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About 1721 - Rhynie parish, Aberdeenshire, Scotland - Adam Stephen is born.
1728-1731 - Rhynie parish - Attends parish schools.
1736 - Aberdeen - Attends King's College of the University of Aberdeen.
3/27/1740 - Aberdeen - AS receives Master's of Arts degree.
1743 - Edinburgh - Enrolled in three-year medical program at the University of Edinburgh.
1745 - London, England - AS passed exam to be a naval surgeon.
August-Sept, 1746 - Port L'Orient on English Channel in northwest France - on naval expedition aboard the Neptune with Gen. James Murray and Admiral Richard Lestock.
1748 - Annapolis, MD - Arrives.
1748 - 1753 - Falmouth-Fredericksburg, VA - With brother, Alexander, a rent collector for the very wealthy Fairfax family in Winchester, Va.
1753 - Opequon, Frederick, County, VA - Buys 2,000 acres of land and buys forty steers.
spring, 1753 - French build protected forts in the Ohio Valley, an area claimed by England. They rebuff young George Washington on a mission for Va. Gov. Robert Dinwiddie.
2/19/1754 - Williamsburg, VA - Gov. Dinwiddie sets aside 200,000 acres of Ohio Valley land to give to enlistees in the Virginia Regiment.
1754 - According to AS, "Col. Fairfax. . .in a manner, forced him (AS) to enter the service in the year '54."
4/1754 - Winchester, VA - Adam Stephen and his 39 recruits join GW, Peter Hog's and Jacob Van Braam's companies and head west to reinforce English fort at the junction of the Monongahela and Ohio Rivers.
4/23/1754 - Fort at Wills Creek (at site of future Cumberland) encampment - War council held, with French reinforcing Fort Duquesne not far away.
5/11/1754 - Near Christopher Gist's plantation in the Monongahela Valley - AS and some men are an advance party to "apprehend" any French in the area from Fort Duquesne.
5/20/1754 (approx.) - Mouth of Redstone Creek - AS selects fort site. AS receives a report from a paid spy of number of French at Fort Duquesne, 37 miles away, with the fort's description,.
5/23/1754 - Great Crossing on the Youghiogheny River encampment - AS joins GW. AS also leads written protest for better pay to Va. Governor Dinwiddie.
5/25/1754- Great Crossing - GW and AS learned that enemy French were six miles away.
5/28/1754 - Laurel Hill (Ridge), five miles from Great Crossing and sixty miles southeast of Fort Duquesne - At sunrise, GW, AS, and Seneca Chief Half-King lead forty men in surprise attack of a French encampment. Ten are killed, 23 taken prisoner. Their commander, Joseph Coulon de Villiers, is killed, scalped, and his brains handled by Half-King,outraging France.
6/1754 - Gist's plantation encampment
7/3/1754 - Fort Necessity - GW's 400 men face 900 French and Indian attackers.Fired upon from high ground, short of supplies, and with half their men drunk by nightfall. GW surrenders for his men.
AS's personal account of the events at Fort Necessity
AS' published account of the events at Fort Necessity
7/1754 - Fort Cumberland - Retreating army builds it. AS remains there with men.
12/12/1754 - Fort Cumberland - AS is promoted to full colonel, and made commander of the fort. (He had been promoted to lieutenant colonel already). GW's resignation from army sparks some rivalry with AS.
1/1755 - Alexandria, VA - AS recruits and takes care of his business affairs.
2/1755 - Winchester, VA - AS recruits 800 new men, 1200 below the desired amount.
2/1755 - Va. Governor Dinwiddie successfully requests troops from England. Maj. Gen. Edward Braddock arrives in Virginia with 44th and 48th British regiments.
3/1755 - Alexandria, VA - AS joins Braddock's regiments.
5/10/1755 - Fort Cumberland - Braddock's troops arrive. AS's company becomes part of Braddock's second brigade.
5/30/1755 - Braddock's 1,736 soldiers, 200 wagons, and 500 pack horse leave Fort Cumberland, heading for Fort Duquesne.
6/1755 - Little Meadows - AS' men are among 400 troops who form a convoy escort for supplies.
6/1755-7/5/1755 - Little Meadows to Great Crossing - AS delivers 100, flour-loaded packhorses and 100 head of beef to the main army.
