History of the city of Nashua, N.H., Part 49

Author: Parker, Edward Everett, 1842- ed; Reinheimer, H., & Co
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: Nashua, N.H., Telegraph Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 652

USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Nashua > History of the city of Nashua, N.H. > Part 49

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Let us now leave this record or narrative of Indian depredations, incursions and massacres, with the statement, believed to be true, that it is more than three-quarters of a century* since the last Indian living in New Hampshire died in a remote cabin in upper Coos.

The peace declared between France and England in 1748 was broken in 1755 by the "seven years' war," commonly known in this section as the "Old French War."

Early in this war (1755) an expedition under Gen. Sir William Johnson was planned against Crown Point. A regiment of five hundred men was raised in New Hampshire for this purpose, and the command of it was given to Col. Joseph Blanchard of this town. One of the companies of this regiment was the famous Rangers, of which Robert Rogers was captain, and John Stark (afterwards general) was lieutenant.

"Parties of them were frequently under the very walls of the French garrisons, and at one time killed and scalped a soldier near the gate of the fort at Crown Point. Late in the autumn the forces were disbanded, and the regiment returned home. One of the companies composing the regiment went from Dunstable and the vicinity, and was commanded by Capt. Peter Powers of Hollis. Among the officers of the regiment we find the names of Jonathan Lovewell of this town commissary, Rev. Daniel Emerson of Hollis chaplain, and John Hale of Hollis surgeon."i

The home of many of the famous troop known as Rogers' Rangers was in Dunstable. Fox justly says of them :---

"There is scarcely in the annals of America a company of troops more famous than 'Rogers' Rangers.' Their life was one scene of constant exposure, and their story reminds one of the days of romance. The forest was their home, and they excelled even the Indian in cunning and hardihood. Everywhere they wandered in search of adventures, fearless and cautious, until their very name became a terror to the enemy. Ever in the post of danger when the army was advancing, they scouted the woods to detect the hidden ambush, and when retreating they skirmished in the rear to keep the foe at bay. If any act of desperate daring was to be done, the Rangers were 'the forlorn hope.' At midnight they traversed the camp of the enemy, or carried off a sentinel from his post, as if in mockery. Their blow fell like lightning, and before the echo had died away or the alarm subsided another blow was struck at some far distant point. They seemed to be omnipresent, and the enemy deemed that they were in league with evil spirits. The plain, unvarnished tale of their daily hardships and perilous wanderings, their strange adventures, and 'hair breadth 'scapes ' would be as wild and thrilling as a German legend.

"Of this company, and of others similar in character, a large number belonged to this town. The records are lost and their names are principally forgotton. Besides the two colonels, Blanchard and Lovewell, and the commissary, Jonathan Lovewell, it is known that the sons of Noah Johnson, the last survivor of Lovewell's fight, were in the war, both of whom were killed. One of them, Noah, was an officer, and was killed at the storming of Quebec, fighting under Wolfe. Nehemiah Lovewell was a lieutenant in 1756, and a captain in 1758 and 1760. Jonathan Farwell, William Harris, Thomas Killicut, Thomas Blanchard, Jonathan Blanchard, Eleazer Farwell, Benjamin Hassell, James Mann, Ebenezer Fosdick, Bunker Farwell, John Lamson, Simeon Blood, Thomas Lancey, Ephraim Butterfield, John Carkin, James French, Henry Farwell, Nathaniel Blood, Joseph Combs, John Gilson, James Harwood, John Huston, Joshua Wright, William Walker, John Harwood and William Lancey, were also out during the war, as was also Lieut. David Alld, and the gun which he then carried is still in the possession of his daughters.

"In the expedition of 1760 Colonel Goffe commanded the regiment which mustered at Litchfield. His destination was Crown Point and Canada. A select company of Rangers was formed from the regiment, and the command given to Capt. Nehemiah Lovewell of this town. As a specimen of the military dress and discipline of the time, the following order is inserted. It is copied from Adjutant Hobart's record, and is dated Litchfield, May 25, 1760 :- ' Colonel Goffe requires the officers to be

* A. D. 1896.

+5 N. H. Hist. Coll., 217, 218. 1 Belknap, 319.

