USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester county; a narrative history, Volume I > Part 29
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The insurgents knew nothing of this plan, and concentrated their full strength with the intention of stopping the sessions at Worcester and Con- cord. Shrewsbury was the place of rendezvous, and there Captain Wheeler established his headquarters and enlisted thirty men. On November 29, he was joined by a company of forty men from Barre, Spencer, and Leicester. Soon afterwards Commander-in-Chief Daniel Shays made his first appear- ance in the county with a strong force from Hampshire County, and other reinforcements brought the number of men to some four hundred. Sentinels were posted, and patrols were sent out on the roads to Concord, Cambridge and Worcester, and travelers were stopped and questioned.
But on November 30, the rebel troops were thrown into confusion by the word that the Light Horse had captured three of their leaders, and was
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advancing against them. They instantly abandoned the idea of marching into Middlesex, and hurriedly retreated to Holden. The next day Captain Wheeler was in a house as the horsemen rode by, and escaped only by acci- dent. The troopers chased another insurgent whom they supposed to be Wheeler, and he received a sabre cut in the hand, which immediately raised him to the pinnacle of martyrdom. The wound was superficial, but afforded sufficient grounds for the claim that blood had been shed. The cry of vengeance was raised. The injured man was exhibited to prove the brutality of the soldiery.
As the Light Horse retired, the insurgents, to their great disgust, dis- covered that the troopers numbered but twenty men, and gave chase over the road which brought them back to Shrewsbury. The cavalry of the Com- monwealth did not wait for them. They were well aware of their weakness, and had accomplished their purpose, whatever that might have been. So the rebel commanders turned their attention to a hunt for the town's stock of powder, which had been hidden through the vigilance of Colonel Cushing, one of the selectmen. They surrounded his house with the intention of tak- ing him and compelling him to reveal the hiding place, but he had discounted their intention and was not at home. So they had to give it up.
The weather was cold, the rebels were without money or food or sufficient warm clothing. Shrewsbury was not hospitable. They decided not to march direct to Worcester and take possession of the courthouse, but to proceed to Grafton and quarter themselves on friends there.
Shays proceeded to the barracks at Rutland, where Burgoyne's captured army had been confined, which had been seized by the insurgents, and dis- patched couriers to hurry up the companies from Hampshire and Berkshire. Evidently he expected to come into collision with the government forces at Worcester.
On Sunday evening, the day before the scheduled opening of the court, the troops quartered at Grafton entered Worcester under command of Cap- tains Abraham Gale of Princeton, Adam Wheeler of Hubbardston, Simeon Hazeltine of Hardwick, and John Williams, reputed to be a deserter from the British Army, and once a sergeant of the Continental Line. They halted at the courthouse, and having secured the keys, placed a strong guard about the buildings and posted sentinels in the streets and approaches to the town to guard against surprise by the government forces. Those who were off duty rolled themselves in their blankets and sought rest on the floors within the building.
Almost a Battle in Main Street-Monday afternoon it was touch and go in Worcester Main Street as to whether blood would be shed in battle. A wave of anger and impatience had swept over public opinion. The
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people had finally realized that the rebellion must be checked or the very foundation of organized government would be in danger. The military forces of the town rallied to a man. Two full companies, one hundred and seventy strong, under Joel Howe, the senior captain, paraded at the South Meetinghouse, formed in column and marched down Main Street toward North Square, as Lincoln Square was called. As they approached the United States Arms the rebel drums beat the alarm, and the men sprang to arms and formed in lines across the street.
"Captain Howe, advancing in slow time, sent forward an adjutant to demand by what authority the highways were obstructed. A contemptuous answer was returned, that he might come and see. Another officer was detached, to order them to remove, as the militia intended to pass over the ground they occupied. The reply was they might pass if they could. Captain Howe then halted and addressed his men in an animating tone.