7/6/1755 (afternoon) - Within ten miles of Fort Duquesne - 70 per cent of Gen. Braddock's force is killed or wounded, including Braddock under fire from a smaller force, hidden in the woods along a narrow road his army was using. AS, slightly wounded and witnessing the event, blamed the British for panic and for not fighting like the Indians and Canadians. His letter is read eventually by the British Prime Minister, the duke of Newcastle.
Read Adam Stephens' published account of the battle.
7/20/1755 - Fort Cumberland - Retreating army rests, the wounded looking "more like Spirits than men and their wounds alive with Maggots."
8/1755 - Fort Cumberland - British forces leave. AS stays as commander of the estimated 107 soldiers at the fort. Indian attacks take 100 lives in the lower Valley.
10/1755 - Williamsburg, VA - AS goes to pick up 1000 pounds pay for new recruits, as Indian attacks increase at Fort Cumberland.
11/1755 - Winchester, VA - AS picks up 250 enlistees.
12/23/1755 - Fort Cumberland - AS writes GW, indignant over Washington's being hit by a man's cane during a political argument in Alexandria.
12/25/1755 - Fort Cumberland - AS and his men celebrate Christmas by taking roles in Nicholas Rowe's then popular play, Tamerlane.
1/1756 - Winchester, VA - AS and GW discuss Fort Cumberland. British officer, Capt. John Dagworthy tries to usurp authority of the Va. Regiments at the Fort.
4/1756-8/1756 - Fort Cumberland - AS and GW both scoff at proposed construction of at least eighteen proposed forts in the frontier to stem increased Indian attacks.
8/1756 - Williamsburg, VA - Speaker of the Va. House of Burgesses John Robinson writes to GW about a letter from "Centinel X" in the Virginia Gazette excoriate the behaviour of the men at Fort Cumberland.
10/5/1756 - Fort Cumberland - AS' men read the "Centinel X" piece and threaten to resign if the Governor and the assembly do not apologize by 11/20/1756.
1/1757-3/1757 - Fort Cumberland - GW is at the fort with AS.
3/1757 - Philadelphia, PA - A council of governors removes AS and the Va. Regiment from the fort, transferring it to Maryland.
5/1/1757 - Fort Cumberland - AS leaves poor beef stores for incoming Capt. Dagworthy of Maryland and gives 122 blankets to Catawbas, annoying GW, who wasn't communicating well to AS.
5/26/1757 - Williamsburg, VA - AS and his men arrive. 5/31/1757 - Hampton, VA - AS and his men join
Lt. Col. Henry Bouquet and 500 troops of the 60th Royal American Regiment and set sail for Charleston, SC.
6/15/1757 - Charleston, SC - AS and Bouquet's men arrive and the short stay stretches into ten months of rest and relaxation. The rumored offensive of the French and Indians in the South never happened.
4/22/1758 - Fredericksburg, VA
8/7/1758 - Edmund's Swamp Creek 25 miles from Raes town or Raytstown, PA - AS' men encamp while building a road.
8/14/1758 - Atop Laurel Ridge (Hill) - AS' men reach the top of the ridge while road building. Four days later about 12 to 20 miles of new westward road is completed.
Three letters: AS to GW 9/9/1758 - Loyalhanna Creek, PA - (45 miles southeast from Fort Duquesne) - Encamped. They build a fort there, (later called Fort Ligonier).
9/14/1758 - Three miles north of present day Greensburg, PA - AS and men build Three Redoubts fortification.
10/12/1758 - Fort Loyalhanna, PA - Threatened by French soldiers and Indians.
11/24/1758 - Fort Duquesne - French abandon the fort to a 2,500 force, commanded by
Gen. Forbes and including Washington, Bouquet, and Stephen. Renamed Fort Pitt.
11/1758-1/1759 - Quemahoning Creek and Laurel Hill - AS remains on the frontier and improved the road.
Four letters: AS, Henry Bouquet and Gen. Stanwix9/23/1759 - Fort Pitt - AS and 150 Virginians arrive from duty at Fort Ligonier
10/14/1759 - New Virginia Governor Francis Fauquier writes AS, thanks him for his good work.
2/1760 - Williamsburg, VA - AS lobbies the Governor to appoint friend, Thomas Bullitt, surveyor of 200,000 acres of lands in the Ohio Valley promised war veterans.
