USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Great Barrington > History of Great Barrington, (Berkshire County,) Massachusetts > Part 22
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The general term of service of these men, with a few exceptions, was from September 19th to October 19th. They were discharged immediately after the surrender of Burgoyne. The men who went to Fort Edward, and Bennington were paid four shillings per day, and those who marched to Saratoga four shillings and sixpence per day, by the town. The original town pay rolls of these companies are still preserved, and each bears upon its back the receipts of the several soldiers for the sums awarded them. The names of the thirty-six men who marched to Saratoga with Capt. Goodrich-taken from the town pay roll -- are as follows:
Capt. Truman Wheeler, Adjt. Benedict Dewey, Thomas Pier, Jr., John Nash, Henry McGonegal. Daniel Willard, Jedediah Buckingham, Asa Eddy,
John Allen, Rufus Dodge, Jonathan Cowdry, Moses Ingersoll, Ensign John Burghardt, Lieut. John Powell,
Hezekiah Atwood, Isaac Pixley,
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HISTORY OF GREAT BARRINGTON.
William Denton,
Daniel Granger,
John Kellogg,
William Preston,
William Whiting [2d], Solomon Pier,
William Ray,
Thomas Ingersoll, wagoner,.
Israel Root,
Levi Crittenden,
Ebenezer Whiting,
Moses Pixley,
Amaziah Baily,
Eli Noble,
Daniel Nash,
Hiram Williams,
Jonathan Pixley,
Ezekiel Callender, Gideon King,
Jacob Remele.
In addition to these David Stilwell. Enoch Sperry and Elisha Chamberlain did, each, thirty days service- on this occasion in the company of Sylvanus Wilcox, and were paid by the town.
With the surrender of Burgoyne, a cry of rejoicing- went up from the land. The Tories, who had been jubilant at the capture of Ticonderoga and the victori - ous march of the British army in the early part of the- campaign, were disheartened and tremulous, and when, soon afterwards, the inhabitants in town-meeting, irri -. tated beyond forbearance, passed upon them its scath- ing vote of rebuke, they were completely demoralized and broken down.
Late in October, a large part of the captured army of Burgoyne was marched through the town en route for Boston, and encamped here. A portion of the pris- oners had its camp in the hollow of the hill-side, wes- terly from the late residence of Mrs. Mark Rosseter, in the northerly part of the village; a larger section was encamped in the south part of the village, on the level ground lying west of the Main street and north of the road leading from the Burial-ground towards Green River. The officers, amongst whom was the Hessian General-Baron Reidesel-had their quarters in the old Episcopal church, opposite the Sedgwick Institute; and General Burgoyne, who was indisposed, and de- pressed in spirits, remained here several days, the guest of Col. Elijah Dwight, in the Henderson house. Dur- ing their stay, the prisoners were kindly treated; more so, perhaps, than would reasonably be expected at the hands of an exasperated people. Many of them were sick, suffering from camp fever, and it is related that Captain Truman Wheeler collected roots. boiled them
251
HESSIAN SOLDIERS.
down, and personally distributed the decoction amongst the invalids, with good effect; and that one of the British officers presented Captain Wheeler with a sub- stantial token of his own appreciation of the kindness shown the prisoners.
A large body of Hessian soldiers formed part of this cavalcade; many of whom fell from the ranks and deserted, or were permitted to go at large, as they marched through the country. Some of these settled in this town and became good citizens. Amongst them were Yarre Notewire, who in his later years, on the Fourth of July and other public occasions was accus- tomed to shout the orders of military drill, and hurrah for George Washington; Emanuel Hodget, who ended a laborious life by falling from the bridgeway of the old mill in Water street and breaking his neck-Feb- ruary 7th, 1824; John Whitty, for nearly thirty years a soldier in foreign wars, who lived to the advanced age of 102 years and died in 1812, and whose tomb stone in the upper burial ground bears the following inscription :
"This monument is gratuitously erected by the friends of JOHN WHITTY the old German Soldier who died March 24th 1812, in the 103d year of his age nearly 30 of which he spent in the bloody wars of Europe."
