USA > Maine > Knox County > Union > A history of the town of Union, in the county of Lincoln, Maine : to the middle of the nineteenth century, with a family register of the settlers before the year 1800, and of their descendants > Part 28
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Members.
Instruments.
William Adams
John M. Bachelder
Drum.
Nathaniel Q. Bachelder
Tuber.
Nathaniel K. Burkett .
Trumpet.
Lyman Chapman
Bass Drum.
Frederic Daggett
Post Horn.
Freeman L. Daggett
Tenor Trombone.
Willard Hart
Ophicleide.
Isaac C. Hovey .
Cornopeon.
Benjamin L. Jones
Drum and Cymbals.
William B. Morse .
Tenor Trombone.
George W. Payson
Bugle.
Jesse W. Payson
E flat Bugle.
Madan K. Payson .
B flat Bugle.
Nathan D. Payson
Trombone.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
MILITARY HISTORY.
Revolutionary Soldiers. - Loyalist. - Incidents in the Revolution- ary War. - French War. - Military Appropriations. - Powder House. - Military Spirit.
REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIERS.
MANY of the early settlers were connected with the army of the American Revolution. Ezekiel Hagar, who said he was at the execution of André ; Abijah
Cornopeon.
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MILITARY HISTORY.
Hawes ; Matthias Hawes ; Moses Hawes ; Ichabod Maddocks, who was in the movement against Pen- obscot, born June 7, 1764, and died Jan. 4, 1823, aged sixty-five; Titus Metcalf, who died at the age of ninety-two years; and Jason Ware, were revolu- tionary soldiers. To these should probably be added David Gillmor and Reuben Hills.
Capt. JOEL ADAMS was in the service between three and four years; and, when he left it, he was at least one hundred dollars poorer than when he entered it. After nine and a half months' campaign, he was finally discharged from the United States Army, with sixty dollars of continental money. With this, in coming through. Hartford, he bought a pair of buck- skin breeches; and the three remaining dollars he paid for a dinner, or something equivalent to it.
NATHAN BARNARD, born at Waltham, Mass., died July 21, 1830, in his seventy-ninth year. He married Sarah Wellington, who was born in Waltham, Mass., April, 1760, and moved from Jaffrey, N. H., to Union in April, 1802. He was out twice in the war. At Bun- ker Hill he did not take part in the battle, but was a sentry at a short distance. The balls cut to pieces a bar- berry bush within two rods of him. Afterward he was at West Point. He " tended one end" of the chain put across the North River to obstruct the upward passage of the British vessels. The chain was made of square bars, about one foot long and one inch thick, secured upon logs to prevent it from sinking. He was also in a skirmish near Ticonderoga.
Capt. AMOS BARRETT was at the North Bridge in Concord, Mass., April 19, 1775. According to him, the orders to the Americans were not to fire first. The British moved to the bridge, and began to tear it up. Capt. Davis, of the Acton Company, said they should not do it, and marched down with warlike deportment. The British fired. Davis leaped from the ground, brandished his sword, shouted " Fire, for God's sake, fire!" sprang to one side of the road to avoid the shot, was struck by a ball and fell. Capt.
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REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIERS.
Barrett followed the British when they retreated. He said he found men dead, wounded, dying, and under- going indescribable suffering. One man was trying to drown himself in a mud-puddle. Another, who was wounded, hung himself in a barn with a harness. Capt. Barrett was also at the capture of Burgoyne.
PHINEHAS BUTLER served three years. He went to Ticonderoga, and was in the retreat. Having got ammunition, arms, and re-enforcements, the party went back to meet Burgoyne. He was also at Valley Forge, where he had the small-pox. Afterward he went to West Point, and had a sergeant's command of horse-guard in that vicinity ; and there he got a discharge.
SAMUEL DAGGETT Was captured on board a privateer, and confined four months in the Jersey prison-ship at New York. Of ninety who went on board with him, all died but himself and eight more.
