KOCHAN RECEIVES LAMB-TYREE FELLOWSHIP FROM THE SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI
Wednesday, Mar 13, 2024
Meet James Kochan, the 2024 Tyree-Lamb Fellow! James has been engaged in primary source research on the uniforms, insignia, and equipage of the Continental Army for nearly 50 years. His goal is to publish the 1st vol. of a planned 3-vol. set focusing on uniforms and clothing worn by general and staff departments of the Continental Army, and the troops of the Mid-Atlantic states.
James shared:
“Growing up in northern Ohio, I was always fascinated with the history of the Revolutionary conflict in the Ohio Valley-Great Lakes. The Western Dept. of the Continental Army became a major focus of study.
The Continentals stationed on the frontier were largely recruited locally and the supply of uniforms and other clothing from the East was sporadic and inadequate to the needs of the troops, whose strenuous activities, led to excessive wear and loss. Thus, I was extremely excited to find documents relating to this subject at the library yesterday, which I had missed in earlier forays at the Society.
The most important piece was an ‘Invoice of Goods purchased by Capt. James O’Hara at the Spanish Arkanzes [sic] on the River Mississippi,’ dated 23 June 1778. In mid-May 1778, O’Hara and a small detachment of Continental troops embarked on the Ohio River from Pittsburgh in company with Col. George Rogers Clark and his VA frontiersmen, all in boats furnished by the Western Dept. Clark’s troops were on the now-famous mission to take the British posts at Kaskaskia and Vincennes, while O’Hara and his men had a less glorious, but vital role—that of carrying needed provisions to Arkansas Post to resupply the troops of the Willing Expedition on the Mississippi.
O’Hara successfully negotiated the purchase of clothing materials on Continental credit from the local French merchants. This invoice fully lists the goods purchased shortly after his arrival, ranging from ready-made shirts and woolen and linen cloth by the bolt, all desperately needed by the half-naked troops at Fort Pitt and with which he returned—previously unchronicled in the historical literature.”