Who dared to argue with George Washington, commander in chief of the Continental Army? Esther Reed. But she had the best of intentions: Esther wanted to help the ordinary soldiers.
Esther wasn’t just anyone. Her husband, Joseph Reed, had become George Washington’s military secretary in 1775, and later, as of 1778, he was president of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, the equivalent of governor of Pennsylvania and a member of the Continental Congress. Esther, in turn, had a position of influence.
So how did Esther Reed come to argue with General Washington? Esther wanted to help the Continental Army soldiers in one way, and George Washington wanted to help them in a different way.
Esther de Berdt was born in England, the daughter of a successful trader. She was well educated, refined, and likely popular at the gatherings her father hosted at his home for the young men from America who were studying in London. She caught the eye of American law student Joseph Reed, and the two courted. Then, when Reed returned to America to deal with family business, they corresponded by letter for five years. When Reed returned to England, intending to marry Esther and take up residence in that city, he discovered that Esther’s father had died during his absence. Plans changed. After the couple married in May 1770 at St. Luke’s church in London, they moved to America and made their home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Esther Reed.
The Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution by Benson J. Lossing, 1860
During the Revolutionary War, Joseph Reed kept his wife informed about the reality of war. In a 1778 letter to a friend, Esther wrote, “My dear Mr. Reed was in the action [at Monmouth], and had his horse again shot.” She knew from him that the soldiers often didn’t have enough to eat or blankets to protect them from the cold in winter, that their clothes were worn, that they had to sleep in places that were often damp and unsanitary, that diseases such as smallpox and typhus killed thousands of them and that many of them were not receiving their promised pay.
Joseph Reed.
The Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution by Benson J. Lossing, 1860
Sarah Franklin Bache.
The Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution by Benson J. Lossing, 1860
Esther decided to do something about the situation and took the bold step of publishing a broadside in June 1780 titled, “The Sentiments of an American Woman.” She included the lines, “If I live happy in the midst of my family … it is to you [the soldiers] that we owe it. And shall we hesitate to evidence to you our gratitude?” Her essay was an appeal to the most prominent women of her city, wives of leading patriot leaders, to act together to support the fighting men. It was a call for them to do more than cheer on the soldiers.
Sarah Franklin Bache, whose father, Benjamin Franklin, was one of the Founding Fathers, ambassador to France, and an inventor, responded and influenced 35 other Philadelphia ladies to become involved as well. Only three days after the publication of the essay, the women met to form the Ladies Association of Philadelphia. Esther, elected president, and the other ladies decided to organize a fundraising effort so they could “render the condition of the soldier more pleasant.”
The Ladies Association of Philadelphia demonstrated their organizational skills by dividing the city of Philadelphia into 10 areas, then assigning pairs of women to canvass each area. In doing so, they stepped out of the normal patterns of their lives. “They normally would not have engaged in such public displays of political activities but then these were hardly normal circumstances. All sort of things were turned upside down and the project was an ideal opportunity for women to demonstrate their skills, their power, their patriotism,” says Vivian Bruce Conger, Historian, Ithaca College.
Picture them traveling in pairs, knocking on each door. They asked anyone who answered to donate to the cause of the Revolution. They even knocked on the doors of those who were pro-British! One of those loyalist ladies, 23-year-old Anna Rawle Clifford, didn’t think too highly of them. She wrote, “People were obliged to give them something to get rid of them.” And Anna noted that the ladies didn’t just ask other women:
The gentlemen were also honored with their visits. Bob Wharton declares he was never so teased in his life. They reminded him of the extreme rudeness of refusing anything to the fair sex; but he was inexorable and pleaded want of money, and the heavy taxes, so at length they left him, threatening to hand his name down to posterity with infamy.
In all, Esther, Sarah, and the others secured 1,645 contributions, more than $300,000 in Continental Dollars, or $7,500 in coin and gold. According to Life and Correspondence of Joseph Reed, “All ranks of society seem to have joined in the liberal effort, from Phillis, the coloured woman with her humble seven shillings six pence, to the Marchioness de La Fayette, who contributed $100 in coin, and the Countess de Luzerne, who gave $6,000 in Continental paper.”