Not long after the arrival here of the British prison- ers of war, the fine train of artillery captured at Sara- toga was drawn through the village. The people as- sembled, and the children came out from school to witness the novel exhibition; and one old lady-the late venerable Mrs. Mary Pynchon-then a child-who was present, informed the writer that in the train was one cannon (probably a mortar) of enormous size drawn by several yoke of oxen; so large that some of the chil- dren crawled into it.
The care of the families of soldiers in the service, the furnishing of supplies of beef and clothing for the army, the filling of quotas, and the payments of boun- ties to secure enlistments, were a constant drain upon the resources of the people ; whilst the depreciation
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HISTORY OF GREAT BARRINGTON.
of the Continental currency, the scarcity of money, and the want of a circulating medium, added greatly to the general distress ; but the records indicate that the town, in most instances, responded promptly and cheerfully to the demands made upon it. And. though the town proceedings are imperfectly recorded, and in the first year of the war-as in some previous years- are not recorded at all, still enough is preserved to show that the inhabitants moved with commendable spirit in furnishing men and supplies and in bearing their proportion of the public burden.
The first recorded action, pertaining to the military service, is in a vote passed November 29. 1776, "to make some provision for the sick soldiers that may happen in town and have not wherewith to help them- selves ;" for this purpose the sum of £15 was appro- priated, and the selectmen were instructed to provide for the soldiers. The pay rolls of the different de- tachments which went in 1777 to Fort. Edward. Ben- nington, and Saratoga amounted to £679, 7s : this sum was paid by the town the next year in the depreciated Continental currency.
November 24th, 1777, Captain Silas Goodrich, Jon- athan Nash and Josiah Phelps were appointed a com- mittee to provide for the families of the non-commis- sioned officers and soldiers of this town in the Conti- nental army. August 25th, 1778. the town appropria- ted £200 for the use of the families of soldiers in the Continental service ; and at the same time, in order to meet a requisition of the General Court for clothing for the army, the selectmen and Committee of Safety were instructed to divide the inhabitants into thirty-six classes ; each class to furnish one shirt, one pair stock- ings and one pair shoes. In 1780. the town having been called upon. by a requisition of the General Court, to furnish nine blankets, nineteen shirts, nineteen pairs of shoes, and nineteen pairs of stockings, voted to raise £2500, Continental money, for the purpose of procuring these articles, and instructed the selectmen to make the purchase, with the proviso, that if they could not obtain the goods by purchase, they should take them wherever they might be found, "pay-
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SUPPLIES FOR THE ARMY.
ing a reasonable price for the same." The selectmen succeeded in obtaining eighteen shirts, sixteen pairs stockings, nineteen pairs shoes, and only one blanket, all at a cost of £1764, Continental currency. The ac- count of these purchases aptly illustrates the depreci- ation of the Continental money ; the price paid for shirts was £36 each, and for some of better quality £43, 4s., for stockings £25, 4s., and £23, 8s., for shoes £30 per pair, whilst the one blanket cost £72. In paying these bills, some of the parties preferring specie, were paid at the rate of $1.00 silver to $72.00 Continental, which was the then generally conceded ratio of value. In 1781, £50 was raised "to purchase shirts, shoes, stockings and blankets for the army." A further requisition for clothing was filled in 1782, at an expenditure of £20, 19s. in specie. In 1780, the town was required to furnish nine horses for the army, which was done at a cost of £102 in specie.
October 30th, 1780, it was voted to raise £9000, (Continental) for procuring 8700 pounds of beef re- quired for the army by the General Court, and Cap- tain Silas Sprague and Ichabod Hopkins were appoint- ed to make the purchase. A further demand upon the town for beef or grain was made in December, 1780, and at a town meeting, January 9th, 1781, for considering this matter, the inhabitants refused to honor the draft, and appointed Major William King, Jonathan Younglove, and Daniel Nash "to draw up the reasons for the town not complying with the or- ders of the General Court with regard to supplying our quota of Beef or Grain for the army."