293

HISTORY OF NASHUA, N. H.

answerable that the men's shirts are changed twice every week at least; that such as have hair that will admit of it must have it constantly tyed; they must be obliged to comb their heads, and wash their hands every morning, and as it is observed that numbers of the men accustom themselves to wear woollen nightcaps in the day time, he allows them hats; they are ordered for the future not to be seen in the day time with anything besides their hats on their heads, as the above mentioned custom of wearing nightcaps must be detrimental to their health and cleanliness; the men's hats to be all cocked, or cut uniformly, as Colonel Goffe pleases to direct.'"'*

In the year 1759 another regiment of one thousand men was furnished by New Hampshire. Col. Joseph Blanchard having died in 1758, the command of the regiment was given to Col. Zaccheus Love- well of this town, a brother of Capt. John Lovewell. One or more companies of this regiment were from this neighborhood, and served with the main army under Lord Amherst and did good service at the capture of Ticonderoga and Crown Point. The next year (1760) still another regiment of eight hundred men was raised, chiefly from this vicinity, and commanded by Col. John Goffe of Bedford. They were present at the capture of St. John's, Chamblee, Montreal and Quebec, which wrested all Canada from the French and put an end to the war.

From the close of this war there is but little to mention about the military affairs of our people until the agressions of the mother country, having become unbearable, were openly resisted and cul- minated in the War of the Revolution.

DUNSTABLE IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.

The limits to which the compiler of this chapter is restricted will not permit, nor indeed does the editor believe it to be either necessary or advisable to narrate herein, in an extended way, the causes which led up to the open resistance of the North American Colonies to the aggressions of the "mother country," which culminated in the War of the Revolution. But the editor of this compilation of the military history of Dunstable (Nashua)-crude, imperfect and unsatisfactory as it necessarily must be-believes that a brief statement should be made of the condition of the parties most deeply interested and the attitude that Great Britain had assumed toward her dependent colonies.

The penal acts passed by the parliament of Great Britain in 1774 dissolved the moral connection between the two countries and begun the Civil War. The estrangement of the colonies from the mother country had been growing and increasing for years. At first no one desired or even dreamed of absolute separation. As a rule no more loyal hearts beat than those in the breasts of the colonists. None dreaded more than they a possibility that the tension of the chords of affection which bound them to the mother country should be strained to the breaking point. But the continued aggressions upon the rights of the people; the declarations of the omnipotence of parliament; the openly avowed imperious doctrine of the necessity of submission; the unalterable determination to enforce taxation without representation, became at length unbearable, and three millions of people, the genuine descendants of a valiant and pious ancestry, determined to throw off the yoke and rallied to the banner of freedom with the cry "resistance to tyrants is obedience to God."

The king of England (George III.) ruled as well as reigned. His heart knew no relenting ; his will never wavered. Though America were to be drenched in blood and its towns reduced to ashes; though its people were to be driven to struggle for total independence; though he himself should find it necessary to bid high for hosts of mercenaries from the Scheldt to Moscow, and, in quest of savage allies, go tapping at every wigwam from Lake Huron to the Gulf of Mexico, he was resolved to coerce the thirteen colonies into submission.

Experience has proved that England regards as just and honorable whatever is advantageous to herself or disastrous to a rival.

The colony of Massachusetts Bay was considered by England as the most recalcitrant of all the North Americans, and the town of Boston was the headquarters of the dissatisfied; therefore Massachusetts and Boston must be punished. An act was passed by the mother country closing the port of Boston, transferring the board of customs to Marblehead, and the seat of government to

* Regimental Records, in secretary's office, Concord.

201

HISTORY OF NASIIUA, N. H.

Salem. This act reached Boston on May 10, 1774, the day of the accession of Louis XVI. to the throne of France.

As soon as the port act was received, the Boston committee of correspondence invited the neighboring towns to a conference "on the critical state of public affairs." May 12 Metcalf Bowler, the speaker of the assembly of Rhode Island, came before them with the cheering news that, in answer to a recent circular letter from the body over which he presided, all the thirteen governments were pledged to union. Committees from the towns of Dorchester, Roxbury, Brookline, Newton, Cambridge, Charlestown, Lynn and Lexington joined them in Faneuil hall, the cradle of American liberty.

They felt themselves to be citizens not of "little democracies" of their towns, but of the whole world of mankind. Light broke upon them from their own truth and courage. Placing Samuel Adams at their head, and guided by a report prepared by Warren of Boston, Gardner of Cambridge and others, they agreed unanimously on the injustice and cruelty of the act by which parliament, contrary as well to natural right as to the laws of all civilized states, had, without a hearing, set apart, accused, tried and condemned the town of Boston. But, to make a general union of the colonies possible, self-restraint must regulate courage. These liberty-loving men knew that a declaration of independence would have alienated their sister colonies, and they had not yet discovered that independence was the desire of their own hearts.

