Robert Howe was an American planter, politician, and Continental Army officer who became North Carolina's only major general during the American Revolution. He commanded the Southern Department, led operations in the Carolinas and Georgia, served under George Washington in the northern theater, and later returned to public life in North Carolina.
Background
Howe was born in 1732 in New Hanover County, an area later included within Brunswick County, North Carolina. His father, Job Howe, had moved from Charleston, South Carolina, to the Cape Fear River region and became a prosperous rice planter. His family was connected through his mother, Sarah, with the colonial planter and governing elite of the Carolinas, including the family of Sir John Yeamans.
Howe inherited substantial property, including rice plantations in the Cape Fear region and land in Bladen County. He was associated with Howe's Point and later with the Kendall plantation near Orton. Contemporary and later accounts described him as a man of wealth, education, eloquence, and difficult personal reputation. He married Sarah Grange in 1754; the couple separated in 1772 without divorcing.
Howe was traditionally said to have been educated in England, although later historical accounts note that the evidence for this claim is uncertain. His early life combined the responsibilities of a plantation owner with participation in the militia, colonial administration, and the political institutions of North Carolina.
Education
Howe was traditionally reported to have been educated in England, but the specific institution and the evidence for the overseas schooling are uncertain. No college or professional school has been reliably identified.
His education nevertheless prepared him for the roles expected of a colonial gentleman, including public speaking, legislative service, military command, and management of landed property. His later career brought together political and military responsibilities rather than following a documented university-based professional course.
Career
Howe began public life as a planter and militia officer in the Cape Fear region. He became a justice of the peace for Bladen County in 1756 and received a similar appointment when Brunswick County was created in 1764. He represented Bladen in the North Carolina Assembly from 1760 to 1762 and then represented Brunswick, winning six further elections before the Revolution.
Howe held command at Fort Johnston in 1766–1767 and again from 1769 to 1773. During Governor William Tryon's campaign against the Regulators in 1771, he served as a colonel of artillery. These posts placed him within the military and administrative structure of royal North Carolina while giving him experience in coastal defense and provincial operations.
As resistance to British authority developed, Howe served on the safety committees of Brunswick and Wilmington, on the Provincial Congress, and on the provincial Committee of Correspondence. In September 1775 he became colonel of the 2nd North Carolina Regiment. He helped drive Lord Dunmore's forces from Virginia and commanded the troops that captured Norfolk, after which the Continental Congress appointed him brigadier general on March 1, 1776.
Howe was sent to South Carolina to assist in the defense of Charleston. While he was away, British forces ravaged his plantation and destroyed his house. After the death of James Moore, Howe assumed command of the Southern Department and was promoted to major general on October 20, 1777, becoming the only North Carolinian to attain that rank in the Continental Army.
In 1778 he led an unsuccessful expedition toward St. Augustine, Florida. Later that year he commanded American forces at Savannah, Georgia, but British troops captured the city in December. A subsequent court-martial acquitted him with honor, although he was removed from major command in the South and ordered to rejoin the army in the northern theater.
Howe served at Verplanck's Point and Stony Point and later commanded at West Point. He sat on the court that tried Major John André in 1780. In 1781 George Washington entrusted him with suppressing mutinies among troops from Pennsylvania and New Jersey. In 1783 he commanded forces that dispersed the Philadelphia mutiny, which had compelled Congress to leave the city.
Mustered out of Continental service in 1783, Howe returned to North Carolina and resumed plantation life. He was elected to the North Carolina House of Commons in 1786 but became ill in Bladen County while traveling to the legislative session and died on December 14, 1786.
Achievements
Howe became North Carolina's only major general in the Continental Army and the highest-ranking North Carolinian officer of the American Revolution.
He commanded the 2nd North Carolina Regiment and helped drive Lord Dunmore's forces from Virginia, including the capture of Norfolk.
He commanded the Southern Department of the Continental Army during the difficult campaigns in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.
He served on the court that tried British Major John André in 1780.
In 1781 he helped suppress mutinies among Continental troops from Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and in 1783 he dispersed the Philadelphia mutiny that had forced Congress to leave the city.
Politics
Howe was an American Whig who moved from service within the royal colonial order toward active support for independence. Before the Revolution, he held militia, judicial, and legislative offices under North Carolina's colonial government while becoming increasingly involved in resistance to royal authority.
During the Revolutionary era, Whig politics connected opposition to parliamentary and gubernatorial control with the creation of representative institutions and locally organized military forces. Howe served on revolutionary committees and in the Provincial Congress before accepting command in the Continental Army, linking his political leadership with the military organization of the American cause in North Carolina.
Views
Howe's public life reflected the political outlook of an eighteenth-century American Whig: resistance to arbitrary authority, defense of representative government, and support for local political institutions during the crisis with Britain. His participation in colonial assemblies, revolutionary committees, and the Continental Army connected those principles with the practical work of creating an independent government.
Membership
Howe participated in revolutionary political organizations that coordinated resistance to royal authority in North Carolina. He served on the safety committees of Brunswick and Wilmington and on the provincial Committee of Correspondence, bodies that helped organize local defense, communication, and cooperation among opponents of British policy.
His membership in the Provincial Congress placed him within the temporary representative institutions that governed North Carolina during the transition from colonial rule to independence.
Member
Brunswick County Committee of Safety
,
United States
1774 - 1775
Member
Wilmington Committee of Safety
,
United States
1774 - 1775
Member
North Carolina Provincial Committee of Correspondence
,
United States
1773 - 1775
Delegate
North Carolina Provincial Congress
,
United States
1774 - 1775
Personality
Contemporary descriptions presented Howe as eloquent, cultivated, socially polished, and persuasive, while other observers criticized his private conduct and reputation for womanizing. These contrasting accounts made his personal character a subject of dispute during his lifetime.
Quotes from others about the person
Josiah Quincy described Howe as possessing fine natural abilities, strong feeling, elegant diction, persuasive eloquence, and a combination of statesmanship and military bearing. Janet Schaw likewise acknowledged his polished manners while reporting the unfavorable reputation he had acquired in the province.
Connections
Howe was the son of Job Howe and Sarah Howe. Job Howe was a prosperous Cape Fear planter who had moved to North Carolina from Charleston, South Carolina; Sarah was connected to the family of Sir John Yeamans.
Howe married Sarah Grange, daughter of Thomas Grange, in 1754. The couple separated in 1772, and Sarah continued to live separately from him. Historical sources identify children associated with the marriage, including a son named Robert and daughters named Mary and Ann, although the complete parentage and number of Howe's children remain disputed.
Father:
Job Howe
A prosperous planter who moved from Charleston, South Carolina, to the Cape Fear River region of North Carolina.
Wife:
Sarah Grange Howe
Also recorded as Sarah Howe; married Robert Howe in 1754 and separated from him in 1772. She died in 1792.
