01945 Spring 2022

SPRING 2022 | 15
Gerry served as one of the main
suppliers for munitions for the Continental
Army, creating agreements with
France and Spain to help provide more
gunpowder and supplies for soldiers. He
was also involved in helping break a coded
letter written by Dr. Benjamin Church of
Newport, R.I.
Church was suspected of treason by
selling information to British Gen. Thomas
Gage in early 1775. Gerry broke the letter’s
cipher and sent his findings to Continental
Congress delegate Robert Treat Paine. This
resulted in Church’s exile to the Caribbean.
Gerry would become a powerful
politician and eventually, the fifth vice
president of the United States under
President James Madison. He was also
responsible for manipulating his electoraldistrict
boundaries with the intent of
creating undue advantage. This process is
known today as gerrymandering, named
after Gerry himself.
The climax of the book is the crossing
of the Delaware River and the battle of
Princeton, a mission to surprise Hessian
forces at Trenton, N.J. by attacking
during the early hours of Christmas Day.
Joining Washington was the Marblehead
Regiment, the indispensable soldiers who
proved their worth every step of the way
during crucial moments of the war.
Today, the Marblehead Regiment is
buried in the town’s cemetery, where their
names are inscribed on tombstones.
O’Donnell’s book documents
that the men crossing the river with
Washington are not nobodies — they are
indispensable heroes of Marblehead. X
The climax of the "The Indispensables" is the Delaware
River crossing and the Battle of Princeton.
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Author Patrick K. O'Donnell participated in a
2021 reenactment of Washington's Crossing of
the Delaware with Marblehead mariners at
the oars.
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