"The bayonets were fixed, and the company then advanced. In a few paces they came to the position for a charge. The front ranks of the insur- gents stood in readiness to use their muskets, while the band of Captain Howe moved steadily down upon their line. For a moment, civil war seemed about to drench our streets in blood. Veterans of the Revolution were arrayed on both sides, who had been too often amid the shot of battle to shrink from danger in any form. Fortunately, the insurgents were not prepared to stain their cause by the slaughter of their brethren. Their line wavered, and breaking, by a rapid wheel, gained a new position on the hill. The militia went by their post to the Hancock Arms, beyond the North Square. After a brief rest they returned, and were dismissed until the next morning, with merited commendations." The incident demonstrated that Shays' men were too apprehensive of consequences to support their demands by force, "and the dread their formidable array might have inspired, was changed to con- tempt and derision of their pretensions." But the charge of the militia had no positive effect on the situation.
Townsmen Heckle Tired Insurgents-"As the evening closed in, one of the most furious snow storms of a severe winter commenced. One division of the insurgents occupied the Courthouse, another sought shelter at the Han- cock Arms. The sentinels, chilled by the tempest, and imagining themselves secure by its violence from attack, joined their comrades around the fire in the guard room. The young men of the town, in the spirit of sportive mischief, contrived to carry away their muskets, incautiously stacked in the entry way, and having secreted them at a distance, raised the alarm that the Light Horse were upon them.
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"The party sallied out in confusion, and panic-struck by the silent disap- pearance of their arms, fled through the fast falling snow to the Courthouse, where their associates had paraded. The guns were discovered, at length, and the whole force remained ready for action, several hours, frequently dis- turbed by the fresh outcries of their vexatious persecutors."
The earnest purpose of the insurgents may be judged by the fortitude of the men of Holden and vicinity, who in spite of the fury of the storm and the well nigh impassable condition of the rude highway, arrived on Tuesday morning, swelling the force to five hundred. But the court convened at the Sun Tavern (on the site of the present Walker Building, on the south corner of Main and Mechanic streets) and, making no attempt to transact business, adjourned to December 23. Petitions were presented by committees from Douglas and Sutton, asking that the next session be postponed till March, but these were disregarded.
Worcester was like a garrison town. The local militia made no further demonstration, which was wise. Sentinels were everywhere, and the people had to answer frequent challenges. Sentries paced before the house of Joseph Allen, where Chief Justice Ward was staying, and Allen was threat- ened with violence on his own threshold. Justice Washburn of Leicester was intercepted on his way home, and two of his companions who seized a gun pointed at his breast were made prisoners by the insurgents. Judge Samuel Baker of Berlin was stopped on the road, and his captors suggested he be imprisoned that he might experience the corrective discipline to which he had subjected others.
A council of war was held, and plans made for a march to Boston as soon as a sufficient force could be assembled, to effect the rescue of insurgents who were held prisoners there. Governor Bowdoin, anticipating some such movement, had placed Boston under guard, with strong forces of militia at the prison and at the entrance to the town. Alarm posts were assigned, and the Middlesex militia was held in readiness to defend the road in case of an attempted advance from Worcester.
"Poison" at Hancock Arms-This military occupation of Worcester had its lighter side. Again to quote Lincoln: "During the evening of Tues- day an alarm broke out more terrific to the party quartered at the Hancock Arms, than that which had disturbed the repose of the preceding night. Soon after partaking the refreshment which was sometimes used by the military, before the institution of temperance societies, several of the men were seized with violent sickness, and a rumor spread that poison had been mingled with the fountain which supplied the water.
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"Doctor Samuel Stearns of Paxton, astrologer, almanac manufacturer, and quack by profession, detected in the sediment of the cups they had drained a substance which he unhesitatingly pronounced to be a compound of arsenic and antimony, so deleterious, that a single grain would extinguish the lives of a thousand. The numbers of the afflicted increased with frightful rapidity, and the symptoms grew more fearful.
"It was suddenly recollected that sugar used in their beverage had been purchased from a respectable merchant of the town (Daniel Waldo, Sr.), whose attachment to government was well known, and the sickness around was deemed proof conclusive that it had been adulterated for their destruc- tion. A file of soldiers seized the seller, and brought him to answer for the supposed attempt to murder the levies of rebellion. As he entered the house, the cry of indignation rose strong. Fortunately for his safety, Doctor Green of Ward, an intelligent practitioner of medicine, arrived and the execution of vengeance was deferred until his opinion of its propriety could be obtained. After careful inspection of the suspected substance, and subjecting it to the test of different senses, he declared that to the best of his knowledge, it was genuine, yellow, Scotch snuff. The reputed dying raised their heads from the floor, the slightly affected recovered, the gloom which had settled heavily on the supposed victims of mortal disease was dispelled, and the illness soon vanished.
