USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Hingham > History of the town of Hingham, Massachusetts, vol 1 > Part 33
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Elias Whiton, Capt.
Jona Hobart,
Zachariah Whiton, Lieut.,
Joshua Beals,
Samuel Hobart,
Willm Hobart,
John Cushing,
Thomas Sprague,
Thomas King,
Samuel Leavitt,
James Tower,
Thomas Joy,
Joshua Stowel,
Abel Whiton,
David Gardner,
Jacob Dunbar,
Ezekiel Hearsey,
Peter Tower,
John Hearsey,
Jonathan Farrow,
Thomas Chubbuck,
Jeremiah Gardner,
Jonathan Gardner,
David Chubbuck,
Caleb Leavitt,
David Loring,
David Lamman,
Laban Tower,
John Hobart,
Seth Wilder,
Benj" Stowel,
Esquir Hook.
Nehemiah Hobart,
After the surrender of Burgoyne at Saratoga, Oct. 17, 1777, his army was conducted to Boston, and quartered at Cambridge, where it remained until November, 1779. During the intervening period the duty of furnishing guards devolved largely upon the militia of Massachusetts, and of this, Hingham had a full share.
319
Military History.
It is not possible to give accurate lists of the men engaged in this and the similar service of caring for and protecting the Continen- tal stores at Boston and Watertown, so imperfect are the rolls. The town records contain items of payments to men recruited for these purposes. One, in 1778, would seem to indicate that there' were seven of our townsmen with Capt. Benjamin Beal, but "a pay abstract of Capt. Benj. Beal company of militia and Col. Jacob Garish (regt) Drafted in July 1778, to Guard the Troops of Con- vention and the Stores In and About Boston " contains the following names of undoubted citizens. The regiment was Colonel Gerrish's.
Benj. Beal, Capt.,
Moses Gardner,
Peter Dunbar, Lieut.,
Joshua Stowell,
Joshua Beal, Sergt.,
Jedediah Joy,
Caleb Marsh, Corp.,
Seth Wilder,
David Hearsey, Drum,
Daniel Dunbar,
Joseph Hobbard,
Hosea Dunbar,
Stephen Mansfield,
Melzer Dunbar.
Also " Capt Benj. Lapham Compy in Col. John Reeds Regt., in service of the United States, at Cambridge, taken from 2 April, 1778, to July 3, 1778," has upon its roll : -
Jos. Tower, Sergt. Daniel Stodard, Corp.,
James Lewes,
Richª Tower.
The town disbursements for the year contain items for the pay- ment of three men employed in guarding Continental stores, nearly three months, twenty men " for guarding Gen' Burgoynes army, at Cambridge, 4 months & 26 days," "to 11 men for Guarding the Continental Stores in Boston 2 months 11 days."
At the town meeting held in February, there was a tax laid of £2370 of which £495-7-2 was for the procuring of Continental soldiers, for three years ; £1274-12-10 for paying the men em- ployed in the expedition against General Burgoyne; £300 for guarding General Burgoyne's army at Cambridge, and £300 for defraying the usual expenses of the town. Subsequently we find Joshua Leavitt paid for a gun lent the town, and Jacob Leavitt for painting the carriage and wheels of the cannon ; also David Beal for assisting in transporting powder from Watertown to Hingham. There are, besides these, payments to Capts. Benj. Lapham, Elias Whiton, and Peter Cushing, for serving as committees to hire soldiers.
There is a roll of Captain Stowers' company showing service from August to November of this year; the location of its employment is not indicated, but its roll contains, in addition to the names given as members of the same command, in August, 1776, the following : -
Sam'l Stodder, Reuben Stodder,
Daniel Beal,
Thos. Lincoln,
320
History of Hingham.
Job Mansfield, Stephen Whiton, Caleb Leavitt,
Benj. Barnes, Jr.,
Enoch Leavitt.
