USA > New Hampshire > History of New Hampshire, Volume II > Part 11
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4 Belknap's Hist. of N. H., Farmer's Edition, p. 366.
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WE DO therefore Declare that it is the opinion of this Assembly that our Delegates at the Continental Congress should be Instructed, and they are hereby Instructed to join with the other Colonies in Declaring THE THIR- TEEN UNITED COLONIES, A FREE & INDEPENDENT STATE Solemnly Pledging our Faith & Honor, That we will on our parts Support the Measure with our Lives and Fortunes ;- and that in consequence thereof, They, the Continental Congress, on whose wisdom, Fidelity & Integrity we rely, May enter into and form such Alliances as they may Judge most con- ducive to the Present Safety and Future advantage of THESE AMERICAN COLONIES: Provided, the Regulation of our Internal Police be under the direction of our own Assembly.
The news of the Declaration of Independence, published at Philadelphia on the fourth of July, was proclaimed within fourteen days in all the sire towns of New Hampshire. At Exeter it was first publicly read by John Taylor Gilman, who afterwards became governor of the State. The issue was now distinctly marked. All thoughts of reconciliation were banished. Every man had to decide whether he would stake his all with the patriots, or side with Great Britain. It had been resolved in the Continental Congress, March fourteenth, and the resolve had been approved by the committee of safety at Exeter, April twelfth, that all males above twenty-one years of age (lunatics, idiots and negroes excepted) should be asked to sign the fol- lowing Association Test :-
WE, THE SUBSCRIBERS, DO SOLEMLY ENGAGE AND PROM- ISE, THAT WE WILL, TO THE UTMOST OF OUR POWER, AT THE RISQUE OF OUR LIVES AND FORTUNES, WITH ARMS, OPPOSE THE HOSTILE PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH FLEETS AND ARMIES, AGAINST THE UNITED AMERICAN COLONIES.
Whether all towns in New Hampshire were actually sub- jected to this test is uncertain. Such records of eighty-nine towns have been published in the eighth volume of the State papers. No records there appear of Dover, Durham, Madbury and some towns along the Connecticut river. There is allu- sion, in the records of Durham, that Alexander Scammell was appointed to assist in the application of the test in that town, and it may be that all towns applied it and the records of some towns have been lost. The test was signed by eight thousand, one hundred and ninety-nine persons in New Hampshire, and
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seven hundred and seventy-three persons refused to sign it. Some of these were of the Society of Friends and others had conscientious reasons for withholding their signatures.
The treatment of the loyalists, or tories, and those who would not sign the association test was mild and considerate. Seventy-six were expelled from the country on penalty of death if they returned without consent of proper authorities and the property of twenty-eight was confiscated. Others joined the ranks of the enemy and fought against their old friends, in alliance with British, Canadians and Indians, and when such were met in battle naturally it fared hard with them. The great majority of those who did not want separation from Great Britain accepted the situation and made no disturbance or open opposition, and such were not molested. The term, Tory, took on a meaning that was reproduced somewhat in the word, cop- perhead, during our civil war, meaning one who sympathized with the enemy. Since the enemy, in both cases, have become friends again, the epithets with their sinister meaning have been quite forgotten, and it seems reasonable and justifiable that ties of kindred and acquaintance should have induced many to side with the upholders of the old regime. After the Revolution the loyalists should have been urged to return, and their property should have been restored to them, just as was done to our brethren in the South in more recent years. The brotherhood of mankind and especially of English-speaking people, should not be permanently interrupted by war and strenuous differences of political or other views. ยท
Among those proscribed was Benjamin Thompson of Con- cord, who became famous as Count Rumford. He was born at North Woburn, Massachusetts, in 1753, and spent his early days on his father's farm. He tried clerking in a store, then studied medicine and at the age of eighteen went to Concord, New Hampshire, to teach school. Here he married the widow of Benjamin Rolfe, whose maiden name was Sarah Walker, daughter of the Rev. Timothy Walker, a rich widow thirteen years older than himself. This marriage secured him an appoint- ment as major in the militia, at the age of twenty-one, his brother-in-law, Timothy Walker, being colonel. Thereby he secured also the envy and jealousy of some persons, over whose
COUNT RUMFORD
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heads he had been promoted. Two British officers, from Gen- eral Gage's army in Boston, visited Concord on furlough and were entertained by Thompson. This was enough to excite popular suspicion. There was talk about mobbing him by night. He fled to his native town and was there arrested and tried as the enemy of his country, though he had sought for service in the patriot ranks. He was not convicted, but was placed under such suspicion that he was led to join General Gage in Boston, and when that town was evacuated Lord Howe sent him to England with dispatches. His talents soon began to be manifested. In 1779 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society for discoveries he had made in explosives. Next year he was made Under Secretary of State for the British Colonies. At age of twenty-nine he was commissioned a lieu- tenant colonel and came back to America. Two years later he was knighted by King George the Third. Then he went to Bavaria as aide-de-camp and chamberlain to the Elector and was assigned the task of reorganizing the military establishment. At thirty-four he was a major-general and a councilor of State, and at thirty-six a lieutenant-general, chief of the general staff, minister of war and superintendent of the police of the State. The same year he founded the Royal Institution in London and got Sir Humphrey Davy appointed professor of chemistry there. He transformed the army of Bavaria, established public and industrial schools, revolutionized household economics, reclaimed waste lands and created government stock farms. It is claimed that he was the Edison of German Kultur. He died at the age of sixty-two, famous all over Europe. His daughter, Sarah, known as Countess Rumford, died in Concord in 1852.