Col. JOHN GLEASON was in the service, and in the Shays Rebellion. By a resolve of the General Court, passed Feb. 19, 1781, he was appointed a muster- master, to muster into the continental army the men raised in the county of Middlesex, Mass.
RICHARD GRINNELL Was privateering, and also in the regular land-service. He died at or near Springfield, Mass.
ROYAL GRINNELL Was in service in Rhode Island.
AMARIAH MERO was in the service about six years, chiefly in short enlistments. He went to Sorel, Trois Rivières, Montreal, Ticonderoga, and was subsequent- ly at West Point. He was for some time at Boston or vicinity, guarding the Burgoyne troops. He never was in any engagement. His last enlistment was for three years, and he was discharged at Fort Stan- wix. He sold his rations of rum to the Indians for beaver-skins. He sold the skins for five dollars, which paid his expenses to Northampton, where he procured five dollars more of a friend to pay his expenses home.
LEVI MORSE went in a privateer to France. He served six weeks in Rhode Island at the time of Gen.
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MILITARY HISTORY.
Sullivan's expedition, under the command of Capt. Perry, of Sherburne, in Col. Hawes's regiment. A memorandum found among his papers, dated July 24, 1832, says : " In 1788, was engaged several days and nights in constructing redoubts, and exposed to cannon shot and shells several days. We were overtaken with a severe storm, whilst on the island, without tents to cover us. In 1779 and '80, I served in Sherburne fifteen months ; enlisted under Reuben Partridge, com- manding officer, in the State of Massachusetts, for the term of three months at each engagement. In 1781, I served three months in the State of New York, at West Point, Peekskill, and vicinity." Another paper, dated August, 1783, labelled " List of towns from Sherburne to West Point," contains "Messmates, Sergt. Joseph Dows, Daniel Brick, Abraham Coolidge, Joseph Fairbanks, Jesse Phips, Levi Morse."
BELA ROBBINS, under the name of William Robbins, enlisted for three years just at the close of the war; went to West Point, and was dismissed in about nine months. There was difficulty about his procuring a pension, because the application was by Bela Robbins. There was no such name on the roll; but there was William Robbins. The difficulty may be explained by the fact that Billy is a familiar abbreviation for William; and hence the transition to Bille and Bela was easy. He finally received three hundred silver dollars, and obtained a pension.
EBENEZER ROBBINS, son of Philip Robbins, priva- teered in boats with Perry and Thompson, making it also an object to guard the shore. The party went on to the land to eat some victuals. The tories saw them and fired on them, probably to frighten them off and plunder them. One of the balls wounded Robbins in the calf of the leg. Mortification followed. He died and was buried on Cranberry Island. This was pro- bably near the end of the war.1
JOSIAH ROBBINS served nine months. He was at West Point at the time of the deep snow.
1 Mrs. Mero and Mrs. Dunton.
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REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIERS.
PHILIP ROBBINS, at the commencement of the revo- lutionary war, resided at Walpole, Mass., and was lieutenant of a company. Within a week before the battle of Lexington, he was in Boston, and, in conver- sation with some boasting British officers, said to them : " You have as good officers and men as any in the world; but the Americans will fight as well without officers as your men will with officers, and will take them one to two, and cut them all off for one breakfast, if they go out into the country in a riotous way." The
officers, highly incensed, put him under arrest, and kept him several hours.1 Very early on the morning of the day of the Lexington Battle, he and the captain and the ensign of the company were in Boston with their teams. On learning that the British had " gone out," each, leaving his team to be driven home by others, took off his horse and mounted it without a saddle, and drove to Walpole as fast as he could go, changing horses twice on the way. The military company was mustered, and hurried to Cambridge, where it arrived in the evening, after the battle was over, and had only the satisfaction of eating some of the provisions which had been taken from the British.