The reasons for non-compliance, reported by this committee, were substantially as follows :
First : The beef demanded of this town is in undue proportion, as compared with the demands upon neighboring towns ; Second : Neither beef or grain enough to supply the demand can be had in town, because purchasers of beef have already collected all that can be obtained, for the army ;
Third: "Monies due from the Continent for forwarding stores, keeping horses &c., can not be obtained, which with the rea- sons above enumerated renders it impossible for this town to comply with the requisition under consideration and other de- mands upon us ;"
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HISTORY OF GREAT BARRINGTON.
Fourth : The town in 1777, furnished its proportion of men to serve for three years or the war, and "are notwithstanding or- dered to procure the same proportion of men to serve in fu- ture as if they had not procured any men to serve in the past ;" other towns have not furnished all their men for three years, and "some towns have not sent any," and though the General Court has made promises that deficient towns should be obliged to make up their deficiencies, this 'promise we find latterly left out of the orders for raising men ;"
Fifth : For several years past this town has paid an undue pro- portion of taxes, "which with other reasons, above-mentioned renders us unable to comply with the present requisition of the Court "
The clerk was directed to forward a copy of the re- port to the town's Representative, to be laid before the General court. This, so far as we are informed, was the only instance during the war, in which the town demurred to any demands made upon it for supplies of either material or men : but its complaints, however well founded, and its reasons for non-compliance, how- ever cogent, did not answer the purpose of supplying beef for the army. The beef question continued to be a matter of discussion through several town meetings, the General Court insisting upon its demand, until final- ly, September 11th, 1781,-Benedict Dewey having been previously appointed to purchase the beef,-£300 "Hard money" was raised for the purpose. The beef was purchased,-as by the account made up by Mr. Dewey-to the amount of about 16,500 lbs., at a cost of £264, 1s. 3d. silver.
We have gleaned from the town records, from the rolls in the office of Secretary of State in Boston, and from other sources such information as we have been able relative to the action taken and the men furnished for the Continental service; and the information thus gathered though incomplete and imperfect in detail, we lay before our readers.
We have already made mention of the march of Capt. William King and his company of minute men in April, 1775. and his enlistment with thirty men of Great Barrington in the American army besieging Boston, and also of the march of Capt. Peter Ingersoll and his -company,-at nearly the same time with Capt. King-
255
FILLING OF QUOTAS.
¿and of his subsequent enlistment with eleven men of this town, in the service.
By an act of the General Court, January 21st, 1776, for raising a regiment in Hampshire and Berkshire counties, for the Canada expedition, Great Barrington was required to furnish fifteen men.
In the spring of 1778, seven three years men were provided by the town, to wit : Barnabas Chapman, Sam- uel Hopkins, Josiah Phelps, Moses Breck, Daniel Con- nor, Moses Orcut, Jonah Pixley, to each of whom a bounty of £30 was paid by the town.
At about the same time, as appears by the rolls in the office of Secretary of State, the town had thirty- eight men in the Continental service.
Again in May, 1778, six nine months men went in- to the service from this town, viz: Benjamin Rose, [or Rase] Samuel Ransom, Jun'r, Asahel Munrow, William Patterson, Isaac Preston, John Patterson. These were, apparently, drafted from the militia company of Capt. Silas Goodrich, and (with the exception of the last named) were in a company under his command at Fish- kill in 1778.
June 28, 1779, Jedediah Buckingham, Robert Hum- phrey, Silas Sprague, Jun'r, John Hill and Jeptha Hol- lan were mustered into the regiment of Col. Benjamin Simonds; term of service not ascertained. We find amongst the rolls a descriptive list of four of the above- named-as follows :
Jedediah Buckingham, age 21, height 5 feet 10 inches, com- plexion light ; Robert Humphrey, age 28, height 5 feet 10 inches, complexion light ; Silas Sprague, (Jr.) age 17, height 5 feet 9 inches, complexion light : Jeptha Hollan, age 37, height 5 feet 11 inches, complexion mullatto.