Among those proscribed and whose goods were confiscated was William Stark, brother to the famous General John Stark. He had served under General Wolfe at Louisburg and Quebec and is called colonel in 1776, in the Journal of the House. Soon after, disappointed in promotion, he joined the British army in New York and was made colonel of dragoons. He was killed by a fall from his horse not long after, the best thing he ever did, as his brother is reported to have said.5
5 The full list of the proscribed is as follows; those in italics by a sub- sequent act had their property confiscated: Gov. John Wentworth, Peter
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Livius, John Fisher, George Meserve, Robert Trail, George Boyd, Col. John Fenton, John Cochran, Samuel Hale, Jr., Edward Parry, Thomas Mc- Donough, Maj. Robert Rogers, Andrew P. Sparhawk, Patrick Burn, mariner, John Smith, mariner, William Johnson Rysam, mariner, Stephen Little, physician, Thomas and Archibald Achincloss, Robert Robertson, Hugh Hen- derson, Gillam Butler, James and John McMaster, George Craigie, mer- chants, James Bixby, yeoman, William Pevey, mariner, Benjamin Hart, rope- maker, Bartholomew Stavers, post-rider, Philip Bayley, trader, Samuel Holland, Esq., Benning Wentworth, gentleman, and Jude Kennison, mariner, all of Portsmouth; Jonathan Dix of Pembroke, trader, Robert Luist Fowle of Exeter, printer, Benjamin Thompson of Concord (alias Count Rumford), Jacob Brown and George Bell of Newmarket; Col. Stephen Holland, Richard Holland, yeoman, John Davidson, yeoman, James Fulton, yeoman, Thomas Smith, yeoman, and Dennis O'Hala, yeoman, all of Londonderry; Edward Goldstone Lutwyche of Merrimack; Samuel Cummings, Esq., Thomas Cum- mings, yeoman, and Benjamin Whitney, Esq., of Hollis; William Stark, Esq., and John Stark (his son), John Stinson, John Stinson, Jr., Samuel Stinson, yeomen, Jeremiah Bower, yeoman, of Dunbarton; Zaccheus Cutler, trader, and John Holland, gentleman, of Amherst; Daniel Farnsworth of New Ipswich, yeomen, John Quigley, Esq., of Francestown, John Morrison of Peterborough; Josiah Pomroy, physician, Elijah Williams, Esq., Thomas Cutler, gentleman, Eleazar Sanger (or Sawyer) and Robert Gilmore, yeoman, of Keene; Breed Batchelder of Packersfield, gentleman, Simon Baxter, yeo- man, of Alstead, Solomon Willard of Winchester, gentleman, Jesse Rice of Rindge, physician, Enos Stevens, gentleman, Phinehas Stevens, physician, Solomon Stevens, yeoman, Levi Willard, gentleman, of Charlestown; John Brooks of Claremont, yeoman, Josiah Jones and Simon Jones of Hinsdale, gentlemen, "and all other persons who have left or shall leave this State or any other of the United States of America as aforesaid, and have joined or shall join the enemies thereof." (N. H. State Papers, VIII., 810-814.)
Chapter VI PROGRESS OF THE REVOLUTION
Chapter VI
PROGRESS OF THE REVOLUTION.