When Robbins was first coming to Union, he was obliged to go to Salem and take passage in an east- ward-bound vessel; it being immediately after the evacuation of Boston, while the British were probably lying off Boston harbor. The captain of a privateer said he would convoy the eastward-bound vessel, as he " should like to try his legs," never having been out.
1 This account of Jessa Robbins differs somewhat from the one by Jacob Robbins. According to the best of his recollection, which was rather indistinct, his father went to Boston from Walpole with a load of timber, one or two days before the battle of Lexington, and called at the bar-room of a tavern where British officers were drinking punch. He also called for some; and, as he was drinking, " he heard the officers chatting how easy it would be to march through the country to New York. He interrupted them, and said, ' Friends, you are much mis- taken : I should not be afraid to undertake, with five hundred such men as we have in the town I came from, to cut you off before you got forty miles.' They immediately put him under guard, kept him three or four hours, and let him go again."
332
MILITARY HISTORY.
At about eleven o'clock, A. M., after one or two hours' sail, all on board were surprised to see the privateer suddenly put off from them. Before long, the captain discovered she had gone in pursuit of a prize. It was subsequently ascertained that the privateer took it the same day, and that it contained provisions, clothing, &c., for the British army ; it probably not being known to those on board that the British had left Boston in the possession of their enemies.
GEORGE WELLINGTON Was at the Lexington Battle. He said, when the British came in sight, the captain of the Lexington Company asked all who were will- ing to stand their ground "to poise their fire-locks." Every man did it. When Pitcairn ordered the rebels to disperse, none moved; but, when the British fired, all ran. At one time, a British officer came upon a Yankee with a gun, and asked him what he meant to do with it. The man hesitatingly replied, “Not much." The officer presented his pistol; the man, taken by surprise, gave up his gun, went off, and in great mortification told his companions of his ill-for- tune. As the British advanced to Concord, the Ameri- cans kept gathering and hanging about them. Wel- lington followed them on their advance, and on their return. A noble horse trotted by him, with portman- teau, saddle, bridle, pistols, &c., but without a rider ; the officer probably having been killed. At another time, three or four British grenadiers entered a house, and were followed by Americans for the purpose of surrounding it and making them prisoners. One of the Americans went round the house to the back-door. A grenadier opened it. They " drew upon each other " instantly. The American shot the grenadier through the heart, and he fell dead. The grenadier, firing at the same moment, shot the American through the ab- domen. Wellington conversed with the latter, who said he should die, and he did. Wellington took up the grenadier's cap, made of leather and brass, carried it a mile or two, found it very heavy, and threw it over the fence. A person who spent an evening with
333
WENTWORTH. - COGGAN. - FOSTER.
him and Capt. Barrett said they could not agree whether the first resistance to the British was made at Lexington or Concord; but Wellington observed that one of his relatives remarked after the battle, "D-n then !. I gave them the guts of my gun " at Lexington when they fired. Wellington was also engaged at the time of the Shays Rebellion. He moved to Ap- pleton, and afterward to Albion, where he died.
LEMUEL WENTWORTH's gravestone is in the aban- doned burying-ground at East Union. It states that he was at the battle of Bunker Hill. This is a mis- take. From a memorandum made in 1820, it appears that " he served the United States, a whole year at one time, in what was then called the Year's Service; that he marched from Winter Hill to New York, and then to Albany, Ticonderoga, Montreal, and subse- quently back to Mount Independence; and then he went to 'Trenton, and helped to capture the Hessians."
Besides the persons mentioned, there may have been some other revolutionary soldiers, who have not been noticed because not known to be such.
WILLIAM COGGAN Was in the battle of Bunker Hill, on the British side. He passed over from Boston after the commencement of action.
LOYALIST.