Luke Orcutt,
October 1, 1778, General Lafayette was in Hingham and lodged, with his servant, at the Anchor Tavern, then standing upon the present location of Mr. William O. Lincoln's house, on South Street, and a favorite resort of the French officers at Nantasket. It was a famous hostelry in its day, and was occupied as a private dwelling by Governor Andrew in the early part of the Civil War. Lafayette was on his way to Hull, where he was going to inspect the fortifi- cations at that place. He was dressed in a blue coat with buff trimmings, the regular uniform of an American officer, and at- tracted much attention. Upon the news of his death many years after, all the bells in town were rung.
Among other curious documents in the State House are certain inventories showing the amount of clothing received from the several towns for the public service. One, dated Dec. 17th, 1778, shows that Hingham furnished 128 shirts, 69 pairs of shoes, and 102 pairs of stockings ; being much more than by any other town in the county with the exception of Boston.
The great difficulty of ascertaining precisely the date of en- listment of many of those who entered the Continental service has been intimated. In addition to the names previously given, the following would seem to have entered the army in 1778 : -
Captain
Alexander Atkins, Boston,
Langdon, Winship,
Colonel Jackson,
Gershom Beal,
Putnam,
Cæsar Blake,
Alden, Bayley,
Maxitinde Basasobel, Boston,
Allen,
Alden,
Thomas Burke,
Langdon, Jackson,
Caleb Bates (killed),
Burbeck, Crane's Artil.,
Simeon Butler,
Langdon, 66
Jackson,
Wm. Booding,
Ezekiel Bragdon, Braxton,
Lane,
Nixon,
Abel Cushing,
Isaac Crosby, Waltham,
Lane,
John Carter, Boston,
Langdon, 66
66
Wm. Clarke, Pownalboro,
Bayley,
66
John Clark,
66
66
James Dishet,
Perez Gardner,
Vose,
Isaac Gardner,
Jesse Humphrey,
Williams,
Greaton,
Joseph Hobart,
Pilsbury, Wigglesworth,
Daniel Hearsey,
Light Horse,
Peter Husen, Boston,
Langdon, Jackson,
66
Shepard, Alden,
Jackson,
Ronald Cameron, "
66
Jacob Whiton,
321
Military History.
Captain
Briant,
Colonel Crane, Bayley,
Alden,
Joseph Wilcott.
Burbeck, Crane.
In September of 1778 General Lincoln was placed in command of the department of the South. A brief account has already been given of his persistent efforts to raise an army, and of the long struggle for supremacy which finally terminated at Charleston, in May, 1780, by the surrender of the town, with the garrison, to Sir Henry Clinton.
The Committee of Safety in 1779 were Samuel Norton, Dr. Thomas Thaxter, Capt. Theophilus Wilder, Capt. Charles Cushing, and Joseph Thaxter.
The military service performed by Hingham men during this year was very considerable, besides that rendered by the soldiers of the Continental regiments with Washington and elsewhere, but the records are so incomplete that but little detail can be given. The English evacuated Rhode Island in the autumn of 1779, but they had no intention of permanently abandoning the State, and the fear of their return necessitated the employment of a considerable American force for its defence until the close of the war.
A pay roll for December, 1779, of Capt. Luke Howell's company in Col. Nathan Tyler's regiment, on duty in Rhode Island, contains the names of the following Hingham men : --
John Lincoln, Lieut., Jonathan Farrow, Jr., Private,
Ezekiel Hersey, Drum, Jacob Whitton, 66
Elijah Lewis, Private, William Gardner,
Elisha Beals, 66 Jonathan Farrow, "
Nathaniel Bates,
In the same State there were six men in Capt. Job Cushing's command, and seven men for five months in the company in which Jacobs was a lieutenant.
There were also four men engaged upon guard duty at Boston, who were probably Robert Gardner, Jonathan Gardner, Elijah Whiton, Jr., and James Hayward. They certainly received pay from the town for service in Boston this year.
Lieut. Elijah Beal, who resided at West Hingham and who at the time was about twenty-nine years of age, was stationed at Claverack, New York, with fifteen of his townsmen. Efforts to ascertain their names have not met with success.