8/1760 - To Fort Pitt
10/1760 - To his "Bower" plantation in Frederick County, VA
2/1761 - Frederick County, VA - Runs against GW, George Mercer and others for one of two Frederick County seats in House of Burgesses.
One letter: GW to Van Swearingen
3/1761 - Williamsburg, VA - The Virginia Assembly votes to increase the Va. Regiment to 1,000 men with AS as second in command.
5/11/1761 - Frederick County - AS weakens his election chances, planning to leave Winchester for Staunton, as second in command to 750 men.
5/18/1761 - Frederick County, VA - GW wins with 505 votes to Mercer's 399 and Stephens' 294.
5/28/1761 - Staunton, VA - Joins full regiment.
7/1/1761 - Reaches Fort Chiswell on Reed Creek, near today's Wytheville, VA
7/1761 - Fort Patrick Henry (in Tennessee next to Va. border) - Cherokee Chief d Little Carpenter visits AS after defeat by Col. Grant, and says Oconostota and Judd's Friend "are now sensible of their error and are ready to bury the hatchet." AS told them to first make peace with Grant in South Carolina.
8/1761 - Stalnaker's on the Holston River- AS is promoted to commander.
Nine letters or fragments about peacetalks
9/1761 - Encamps at Kingsport, TN - then called Great Island.
9/1761 - Great Island- Writes Cherokee Chief Conocotockos.
9/7/1761 - Fort Chiswel encampment- writes Gov. Fauquier
10/1761 - Discusses peace terms with Cherokee Indian leaders, over-rules Amherst's written instructions (10/5/1761) to be aggressive.
10/4/1761 - Great Island - AS reports by letter to Lt. Gov. Fauquier.
10/1761 - Great Island - Builds Fort Robinson.
11/17-11/20/1761 - Great Island - AS agrees on peace terms with Overhill Cherokee chief Standing Turkey (Connetarke)
12/22/1761 - Fort Chiswell encampment.
1/25/1762 - Governor Fauquier sends AS highly commending letter with similar letter from
Lord Jeffrey Amherst.
1/30/1762 - Fort Lewis on the Roanoke River - AS leaves about 100 men at Great Island.
2/20/1762 - Fort Amherst - AS is ordered to pay and disband his Virginia Regiment.
2/1762 - AS returns to Bower plantation.
4/1762 - Williamsburg, VA - AS is there the same time as 70-warrior delegation, headed by Cherokee, Judd's Friend.
4/7/1762 - Gov. Fauquier signs new law to raise and pay 268 troops "to be incorporated in the Regiments of the British Establishment in America." Both AS and GW want to organize the new regiment and advance their military careers. AS would make more money selling for cash beeves and flour from his farms to the armies.
6/1762 - Fredericksburg, VA - AS recruits troops, receives orders from Lord Jeffrey Amherst to prepare for a war with Spain - that never materialized.
12/10/1762 - Fredericksburg, VA -.AS disbands his regiment, but still receives land for his service.
1/1763 - Governor Dinwiddie issues the Proclamation of 1763.
5/1763 - The Bower, Frederick County, VA. AS leaves his plantation to fight
Pontiac's Rebellion. The Va. assembly appoints AS to recruit and command men to patrol the area from the Potomac to the southern border of Lord Fairfax's property. (Frederick, Hampshire, Culpeper, Fauquier, and Loudon Counties).
8/1/1763 - Lt. Gov. Fauquier orders AS to recruit 500 men to protect from Indian attacks the frontier from the Potomac to the Fairfax line.
8/1763 - Patterson's Creek - AS and men pursue and fight Indians.
8/5-6/1763 - Col. Henry Bouquet's 400 men defeat Indian warriors at Bushy Run between Forts Ligonier and Pitt. AS is not there to share the glory.
8/19/1763 - Fort Bedford - AS, 98 men, and ten captains arrive, meet British Capt. Lewis Ourry. AS contracts to sell and deliver to Fort Bedford about sixty head of cattle and 45,000 pounds of flour by December.
8/25/1763 - Fort Cumberland - AS commended again in letter from Lord Jeffrey Amherst and Governor Fauquier.
11/1763 - 4/1764 - British Col. Henry Bouquet refuses AS' pre-paid, late and short shipments of flour, souring their relationship.
spring, 1764 - Augusta County and near Winchester - Indian attacks.