About the year 1814 came Edward Foster from Halifax. He was the father of Major Robert Foster. He had left Massachusetts when the loyalists, or tories as they were called, were obliged to go off. There seem to have been two men of the name, a father and a son. Edes's Gazette, July 29, 1776, states, “ We hear that yesterday a prize was sent into Salem, with Ben. Davis and son, Edward Foster, and about a dozen other tories, on board. She was bound to New York, with stolen dry goods." It is said that Edward Foster was a blacksmith; and, when Boston was be- sieged by the American army, he assisted in making horse-shoes, to which were commonly affixed three prongs, one or two inches long; and that these were
29
334
MILITARY HISTORY.
buried on Boston Neck for the purpose of laming the American cavalry, in case they should attempt to en- ter the city in that direction. Mr. Foster appeared to be a very worthy, quiet man, and resided with his son till he died July 17, 1822, aged seventy-two.
INCIDENTS IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
When Castine, then called Biguyduce or Penobscot, was taken by the British troops in the year 1779, Philip Robbins, as commissary, and his son Jacob Robbins, as his waiter, joined the expedition 1 against them. These were the only persons who went from Stirlington. When the Americans were obliged to abandon their movements against Biguyduce, a com- pany on the retreat encamped one night on Craw- ford's Meadow. 2 The few inhabitants here always kept their guns loaded by their beds, and had dogs. They often went out as scouts, but in the disguise of hunters. In Waldoborough and Warren were many tories ; " the old country people were almost all for the king." 3 A road was beaten down from Waldo- borough through the upper part of Union, by the driving of cattle to Biguyduce. Two British officers named McGregor and Roakes, deserters from Castine, piloted by Oliver Miller, of Lincolnville, passed through the settlement. They could not be prevailed on to
1 It was in this expedition that Christopher Newbit, who settled on the point of land at the north end of Sunnybec Pond, had his right arm taken off, July 28, 1779, by a cannon-ball, which glanced round a tree. By a resolve of the Legislature, passed Feb. 28, 1781, his father John Newbit was paid " £13, in bills of the new emission, in full for all surgeons' bills and other expenses incurred by the loss of his son's arm in the battle aforesaid." C. Newbit lost his right eye, and afterward fractured his right leg so badly that it scarcely escaped amputation. Notwithstanding these infirmities, it is almost incredible with what skill he would drive his team, load stones, and do other work, with his left arm. A pension was settled on him; and it appears, from the Report of the Secretary of the United States, that, when he died in September, 1826, forty-seven years afterward, he had received $2,790.27.
2 C. Eaton, Esq.
3 Mrs. Mcro.
335
REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS.
lodge in the house of Philip Robbins, but spent the night in the top of his barn.1
Occasionally some of the inhabitants were alarmed. Two famishing deserters from the British called at the house at South Union, and asked for ham, a leg of which they saw in the cellar-way. " Mrs. Butler cut off and cooked a generous quantity, and set it with brown bread before them. She was so frightened that she would have given them any thing they had asked for in the house."
When General Wadsworth and Colonel Benjamin Burton were prisoners of war at Castine, Philip Rob- bins and others visited them, with a flag of truce. 1 Some sharp words then passed between some of the British and Robbins. This was probably towards the end of April, 1781. Shortly afterward, Philip Rob- bins was sent express from Camden to Boston, to guard Capt. John Long, a tory prisoner. His bill, bearing date May 1 to May 5, 1781, so great was the depreciation of the continental paper, amounted to £1,128. 2s., including the charge to meet the ex- penses on his return. Long afterward escaped. Rob- bins took him again and carried him back. Long swore vengeance. He afterwards persuaded the ene- my at Biguyduce that it would be a good plan to come and burn Union. Just at that time, the British officer in command at Biguyduce was changed; and a friend of Robbins succeeded in informing the new commander, that the whole affair was a spiteful move- ment originating with Long, that there was nothing at Stirlington worth going for ; and he accordingly put a stop to it.1
. When General Wadsworth and Col. Benjamin Bur- ton made their wonderful escape from the British fort at Castine, of which there is a minute account in the second volume of Dwight's Travels, they came on to Mount Pleasant, June 21, 1781, and down by Crawford's Pond, to Warren and 'I'homaston.