This year, too, saw Capt. Theophilus Wilder adding active military duty to the service he was giving his country in the support of the war as a civilian, and again we find him with VOL. I .- 21
Luther Lincoln, John Mansfield (dead), Ebenezer Ripley, Cæsar Scott,
Moses Stoddar,
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History of Hingham.
his company, this time containing eighteen Hingham patriots, in · the fort at Hull. This roll, like several others of 1779, has not been found. Hon. Solomon Lincoln states that Lieut. John Lin- coln commanded a company at Rhode Island in Webb's regiment from Sept. 1, 1779, to Jan. 1, 1780, in which were several soldiers from Hingham.
The records preserve the names of only the following as enlist- ing in the Continental service during 1779; they appear to be re-enlistments : -
James Cook, Capt. Bradford, Joseph Stockbridge, Col. Bayley, Col. Greaton.
Jacob Gardner,
The town appropriations for war purposes had by this time be- come very large, although it must not be forgotten that they were in a very much depreciated currency.
In October it was voted to "raise £6000 for the purpose of paying the soldiers that went to do duty in the State of New York." The following indicate services not otherwise recorded :
To Zachh Whiton for his service to Rhode Island in 1778 £41-17 To Jotham Loring for his service in Canada omitted £18.
There were also payments for large amounts of beef and salt purchased for the soldiers, and as in every other year of the war, generous sums were voted for soldiers' families. We have these records also : -
To Jona Hearsey towards his service at Rhode Island £22- 0-0
To David Hearsey for Do 39- 2-6
To Elisha Beal for Dº 35-17-0
To Ezek1 Hearsey for D° 44-18-8.
The names of four more of Hingham's soldiers are thus indi- cated, although no light is thrown on the particular expedition in which they served.
Perhaps no better examples can be selected to illustrate the ex- traordinary depreciation of the paper currency than the following:
To Capt. Seth Stowers for 7 Bush1 Corn for the Soldiers who
went to Rhode Island £63-0-0
To Bradford Hearsey for a p! shoes to Hosea Stodder £4-4-9.
In July an expedition against the British post at Penobscot was fitted out by Massachusetts. Colonel Lovell, who sometime before had become a brigadier-general in the militia, was one of the com- manders, and, as already said, the brig " Hazard " which took part in the expedition, had a number of Hingham men in her crew. Upon the promotion of Colonel Lovell, which took place in 1777. David Cushing of Hingham became colonel ; Thomas Lothrop of
323
Military History.
Cohasset, lieutenant-colonel ; Isaiah Cushing of -, major ; Samuel Ward of Hingham, second major ; and the members and officers of the Hingham companies were : 2d, Benjamin Lapham, Capt., Herman Lincoln, 1st Lieut., Joseph Beal, 2d Licut. ; 3d, Jabez Wilder, Capt., Zach. Whiting, 1st Lieut., Robt. Gardner, Jr., 2d Lieut. ; 6th, Peter Cushing, Capt., Thos. Burr, 1st Lieut., Thos. Fearing, 2d Lieut.
The following served seven months in Gazee's Rhode Island company of artillery ; the year is not certainly known, but it is probable that at least a portion of this time was included in the vear 1779: Enoch Dunbar, Amos Dunbar, Daniel Dunbar, Melzar Dunbar, Luther Gardner, and Peleg Whiton.
In 1780 the Committee of Correspondence, Inspection, and Safety consisted of Israel Beal, Capt. Charles Cushing, Ebenezer Cushing, Joshua Leavitt, and Isaac Wilder, Jr.
In July of this year General Heath asked for reinforcements for his army in Rhode Island, an attack on Newport being threat- ened by Sir Henry Clinton. Under this call Capt. Theophilus Wilder marched with his company, belonging to Ebenezer Thayer's regiment, and served three months. The roll of Hingham men is given below : -
Theophilus Wilder, Capt.,
Jeremb Gardner,
Thomas Venson, Lieut.,
Perez Gardner,
Walter Hatch, 2d Lieut.,
Elisha Whitten,
Peter Wilder, Sergt .- Major,
Con' Barns,
Elijah Lewis, Sergt.,
Isra Whitten,
Isaiah Hearscy, "
Amos Dunbar,
Uriah Beals,
Sher Corthwell,
Ezra Gardner, Corp.,
Israel Stowell, ‘
Cushen Burr,
Bela Tower, Fife,
Mola- Tower,
Jacob Canterbury,
Laban Cushing,
Eliph. Ripley,
Ezekel Harsey,
Stephen Stowell,
Israel Hearsey,
John Hearsey,
John Dill,
Zedeok Harsey,
Nathaniel Dill,
Dan1 Harsey,
Joseph Jones,
Jon Gardner,
Caleb Cushen.
