Jacob Piatt
THE PIATTS OF LOGAN
[ Originally published in the Urbana Dailey Citizen. ]
The PIATT FAMILY is of French origin and Huguenot blood.Of course two centuries of births on this continent and a liberal admixture of Dutch and Irish blood have modified the original conditions that forced the French Puritans from their homes to a life in the wilderness.It is a fact, however, that where any trace of the Huguenot is found, it is marked by the old quality that turned a class into a race of strong, solid, persistent men.In the persecutions that followed the revocation of the edict of Nantes, the family fled from the Province of Dauphine to Holland, where JOHN PIATT married a Van Vliet, and from thence John and his wife emigrated to Cuba, and from there to New York, finding a home at last in New Jersey.
From this ancestry came COL. JACOB PIATT, grandfather of A. Sanders and Donn Piatt.He was born May 17, 1747.When the war of the Revolution came on he was elected captain of a military company, composed of ninety young farmers.Not long afterwards he was commissioned captain in the regular service, and from that on served through the entire war, taking part in all the great battles, and was promoted to the rank of colonel to serve on the staff of General Washington.He was wont to tell how, at the battle of Brandywine, his command was on the extreme left as it lay entrenched on the banks of the Brandywine creek.
Before the battle, as they stood in line, looking at the English, Washington rode down and stopping near Captain Jacob Piatt, observed: “Do you see those gentlemen over there?” pointing at the red coats.“We do,” was answered.He then continued.“If they come nearer give them a knock and send them back again.This will be a glorious day for America.”At the battle of Monmouth, Major Piatt was under Lee, who had been ordered to advance while Washington brought the reserve.History tells us that Lee disobeyed orders and was in full retreat when Washington met him.The meeting happened in the presence of Major Piatt, who, seated on a pile of rails, was binding up a wound in his leg.The two generals swore at each other in the most furious manner.The old Calvinistic Huguenot approved of his general’s profanity on the ground that it was deserved.
COLONEL JACOB PIATT was in the first expedition against Quebec, and in the important battles of Germantown, Brandywine, Short Hills, and Monmouth.At the last mentioned engagement he was wounded, as we have said, and, although seriously, clung to the service, never even for a day off duty.He enjoyed the confidence of his great commander.After the war he married and settled on the Ohio, in Boone county, Kentucky.He was an extremely austere man, as pious as he was patriotic, giving all of his pension to the support of a clergyman of his own faith.He lies buried on the farm, under a quaint old tombstone, that had engraved upon it the simple yet poetic inscription:
JACOB PIATT
Born May 17, 1747; died August 14, 1834.
A Soldier of the Revolution
and
A Soldier of the Cross.
'Howe's History of Ohio'
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