Person:John Ward (167)

Lieutenant John Ward

• "To his Excellency the President and Supreme Executive Council of the State of Pennsylvania, signed by Edwd Ward, John Ormsby, James Robinson, Devereux Smith, Geo. Wallace, Wm. Reddick and many other influential citizens of that time. The petition asked that the matter be brought to the attention of Congress and that Congress be induced "to direct his Excellency General Washington to remove Col Broadhead from this Command and give such orders to the succeeding officer at this post, whoever he may be, as will restrain him from such invasion of the rights of the Citizens."

This is Document 3089 in Pennsylvania Miscellany, MS. Div. (of Ref. Dept.), Library of Congress. 90 Document 3099 in Pennsylvania Miscellany.

Before Colonel Brodhead's recall, Edward Ward's troubles were multiplied when his son, Lieutenant John Ward, was tried at a general court martial held at Fort Pitt on June 29, 1781.

• Kellogg, Louise Phelps. Frontier Retreat On The Upper Ohio, 1779-1781, Volume 24, Draper Series, Vol. 5. Published by The State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1917.

Page 470...

Lieutenant John Ward testifies

"I have an Effectionate Father Gentlemen that merits no such appellation. He is a citizen, and has associated with his fellow citizens to obtain a redress of grievances which they have an undisputed right to do and which is fully shown by the Sixteenth article of the constitution...To hear my Father called a Scoundrel without rousing resentment and indignation would have argued that I was destitute of Filiel affection, and that I had neither the feelings of a son, nor the spirit of a man..."

Edward Ward, if he heard his son's testimony, and he probably did, may have furtively wiped away a tear.

1.   Kellogg, Louise Phelps. Frontier Retreat On The Upper Ohio, 1779-1781. (Bowie, Maryland: Heritage Books, 1994)
   Page 475.

   Frontier Retreat On The Upper Ohio, 1779-1781. , Volume 24, Draper Series, Vol. 5. Published by The State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, 1917.
   
   Page 475 – To hear my Father Called a Scoundral without Rousing Resentment and Indignation would have argued that I was Destitute of Filiel affection, and that I had Neither the Feelings of a Son, nor the Spirit of A man. Indeed to hear the citizens of a free country, abused and Reprobated in such terms for Detecting Abuses, and applying for Redress of Grievances, was to me a Doctrine perfectly Novel.