Silas Sprague, Jr., is supposed to have been a son of Capt. Silas Sprague on Christian Hill. 6 Humphrey was from Muddy Brook, and Hollan the mulatto, had resided here several years.
In a Regiment of "New Levies"-1780-this town furnished eleven six months men, viz. :
John Putnam, James Fuller, Gershom Graham,
Henry Slater, Rufus Wilcox, John Stuart.
. John Steward,
Thomas Patterson, John Forbbs,
David Walter, Othniel Strong.
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HISTORY OF GREAT BARRINGTON.
A pay roll (Book 23, Roll 24 in Secretary's office) in Captain John Spoor's company, Regiment of Colonel John Brown, New Levies raised for three months. term of service from July 18th to October 23d, 1780 bears the names of twelve men from this town. viz:
Gershom Chapman, Elias Ransom, Joseph Noble,
Jonah Pixley,
Bryan Edily, George King,
Ezekiel Callender,
Barnabas Sprague.
Moses Ingersoll,
Abnah Pier,
Josiah Mansfield.
Stephen Root.
This company, seventy-two in number, was en- gaged in the fight with Tories and Indians at Stone Arabia, October 19, 1780, in which Colonel John Brown fell. The roll shows that eleven of this company were killed and one taken prisoner in that action. Amongst the killed were Joseph Noble-son of Eli Noble-and Jonah Pixley, both of this town, and the one prisoner taken was Stephen Root,-son of Deacon Israel Root, -he is also said to have been killed, and this we pre- sume to be true.
In 1780, December 14th, the town having been called upon to fill a quota of twelve men, for three years or the war, appointed Timothy Younglove, Eb- enezer Bement, Caleb Clark, and James Root to join with the militia officers of the town in procuring the men, voting to reimburse them for their time and ex- penses, and for any monies they might advance or ob- ligations they might assume in hiring the soldiers. The town-meeting was continued by adjournment, and when three men had been secured-one by a promise of £95 bounty and another of £75,-the assessors were instructed to divide the inhabitants into nine classes, each class to furnish one man, and to pay not exceed- ing £60 bounty, in silver, to each soldier. At the same time resolutions-presented by Major William King-were adopted, for repaying to such individuals as might contribute either money or material towards paying bounties to the men to be raised. By this plan the men were speedily procured ; many individuals subscribing in sums varying from $500 Continental, to a few shillings in silver ; but the account, as made up, is such a mixture of Continental currency, State- dollars, and "Hard money," that it is almost impossi-
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MILITIA SERVICE.
ble to arrive at the amount of bounties paid. The twelve enlisted were Lemuel Cleveland, John Huxley, John . Putnam, John Hill, Joseph Griffen, Richard Mitchell, Samuel Taylor, Theophilus Baldwin, Thomas Wood, Samuel Robertson, John Barnard, and Nathan Lewis ;- but Lewis did not go into the service, and Lieutenant John Powell, was directed to obtain another in his stead at a bounty not exceeding £30, silver. The filling of quotas and furnishing supplies for the Continental army did not constitute the whole military service of the town; her militia were frequently called out for short tours of duty, whilst, as we have before remarked, in some stages of the war, detachments from their numbers were almost constantly in the field.
The brief, but imperfect, summary of this service which we are able to present is mostly gathered from the original Muster and Pay Rolls in the office of the Secretary of State. Thus, Roll 20, 157, Capt. George King of Great Barrington, with a company of forty- three men-twenty-seven from this town-in the Regt. of Col. Mark Hopkins, did service at the Highlands from July 15th, to August 4th, 1776 ; travel allowed 112 miles each way. Of this Regt. Ebenezer Bement of Great Barrington was Adjutant.
Later in the same year Capt. George King com- manded a company from the north part of the county, in the Regt. of Col. Benjamin Simonds, on duty at Ti- conderoga, and died there January 19th, 1777.