"Strict inquiry furnished a reasonable explanation. A clerk in the store of the merchant had opened a package of the fragrant commodity in the vicinity of the sugar barrel, and a portion of the odoriferous leaf had, inad- vertently, been scattered from the counter into its uncovered head. A keg of spirit was accepted in full satisfaction for the panic occasioned by the decoc- tion of tobacco so innocently administered."
Daniel Shays Makes Spectacular Entry-In spite of the storm and the drifted roads, that same night government troops were approaching Worcester. But the court having adjourned, General Warner sent orders that the soldiers should return to their homes. The rebel forces were left in triumphant possession of the town. The next day, Wednesday, they marched out to meet Shays, who was coming in from Rutland at the head of three hundred and fifty men. The united force entered the town eight hundred strong. "The companies included many who had learned their tactics from Steuben, and served an apprenticeship of discipline in the ranks of the Revolution-war worn veterans who in a good cause would have been invin- cible. The pine turt supplied the place of plume in their hats.
"Shays, with his aide, mounted on white horses, led on the van. They displayed into line before the Courthouse, where they were reviewed and
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inspected. The men were then billeted on the inhabitants. No compulsion was used; where admittance was peremptorily refused they quietly retired, and sought food and shelter elsewhere. Provision having been made for the soldiers, Shays joined the leaders in council. At night, he was attended at his quarters at the house of Colonel Samuel Flagg by a strong guard, pre- ceded by the music of the army, with something of the state assumed by a general officer. Precautions against surprise were redoubled. Chains of sentinels were stretched along the streets, planted in every avenue of approach, and on the neighboring hills, examining all who passed. The cry of 'all's well' rose on the watches of the night, from those whose presence brought danger to the Commonwealth."
An important rebel conference was held the next day in which partici- pated committees from some of the towns and leaders in the various con- ventions which had been held. There was discord as to what should be done. The situation was perplexing. The weather was against them ; the storm had prevented the expected arrival of reinforcements. There were no stores of food or ammunition and little or no money. The absurdity of moving on Boston was recognized, and it was determined to employ pacific measures. A petition to the Legislature was circulated, remonstrating against the suspen- sion of the habeas corpus, asking for the release and pardon of prisoners, and the suspension of the courts until after the new Legislature should convene in May. A new act of amnesty was requested, and a readiness was expressed to lay down their arms should their petition be granted. In the afternoon five hundred men marched to the barracks at Rutland.
The next day, recognizing that public sentiment had set against them, the leaders addressed a letter to every town in the county, inviting the inhabitants to unite in their petition. Shays himself was frightened. He told an acquaint- ance, "For God's sake, have matters settled peaceably. It was against my inclinations I undertook this business. Importunity was used which I could not withstand. But I heartily wish it was all over."
The situation of the rebels was pitiful. The week closed with another raging snowstorm. A company of 150 men from Hampshire was snowbound in Leicester. The companies from Ward, Holden, Spencer, Rutland, Barre and Petersham took up their march for home over roads choked with drifts.
Distressed Rebels in Fatal Retreat-Even at this late day one feels a surge of pity for these deluded men. Wrote Lincoln : "Their condition dur- ing their stay in Worcester was such as to excite compassion rather than fear. Destitute of every necessity of life, without money to purchase the food which their friends could not supply, unwelcome guests in the quarters they occupied, pride restrained the exposure of their wants. Many must have
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endured the gnawings of hunger in our streets; yet, standing with arms in their hands, enduring privations in the midst of plenty, they took nothing by force, and trespassed on no man's rights by violence. Some declared they had not tasted bread for twenty-four hours. All who made known their situation were relieved by our citizens with liberal charity."
