Congress had a lot of military-related activities to tend to, and one of them was Isaac Melchior. (If you look him up you’ll see an alternate spelling of him as “Melcher.” We’re sticking with “Melchior” because we saw that first.)

March 7 was a Thursday, so the Congress was figuring out what do do about Melchior’s apparent insubordination the previous Saturday when he loudly and rudely insulted Congress in general, and John Hancock in particular, because he felt that the captaincy they’d offered him was inadequate.

They actually considered banning him from future service, but the next day decided that his apology was sufficient, so he was dismissed without further punishment. Later on, he served as a brigade major for General Richard Montgomery, so at some point he managed to earn some additional rank.

So in Isaac Melchior we have someone who is notable for his service to America, but whose historical reputation is tarnished because of his actions a week earlier. There’s a fictionalized version of this story in a book by Lars D.H. Hedbor called The Will: Tales From a Revolution—Pennsylvania, which is part of the “Tales from a Revolution” series. If you like historic fiction laid atop real-life events, you may enjoy these books.

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