1764 - Frederick County, VA - AS is made one of about ten justices of the peace, holds position for eight years.
4/1764 - AS buys 212 acres on Mossey Creek, 570 acres along the North River.
7/1764 - Frederick County, VA - AS follows the lead of state leaders,and doesn't recruit Virginia volunteers for Col. Bouquet in Pennsylvania.
8/1764 - Fort Bedford - AS tries to see Col. Bouquet to show moral support.
11/6- 12/15/1764 - Williamsburg, VA - Thomas Rutherford, AS' rival and House of Burgesses member, calls for an investigation in AS' use of militia under his command to escort his shipments of flour to Fort Bedford, leaving Frederick County exposed to Indian attacks.The House's Committee on Propositions and Grievances finds AS "Guilt of a Breach of Duty in sending our Escorts of the Militia under his Command in such Services." They add: "That Col. Adam Stephen hath discharged his Duty (saving the Instances before mentioned) as a brave, active, and skillful Officer."
1765-1774 - Frederick County, VA - AS is a farmer, businessman and doctor in Frederick County, buying medicines from war comrade Dr. Hugh Mercer in Fredericksburg, Va.
1765 - Opequon Creek,Frederick County, VA AS receives 386 acres.
1768 - Treaties of Fort Stanwix and Hard Labor insure western land grants for AS, GW and other war veterans.
12/15/1769 - Validated surveys for veterans' lands aren't issued until early 1770s. depite pressure and petitions. Final issuances come in 1781.
5/8/1768 - Frederick County, VA - AS' brother, Alexander, a twice wounded war veteran of Braddock's defeat, dies.
7/1769 - Virginia Governor Norborne Berkeley, Baron de Botetourt, discounts AS' written warnings of Indian uprisings.
8/28/1769 - Warm Springs (today Berkeley Springs), VA. - AS dines with GW, Col. Robert Fairfax, Rev. William Meldrum, rector of the Frederick Episcopal Parish up to 1765, and a "Mr. Allan."
9/14 - 9/27/1769 - Frederick County, VA - AS warns Governor Botetourt that unpunished killings of three Indians by settlers could cause trouble. Includes letter of a "Noted Indian" wanting peace.
10/6/1770 -The Bower, VA - AS receives word from a messenger that GW is staying at his brother Samuel's house,nearby.
1770 - Tuscarora Creek, Frederick County, VA - AS buys 255 acres from Morgan Morgan, Jr.
10/15/1770 -Fayette County, PA - AS meets GW at Capt. William Crawford's home.
1771 - 1776 - Frederick County, VA - AS is vestryman for the newly created Norborne Parish, responsible for roads, ferries, collecting debts, helping the poor.
1772 -Patterson Creek in Hampshire County AS receives 542 acres.
2/1772 - Berkeley County, VA - AS leads 9,000 residents petitioning the colonial legislature to approve a new county, called "Berkeley" from the northern third of Frederick County.
4/1772 - Berkeley County, VA - AS is appointed justice-of-the-peace and two-year-term as county sheriff. collecting taxes, serving papers, enforcing the law, and managing elections.
5/9/1772 - "Red House', a log dwelling owned by Edward Beeson - Berkeley County's first court meets.
5/15/1772 - Berkeley County government is made official.
11/19/1772 - Morgan's Spring, near his property in Berkeley County. - AS successfully relocates the courthouse to new site.
1772 - Williamsburg, VA - The Virginia Council upholds AS' courthouse site against a challenge by eight other justices-of-the-peace, led by rival landowner,Thomas Hite, AS enrages the Hites further by seizing fifteen of his enslaved persons and twenty-one horses to pay a 1,641.6.2 pound debt to James Hunter, which the court order Hite to pay.
12/20/1772 - Berkeley County, VA - AS writes English Army officer, Horatio Gates, who served in the Braddock campaign, encouraging him to buy land in Berkeley.
4/1773 - Five miles from "The Bower," Berkeley County
Horatio and Elizabeth Gates
move into their home, Traveler's Rest, about four miles from AS' "Bower."
4/18/1773 - Berkeley County, VA - AS is among 18 residents to serve as a court of oyer and terminer.
4/1773 - Opequon Creek, Berkeley County, VA next to his Morgan Morgan purchase and on the Great Wagon Road from Philadelphia - AS buys 563 acres from George Williams Fairfax, bringing his total acreage to 5,381.