Stephen Gardner,
Abel Cushing,
Peter Hearsey, Drum,
John Cushing,
Be --- Cushing,
Jerem" Hersey,
The urgent need of soldiers frequently induced the States to authorize enlistments for short terms, much against the judgment of Washington, and greatly to the injury of the service and the country. The town of Hingham supplied few men by authority of these acts, and, as already stated, under a nine months call, in one
324
History of Hingham.
instance at least, enlisted her quota for three years. Indeed, most of the men joining the Continental service and credited to Hing- ham were for the long term, and many have against their names the large letters " D. W.," which mean " During the War." The following, however, joined the army for six months, "agreeable to a resolve of the General Court of the fifth of June," 1780: Lot Lincoln, Jesse Humphrey, James Bates, Daniel Woodward, Levi Gardner, Ezekiel Cushing, Leavitt Lane. They were sent to Springfield, and thence to the army under Captain Soaper, Cap- tain Burbank, and Lieutenant Cary, in July, August, and October. Mr. Lincoln says that there were also five men on duty as guards at Boston.
At a town meeting held on the 13th of June it was voted to raise thirty thousand pounds toward paying the soldiers, and four thousand pounds to purchase clothing for the Continental army.
The town records also show large sums of money paid for beef, blankets, wood, corn, etc., supplied the army upon requisition from the State. In one instance, however, the General Court threatened a fine of twenty per cent if a requisition was not promptly responded to; and the town voted " to comply, provided it be not brought as a precedent in future time;" this was in the year 1781.
This latter year Samuel Norton, Capt. Charles Cushing, Heman Lincoln, Capt. Peter Cushing, and Elisha Cushing, Jr., were chosen as the Committee of Correspondence.
Under a resolve of the General Court passed December 2, the following enlisted into the Continental service for three years, or the war; the bounties paid are also given : --
Henry Shepperd £57
Thomas Lightfoot £60
John Daniels 108
Reuben Wright 55-10
Lewes Freeman 60
Amos Adams 51-12
Emmuel Busson 60
Francis Comer 63
James Cook
61-4
The following furnishes an illustration of the means by which some of these men were secured : --
HINGHAM, Dec. 24, 1781.
These may certifie that I the Subscriber Hired Emmuel Bussen for the class whereof I am Chairman & that He passed muster the 8th day of No- vemb' past, and that He engaged to Serve three years in the Continental Army ; also that I gave Sixty pounds for his so engaging in Hard money.
JOHN THAXTER.
Others enlisting this year and receiving a bounty were -
Isaac Gardner, Juba or Tuba Freeman, Benj" Jacobs,
Jack Freeman,
Absolum Davis, Cæsar Blake,
-
325
Military History.
Thomas Newell,
Jesse Humphrey,
Lot Lincoln, Fortune Freeman, Nath1 Stoddard,
Daniel Dill, Abel Cushing, James Hayward,
James Bates,
Perez Gardner,
John Dill,
Benj" Ward.
Perez Gardner was three years in Colonel Vose's regiment, and with him were John Tower, killed at Morrisania on a scout, James Bates, and James Hayward, both of whom died in the service at West Point, and John Daniels, Abel Cushing, and Solomon Lor- ing, - the latter not given in the above list, - and Jack -, a colored man, doubtless Jack Freeman, killed at New York.
Mr. Lincoln says there were also eleven men in Rhode Island four months under Capt. John Lincoln.
The only roll discovered, however, gives in Colonel Webb's regi- ment in Rhode Island, Aug. 2, 1781, John Lincoln, captain ; Robert Corthell, sergeant ; Sherebiah Corthell, private, as be- longing to Hingham. The names of the others have not been ascertained.
