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Profile of the Month:

Robert Kirkwood

Robert Kirkwood was born in Newark DE in 1756. He had eight sisters and no brothers. He attended the
Newark Academy and worked the family farm on Polly Drummond Hill.

On January 17, 1776, six months before the Declaration of Independence, Robert Kirkwood (at age
twenty) was commissioned a First Lieutenant in Col. John Haslet's Regiment of Continental troops.
Kirkwood fought in 32 battles of the Revolutionary War, recording his observations in a Journal and in
an Order Book.
In August of 1776 the Delaware Regiment fought in the battle of Long Island -- the first battle for our new
nation's survival. Since the terms of enlistment were for only a few months at this early stage of the war,
few men remained in the regiment at the end of the year. Kirkwood was promoted to Captain in
December of 1776 and went home to recruit in Delaware, so he was not present at the battles of
Trenton (Dec '76) and Princeton (Jan '76). Col. Haslet was killed during the battle at Princeton.
Kirkwood was with the Regiment for the battles of Brandywine (Sept '77) and Germantown (Oct '77). In
June of 1778 the British abandoned Philadelphia (nine months after taking the city).
In Feb 1779 Kirkwood and the Delaware Regiment travelled to South Carolina, where Kirkwood survived
and escaped capture in the disastrous first battle of Camden SC on Aug 16, 1780. During this
engagement some 20% of the 250 men in the Delaware Regiment were killed and 30% were captured.
The remnants of the Delaware Regiment were then brigaded with the Maryland Regiment for the
remainder of the war, and Captain Kirkwood was the Delaware contingent's senior officer.
The Americans retreated across the Carolinas; American General Nathaniel Green reported:
“ For more than two months, more than one-third of our men were nearly naked, with only a
breechcloth about them...and the rest were as ragged as wolves."
But the Americans won the race with the British forces to cross the Dan River in VA, so the Americans
could gather strength and inflict serious damage on the British at Guilford Courthouse NC, Hobkirk Hill
SC, the siege of Ninety-Six SC, and Eutaw Springs SC.
There are numerous reports by general staff officers of the Delaware Regiment's bravery under fire.
Kirkwood's own accounts of the battles were brief. For Cowpens SC, one of the major victories of the
war, he wrote in his journal simply,
  Jan 16 - March'd to the Cowpens - 12 miles.
  Jan 17 - Defeated Tarleton.
At the close of the war (Sept 30, 1783) Kirkwood was brevetted Major and returned to Newark DE. In
recognition of his service during the Revolution Delaware gave Robert Kirkwood 100 pounds (Delaware
was then using British units for currency). He married Sarah England. They had a son Joseph R. in 1784
and a daughter Mary. They moved to Odessa and then to St. Georges Station (now called Kirkwood)
where Sarah died in 1787.
In 1787 Kirkwood paid $2,204 to buy 260 acres of land in Jefferson County of the North West Territory
(now Ohio). He moved there and was a justice of the peace in that area in 1790. Kirkwood was one of
the founders of what is now the town of Bridgeport OH, near what is now Wheeling West Virginia. In
1788 Virginia gave Kirkwood 1,920 acres of land in Belmont County in the North West Territory (20 miles
south of his land in Jefferson Co.)
The Northwest Territory had been ceded by the British to the Americans as part of the settlement of the
Revolutionary War, but the British encouraged the Indians who inhabited the area to fight the new
settlers. The Indians were a confederation of the Shawnee, Delaware, Ottowa, Iriquois, Chippewa,
Miami, and Pottawotami tribes. Several major battles ensued.
In March of 1791 an expedition under the command of the Governor of the Northwest Territory, Arthur
St. Clair, set out to build a line of forts. Robert Kirkwood was commissioned a captain in the Second
Regiment of U.S. Infantry (one company of which was raised in Delaware).
On Nov 4, 1791, at Fort Recovery [60 miles NW of Dayton OH, on the Indiana border] 1,000 Indians
attacked the 1,000 soldiers (plus about 200 support people) and killed some 700 of them (including
Robert Kirkwood). This was Kirkwood's 33rd battle.
One of his companions described the scene as follows:
  “There, resting beneath a tree, lay old Kirkwood scalped,
  his head smoking like a chimney. “

Note that "old" Kirkwood was only 35 years of age. Today he is perhaps best known in his old hometown
for the namesake Robert Kirkwood Highway; a very heavily traveled artery between Newark and
Wilmington Delaware.

Previous Profiles:
First Lieutenant Ruth M. (Haddick) Dorsman
Army Nurse Corps

Ruth M. (Haddick) Dorsman was born in 1921 in Baltimore Maryland. After graduating from Nursing
School, emulating her brother, she enlisted as an Army Nurse in 1942. After months of rigorous training,
in October 1943 she shipped out for overseas service in Southern England. Her military career assumed
real significance as she landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day plus six, June 12, 1944. She served as a
Post-Op nurse caring for critically wounded soldiers in a Field Hospital under the most primitive of
conditions. Ruth Dorsman witnessed first- hand the terrible price of sacrifice among the young men who
defended their country, and placed herself at risk for the same cause. She endured shelling, mines,
extremes of weather, and physical hardship as she tirelessly worked to save the lives of those injured,
including enemy soldiers. Her hospital unit stayed close to the battle lines as the front advanced. Her
unit leapfrogged across France, Belgium and Germany, survived the Battle of the Bulge, and witnessed
the crossing of the Rhine at Remagen. She stopped just 60 miles short of Berlin at War’s end. Her unit
had won five battle stars and a Presidential Unit Citation. Click here for the entire story.

Lieutenant General John Wilson (Iron Mike) O’Daniel, U.S. Army

Lt Gen John W. “Iron Mike” O’Daniel was a native son of Newark Delaware who went on to lead one of
the most distinguished and accomplished military careers in American history. He was an athlete, a
teacher, a warrior, an accomplished leader, and a distinguished diplomat. O’Daniel was short of stature
(five foot six inches) an outspoken, doughty, jut-jawed, gravel-voiced, two-fisted, combat leader of men
through three major wars spanning a forty year career. His motto was, “sharpen your bayonet”. In his
memoirs, Eisenhower called him “one of our outstanding combat soldiers”. The press likened him to
General Patton for his strong opinions and his fearless demeanor. Click here for the entire story.

A Soldier’s Story: Thomas Lodge, 198th Coast Artillery

Lewes native Thomas Lodge along with two hometown buddies could read the handwriting on the wall in
1940. “I was twenty three at the time and the other two were also, and just prime bait for being drafted,
you know, twenty-three and single.”    When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor a few months later
however, the two friends were called back to service and drafted into different outfits, while Lodge
remained with his friends in the 198th.

Lodge sailed with the 198th in January 1942 to Bora Bora – for security reasons known by its military
code “Bobcat Island”.   “It was just an experience to go ashore not knowing what you would find”. Tom
Lodge would experience enemy fire before the war was done, however. In 1943 he went to Officer
Training School and became one of the “Ninety-Day Wonders” of World War II. “Then you got your
second lieutenant bars and you thought you were a general. It was the toughest three months I put in
the service…after awhile I found myself wishing I was back in Bora Bora with the friendly natives!”

Reassigned to the 167th Anti-Aircraft Battalion in the European Theater, Lodge saw action via German
bombers while defending Italian and French port cities. He ended the war with the rank of Captain,
stationed in Nice France on the Riviera. Click here for the entire story.
Interview by Annette Woolard, September 8, 1994, Delaware History pp.241-242