Change of Name from Province to Colony and State-Counterfeiters-Let- ter of Junius-Judicial Courts-Organization of the Militia-Sullivan's Brigade-He leads the Retreat from Canada-Hubbardton-Battle of Long Island-Sullivan Goes as Peace Messenger to Congress-Battle of Trenton-Princeton-Formation of a Continental Army-Resignation of General Stark-Arrest of Asa Porter-Increasing Difficulty of Get- ting Volunteers-March of Burgoyne-Noble Offer of John Langdon- Stark Made Brigadier-General of an Independent Force-Censure of Congress-Bennington-Treatment of the Tories Captured-Lust and Cruelty of the Hessians-Battle of Stillwater, or Bemis Heights-Sara- toga and Surrender of Burgoyne-Valley Forge-Sullivan in Rhode Island-Expedition against the Six Nations-Resignation of Sullivan- Death of Scammell at Yorktown-Privateers-Hampden-Raleigh- Ranger and John Paul Jones.
TT was on the tenth day of September, 1776, that it was voted to change the name, which had been the Province of New Hampshire and then for a short time the Colony of New Hamp- shire, to the State of New Hampshire, in harmony with the action of other colonies. Difficulties of varied character arose. Some tories sought to counterfeit paper currency issued by the State, and one Robert Lewis Fowle, printer and publisher of the New Hampshire Gazette of Exeter, was arrested and con- fined. His goods were confiscated, but after the war he re- turned to Exeter and sought the restoration of his property. He was nephew to the Daniel Fowle of Portsmouth, who in 1756 set up the first printing press in the province and published the Portsmouth Gazette. Daniel Fowle was an ardent patriot, but nevertheless he was called to account for publishing in January, 1776, a long communication from Junius which emanated evidently from Great Britain and was intended to cre- ate public opinion in favor of adherence to the mother country. The hopelessness of the cause of the patriots is strongly set forth therein. How could a continent of one thousand miles of sea-coast, without a ship, defend itself against five hundred
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battle ships? How could a country able to pay but thirty thou- sand men fight against one that could put one hundred and fifty thousand into the martial field? What hope of success had three millions contending with fifteen millions? How could a country without arms, ammunition and trade contend with a nation abundantly supplied with all the munitions of war? Could not the nation that had conquered France subdue America ? If we gain independence, we can not support it. The taxes would be tenfold, and so the argument ran, convincing all who were already convinced that the colonies could not win inde- pendence, nor maintain it, if once gained.1
Judicial courts were established and all appeal to England was disallowed. Appeals formerly made to the governor and council were transferred to the superior court, whose decision was final. Judges and military officers were appointed by con- currence of the House and Council. More paper money was issued, whose depreciation raised enormously the price of com- modities. Efforts were made from time to time by various towns to regulate the price of produce and merchandize, but the trading, so far as possible, was by barter, money of any sort being scarce, and both State and Continental bills being dis- trusted. A special act was passed, confirming all former laws of the province, so far as they did not conflict with the new form of government, or were not actually repealed.
The militia of the State was reorganized, into Training Bands and Alarm Lists. All able-bodied males between the ages of sixteen and fifty, except Negroes, Indians and Mulattoes, belonged to the Training Bands, and these were divided into seventeen regiments, making a total of sixteen thousand, seven hundred and ten men. Sixty-eight men made up a company, who chose their own captain, lieutenants and ensigns. All higher officers were appointed by the House and Council. Every officer and private was required to equip himself with arms and whatever was thought necessary for a hurried call and a short campaign. The Alarm List included all men between the ages of sixteen and sixty-five who were not in the Training Bands. Fifty-nine Articles of War were drawn up for the regulation
1 N. H. State Papers, VIII., 25-27.
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A HISTORY
of the militia. The troops required for the regular army were at first volunteers, but any man in the militia was subject to draft, whenever this was found necessary.