Since Esther had sent notice of the campaign to adjoining counties and states, it wasn’t just the women of Philadelphia who chipped in, but ladies from many different locations. Each area had its own treasures and all the collected funds were ultimately sent to Martha Washington who also participated in the campaign.
On July 4, 1780, Esther wrote to General Washington telling him of the results of their efforts and asking his opinion about how best to spend the money. She wrote: “The ladies are anxious for the soldiers to receive the benefit of it,” she wrote, “and wait your directions how it can best be disposed of.”
Washington wrote back on July 14, 1780, with his suggestion:
If I am in having the concurrence of the Ladies, I would propose the purchasing of course Linnen, to be made into Shirts…. A Shirt extraordinary to the Soldier will be of more service, and do more to preserve his health than any other thing that could be procured him … provided it is approved of by the Ladies.
Esther and the other ladies, though, didn’t want to use the money to buy shirts. Esther had heard that 2,000 shirts had been sent by the state of Pennsylvania to their soldiers and some had been brought by the French fleet, the new allies of the American forces. The Ladies Association of Philadelphia wanted to provide a different token of appreciation to the soldiers.
In a letter of July 31, 1780, she wrote to Washington again:
An idea prevails among the ladies that the soldiers will not be so much gratified, by bestowing an article [a shirt] to which they are entitled from the public … propose the whole of the money be changed into hard dollars, find giving each solder two, to be entirely at his disposal …
The ladies wanted to give the soldiers money directly—two dollars each to spend as they wished. Two dollars doesn’t sound like much today, but back then, it was a generous gift.
Washington wrote back on August 10, 1780, clearly expressing a different opinion:
A taste of hard money may be productive of much discontent … a few provident soldiers will probably avail themselves of the advantages … but it is equally probable that it will be the means of bringing punishment on a number of others whose propensity to drinking … too frequently leads them into … disorder that must be corrected. A shirt would render the condition of the soldiery much more comfortable than it is at present.
It was a convincing argument. Esther and the others of the Ladies Association of Philadelphia knew that the new American government was unable to levy taxes and realized it couldn’t afford to provide enough of the needed clothing. The women also decided to stretch the funds and increase the amount of their gift by making the shirts themselves. Esther wrote to Washington on August 10, 1780, that the ladies “had not the most distant wish that their donation should be bestowed in any manner, that did not perfectly accord with your opinion. I shall, without delay, put the plan into execution.”
Esther shared the decision with her husband in a letter she wrote on August 22, 1780: “I shall now endeavor to get the shirts made as soon as possible.”
As the women of the Ladies Association of Philadelphia bought the linen and began the shirt-making project, intertwining their efforts with the everyday activities of their lives, Esther did the same. In the same letter of August 22, Esther wrote to Joseph that she was spending time outside the city with their five children, one only four months old and the other four younger than nine:
Our dear little children are pretty well. Dennis has been most terribly bit with mosquitoes, which he scratched till they are very sore and trouble some, and it makes him fretful. The chief reason to make me regret leaving this place is on the children’s account, who seem to enjoy more pleasure here than in town….
Adieu, my dear friend; think of me often, and remember with what sincere and tender affection I am unalterably and truly yours,
E Reed.
It was a sweet good-bye. Then, only weeks later, Esther was stricken by a bout of dysentery and, without the strength to fight back, Esther died on September 18, 1780, at age 34. Her husband mourned her early death. On her tomb he had engraved:
In memory of Esther
Venerate the ashes here entombed
Think how slender is that thread on which the joys
And hopes of life depend.
After Esther’s death, the Ladies Association of Philadelphia regrouped. Sarah Franklin Bache, born in 1743 and known as Sally by her friends, took over the leadership of the shirt project. Like Esther, she was well suited for the task. She had watched her mother, Deborah Read Franklin, run the family businesses (a book and stationery shop and a printing business) while her father, Benjamin Franklin, was away for long periods of time.
Sarah was educated by local schoolmasters in reading, writing, French, needlework, dancing, and music. She had many friends and attended balls in Philadelphia before the war and before her marriage to Richard Bache, a businessman. Sarah’s father wasn’t initially keen on the match because he didn’t have confidence in Richard’s ability to support his daughter. Her father’s decision so upset Sarah that her mother sided with her, agreed to the marriage, and the couple married without Benjamin Franklin’s consent. Franklin softened, however, after the birth of Sarah and Richard’s first child, who was named after him, and after Bache experienced some success in business. The marriage was a happy one, and seven of the couple’s eight children lived to be adults.
