Edward Hand (31 December 1744 – 3 September 1802) was a General of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Hand was born in Ireland, later immigrating to Pennsylvania and becoming a plantation owner after the war.
Biography[]
Edward Hand was born on 31 December 1744 in Clyduff, County Offaly, Ireland, and he graduated from Trinity College in Dublin as a medician. In 1767, he enlisted as a surgeon's mate in the British 18th Regiment of Foot and was sent to North America, and in 1774 he resigned his commission while living in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Hand joined the Continental Army as a Lieutenant-Colonel with the Pennsylvania Line, taking part in the New York-New Jersey campaign, where he led American troops in delaying actions against the larger British army of William Howe. Hand crossed the Delaware with George Washington in December 1776 and was promoted to Brigadier-General in 1777, serving with Washington until the Siege of Yorktown. He resigned after the end of the American Revolutionary War, and from 1785 to 1786 he served as a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly from the Federalist Party. In 1785, he bought the Rock Ford plantation on the Conestoga River, and he died of pneumonia in 1802.