1 Mrs. Mero.
336
MILITARY HISTORY.
FRENCH WAR.
In the latter part of the last century, when a war with France was anticipated, orders came for an en- sign and eleven men. Accordingly, eleven men enlisted under William Hart. They frequently met for drill, and held themselves in readiness to march. But they were never ordered from Union. The ensign, how- ever, seemed determined to make something out of it. Accordingly, he once told his soldiers, when he was about to have a training, "to fetch their girls " and any friends whom they wished to invite, and have a ball at his house. The consequence was a merry time to all, except one of the eleven, who, on account of the unpopularity of his wife, was not invited. The guests " paid for the fiddle and the liquor," and Hart fur- nished the entertainment and provided for the horses. 1 This appears to have been all the part which the in- habitants took in the expected French war.
MILITARY APPROPRIATIONS.
Sept. 1, 1794, upon an article " to see what sum of money the town will grant for raising minute-men," - that is, men to be ready to march against the enemy at a minute's warning, - it was voted to give " three dollars' bounty, and to make their wages ten dollars per month with what Congress gives." Another war with Great Britain was anticipated, because the British government would not give up, according to treaty, the posts at Detroit and in the West.
Aug. 28, 1797, the sum of fifty-five dollars was granted " to purchase military stores, viz., 60 lbs. pow- der, 100 lbs. ball, 100 flints, &c., agreeable to law; said money to be assessed and collected as soon as con- venient." Edward Jones was to purchase the stores as soon as the money was collected. Amariah Mero was " chosen to go to Waldoborough Court, to repre- sent to said court that we are in preparation to get
1 Mrs. Wm. Hart.
337
POWDER-HOUSE. - MILITARY SPIRIT.
stores, and to get the town cleared of the fine, if he can."
Jan. 31, 1804, the town paid " Rufus Gillmor, one of the selectmen, $51.33, to purchase ammunition for the town's use." There is another charge, without date, of one dollar and twenty-five cents, by Jessa Robbins, " for flints for the town."
The selectmen's records contain the following no- tices : Sept. 2, 1806, " Took from the town stock of powder 23 lbs., for the use of the two companies in this town." June, 1807, " Put into the town stock of powder one hundred weight, which cost $38.25." Oct. 14, 1808, " Took from the town stock 26 lbs. for the use of the two companies in this town." In 1810, " The selectmen supplied the two companies with 28 lbs. of powder."
POWDER-HOUSE.
The town's powder was stored in the garret of the Old Meeting-house. An unsuccessful attempt was made, May 8, 1815, to provide a powder-house. April 7, 1816," Voted to build one, the expense not to exceed fifty dollars." Accordingly, not long afterward, the villagers were surprised one morning at seeing a little wooden building about six feet square and ten feet high, with a peaked roof, perched on the highest part of the hill, north of the Common; where, having been made to order, it had been hauled in the night. It still stands there, though somewhat the worse for the storms and the boys' knives. An effort was made, April 7, 1845, to have the town dispose of it and of the " uten- sils therein."
MILITARY SPIRIT.
In different parts of the town, when the day's work was over, almost every evening's breeze bore with it the sounds of the drum and fife, before and after the war of 1812. The swivel was placed near the powder- house. For several months after the war, it was gene- rally fired once each day, between sunset and dark.
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MILITARY HISTORY.
May 6, 1816, it was "voted that the militia should have the privilege of the meeting-house for inspection." A military spirit pervaded the town. Those were the " glorious days," when soldiers would volunteer, and meet for the purpose of drill.
July 4, 1820, a good day for appeals to patriotism, the town " voted that Capt. Noah Rice draw from the town-treasury fifteen dollars, to be applied towards the purchasing a stand of colors." The rifle-company made a similar application, April 1, 1822; but it was " voted to drop the article." A standard, however, was afterward presented by the ladies through Miss Foster, who made an appropriate address, which was replied to by Capt. Lewis Bachelder, who received it.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
MILITARY HISTORY. (Continued.)