AS begins building enterprises - a distillery, a saw mill,
and armory,
and grasslands for grazing beef cattle.
1773 - Berkeley County, VA - Samuel Washington, George's brother and second largest landholder in the county after AS, becomes the new sheriff.
4/30/1774 - Thomas Cresap's accused of murdering all the family of
Mingo Chief, Logan at the mouth of the Yellow River starts a war. Col. Angus McDonald's 400 men worsen the war by burning Shawnee villages and destroying crops.
5/4/1774 - Martinsburg, VA. - Residents petition General Assembly for Martinsburg's incorporation. Trustees accept payments for AS' lots in town, all of which had been AS' property.
Letter: AS to Richard Henry Lee
8/1774 - Williamsburg, VA - Virginia convention meets to call for a boycott of British goods.
8/27/1774 - Winchester. VA.- Governor Lord Dunmore meets AS and his 400-500 militia, They march west toward the Ohio River. AS writes friend
Richard Henry Lee
that peace would occur "were (the Indians) they not poisoned by the blackguard traders allowed to go among them."
9/1774 - at Fort Cumberland, MD.
9/1774 - Through the Allegheny Mountains to the mouth of Redstone Creek on the Monongahela River.
9/16/1774 - AS is at Fort Pitt (renamed Fort Dunmore).
9/30/1774 - Fort Fincastle - AS joined by Dunmore and Major Connelly's militia.
10/1774 - Mouth of the Hocking River - AS, Dunmore's men build Fort Gower.
10/1774 - Camp Charlotte - Dunmore with AS parleys a peace with Shawnee Chief Cornstalk.
11/5/1774 - Fort Gower - AS and officers, react to false news of property seizures in Massachusetts, and compose The Gower Resolution, one of the earliest calls for war against England. Of the Resolution, historian and Stephen biographer, Harry M. Ward, writes: "Stephen assumed the position that the American protest should not be compromised, and he was ahead of most Virginians in expecting a military solution."
12/1/1774 - All thirteen colonies agree to not import goods from England, Ireland and only some from the West Indies. AS and wheat producers in the Shenandoah Valley may still profit handsomely selling wheat to southern Europe.
12/1774 - 2/1775 - Berkeley County -. AS heads Berkeley County's Committee of Safety to enforce non-importation and begin raising a local militia against possible British troops. All Virginia counties are expected to do so.
1775 - Martinsburg, VA - AS is appointed the new Berkeley County's first sheriff
3/1775 - Williamsburg, VA. - AS is a delegate at Virginia Convention.
7/19/1775 - Williamsburg, VA - Convention orders raising of army.
8/1775 - Williamsburg, VA - Third Virginia Convention orders men to Portsmouth, Norfolk, Va.
9/10/1775 - Fort Pitt, PA - AS helps conduct the largest conference with Native American leaders in the Ohio Valley.
9/15/1775 - More Native Americans arrive to meeting.
9/23/1775 Fort Pitt - AS writes to RHL, saying Indians were tilting towards the British.
9/26/1775 - Cornstalk and Blue Jacket head Shawnee delegation to conference.
10/19/1775 - All parties agree to Camp Charlotte Accord, winning colonies two years neutrality from Indian tribes in war against Britain.
10/21/1775 - AS, Walker, and
William Woodford
sign accord.
12/1/1775 - Adam Stephen's 4th Va. Rgm't. is one of six regiments sent by the Virginia Convention to Norfolk/Portsmouth, VA.
12/9/1775 - Norfolk, VA - Gov. Dunmore puts his loyalist troops on ships for protection.
12/14/1775 - Norfolk, VA- Col. William Woodford arrives with 1,000 more troops.
1/1/1776 - Norfolk, VA - Gov. Dunmore burns wharf.
1/12/1776 - Virginia Convention orders AS and 4th Va. Rgm't. to Suffolk,
2/1/1776 - AS is commissioned colonel of 4th Va. regiment.
2/13/1776 - AS, Mercer and Woodford are commissioned as Colonels.
5/1776 - Williamsburg, VA - AS reports to
Maj. Gen. Charles Lee and Brig. Gen. Andrew Lewis.
5/16/1776 - Suffolk, SC - AS arrives with 4th Va. to relieve 8th Va. Rgm't Men are hungry, sick, and without enough weapons.