It was towards the close of the summer when the American and French armies, after remaining some six weeks near Dobbs' Ferry in New York, crossed the Hudson, and under the general com-, mand of General Lincoln commenced the march across the Jer- seys, Maryland, and Virginia, which terminated in the great victory at Yorktown on the 19th of October following.
The distinguished part performed by General Lincoln in the last great campaign of the Revolution has been already alluded to. The personal history of other Hingham soldiers has, with a few exceptions, been lost or obscured with the passing years. Of this we may be certain, that wherever the commands to which they belonged were, there they were too, serving faithfully to the end. Among those at Yorktown was Daniel Shute, a young surgeon who had graduated at Harvard College in the opening year of the contest, and immediately placed his talents at his country's service. He is said to have commanded a college com- pany during the siege of Boston, and soon after was commissioned a surgeon's mate and attached to the Hospital Department. At Yorktown he was the first surgeon to perform an amputation on a wounded soldier. At the close of the war he was surgeon of the 4th Massachusetts Continental Regiment, commanded by Colonel Shepperd. Dr. Shute resided a short time in Weymouth after the close of his military service, but soon removed to Hing- ham, where he died April 18, 1829.
Upon the staff of General Lincoln was Major Hodijah Baylies, aide-de-camp, who subsequently married a daughter of the general. He became collector at Dighton, and held other offices. Several of his children were born during his residence in Hingham.
326
History of Hingham.
The capitulation of Cornwallis was the last great military event of the Revolution. Nevertheless, much of the country was still occupied by the British army, and besides the necessity of gain- ing and holding possession of those portions, there remained the possibility of renewed hostilities, requiring the retention of a con- siderable force. On the second of November the army under General Lincoln embarked at Yorktown and proceeded to the head of the Elk, from whence it went into winter quarters in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and upon the Hudson, in New York.
The Committee of Correspondence and Safety elected in 1782 were Israel Beal, John Fearing, and Theophilus Cushing; they were re-elected in 1783.
The probabilities of peace made the enlistment of soldiers ex- ceedingly difficult, and there were very few recruited after the close of the Virginia campaign. The only names of recruits known to have joined the Continental army in 1782 are Solomon Lavingin and Elijah Beals.
Hon. Solomon Lincoln says that in 1783 there were twelve men in the service at Hull. Neither the date nor the organization to which they belonged have been preserved, and no list of these last soldiers in the Revolution from old Hingham has been found.
There remain to be added a few names not hitherto placed, known to have served in the army in some capacity, but whose company or regiment, place, or time, have not been ascertained. These are -
Jedediah Beal,
Bela Lincoln, served on the " Pro- tector,"
Daniel Dill,
Lemuel Dill,
Benjamin Lincoln,
Daniel Egrey,
Noah Nichols,
Francis Gardner, died 1780 on Jersey prison-ship,
Moses Sprague,
Jacob Sprague, carried to Halifax and died on guard-ship, 1778,
Jared Joy, Benjamin Leavitt,
Ebed Stodder, Seth Thaxter.
Serving upon the staff of General Lincoln during the earlier part of the war as an aid-de-camp, and probably with the rank of colonel, was Nathan Rice. Colonel Rice came early to Hing- ham, where he resided many years. At the close of the war he was major in Colonel Bailey's Continental regiment, and subse- quently commanded a body of troops at Oxford during the threat- ened difficulties with France.
From the lists of names given, it appears that Hingham fur- nished over one hundred and fifty different persons to the regular Continental service, of whom, however, it is probable that only about eighty were actual residents of the town. The commis- sioned officers, so far as known, were, -
327
Military History.
Major-Gen. Benjamin Lincoln.
Col. Nathan Rice, aide-de-camp to General Lincoln.
Lieut .- Col. Jotham Loring, 3d Mass., Colonel Greaton ; dismissed. Major Hodijah Baylies, aide-de-camp to General Lincoln.
Daniel Shute, surgeon 4th Mass., Colonel Shepperd.
Capt .- Lieut. Nath'l Coit Allen, paymaster 10th Mass., Colonel Tupper.
Lieut. Hezekiah Ripley, Jr., 2d Mass., Colonel Bailey ; Brigade Qr. in 1783.