No words could better portray the character of the men who made up this rebel army-self-respecting and law-abiding by nature, strong to endure for a cause, and fighting only for what they truly believed was justice.
"The forlorn condition of the insurgents was deepened by the distress of their retreat. The course was amid the wildest revelry of storm and wind, in a night of intense cold. Some were frozen to death by the way. Others, exhausted with struggling through the deep and drifted snow, sunk down, and would have perished but for the aid of their stouter comrades. When relief was sought among the farmhouses, every door was opened at the call of misfortune, and the wrongs done by the rebel were forgotten in the suffer- ings of him who claimed hospitality as a stranger."
Yet the backbone of insurrection had not been broken. The holding of the court in Springfield on December 26 was resisted. Plans were made for preventing the session of the Common Pleas in Worcester on January 23. But forbearance on the part of the Commonwealth had long since ended. An army of forty-four hundred men had been raised in Suffolk, Essex, Middle- sex, Hampshire and Worcester counties, under command of General Benja- min Lincoln. The march from Roxbury to Worcester was begun January 21, and the troops reached Worcester on the 23d, where they were joined by the county regiments. The houses of the inhabitants were thrown open to the soldiery with glad hospitality. There were bodies of insurgents in Rutland, New Braintree, Princeton, Sterling and Sutton, but their strength was insuffi- cient to warrant venturing into the county seat.
Instead they shifted their attack to Springfield, with the Arsenal as their objective, for they were in great need of arms and ammunition. They actu- ally attempted to capture the arsenal, but were repulsed. The commander, however, noting the swelling numbers of the enemy, sent messengers post- haste for help, and Lincoln, leaving a thousand men in Worcester, made a forced march to the Connecticut River town.
The Battle of New Braintree-General Warner, in command at Worcester, got word that a body of two hundred rebels had established them- selves at New Braintree, and were intercepting travelers, and "insulting the friends of government." He sent against them a company of twenty horse and one hundred and fifty infantrymen in sleighs, with orders to disperse or capture them. The rebels were warned and abandoned their headquarters at the house of Micah Hamilton, and posted themselves behind walls by the
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roadside. The government cavalry was ordered to proceed at a gallop to the insurgent headquarters. As they reached the place of ambush the insurgents poured in one volley and then ran for it. Deputy Sheriff Jonathan Rice of Worcester was shot through the arm and hand, and Doctor Davis Young got a ball in his knee, a most painful wound. Another trooper had his bridle rein cut by a bullet. The cavalry did not pause but charged down upon the empty headquarters. They found no insurgents, but released two Worcester men, who had been made prisoners the preceding day. The detachment then moved on to Rutland, dispersed the occupants of the barracks, and returned to Worcester with four prisoners.
An aftermath of the rebellion was a law suit brought by Doctor Young against certain citizens who had fired from behind the New Braintree wall, and one of whom had put a bullet in his knee. He won his case and was awarded $5,000 damages.
Shays was driven to the wall. He saw no way to escape punishment for his crime but to make one final stand against the Commonwealth forces. He envisioned the gallows, or imprisonment with periodic floggings. He gath- ered the remnants of his forces at Petersham. Their presence filled the loyal inhabitants with fear. Rev. Dr. Samuel Willard of Deerfield as a lad of ten was an eye witness of the exciting events of those two days. His family home was one of several occupied by the insurgents, "I will remember," he wrote in after years, "the entrance of the insurgents into Petersham, and the alarm it excited among those who were known to be on the side of the gov- ernment. Several of the insurgents had been arrested and condemned to death for having been found with arms the second time, in violation of the oath of allegiance which had been imposed after their first capture. And their party had threatened to take prisoners who should be held as hostages for the life and safety of those who were under condemnation. On this account my father and some others secreted themselves when the insurgents approached the house."