After Sarah’s mother died in 1774, and when Benjamin Franklin was in Philadelphia, Sarah acted as her father’s hostess, welcoming and entertaining her father’s friends and political associates at the Franklin home. Perhaps she also performed; she was a skilled harpsichordist.
While Benjamin Franklin was clearly political, Sarah’s involvement in the shirt project was a political act as well—an indication of her personal dedication to the Revolutionary cause. She shared the duties of the Ladies Association of Philadelphia with four other women—Mrs. Francis, Mrs. Hillegas, Mrs. Clarkson, and Mrs. Blair—and made her home the shirt-making workshop. Imagine the ladies spreading the linen on tables, using patterns, then cutting the linen, then chatting as they sewed the shirts. Sarah wrote to her father, “I have been busily employed in cutting out shirts and making them, and getting them made for our brave soldiers.”
When the 2,005 shirts were finished, Sarah wrote to Washington:
We packed up the shirts in three boxes, and delivered them to Colonel Miles, with a request that he would send them to Trenton immediately, lest the river should close, where they now wait your Excellency’s orders. There are two thousand and five in number. They would have been at Camp long before this had not the general sickness prevented. We wish them to be worn with as much pleasure as they were made.
As more than 2,000 soldiers received the shirts, they were surely moved by the personal touch. Each woman—married and unmarried—had embroidered her name on each shirt she had made, making each a personal gift from one of the ladies of Philadelphia. It was also an expression of their patriotism. They could be wives, daughters, and mothers, and they could also be active patriots.
Washington was pleased with the results and wrote a note of thanks, including the comment, “The army ought not to regret their sacrifices or sufferings, when they meet with so flattering a reward as the sympathy of your sex.”
Esther surely wouldn’t have dared argue with that remark. Her voice was heard, as were the voices of Sarah Franklin Bache and the other powerful, brave women of the Ladies Association of Philadelphia.
George Washington’s personal letter to Sarah Franklin Bache and the other Philadelphia women who organized the fundraising and shirt-making efforts attests to his admiration and appreciation of their efforts.
TO MRS. FRANCIS, MRS. HILLEGAS, MRS. CLARKSON, MRS. BACHE, AND MRS. BLAIR.
New Windsor, 13th February, 1781.
Ladies,
The benevolent office which added lustre to the qualities that ornamented your deceased friend, could not have descended to more zealous or more deserving successors. The contributions of the association you represent have exceeded what could have been expected, and the spirit that animated the members of it entitles them to an equal place with any who have preceded them on the walk of female patriotism. It embellishes the American character with a new trait, by proving that the love of country is blended with those softer domestic virtues which have always been allowed to be more peculiarly your own.
You have not acquired admiration in your own country only; it is paid to you abroad, and, you will learn with pleasure, by a part of your own sex whose female accomplishments have attained their highest perfection, and who, from the commencement, have been the patronesses of American liberty.
The army ought not to regret their sacrifices or sufferings, when they meet with so flattering a reward as the sympathy of your sex; nor can they fear that their interests will be neglected, while espoused by advocates as powerful as they are amiable. I can only answer to the sentiments, which you do me the honour to express for me personally, that they would more than repay a life devoted to the service of the public, and to testimonies of gratitude to yourselves. Accept the assurances of the perfect respect and esteem with which I am, ladies,
Your most obedient, &c.,
George Washington
American Women’s History: An A-Z of People, Organizations, Issues, and Events by Doris L. Weatherford (Prentice Hall, 1994)
Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation by Cokie Roberts (HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 2004)
Patriots in Petticoats: Heroines of the American Revolution by Shirley Raye Redmond (Random House, 2004)
Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America’s Independence by Carol Berkin (Alfred A. Knopf, 2005)
Women of the American Revolution (Vol. I), by Elizabeth F. Ellet, contains chapters on Esther Reed and Sarah Bache.
http://archive.org or Google Books
Notable American Women 1607–1950, Volume I, Edited by Edward T. James, Janet Wilson, and Paul S Boyer (The Kelknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1971)