Lieut. Joseph Andrews, Crane's artillery ; mortally wounded at Brandy wine.
Lieut. John Lincoln, 2d Mass., Colonel Bailey.
To these should perhaps be added -
Capt. Amos Lincoln, formerly of Hingham ; moved to Weymouth.
Dr. Gridley Thaxter who is stated to have been a surgeon in , the army, but in what branch of the service is unknown.
Dr. Peter Hobart, also a surgeon, the particular record of whose service is lost.
John Woodman, a private in the 7th Mass., Colonel Brooks, and marked " promoted."
Possibly, also, Chaplain Joseph Thaxter, formerly of Colonel Prescott's militia regiment, should have his name placed upon the Continental rolls ; he certainly was in the army later, but the command is not stated.
Another brilliant officer, who was a citizen of Hingham pre- ceding the division, but who by that event became an inhabitant of the new town of Cohasset, was Capt. James Hall.
It is possible to make an approximation only to the number of men who served their country from Hingham in other than the regular Continental regiments during the war of the Revolution. Many of the rolls are entirely lost, others are incomplete, and some are partially worn and illegible ; the selectmen's records furnish valuable but very meagre information, while from private sources almost nothing has been obtained. From available in- formation, - mainly the rolls heretofore given, and which are literal copies of originals in the State House, -it would appear to be certain that some six hundred different individuals per- formed military duty in the several branches of the service. There were doubtless many more whose names were recorded upon the lost rolls, or whose identity cannot be determined, owing to the fact that oftentimes lists still exist which are nearly value- less from a failure to make any mention of the town to which the soldier belonged. There is reason to think that a number of men doing garrison duty at the Castle, - now Fort Indepen- dence, - in Capt. the Hon. Thomas Cushing's company, were from Hingham ; but there is an uncertainty arising from the home
328
History of Hingham.
or place of enlistment of the men composing it being in no case stated ; and the doubt in this instance is of sufficient importance to make it unsafe to credit the town with any of them. It is quite probable, too, that numbers of our citizens served in some of the various armed ships authorized by Congress or the Common- wealth, but of other than those given as upon the " Hazard " and " Protector," if such there were, no satisfactory records are known. Very many, if not most, of the soldiers from Hingham served on several different occasions during the war; and not a few enlisted or were called out four, five, and six times, while the indisputable evidence furnished by existing rolls proves that several responded to no less than eight calls to duty in garri- son and camp. In a few instances the periods of service were short, being comprehended in a few days, but for the most part they extended over many months, embracing the year consumed in the siege of Boston, the time occupied in the campaigns in Canada, in the northern department against Burgoyne, in the operations near West Point, those around New York, the several Rhode Island expeditions, that to the Penobscot, a part of Wash- ington's first campaign in New Jersey, and the many months, aggregating several years, of garrison duty at Hull, besides that performed in Hingham itself while the town was a military post. It is impossible to reduce the whole to a standard of number of men serving for a stated time, but if every different service had been performed by different individuals, the aggregate outside of those in the regular three-years regiments would probably exceed one thousand.
As observed previously, it seems reasonable to estimate the different individuals as about six hundred in number ; indeed, the preserved rolls name some five hundred and seventy. Of these, approximately, the Lincolns furnished forty-eight ; the Cushings, thirty-seven ; the Beals, thirty ; the Whitons, including all the variations of spelling the name, thirty ; the Stoddars, Stodders, Stoddards, Stodars, twenty-five; the Hearseys, Harseys, Herseys, twenty-four ; the Gardners, twenty-one; the Hobarts, nineteen ; the Towers, sixteen ; the Lorings, fifteen ; the Bateses, fifteen ; the Burrs, thirteen ; the Spragues, thirteen ; the Wilders, thirteen ; the Dunbars, eleven ; the Leavitts, eleven ; the Lewises, eleven ; the Stowells, ten ; the Joys, ten ; the Fearings, eight; the Lanes, eight ; the Thaxters, seven ; the Barneses, seven ; and the Marshes, seven. That is two dozen names of the soldiers from Hingham included four hundred and nine individuals. The Hingham officers of Continental regiments have already been named ; those in other branches of the service, as far as known, were -
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