On the twenty-eighth of May, 1774, the assembly of New Hampshire, though still desiring to promote harmony with the parent land, began its organization for that purpose. New Jersey, South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and New York quickly followed, and in three weeks, less time than was taken by the unanimous British parliament for the enactment of the port bill, the continent, as one great commonwealth, made the cause of Boston its own.

The "Sons of Liberty" of New York advocated the policy of an immediate suspension of commerce with Great Britain; but they also proposed-and they were the first to propose-" a general congress." These recommendations they forwarded through Connecticut to Boston, with entreaties to that town to stand firm; and in full confidence of approval, they applied not to New England only, but to Philadelphia and through Philadelphia to every colony at the south.

Such was the inception of the continental congress of 1774. In Rhode Island, at Providence, on the seventeenth of May, in the same year, after full discussion, the freemen voted to promote "a congress of the representatives of all the North American colonies."

The rescue of freedom, even at the cost of a Civil War, a domestic convention of the people for their own internal regulation, and an annual congress of all the colonies for the perpetual assertion of common rights, were the policy of Virginia. These principles were finally adopted by all the colonies.

And so the fire of freedom burned steadily and strong until the fatal day at Lexington, when the first blood shed by the patriots cemented the union of the colonists in their determination to resist oppression or die in the attempt.

In the disparity of numbers Lexington common was a field of murder not of battle, but, as was said by Clark of Lexington on its first anniversary, "From the nineteenth of April, 1775, will be dated the liberty of the American world." The patriot blood shed at Lexington aroused all the colonies to action. With one impulse they sprang to arms; with one spirit they pledged themselves to each other; with one heart the continent cried "Liberty or death!"

On the day after Lexington, the Massachusetts committee of safety gave by letter the story of the preceeding day to New Hampshire and entreated assistance; but before the summons was received, the ferries of the Merrimack were crowded by men from New Hampshire. By one o'clock of the twentieth upwards of sixty men of Nottingham assembled at the meeting-house with arms and equipments under Cilley and Dearborn; before two they were joined by bands from Deerfield and Epsom ; they set out together and by sunrise of the twenty-first paraded on Cambridge common.

The veteran John Stark, skilled in the ways of the Indian, the English, and his countrymen, able to take his rest on a bear skin with a a roll of snow for a pillow, eccentric, but true, famed for coolness, courage and integrity, had no rival in the confidence of his neighbors and was chosen colonel of their regiment by their unanimous vote. He rode in haste to the scene of action, where his command became a model for its discipline.

295

HISTORY OF NASHUA, N. H.

By the twenty-third there were already about two thousand men from New Hampshire in camp around Boston. Hundreds of volunteers from Connecticut, with Israel Putnam as their leader, and hundreds more from the colony of Rhode Island seized their firelocks and followed.

The New England volunteers were men of substantial worth, of whom almost everyone represented a household. The members of the several companies were well-known to each other; known to the old men who remained at home, and to all the matrons and maidens. They were sure to be remembered weekly in the exercises of the congregations; and morning and evening in the usual family devotions they were commended with fervent piety to the protection of Heaven.

The camp of liberty was a gathering in arms of schoolmates, neighbors and friends; and the British army in Boston was beleaguered round from Roxbury to Chelsea by an unorganized mass of men, each with his own musket and his little store of cartridges. But the British officers, possibly from fear of the American marksman, dare not order a sally. History was being rapidly made, and the compiler having perhaps devoted overmuch space thus far, to the beginning of the Revolutionary War, feels that he must move on more rapidly, and reach the battle of Bunker Hill, that terrible fight in which soldiers from New Hampshire and from our Dunstable formed so conspicuous a part.

In the meantime a great deed had been achieved on the tenth of May, 1775, by eighty-three men under the command of the "Green Mountain Boy," Ethan Allen, who captured the fort at Ticonderoga.

A few hours after the surrender of Ticonderoga, the second continental congress-that body which, the next year, gave to the country and the world the immortal Declaration of Independence- met at Philadelphia.

Let us now narrate as briefly as possible the part that our New Hampshire Dunstable took in the Revolution. In this narration the text of the story as told by Mr. Fox will be chiefly used. A few changes will be made and there will be added thereto and interpolated therein, such words and passages as the researches of the compiler seem to find necessary or to warrant.

It is impossible to ascertain with correctness how many soldiers from this town served in the army during the long and bloody struggle of the colonists with the mother country during the years of the War of the Revolution, 1775 to 1783. Not one now survives. The names of the few that are given hereinafter were collected by great exertion and labor "from the records of the town and musty papers on file ; from legislative journals ; from company or regimental returns in the office of the secretary of state ; from vouchers and loose memoranda accidentally preserved, and from personal inquiry of descendants."

