Webb, Samuel Blatchley

WEBB, SAMUEL BLATCHLEY. (1753–1807). Continental officer. Connecticut. Born on 15 December 1753 at Wethersfield, Connecticut, Webb was the stepson of Silas Deane and became his stepfather's private secretary. Both men were involved in the colonial resistance to increased imperial control. When the General Assembly elected Deane a delegate to the first Continental Congress, Webb accompanied him to Philadelphia in September 1774. Webb marched with his militia company to Boston in the aftermath of the Lexington alarm (April 1775) and was commissioned first lieutenant of Captain John Chester's Wethersfield company of Joseph Spencer's Second Connecticut Regiment on 1 May 1775. He was wounded in the Battle of Bunker Hill (17 June 1775), and five days later, thanks to his stepfather's influence, he became aide-de-camp to Major General Israel Putnam, with the rank of major.

On 21 June 1776 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and became aide and private secretary to Washington. With Joseph Reed and Henry Knox, in July he met the British officer who was attempting to deliver a letter addressed to "George Washington, Esq. etc. etc" from the Howes as part of their peace efforts. He was present at the Battle of Long Island (27 August 1776), was wounded at White Plains (28 October 1776) and again at Trenton (2 January 1777), and was present at Princeton (3 January 1777). On 11 January 1777 Webb was commissioned colonel of one of the sixteen Additional Continental Regiments, and he served in the Hudson Highlands during that summer's campaigns. Along with part of his regiment, he was captured in the unsuccessful attack against Long Island, New York, on 10 December 1777, and not exchanged until January 1781. His regiment was transferred to the Connecticut Line in June 1780 as the Ninth Connecticut. On 1 January 1781 it was consolidated with the Second Connecticut, and the combined unit was redesignated the Third Connecticut. Webb commanded this regiment through a further consolidation on 1 January 1783 and until it was disbanded in June. He left the service on 3 June 1783 and was breveted brigadier general on 30 September 1783. From 1789 until his death on 3 December 1807, he lived at Claverack, New York.

SEE ALSO Additional Continental Regiments; Long Island, New York, Battle of; Peace Commission of the Howes.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ford, Washington C., ed. The Correspondence and Journals of Samuel Blatchley Webb. 3 vols. Lancaster, Pa.: Wickersham Press, 1893.

                              revised by Harold E. Selesky