For service in the year 1776 about two thousand men were raised and formed into three regiments under the same com- manders as in the former year, Stark, Poor and Reed. These formed the brigade, of which John Sullivan was brigadier-gen- eral. After the evacuation of Boston by General Gage the troops that had besieged it were ordered to New York. Sulli- van's brigade went up the Hudson and thence down the lakes into Canada, to succor and reinforce the troops that were re- treating from the disastrous attack on Quebec. General Bene- dict Arnold, the year before, had led an army up the Kennebec to what is now Augusta, Maine, and thence through the woods and over the mountains, to meet General Richard Montgomery and capture the chief city and port of Canada. Montgomery fell in battle; Arnold withdrew to Montreal and busied himself, it is said, in robbing its citizens; General Thomas, on whom many hopes were placed, sickened and died of small pox. It devolved on General Sullivan to conduct the retreat from the mouth of the Sorelle river. Against the advice of General Stark an expedition was sent by General Sullivan against Trois Rivieres, which proved a failure, and its leader, General Thomp- son, was taken prisoner. Small pox broke out in the American army, which swept off a large number. Although pursued by a superior force General Sullivan managed to draw off his force without loss of a boat or piece of artillery. The public build- ings and barracks at St. Johns were burned, and John Stark and his staff were last to leave the smoking ruins, as the advance guard of the British came in sight. The army withdrew to Crown Point and thence to Ticonderoga, contrary to advice of Colonel Stark. About one-third of the New Hampshire men who engaged in this ill-fated expedition were lost in battle or by sickness.
On the sixth of July, 1777 occurred the battle of Hubbard- ton, where Colonel Nathan Hale and his New Hampshire regi- ment were engaged. General Fraser commanded the British, afterwards killed in the battle of Saratoga. Hale, several of his officers and about sixty men were killed or captured, and Hale
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died, a prisoner on Long Island, September 23, 1780. The loss of the British was greater, and the battle stopped their pursuit. Major Benjamin Titcomb was wounded and taken prisoner; he was soon exchanged and was again wounded at the battle of Saratoga.
General Sullivan, being superseded by General Gates, re- turned to the main army near New York. The British landed on Long Island, and to Sullivan was assigned the place of General Greene, who was ill of a raging fever. This was on the twentieth of August. General Israel Putnam was given chief command of about eight thousand undisciplined volunteers on the island, opposed to twenty thousand British and Hessians, supported by ten ships of the line, twenty frigates and four hundred ships and transports that lay in New York harbor. The unequal contest did not last long. Sullivan's men were surrounded and were advised by him to shift for themselves. Some cut their way through the ranks of the enemy. Bancroft says that Sullivan was captured by three Hessian grenadiers, while he was hiding in a field of maize. He attributes the disaster of the day to the incapacity of General Putnam.
In conversation with Lord Howe General Sullivan offered to visit Congress as a mediary, and this offer was accepted, an exchange of General Sullivan for General Prescott then at Phila- delphia having been speedily arranged. General Washington did not approve of the mission but was unwilling that military authority should interfere with an appeal to civil power. On the second of September Sullivan appeared before Congress, and Bancroft records that John Adams said to the member who sat next him, "Oh, the decoy-duck, would that the first bullet from the enemy in the defeat on Long Island had passed through his brain." But Bancroft takes every opportunity to speak depreciatingly of Sullivan, and it is easy for the peaceful diplo- mat to criticize the defeated soldier, "He jests at scars who never felt a wound." The purport of the verbal message of Sullivan, when reduced to writing, was that there should be an unofficial interview between some members of Congress and Lord Howe, who claimed that he had authority to adjust all differences between the colonies and Great Britain. The accept- ance of such a proposal would be a surrender of all that the
I33
A HISTORY
colonies were then contending for, and the proposal was passed over in silence. Here General Sullivan is made to appear in a bad light, hasty and inconsiderate. The picture is not in harmony with his conduct before and after this event. Subsequently the message of Lord Howe was considered and a committee was appointed to confer with him.
After the posts 'at Ticonderoga and Mount Independence had been fortified and General Carleton had retired into winter quarters in Canada, Colonel John Stark, to whom General Gates had given the command of a brigade, protested that several junior colonels had been promoted before him, yet he went with his command to assist General Washington, whose forces he joined with his New Hampshire men a few days before the battle of Trenton. At the same time Sullivan arrived, who had been given command of General Charles Lee's division, that uncertain officer having been captured at an inn. The troops that marched two hundred miles from Ticonderoga left a bloody trail, so poorly were they shod. In the council of war, preceding the battle of Trenton Colonel Stark observed to General Wash- ington, "Your men have too long been accustomed to place their dependence for safety upon spades and pick-axes. If you ever effect to establish the independence of these States, you must teach them to place dependence upon their fire-arms and their courage."