Roll 22, 208. In the company of Capt. John Spoor, Regt. of Col. Simonds, ordered out by Gen. Gates for service at Saratoga, from April 26th to May 20th, 1777, were Lieut. Warham Lee and seven others of this town.
Roll 25, 152. Capt. Peter Ingersoll with a compa- ny of thirty-one men-twelve from this town-served in the Regt. of Col. John Brown, at the northward from July 1st to 30th, 1777 ; travel home 120 miles.
Roll 21, 181. In the company of Captain Enoch Noble, Colonel Brown's Regiment, seven men of this town served from June 29th to July 28th, 1777; or- dered out by General Fellows and the Committee of Safety at the request of General Schuyler.
Roll 24, 161. Seven men from Great Barrington, 17
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HISTORY OF GREAT BARRINGTON.
in company of Captain Sylvanus Wilcox, of Alford, Regiment of Colonel John Ashley, did "service in the Northern army" July 8th to 26th, 1777.
Roll 20, 106. Lieutenant Charles Parsons and twen- ty-one others, of Great Barrington, served in the com- pany of Captain Ephraim Fitch, Regiment of Colonel Ashley, at the northward, July 8th to August 14th, 1777.
Roll 22, 129. Capt. Hewitt Root, with forty-eight of his men, marched in the Regiment of Colonel Ash- ley at "the Fort Edward alarm;" service July 8th to 27th, 1777; travel home 110 miles. In addition to these, thirty-one others went in the same alarm to Fort Edward, some of whom are included in the above Rolls.
Roll 19, 135. "Pay Roll of Captain Silas Good- rich's company in Colonel John Ashley's Regiment of militia in the county of Berkshire at the action at Ben- nington, August 16 1778, commanded while in service by Brigadier General Starks the Brave," entered ser- vice August 15, discharged 21st. Such is the caption of Captain Goodrich's pay roll for his company of forty- six men who marched from this town at the time of the battle of Bennington-August 1777-the Roll probably made up the next year is, evidently, errone- ously dated, "1778;" the time of service of the men is two, three, five, and seven days; the travel is twenty forty, and sixty miles. At the same time-as appears from the town pay roll-nine others went from this town on the same expedition.
Roll 19, 136. Captain Silas Goodrich, with thirty- six men of this town, served in the Regiment of Colonel Ashley at Saratoga at the taking of Burgoyne, from Sep- tember 19th to October 19th, 1777; whilst three others were at the same time engaged in the company of Cap- tain Sylvanus Wilcox.
Roll 18, 213. In a detachment from Colonel Ash- ley's Regiment, ordered to Albany, Lieut. John Powell with twelve other Great Barrington men did service from June 4th to July 15th, 1778, in the company of Capt. Elijah Deming.
Roll 18, 248. In the company of Captain Roswell Downing, Colonel Miles Powell's Regiment, twenty men from this town served from July 19th to August
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MILITIA SERVICE.
23d, 1779. Of this Regiment Doctor William Whiting of Great Barrington was surgeon.
Roll 20, 95. At an alarm at the northward, in Oc- tober, 1781, Captain Thomas Ingersoll, Lieutenant John Powell and eleven others marched to Stillwater, and did twelve days service; travel home eighty miles, "found their own rations."
July 26, 1781, the town raised £108 to pay boun- ties of £12 each to nine three months men, for the Con- tinental service, and instructed the town treasurer to give his obligations for the payment of the bounties.
In the spring of 1782, the town was required to fill another-and its last-quota of soldiers ; how many or for what length of time we are uninformed. The classes, as established two years before, were instruct- ed to obtain the men, and not to pay more than £30 bounty to each soldier. In October, it appears that two of the classes were each deficient one man, by rea- son of these men having enlisted for other towns ; and at about the close of the war we find Great Barrington reported as short one man on its quota. This deficiency seems to have arisen from the fact that Josiah Phelps and Peter Ingersoll Junior, apparently enlisted in 1782, and belonging to this town, had by some means been credited to the quota of Salem, and was the occasion- fifteen years afterwards-in 1797, of a hearing of the towns of Great Barrington and Salem before the Gen- eral Court, in which Thomas Ives was the agent in be- half of this town ; the amount involved being $493.89.
In filling detachments from the militia, frequently ordered, for reinforcing the Continental army or for special service, the commissioned officers and commit- tees of safety sometimes exercised the power of ap- pointment, and drafting was also from time to time re- sorted to. Men appointed, or drafted for the service were required to go in person, employ a substitute or pay a fine of £10. Thus in the spring of 1778, from the militia company of Captain Silas Goodrich, in which Charles Parsons, Thomas Ingersoll, and John Pow- ell were Lieutenants, five men were drafted for eight months "to do service at the Peekskills." Amongst this number was the tavern keeper and blacksmith,
-
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HISTORY OF GREAT BARRINGTON.
Josiah Mansfield and his son Josiah, each of whom paid a fine of £10 Lawful Money. The elder Mans- field, as appears from papers preserved, had been pre- viously drafted and had furnished two substitutes, one for three years the other for three months. Barnabas Chapman, also drafted on this occasion, went into the service, receiving from the selectmen towards his out- fit, one shirt, one pair of stockings, and one pair of shoes. In September, 1780, Moses Hopkins having been drafted paid a fine of $500-probably in Conti- nental money.
The following somewhat curious paper is an ex- ample of the procedure in detaching soldiers from the militia, and also shows that Captain Goodrich, though perhaps a good soldier had not achieved much scholar- ly renown :
"GT. BARRINGTON, Oct. 24th, 1779.
Gentlemen as you have not Ben fully up to the a Greament mad with you yesterday I am Now under the Disegreble Nesese- ty in behalf of the Publick to Detach each one of you hearafter Named to Lieut. John Van Deuser, Abraham Van Deuser, Isaac Van Deuser and Jacob Van Deuser Know that you are Detach'd for three Months Sarvis and to be Redy to March on tusday Morning the 26 instant with your armes and aquipments to Such place as Gen'll Fellows May order SILAS GOODRICH, Capt."
We have but little to record of individual incident or experience of the men of Great Barrington in the armies of the Revolution. Such incidents and experi- ences are for the most part unwritten, and in the lapse of years but little, even, is preserved by family tradition.
The late venerable John Kellogg, many years since, informed the writer that two of our soldiers-Joseph, son of Eli Noble, and Stephen, son of Israel Root- were killed in a fight with Tories and Indians "up above Albany." This statement we find corroborated in part in a pay roll, which has been mentioned, of the company of Captain John Spoor, which was in the ac- tion at Stone Arabia, in the Mohawk Valley, October 19, 1780. In that roll Joseph Noble is marked as killed October 19th, and Stephen Root is stated to have been taken prisoner; but as we have no further account of Mr. Root or of his return home, we incline to the belief that he was there killed. Jonah Pixley of
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SOLDIERS AND PENSIONERS.
this town is also, in the same roll, reported to have been slain. Mr. Kellogg, further informed us that Abner Pier, son of Thomas Pier of this town, was taken prisoner by the Indians in the same battle. One of Pier's captors struck him on the head with a toma- hawk, took off his scalp, and, as he lay helpless on the ground, shot him, inflicting several bullet wounds. Pier was then left for dead, but recovered strength sufficient to crawl to a hay-rick, near by, where he lay on the straw through the night and was found the next day by his comrades. He was removed and properly cared for, and, although terribly mutilated, recovered from his wounds. Mr. Pier afterwards received a pen- sion, and for several years resided in South Egremont engaged in his occupation of shoemaking. Gershom Dormon, who has been mentioned amongst our sol- diers, was wounded and a pensioner, living as late as 1810. His residence was on the Alford road, where Henry A. Tobey now dwells. Amongst the Revolu- tionary soldiers who settled in this town after the war, and who lived and died here, were the following :
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