war, Sergeant Bissell was a member of Captain David Humphreys' Company of the Second Connecticut Regiment of the Continental Line. His citation reads:
"Sergeant Bissell of the 2nd Connecticut Regt. having performed some important service within the immediate knowledge of the Commander-In-Chief in which the fidelity, perseverance, and good sense of the said Sergeant Bissell were conspicuously manifested, it is therefore ordered that he be honored with the Badge of Merit. He will call at headquarters on Tuesday next for the insignia and certificate to which he is hereby entitled."
Sergeant Daniel Bissell had been presented with his Badge of Military Merit on June 8, 1783. In his application for a pension more than 30 years later, he explained that he had lost his badge in a house fire in 1813 in Ontario County, New York. The records of the first Purple Heart awards were lost following the end of the Revolution and were not found until the 1920s. The Orderly Book in which these records were to have been recorded has never been found. Sergeant Churchill's badge is the only one of the original badges know to survive. Churchill's badge was preserved in his family and is now on display at Washington's Headquarters in Newburgh, New York.
A seven-page document found on microfilm in the George Washington papers in the Library of Congress provides the missing story. The first four pages of the manuscript are in the handwriting of Captain David Humphreys of Derby Connecticut, Washington's Aide-de-Camp from June 23rd, 1780 to the end of the war. The manuscript begins:
"Substance of information given by Sergeant Bissell of the 2nd. Connecticut Regiment who was sent into NY for the purpose of obtaining intelligence in the month of August 1781 and made his escape from Staten Island on the 27th of Sept. 1782.
"He reports that on his arrival into the city, there being a hot press to man the King's ships and finding no other means to avoid it or to escape but by entering into the land service, he enlisted in Arnold's Corps and never has had the opportunity of getting off until Tuesday last, that he frequently made efforts to effect it.
"In the mean time he has exerted his utmost care and ability in obtaining information of the strength and state of the enemy's force...
"On Staten Island -22nd Reg't British34057th Reg't3202 Comp.British100Arnold's Corps125 885..."
Bissell's dictated narrative continues to describe in minute detail the strength and fortifications on Long Island. Then, in Bissell's own hand writing there is a detailed description of two British forts which begins: "The main fort on Staten Island is from east to west about one hundred and forty feet through and about one hundred feet from the North side to the South..." He describes in great detail where each of the cannon are placed and where the best place would be to attack the fort. It closes with a sketch of a fort with the 24-pound cannons clearly marked.Washington himself endorses the report:"Sergeant Bissell's account of the enemies force and works at New York, etc."
Sergeant Bissell left the Army and lived out the rest of his life in Richmond, New York.
His tombstone in Allen's Hill Cemetery near Canandaigua, New York, reads:
"In the memory of Daniel Bissell - Died August 5, 1824, Aged 79 years - He had the confidence of Washington and Served under him."
Memorial marker near the grave of Daniel Bissell.
Program from the unveiling of a memorial tablet honoring Daniel Bissell in Windsor Connecticut in October 1919.
On February 22, 1932, the 200th anniversary of George Washington's birth, President Herbert Clark Hoover revived the Purple Heart medal by issuing the following General Order:
"By order of the President of the United States, The Purple Heart established by General George Washington at Newburgh, August 7, 1782, during the war of the Revolution, is hereby revived out of respect to his memory and military achievements.The decoration is authorized to be awarded to persons who, while serving in the army of the United States, perform any singularly Meritorious act of extraordinary fidelity or essential service. A wound received in action may be construed as resulting from such an act."
Sources include: There is an excellent photograph of the original Badge of Military Merit awarded to Sergeant Elijah Churchill on page 97 in the book "The Story of America, a National Graphic Picture Atlas", 1992.
"Pictorial Field-book of the Revolution", Benson Lossing, p. 627 - 628.
"The Story of the Purple Heart", Daughters of the American Revolution Magazine, February, 1922.
The present Purple Heart Medal
The Margaret Dewey above who married Daniel Bissell was Thomas Dewey's granddaughter.
The information in this piece comes from several sources, including the website of The Connecticut Society of the Sons of the American Revolution and other Sons of the American Revolution publications; the website www.ncohistory.com, a repository of information maintained by the NCO Historical Society about the history of United States Army Noncommissioned Officers; the National Infantry Museum of the U.S. Army Infantry, on Wikipedia; the U.S. Army Center of Military History in the Office of the Secretary of the Army; and the library of the Central Intelligence Agency. Some of the general battle information comes from Wikipedia.
The Bissell Connection to Daniel Bissell, The Spy
4th Cousin, six times removed Bissell “3G” Generation
]
]
Joyce, Meredith, George, Gwen, Arthur, Roger, Eleanor, Chip, Carolyn, Betsy, Clyde
]
]
Adelaide Lyon Boutelle --- Richard Meredith Bissell
]
]
Mertie Ella Bisbee ----- Herbert Hunt Bissell
]
]
Julie Ann Richardson ---- John Hatch Bissell
]
]
Mercy Ann Searle ---- Benoni Bliss Bissell
]
]
Daniel Bissell, 4th (The Spy) Tirzah Pierce ---- Solomon Bissell
b. 1754, Windsor, CT ]
[ ]
Daniel Bissell, 3rd - Elizabeth Loomis Eunice Olcott ---- Noah Bissell
b. 2 Feb 1724 b. 29 Nov 1726 ]
[ ]
Daniel Bissell, Jr. - Jerusha Fitch Silence Burt ---- Noah Bissell
b. 31 Oct 1694 b. 1699 ]
[ ]
Daniel Bissell - Margaret Dewey Ruth Warner ---- David Bissell
b. 29 Sep 1663 b. 10 Jan 1674 ]
[ ]
Lt. John Bissell, Jr. - Israel Mason Mindwell Moore ---- Nathaniel Bissell
[ ]
[--------------Captain John Bissell – Mary ------------------------]