5/22/1776 - Tucker's Mill Point, SC - AS occupies and adds artillery to Gov. Dunmore's evacuated position, after Dunmore and troop ships go to Gwynn Island near mouth of the Rappahanock River.
5/25/1776 Tucker's Mill Point, VA .
5/27/1776 Portsmouth, VA
7/8-9/1776 - Gwynn's Island - AS's 4th Va. Rgm't and others drive out Dunmore's troops, find scores of uninoculated, enslaved blacks dead from small pox.
One letter: AS to Thomas Jefferson
7/29/1776 - Williamsburg, VA
9/4/1776 - AS is promoted to brigadier general and ordered to follow a portion of Dunmore's men to New York.
10/1776 - AS' men finally begin a march north a month after orders, slowed by few arms, disease, poor planning.
10/4/1776 - Annapolis, MD - AS' 4th Va. arrives.
10/1776 - Wilmington. DE,- AS' 4th Va. sets up camp with Va. 5th and 6th.
11/8/1776 - AS to the Board of War that he had to leave 324 sick men en route to Trenton, NJ, three weeks after orders.
11/8/1776 - New Brunswick-Princeton, NJ - AS and Rgmts. rejoin GW's army, serving as rearguard.
11/16/1776 - Amboy, NJ - AS encamps, arrests five loyalists and several British seamen, who are sent to Fort Frederick in MD.
One letter: Benjamin Rush to R. H. Lee, praising AS
12/7-8/1776 - Delaware River - AS and men last on vessels taking GW's army across the river less than a quarter of a mile from advancing Hessian troops under Cornwallis.
12/1776 - Along 25 mile line between Yardley's Ferry to Coryell's Ferry. GW's army.
12/1776 - Basking Ridge, NJ - Maj. Gen. Charles Lee captured.
12/20/1776 - 30 miles from Philadelphia along Delaware - AS to Thomas Jefferson.
12/20-23/1776 - The Thompson-Neely home - AS meets with GW and other generals. AS' brigade of three rgmnt's (Va. 4th, 5th, and 6th) dwindles from 661 on Dec. 1 to 404, present and fit for service on Dec. 22.
12/25-26/1776 - McKonkey's Ferry near Trenton, NJ - AS' brigade crosses Delaware to attack Hessians at dawn of the 26th.
12/27-29/1776 - Assunpink Creek - AS and all of GW's army take up a position overlooking it after they re-cross the Delaware River.
1/2/1777 - The Alexander Douglass' house and Gen. St. Clair's quarters - AS attends a council of war.
1/3/1777 - Princeton, NJ - GW's army clashes with three British regiments leaving to join Gen. Cornwallis' larger army nearby. Three hundred British soliders are captured.
1/13/1777 - GW tells AS to send officers, not immediately needed, home to recruit men for their depleted army.
1/16/1777 - Morristown, NJ - GW's army establishes winter quarters.
2/1/1777 - Drake's Farm (near Metuchen), NJ - AS' brigade commander Gen. Scott and his 500 men attack 1,000 foraging British troops under Gen. William Erskine. AS writes a fierce letter to the "Virginia Gazette" and to Sir William Erskine after Erskine's troops clubbed to death at least one of AS' wounded men, left on the battlefield.Gen. Erskine makes a sarcastic reply.
2/19/1777 - AS is promoted to major general.
5/10/1777 - Piscataway, NJ - AS leads 800 men to attack an enemy picket. Two days later, GW argues with AS for giving a favourable but account of the action that was "widely different. . .from others (Officers of distinction) who were of the party."
5/20/1777 - GW rearranges his army into five divisions, commanded by Stephen, Greene, Sullivan, Lincoln, and Stirling.
late May-early June, 1777 - AS disagrees with GW military plans around Middlebrook and New Brunswick, NJ.
6/1777 - Howell's Ferry on the Delaware River - AS' men complete four-day, 95-mile "forced march."
8/31/1777 - Neshaminy, PA - GW meets with AS and other generals.
8-9/1777 - Four miles from White Clay Creek, DE. - AS' men encamp.
9/1777 - Iron Hill or Cooch's Bridge, DE - Two of AS' brigades fight British troops.
9/4/1777 - Near Newport, DE. - AS' men encamp.