Infantry Officers. - Light Infantry. - Its Organization and Dress. - Its Officers. - Rifle Company. - Its Organization and Dress. - Rifles. - Its Officers. - Disbandment.
INFANTRY.
OFFICERS. - Joel Adams, elected captain, Oct. 19, 1791; discharged May 14, 1798. He was the first captain, and for some time used a moose-wood cane, instead of a sword. Previously to this, there was no military training in Union.
Joseph Maxcy, the first lieutenant, Oct. 18, 1791 ; captain, June 25, 1798; major, Sept. 5, 1805.
William Hart, first ensign, Oct. 18, 1791.
David Gillmor is said to have been the second lieutenant.
339
INFANTRY.
John Blanchard, lieutenant, Aug. 30, 1802.
Rufus Gillmor, captain, May 2, 1805; major, June 26, 1810 ; discharged Feb. 2, 1814.
Joseph Pitman, ensign, June 16, 1806.
Joseph Vaughan, lieutenant, June 6, 1808; dis- charged June 21, 1813.
Peter Adams, captain, Jan. 7, 1811 ; discharged Aug. 21, 1813.
David Grafton, ensign, Jan. 7, 1811; lieutenant, Oct. 2, 1813; captain, Jan. 8, 1814; moved from town; discharged March 24, 1817.
Rufus Gillmor, jun., ensign, Oct. 2, 1813; lieu- tenant, Jan. 8, 1814; moved to Searsmont; dis- charged March 9, 1816.
Bailey More, ensign, Jan. 8, 1814; lieutenant, May 22, 1816; moved to Searsmont; discharged March 20, 1817.
Noah Rice, ensign, May 22, 1816; captain, April 30, 1817 ; re-elected captain, Sept. 24, 1825; removed.
Millard Gillmor, lieutenant, April 30, 1817; moved from town; discharged July 6, 1819.
Nathaniel Tobey, ensign, April 30, 1817; lieute- nant; discharged 1823.
Cyrus Robbins, ensign, Aug. 30, 1819 ; discharged May 27, 1820.
John Pearse Robbins, captain, May 24, 1823; removed 1825.
Philo Thurston, ensign, July 5, 1825; discharged March 17, 1834.
Ebenezer Ward Adams, captain, Sept. 18, 1832; cashiered Sept. 8, 1835.
John Fuller, lieutenant, Sept. 18, 1832; discharged March 5, 1840.
George Robbins, captain, May 10, 1834 ; discharged by limitation, Jan. 3, 1842.
Alexander Skinner, lieutenant, May 10, 1834; dis- charged by limitation, Jan. 3, 1842.
Life W. Boggs, ensign, May 10, 1834; discharged by limitation, Jan. 3, 1842.
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MILITARY HISTORY.
LIGHT INFANTRY.
GENERAL ORDERS. - " Head Quarters, Feb. 26, 1806. The Commander-in-chief, having been authorized by a re- solve of the General Court, on the petition of Micajah Gleason and others, and having the advice of Council, thereupon orders that a company of light-infantry be raised in the Fourth Regiment, First Brigade and Eighth Divi- sion of the Militia, to be annexed to said regiment, and sub- ject to all the regulations established by law ; provided, nevertheless, that no standing company of foot be reduced thereby to a less number than sixty-four effective privates.
" By order of the Commander-in-chief,
"WM. DONNISON, Adjutant-General."
ORGANIZATION AND DRESS. - The light-infantry was accordingly organized in 1806. The dress consisted of blue short coats with buff facings, blue panta- loons, half-gaiters bound with buff, oval black leather caps, with a red painted stripe two or three inches wide around them, and a strip of bear-skin about three inches wide, extending from the brow over the top of the head to the back of the neck. On the right side of the caps was a cockade, from behind which rose a perpendicular red plume. The musicians substituted red or buff coats and white pantaloons.
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