John Glover, born in Salem, Massachusetts, on the 5th of November,
1732, joined the army under Washington in 1775, with a regiment of
a thousand men raised in the district about his native town. Being
composed almost entirely of Marblehead fishermen, it was known as
the “amphibious regiment,” and was one of the finest in the whole
Continental service. It was at first the Twenty-first, and after the
reorganization of the army the Fourteenth, Massachusetts Regiment. It
was this body of men, under the command of Glover, that manned the
boats and transported the entire main army in safety on the retreat
from Long Island in 1775, and that manned the boats and led the advance
when the commander-in-chief crossed the Delaware on that memorable
25th of December, 1776. When Congress, on the 21st of February, 1777,
conferred upon Glover the rank of brigadier-general, he would have
declined, fearing he could not discharge with credit the duties of
that position. Being reassured by Washington, however, he accepted,
and by his subsequent conduct justified that general’s estimate of
his abilities. He was a member of the André court of inquiry which
assembled on Sept. 29, 1780, at which Nathaniel Greene presided. He
remained in active service throughout the war, earning the good opinion
of all who knew him, and died at Marblehead on the 30th of January,
1797.