The Freezing March on Petersham-General Lincoln, at Hadley, determined to send a large force to the old hill town, and, if possible, end the rebellion at one blow. In his report to Governor Bowdoin, he relates the story of that dreadful night's march, as follows :
"Saturday evening I was informed that Shays had left Pelham, and had pointed his forces towards this place (Petersham), where, it was said, he expected to be joined by many others, and where he could make a stand, as many towns in this vicinity were in his interest. At 8 o'clock the troops were in motion. The first part of the night was light and the weather clement, but between two and three o'clock in the morning, the wind shifting to the west- ward, it became cold and squally, with considerable snow. The wind arose
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very high, and with light snow that fell the day before and was falling, the paths were soon filled up. The men became fatigued, and they were in a part of the country where they could not be covered in the distance of eight miles, and the cold was so increased that they could not halt in the road to refresh themselves. Under these circumstances they were obliged to continue their march. We arrived here (Petersham) about nine o'clock, exceedingly fatigued by a march of thirty miles, part of it in a deep snow, and in a most violent storm. When this abated the cold increased, and a great part of our men are frozen in some part or other. I hope none of them are dangerously so, and that most of them will be able again to march in a short time.
"We approached the town nearly in the center, where Shays had covered his men, and had we not been prevented by the steepness of the hill and the depth of the snow from throwing our men rapidly into it, we should have arrested very probably one half of the force, for they were so nearly sur- prised as it was, that they had not time to call in their out-parties, or even their guards. About one hundred and fifty fell into our hands, and none escaped but by the most precipitate flight in different directions. But most of their men fled for Athol. It is said they intended to reach Northfield. This brings him (Shays) near the line of another State, where he may vainly hope to find an asylum.
"Thus, sir, the body of men who were, a few days since, offering the grossest insults to the best citizens of the Commonwealth, and were menacing even government itself, is fast dissipating, and it will not long, I think, have the least existence. It must be pleasing to your Excellency to know that this has been effected, and bloodshed avoided, but in an instance or two, where the Insurgents have rushed on to their own destruction."
The Rebellion ended at Petersham. Shays did find asylum in a remote village of Vermont, eventually moved into New York State, and ironically enough, rounded out an impoverished old age as a pensioner of the Federal Government for services rendered in the Revolution.
But as for the good people of Petersham, their troubles did not end with the flight of Shays and his men. To quote another bit from Doctor Willard's reminiscence: "The sudden and unexpected arrival of Lincoln the next morning and the precipitate retreat of Shays and his army dispersed all fear, but not all trouble. The army of the Government was quartered upon us from Sunday morning till Wednesday, and left our houses in such a state as to inspire dread of armies in every bosom."
The Gallows on Worcester Common-The scene of the final act of Shays' Rebellion in Worcester County was Worcester Common. There the gallows had been erected, as was the custom when a man was to be executed.
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Captain Henry Gale of Princeton was the only county man to be convicted of the high crime of treason and sentenced to die by hanging. He was one of thirteen in the State. Berkshire and Hampshire each had six such convicts.
On the 23d of June, 1787, Gale was taken from the county jail, and led in solemn procession through the Main Street to the Common. A great crowd had gathered there, massed about the gallows. The prisoner mounted the scaffold. He was about to die, he believed, and so did the breathless specta- tors. But the noose was not placed about his neck. Instead a reprieve was read to him, and he was taken back to the jail, soon to receive full pardon for his offense. The same leniency was extended to all of the doomed men. The only punishment imposed was upon a member of the General Court, con- victed of seditious words and practices, who was compelled to sit upon the gallows with a rope about his neck, pay a fine of £50 and give bonds to keep the peace and be of good behavior for five years. Few of these rebels needed any bond to keep them good citizens, not for five years, but for the rest of their lives.
Rufus Putnam's Interview with Shays-An illuminating idea of Shays as a man is contained in a hitherto unpublished letter written by Gen- eral Rufus Putnam of Rutland to Governor Bowdoin, as follows:
RUTLAND, JANUARY 8, 1787.
SIR,
As I was coming through Pelham the other day I met Mr. Shays in the road (alone) where we had a conversation. Some of which was of a very particular kind. I shall state the whole by way of dialogue as far as I can recollect, but in order to understand the meaning of some part of it, it is necessary you should know that the week before they stopped Worcester Court the last time, I spent many hours with Shays and his officers, endeavor- ing to dissuade them from their measures and persuade them to return to their allegiance.
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