9/11/1777 - 4-6 PM - Birmingham Meetinghouse Hill near Brandywine Creek/Chad's Ford, PA - AS' and Sitrling's divisions fight British troops, later reinforced by Gen. Greene division, especially the brigade of Gen. George Weedon.British troops have fewer casualties.
9/21/1777 - Paoli, PA. -
British Gen. Sir William Howe
leads three regiments' attack on Gen. Anthony Wayne's division.
9/28/1777 - Pennybacker's Mill, PA. - GW holds war council with AS and his other generals. They decide to surprise Gen. Howe's 9,000 men encamped about fourteen miles away at Germantown, PA.
10/3/1777 - Germantown, PA. - GW's army successful attack on British troops becomes confused by the heavy fog, smoke and poor communications.AS orders his men toward gunfire at Chew House, leading to confused gunfire between AS' men and his own Gen. Wayne's men. By 10 AM GW's army had to retreat. Criticism emerges after several days, blaming AS for unofficer-like conduct. AS apparently independently ordered his men toward the fighting, using his preferred frontier tactics. Neither GW or Gen. Wayne initially faulted AS for the reversal, which had 1,090 killed, wounded or missing.
10/9/1777 - Whitpain Township, PA encampment - AS writes GW, requesting a court of enquiry into his conduct at the Germantown battle, not knowing GW was looking for a division command for his eager French ally,the young
Gen. Marquis de Lafayette.
10/25/1777 - GW orders, at AS' request, a Court of Enquiry
10/26/1777 -
General Nathanael Greene,
and Gen. Smallwood,
Knox
and Colonels Richardson and Russell begin to deliberate three charges against AS, especially charges of unofficer-like behaviour at the Battle of Germantown.
11/1/1777 - Court of Enquiry, amid acquittals of all other officers of other,often lesser charges, finds sufficient evidence of unofficer-like behaviour.
11/3/1777 - 11/13/1777 - Whitemarsh, PA (13 miles north of Philadelphia) - AS is at court-martial trial recommended by GW. Two of AS subordinates,
Genls Scott
and Woodford,amibtious subordinates, are his main critics.
11/7/1777 - Whitemarsh. PA
11/13/1777 - AS found guilty of drunkeness in not-combatant situations over the late summer, and of "misbehaviour" during the withdraw of his troops during the Battle of Germantown. Charges lack detail.
11/16/1777 - GW approves AS' sentence of dismissal from the Army.
11/20/1777 - AS cashiered out of the Army with a minimum of embarassing ceremony.
11/25/1777 - Whitemarsh, PA
12/6/1777 - Whitemarsh, PA - AS writes an unsuccessful appeal to Henry Laurens, president of the Congress of GW approval of his dismission. (Laurens was a close friend of Lafayette)
12/15/1777 - The Bower, Berkeley County (formerly Frederick)
8/20/1779 - Martinsburg, VA - Plat of AS' town showing 120 lots over 130 acres is recorded in the courthouse.
6/4/1788 - AS is elected one of two delegates from his county with William Darke from Berkeley to Virginia's Constitutional Convention. AS speeks for western delegation for ratification
7/16/1791 - Martinsburg, VA - Adam Stephen dies
at his home
and is buried in his town on Queen Street.
This web site on this overlooked but important figure of the 18th century was researched, designed and developed by James Surkamp; sponsored by The General Adam Stephen Memorial Association in Martinsburg, WV (P.O. Box 1496, Martinsburg, WV 25401, Phone 304 267 4434), Keith Hammersla, curator. This web site and a video were also made possible with financial assistance from the
West Virginia Council for the Humanities,
a state program of the National Endowment for the Humanities.. West Virginia University and Ms.Beth Toren of WVU Library have provided server space and technical support. Professor Harry M. Ward,PhD and William Binford Vest Professor of History, The University of Richmond, Richmond, VA, advised on this project and previously authored the
definitive work on Adam Stephen
which is the basis for much of the information on this web site. His book "Major General Adam Stephen and the Cause of American Liberty,"(University Press of Virginia: Charlottesville), 1989. Dr. Ward has written more than eight other books on the early history of this nation. To contact, James Surkamp, the creator of this web site, email him at ardyjim@intrepid.net, phone at (304) 876 3995 or by mail to P.O. Box 1035, Shepherdstown, WV 25443.