The term of enlistment of the two half-filled New Hamp- shire regiments expired just before the battle of Trenton, but Stark reminded them of Bunker Hill and so impressed upon them a sense of the country's need in this critical and dangerous hour that they consented to a man to remain six weeks longer. Two regiments of militia sent from New Hampshire to rein- force Washington's army remained till the following March; these were commanded by Colonel Thomas Tash and Colonel David Gilman.
The surprise and capture of nearly a thousand Hessians at Princeton was effected during the most severe weather of winter. The patriot soldiers were half-clad and poorly armed. Sullivan sent word to Washington that the arms of his men were wet; "Then use the bayonet," was the reply, and with Colonel Stark in the advanced guard the charge was made, that swept every-
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thing before them and "turned the shadow of death into the morning." It was the decisive stroke of the Revolution. Con- gress thanked Washington, and he turned the praise over to the officers and privates, who marched all night through rain and sleet and fell upon the unsuspecting enemy like a resistless avalanche. It would be called a skirmish to-day, when millions form the battle front, but then it was a bold and desperate battle, with arms and odds against the Americans. In this rush and struggle of half an hour the Americans did not lose a man. The fight at Princeton soon followed, in which Stark, Poor and Reed with their thinned regiments did valiant service.
The terms of enlistment of the New Hampshire regiments having expired Colonel Stark returned to Exeter to recruit new forces. By this time it was apparent to wise observers that the war could not be fought successfully by militiamen enlisted for brief periods of service. Hence a Continental Army was re- cruited for three years or during the war. The officers were appointed by the Continental Congress, and the commanders of the three regiments of New Hampshire were Colonels Joseph Cilley, Nathan Hale and Alexander Scammell. Enoch Poor was promoted to be a brigadier-general. Colonel Stark was rightly displeased because he had been a second time superseded. He therefore resigned his commission and returned to his farm at Dunbarton. He was too independent and unbending to suit some persons in authority. The thanks of both houses con- vened at Exeter were presented him "for his good services in the present war; and that, from his early and steadfast attach- ment to the cause of his country, they make not the least doubt that his future conduct, in whatever state of life providence may place him, will manifest the same noble disposition of mind."
About this time the inhabitants of the Coos country were fearful of an invasion by Canadians and Indians, and there was a secret plot unearthed, to send messengers to General Bur- goyne to occupy that country with his troops, so that thereby the people might be protected from something worse. The leader in this plot was thought to be Colonel Asa Porter, and the informer against him was Colonel John Hurd. Both were graduates of Harvard College. When Grafton county was formed in 1773 Colonel Hurd was appointed Chief Justice and
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A HISTORY
Colonel Porter associate justice of the inferior court. Porter was arrested and taken to Exeter, where he was confined and later he was allowed the range of Newtown. He escaped, was re-arrested and confined to his father's farm in Boxford, Massa- chusetts. Later he was permitted to return to Haverhill, New Hampshire, where he was somewhat prominent in the history of that town. His three daughters married Chief-Justice Daniel Farrand of Vermont, United States Senator Thomas W. Thomp- son, and Hon. Mills Olcott. The alarm at Coos seems to have been unfounded; at least no enemy made appearance.
In the latter part of the year 1776 New Hampshire had three hundred men to guard the fortifications at the mouth of the Pascataqua, three regiments of regulars in the Continental Army and six regiments of militia as reinforcements. The following year a draft became necessary, yet by payment of twelve pounds a drafted person might get release; in 1779 the forfeiture was increased to fifty or sixty pounds. As the war continued it became more and more difficult to get volunteers. The pay was uncertain and the paper money was continually decreasing in purchasing value. Patriotism does not seem to thrive on pov- erty and spare meals. An army must be well fed and clothed in order to fight at its best and to stick to service. The ragged, foot-sore, half-starved soldiers of the Continental Army showed the highest degree of heroism and their efficiency in face of the British veterans was wonderful. They were fighting for life and liberty, and that was'a greater stimulus than good wages.
In the spring of 1777 General Burgoyne, who had super- seded General Carlton, started on what he supposed to be a triumphant expedition, expecting to trample down all opposition and join his forces to those of Lord Howe in New York. Ticonderoga soon was captured. The erection of batteries on Mount Defiance compelled the evacuation of Mount Independ- ence, by which the American army lost seventy cannon and great military stores. The outlook was very discouraging. Burgoyne sent a large foraging force into the "Hampshire Grants," that had recently declared their independence under the name of the State of Vermont. The object was to ravage the country as far as the Connecticut river, and especially to collect horses and cattle. Vermont sent earnest entreaties to the legislature
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