John Neville (general)

John Neville (July 27, 1731 – July 29, 1803) was an American military officer, land speculator, and state official who served in the American Revolutionary War and, as a tax collector, was a central figure in the Whiskey Rebellion.

Born in Virginia, he served with British General Edward Braddock during the French and Indian War and fought in Dunmore's War in 1774. Commandant at Fort Pitt when the Revolutionary War began, Neville served in several regiments of the Virginia Line, rising to the rank of colonel and seeing action at Trenton, Princeton, Germantown, and Monmouth. At the end of the war he was awarded a brevet promotion to brigadier general.

After the war Neville was an inspector of revenue under the excise laws, which the newly formed United States Congress imposed on distilled spirits to help pay for the cost of the Revolutionary War. However, small rural whiskey operations located in the western part of the new nation were charged at a higher rate than their larger competitors in the East. This led to an uprising in the west known as the Whiskey Rebellion.

Events climaxed in 1794, according to Alexander Hamilton, when shots were fired at Neville and a U.S. Marshal he was escorting through the area to summon farmers who had not paid the tax to court. On July 16, 1794 a group of men surrounded the Neville mansion demanding to see the US Marshal. The confrontation led to Neville's shooting of one of the protesters. This further angered the people, and the next day over 500 again surrounded the home. At least one more protester died, and Neville's home, "Bower Hill", was burned to the ground.

This incident persuaded President George Washington to take the drastic action of leading a militia force of 13,000 men into western Pennsylvania to squelch the uprising. This response marked the first time under the new Constitution that the federal government had used a strong military presence to exert authority over the nation's citizens. In 1802 the tax was repealed.

Neville built two mansion-style homes near Pittsburgh. The first, "Bower Hill", was burned in 1794, and the second, "Woodville", survives today and is owned by the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation and is a National Historic Landmark.

He is buried in Pittsburgh's Allegheny Cemetery.

External links

* [http://www.phlf.org/woodville/index.html Woodville]
* [http://www.nscda.org/museums/pennsylvania.htm Woodville]
* [http://www.shire.net/osl/brigadier_general_john_neville__1731_1803.htm Biography]
* [http://www.whiskeyrebellion.org/legislat.html The Whiskey Tax and John Neville]
* [http://www.phlf.org/ Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation]