History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 163

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1464

USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II > Part 163

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WORCESTER.

emergencies. The later French wars, with their larger armies and the sieges of Louisbourg, Ticonder- oga and Quebec, gave them lessons in the art of organ- izing, disciplining, marching and subsisting a con- siderable force, in manœuvring in the presence of an enemy, in fighting battles, in the use of artillery, in constructing, defending and attacking fortifications. Very few, if any, of them were masters, or even scholars of the science of war, but many were ad- mirably proficient in the practical duties of the soldier and the officer. Twelve or thirteen years had elapsed, it is true, since the end of the last French war, before the clash of arms at the beginning of the Revolution, and doubtless much the greater number of the men called to arms to maintain the rights of the colonies had no military experience, but many of them had served under Amherst and Abercrombie and Howe in battle and siege. They knew what the King's troops could do, for they had seen and helped them do it. They knew that the man in a red coat, though a good sol- dier, was no better than his comrade in the dress of the provincial levies, and not always so good. They remembered that the largest and most perfectly- equipped army ever mustered on this continent, com- manded by a famous British general, was repulsed with terrible slaughter under the walls of Ticonderoga, and that under the command of a Massachusetts merchant, a much smaller New England army had compelled the surrender of Louisbourg, a much stronger fortress. These veterans leavened the army and preserved it from an inordinate respect for the King's troops.

Political movements tending toward revolt against the authority of the mother country had been in progress for some time when the first action of a mili- tary nature was taken, late in the summer of 1774. Some of the Tories of Worcester, about this time, irritated and alarmed by the strong measures adopted by their townsmen, withdrew to Stone House Hill, in the corner of Holden, either for their personal safe- ty, or with some vague notion that the position might be of advantage in case of an advance of the royal army into the interior. They strengthened somewhat the natural defences of the place, and, with their arms and a store of provisions, kept their position for two or three weeks, and then, having no reason for staying longer, they went home. Their stronghold was afterwards known as the Tory Fort. But this was a burlesque of mili-

tary operations. More serious was the general alarm, given a little later, that hostilities had broken out at Boston, wherenpon thousands of the militia set ont for that place. In Worcester the companies were summoned and the night was spent in running bullets and in other preparations for the field. In the morning the march was begun and continued as far as Shrewsbury, where advices from Boston were received, showing that the movement was needless. But the incident proved that the people

were ready for resistance, and would not shrink from the conflict of arms, if it must come. The need of preparation was manifest, and it could not wisely be postponed. The Political Society-an or- ganization of patriots, which had for some time taken the management of town affairs-bought two pounds of gunpowder for each of its members, and required each inhabitant to sign an agreement to provide arms and ammunition. Captain Timothy Bigelow enrolled a company of minute-men and drilled them diligently every evening. Muskets had been procured for them in Boston. The town bought four field-pieces, which Jonathan Rice and others, at considerable cost and risk, brought out from Boston, and Captain Edward Craft organized an artillery company. September 21st a convention of the Committees of Correspondence for the towns of the county was held in Worcester, which, among other things, undertook the task of re- organizing the militia. All the subordinate officers were directed to return their commissions to their colonels, and the colonels to publish their resignations in the newspapers. A new division of the militia into regiments was made, the First Regiment including Worcester, Leicester, Holden, Spencer and Paxton. It was directed that the companies should elect their own officers, and that these should meet and elect the colonels and other regimental officers. One-third of the men fit for duty between the ages of eighteen and sixty were to be enrolled, organized into companies and hold themselves ready to march at a minute's warning, and committees were to be chosen to keep them equipped and provisioned should they be called into service. The towns were invited to provide and mount field-pieces, procure ammunition and otherwise make ready for defence. In the general condition of revolt this company of resolute men, the Committee of Correspondence, in harmony with the mass of the people, though without lawful authority, having defi- nite purposes and plans, assumed the power of legis- lation, and were respected and obeyed accordingly.

Later in the year a depot of munitions and sup- plies was established here. Provisions of beef, pork, flour and grain were collected; a quantity of lead was procured, and the inhabitants were requested to give their pewter dishes for melting into bullets. In January, 1775, the company of minute-men were exhorted to meet frequently for drill, and payment was promised them for the time so employed. Early in the spring the town was visited by two scouts or spies sent out by General Gage to examine the roads and other features of the country, and report such topographical information, by sketches, plans and descriptions, as might be useful for the guidance of a force advancing into the interior. Those employed for this purpose were Captain Brown, of the Fifty- third Regiment, and Ensign Berniere, of the Tenth. Their report was discovered among the papers left by General Gage after the evacuation of Boston a year later. With it was a plan of the village, with a

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sketch of proposed works, among them an en- trenched and fortified camp for two regiments on Chandler Hill, to the east of the town. These of- ficers, disguised as countrymen, arrived in the town on a Saturday evening, and remained until Monday morning. Their appearance excited suspicion, and their character was recognized by some of the loyal- ists ; but they took no one into their confidence, and having made all the observations and sketches they wished, went away unmolested.

In March the minute-men were directed to train half a day in each week. Each man was allowed one shilling for this duty, and a fine of like amount was imposed for absence from drill. The company, in fact, met nearly every day, and, under Captain Bigelow's command, paraded in the streets or on the Common in fair weather, and were drilled under shelter when the day was stormy. So efficient was their zealous captain as an instructor that the com- pany, when mustered for service at Cambridge, at- tracted attention and praise for its discipline and proficiency in military exercises.

The event was at hand for which these prepara- tions had been made. Before noon on the 19th of April, a horseman, dusty and weary with hard riding, galloped through the town, shouting: "To arms! to arms! The war is begun!" His white horse, bloody with spurring and spent with fatigue, fell near the meeting-house. Thus came to Worces- ter the news of the affair at Concord,-the first en- counter of the war whose issue was to be the inde- pendence of the United States. The alarm rang out from the meeting-house bell, and the long cannon, which, in the infancy of the town, had given warn- ing, from the block-house north of Adams Square, of the approach of savage enemies, now from the ridge at the back of the court-house roared, from its iron throat, a call of the people to arms, and defiance to King and Parliament. The men of Worcester were ready. Captain Bigelow's company of minute-men reported for duty at once, and were paraded under arms on the Common. The village pastor, the Rev. Thaddeus Maccarty, invoked the God of battles in their behalf, and the citizen-soldiers marched out, seventy-six in number, besides their commissioned officers, to meet the enemy. Captain Timothy Bige- low was in command; Jonas Hubbard and John Smith were lieutenants; the sergeants were William Gates, Nathaniel Harrington, John Kannaday and William Dana ; the corporals, John Pierce, Cyprian Stevens, Joel Smith and Nathaniel Haywood; Eli Putnam beat the drum, and John Hair and Joseph Pierce were fifers. When Captain Bigelow and his minute-men marched, Captain Benjamin Flagg, with William McFarland, lieutenant, and Ebenezer Lov- ell, ensign, and twenty-eight enlisted men of the militia, was almost ready. They moved within an hour or two, and overtook the minute-men at Sud- bury, where they had halted for a short rest. Both

companies then marched on together to Cambridge. There the militia which had assembled was, within a few days, reorganized. Captain Bigelow was ap- pointed major in Colonel Jonathan Ward's regiment. Fifty-nine Worcester men were enrolled in a com- pany under Captain Jonas Hubbard, promoted from lieutenant, and Lieutenants John Smith and Wil- liam Gates, the latter having been first sergeant in Captain Bigelow's company. Seventeen other Wor- cester men were enlisted in other companies of the regiments commanded by Colonel Ward and Colonel Doolittle, and twenty more were enrolled in Colonel Thomas Crafts' artillery regiment, in which Edward Crafts, who had organized the Worcester battery, was captain, and William Dana and William Tread- well were lieutenants. Dana had left Worcester a sergeant in Captain Bigelow's company ; William Treadwell bad marched in the ranks of the same company as a private, and Captain Crafts had marched as a private under Captain Flagg.

The town had now put more than one hundred men into the field, and was pledged to keep them there until their purpose was accomplished. This would require exertions and sacrifices greater than those made in the French wars, which had so drained the resources of the town a few years before. One hundred men, with their equipment and mainte- nance, certainly bore a larger ratio to the numbers and means of the town than five regiments of a thousand men each, and their support, would bear to its present resources. If they had known from the beginning how long the war would last, and how grievous would be its demands for men and money, perhaps our forefathers would have shrunk from en- tering upon it. But when the demands came, faster and heavier, for men, for clothing, for provisions, for ammunition and for money, they made the necessary efforts without much flinching. And when, by these efforts and losses, they had achieved the independence of their country, they were not quite exhausted, though inexpre-sibly glad of the return of peace.

In the army besieging Boston the Worcester men in Colonel Ward's regiment were with the right wing at Dorchester. Fifteen prisoners of war, captured from the British army, were sent to Worcester for safe keeping early in May, and many more came later. They were paroled and encouraged to find work in the town. The Assembly of Massachusetts made provision for their support.

In the months of May and June two requisitions were made upon the town for blankets and clothing for the men in the service-one for thirty guns with bayonets, and one for powder, of which the town supplied three barrels, retaining only half a barrel for its own possible needs. Two cannon, owned by the town, were delivered to the Board of War in Novem- ber for the defence of Gloucester.

Major Timothy Bigelow, Captain Jonas Hubbard and twelve other men of Worcester were among the

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volunteers for Arnold's daring, arduous and futile expedition against Quebec. On the 19th of Septem- her they sailed from Newburyport, landiog the next day near the present site of Angusta, on the Kenne- hec. Thence they made their way up that river and across the divide into the valley of the St. Lawrence. The march was toilsome in the extreme. Their hag- gage, ammunition and provisions were conveyed in boats, which were forced up the rapid current with great labor, and had often to be dragged or carried past unnavigable rapids or across the water-sheds be- tween the sources of one stream and those of another. On the route Major Bigelow, in order to make out their route more clearly by the view from its summit, climbed the high mountain which still bears his name in Northern Maine, near the head-waters of the Kennebec. It is a monument to this heroic townsman of ours, grander and more lasting than any ever reared hy human hands.

Arnold's little army at length arrived before Que- bec near the middle of November, having suffered terribly from cold, as well as from hunger and exces- sive labor, for the winter sets in early in that north- ern region. The town, besides its great natural strength of position and its formidable defensive works, had a garrison exceeding Arnold's force in numbers. With admirable impudence he sent a flag of truce, demanding the surrender of the place. But the commander would neither surrender nor come out to fight, and Arnold did not see his way to get- ting in. He had, moreover, only five rounds of am- munition for each man, and was therefore in no con- dition to maintain a siege, even if he had force enough to invest the town. So he moved up the river twenty miles or more to await the orders of Montgomery, who, in a campaign of extraordinary brilliancy, had made him-elf master of the Lake Champlain country, the Upper St. Lawrence and Montreal. On the 3d of December Montgomery ar- rived with three hundred men, artillery and provi- sions, and what Arnold's men needed most, a supply of clothing suitable for the season, which was in- tensely cold. That patriot army, after their dread- ful march through the Maine and Canadian forests, were barefooted and in rags.

Montgomery, though not sanguine, thought there was a chance of success in attempting to storm the place in a night attack. On the 30th of December the attempt was made, one party, led by Montgom- ery in person, attacking the defences of the lower town from the southeast, and another, under Arnold, assaulting at the same time from the northwest. The fall of Montgomery at the head of his column by the first fire from the enemy put an end to the attack in that quarter. Arnold's command, with which were Major Bigelow and the Worcester men, had at first better success. Arnold was disabled by a severe wound in the leg. Captain Jonas Hubbard was also wounded beneath the walls, and, refusing to be re-

moved, died of exposure to the fierce snow-storm. Major Bigelow and some two hundred others, under the command of Colonel Christopher Greene, of Rhode Island, carried the first battery, and pene- trated so far into the town that, when they were re- pulsed at the second barrier, and, instead of retreat- ing, as would have been prudent, held their position, their retreat was cut off and they were compelled to surrender. Sergeant Silas Wesson was killed and Timothy Rice mortally wounded in this attack ; both were Worcester men. Major Bigelow and the other soldiers from this town were made prisoners and held in captivity until November of the next year.

In the mean time the people at home were not al- lowed to forget that men were wanted in January, 1776, to reinforce the army before Boston. Worces- ter's share was thirty-two. In May blankets were wanted, and Worcester supplied on requisition twen- ty-seven. In June it was men again, five thousand from the State to operate in Canada and New York. Worcester's quota was fifty-six, and the men were provided. Now, for the first time, we begin to read of bounties for enlistment. The State allowed to each man under this call a bounty of three pounds, with eighteen shillings in addition for the use of his arms and equipments. The town voted to add nine pounds to the bounty of its soldiers, and a tax of four hun- dred and eighty-six pounds was levied for that pur- pose. In July the General Court ordered that every twenty-fifth man on the train-hand and alarm lists, in addition to those already raised, should be put into the service to form two regiments for duty in the Northern Department. In September there was fur- ther need of men, and one-fifth part of the militia was mustered for service with the army in New York, and at the same time a fourth of the remainder was directed to be completely equipped and held ready for the field upon receipt of orders. In De- cember the Governor of Rhode Island called for help, fearing an invasion of his State. Two regiments marched promptly to his relief, and many from Wor- cester were volunteers in the ranks. Eight men of Captain William Gates' Worcester company were killed in battle or died of disease this year in the army under General Washington in New York.

In January, 1777, thirty-two blankets for the army were demanded of Worcester, and later in the same month every seventh man over sixteen years of age was drafted for eight months' service at least, to fill the quota of Massachusetts in the Continental army. In February Worcester, like all other towns in the State, was required to furnish clothing, including shirts, stockings and other articles, at the rate of one suit for every seven male inhabitants over sixteen years old. The number required at this rate was sixty-two. In March a bonnty of twenty pounds, in addition to the State and Continental bounties, was voted to every volunteer who should enlist to fill the town's quota, and a tax was levied of £1,656 28. 2d.

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HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

to pay bounties and other war expenses. A commit- tee was also chosen at this time to ascertain how much each person had paid for the support of the army, and who must pay and how much to equalize the burden. A little later the town voted to buy one hundred muskets and bayonets and a supply of pow- der, to be sold to the militia at a reasonable price. As the soldiers generally furnished their own arms, there was an obvious advantage in keeping a supply for sale at a fixed price. Every sixth man was drafted in August to serve three months in the Northern army.

The experience of the French War was repeated with singular accuracy this summer. Just as Lou- doun and Abercrombie, in a panic, called for immedi- ate reinforcements to repel an invasion by the French, so General Schuyler, alarmed by the steady advance of Burgoyne, urged that every available man from New England should be sent to strengthen his army. Massachusetts responded promptly, as she did twenty years before. Again the Worcester militia-sixty- eight rank and file-commanded by Benjamin Flagg, a lientenant-colonel by this time, with Captain David Chadwick and Lieutenants Abel Holbrook and Jona- than Stone, marched westward for Albany, but when they arrived at Hadley, the success of Herkimer at Oriskany and Stark's brilliant victory at Benning- ton had brought relief, and they were ordered to re- turn.

In September again the Northern Army, now under Gates, and preparing to entrap Burgoyne, needed re- inforcements, and the General Court recommended that at least half the militia of Worcester and the western counties sbould march to strengthen it. In December a committee to provide for the families was appointed. The sums spent in this behalf from this time to the end of the war were considerable. A re- port of the selectmen shows that sixty-eight men of Worcester were serving at this time in the Continen- tal Line under enlistment for eight months, three years or the war, and received their clothing for the most part from the town. In February Worcester again furnished sixty-two suits of shirts, shoes and stockings for the army in obedience to a requisition. In April the town furnished fifteen men for service in Rhode Island with a battalion from the militia of the county, aud in the same month twelve men were drafted for nine months' service to fill up the quota of the State in the Continental Army. Six more were drafted in June for an expedition to Rhode Island, and four to serve as guards for the prisoners of Bur- goyne's army. In March, 1779, the town levied a tax of two thousand pounds for war purposes, and the militia officers were instructed to raise men for the service by enlistment or draft. Ten soldiers were en- listed in June, and the town borrowed £5,200 for the payment of bounties. Sixty-two suits of clothing were again provided, and in September thirty-one blankets. The selectmen about this time reported

that forty-eight soldiers then in the service had re- ceived $1,906 as bounties on their enlistment for three years. The families of nine of them had needed as- sistance, and had received it during the year at the cost at current prices of £509. In August £892 was granted to pay for clothing. In September eight sol- diers were raised for the army in Rhode Island at a cost for bounties of £638, and in October thirteen more for Washington's army on the Hudson. To these thirty pounds each was paid in bounties, and they were enlisted for three years. Their support by the town cost £2,515 10s.

Demands upon the town for men and supplies for the war continued unabated, if not increased in fre- quency and weight during the next year. In June no less than three calls for men were made and answered. Twenty-two were enlisted as the town's share of three thousand nine hundred and thirty-four required of the State for six months' service with the Continen- tal Army. Each of these, by vote of the town, re- ceived twenty-seven pounds in agricultural produce, at the prices of 1774. In the same month twenty- eight three months' men were obtained, and five at the same time for duty at Springfield. In December twenty-nine men more were wanted for three years or the war, but the endurance of the people seemed to be exhausted and the means hitherto effectual for obtaining recruits failed. As bounties did not tempt the young men, and as the people were disinclined to submit to the process of drafting, as heretofore practiced, a new scheme was hit upon. The inhabit- ants were divided into twenty-nine classes, of equal taxable valuation. Each class was required to supply one soldier. and provide for his wages and main- tenance. Each member paid his equitable portion of the expense, and if he was delinquent the amount was added to his tax for the next year, and collected by the usual process. By this means the men needed were mustered in February.

Worcester was required to draw heavily upon its resources of money and supplies as well as men. In May forty-three sets of blankets, shirts, shoes and stockings for the army were required ; in July, twelve horses. About the same time 17,640 pounds of beef was provided at a cost of £539, and in December about twice the quantity of beef, for which £1270 was paid. In this year a tax of £30,000 in Continental cur- rency was levied for the payment of the town's soldiers. There was no relaxation of the war exactions for the next year, 1781. In June twenty-three men for three months' service were raised by great exer- tions, and Worcester supplied her share of a force of five hundred for service in Rhode Island. A quarter of the militia were required to hold themselves ready to march to reinforce General Washington's army. The annual demand for blankets and clothing required from Worcester twenty-nine blankets and forty-nine sets of shirts, etc. The town this year would vex itself no more with the paper currency of

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WORCESTER.

the time, but voted hard money to the amount of £414 for the payment of its soldiers and £400 for another purchase of beef for the army. The last demand for men came in March, 1782, when six were drafted for three years.

During seven years of war much more than half of Worcester's adult male population must have been in the military service, either by enlistment in the line or by being summoned for special tours of duty as militia. The whole number of Worcester men doing military service in the war is thus stated by Lincoln in his history,- one colonel, two lieutenant-colonels, two majors, seveu captains, ten lieutenants, five en- signs, twenty sergeants and three hundred and eighty- nine privates.

In later wars, unti! that of the great Rebellion Worcester bore no part that need be mentioned here, except that the gallant service and death at Buena Vista of Captain George Lincoln must not be passed in silence. Captain Lincoln was the son of the late Governor Levi Lincoln, an officer of the regular army, and at the time of his death was serving as assistant adjutant-general on the staff of General Wool, who said of him : " He was as brave, gallant and accom- plished-an officer as I ever knew."

At the outbreak of the Rebellion Worcester had among her citizens, available as military leaders, no veterans of former wars, or men of experience in actual service, but she had a considerable number who, by long service as officers of the militia, had acquired such military knowledge and training as can be gained in that service. These men, with the true instinct of the patriotic soldier, came promptly for- ward when the country called her sons to her defence. The value of a trained militia, as a preparation for war, was proved by the honorable military record of such soldiers as Devens, Lincoln, Ward, Sprague, Pickett, Studley and others, who in the uniformed and disciplined militia of Massachusetts, had learned the duty of the soldier, the elements of tactics and the rudiments of military organization. Some of them were unusually proficient in the discipline and move- ments of small bodies of troops, and were as compe- tent to instruct and organize companies and regiments for service as professional soldiers would have been. The troops whom they commanded and prepared for the field, after a few months' practice with arms, and training in camp and on the march, became efficient soldiers, winning applause from generals commanding in the field, for their military obedience, promptness and precision of movement, steady valor and all the qualities of veteran soldiers.

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History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 163

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1889 Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1464

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1464