"During the long succession of encroachments which preceded and caused the Revolution, the inhabitants of this town were not indifferent. They had watched the storm as it gathered and knew its consequences must be momentous. After the establishment of the boundary line in 1741, which severed us from Massachusetts, no right to send a representative was conceded for many years. At that period this right was a favor granted by his majesty through his 'beloved and trust- worthy Benning Wentworth, governor of his majesty's province of New Hampshire,' and bestowed only upon the loyal and obedient. In 1744, however, when a collision with England began to be very generally expected, the general assembly of New Hampshire claimed for itself the exercise of this right, and allowed certain representatives from towns not heretofore represented a seat and a voice in its councils. Immediately a petition was presented from this town, asking the privilege of representation, which was granted .*

"September, 1774, Jonathan Lovewell was sent as a delegate to the convention, which mnet at Exeter soon after, for the purpose of choosing delegates to the first continental congress. At the same town meeting the town voted to raise a sum of money 'to purchase a supply of ammunition,' and also voted to pay their proportion of the 'expenses of the delegate to the grand continental congress,' which met at Philadelphia the same month, and which published a declaration of rights and formed an 'association not to import or use British goods.' From this time every movement for liberty met with a hearty response.

"January 9, 1775, Joseph Ayers and Noah Lovewell were chosen to represent the town in the convention which met at Exeter, April 25, 1775, for the purpose of appointing delegates to act for

* 2 Province Papers. Towns, 253. In secretary's office.

---

296

HISTORY OF NASIIUA, N. H.

this state in the grand continental congress, to be held at Philadelphia, May 10, 1775. At this meeting, with a spirit characteristic of the times and evidently anticipating a Declaration of Inde- pendence, they chose 'Samuel Roby, Jonathan Lovewell, Joseph Eayers, Benjamin Smith, John Wright, Benjamin French, James Blanchard and John Searle, a committee of inspection to see that the result of the late continental congress be carried into practice, and that all persons in this town conform themselves thereto.'

"Another meeting of this convention was holden at Exeter, May 17, 1775, at which the same delegates attended, and which after several adjournments formed a constitution for the government of the state. The constitution, which is dated Jan. 5, 1776, was the earliest one formed in the United States. § It was adopted at the suggestion of the continental congress of May, 1775, but it was a bold step, for it was a denial of the right of England to rule over us, and a virtual Declaration of Independence. It provided for a house of representatives and a council of twelve men to be chosen by the house, and to form a separate body like our senate. There was to be no governor, but the powers of the executive were vested in the council and house jointly. If the dispute with Eng- land continued longer than one year, the members of the council were to be chosen by the people. Of this council, Jonathan Blanchard of this town, was a member in 1776.

" From the first the people of New Hampshire, who, as the royalists complained, 'had never set any good example of obedience,' were desirous and prepared for a collision; and no sooner did the news of the fight at Lexington on the nineteenth of April, 1775, reach the state, than the whole population rushed to arms. In these movements the citizens of Dunstable were among the most zealous; and the military spirit derived from their fathers, and the military experience of many in the French wars, was roused at once into activity by the noise of the conflict. Instantly they hurried to Concord to avenge the blood of their fellow citizens. Who and how many were these 'minute-men' we do not know; but the town paid over $110 for their expenses. Within less than a week a company of sixty-six men was organized at Cambridge, under Capt. William Walker of this town, forty of whom, including the officers, were also from Dunstable. The following is the company roll :- ||

* James Brown, Ist lieutenant,

* Daniel Warner, sergeant,

* John Lund, sergeant,

t William A. Hawkins, sergeant.

* Eliphalet Bagley,

Eliphalet Blanchard, Jr.,

+ Francis Putnam, sergeant,

# Stephen Chase,

+ Henry Stevens,

* Medad Combs, corporal,

# Joshua Severance,

+ Jonathan Gray,

Abijah Reed, corporal, *

# Nehemiah Winn,

+ Isaac Brown,

* John Lovewell, corporal,

# Joseph Greeley,

t Asa Cram,

+ Hart Balch,

* William Harris, drummer,

* Paul Woods, fifer,

* Simeon Butterfield,

* William Roby, 2d lieutenant.

* Simeon Hills,

* Peter Honey,

* Eleazer Blanchard,

* James Harwood,

* Paul Clogstone,

* Richard Adams,

* Ichabod Lovewell,

* Joel Stewart,

* Ebenezer Fosdick,

* Philip Roby,

* William Butterfield,

* Jacob Blodgett, Silas Chamberlain, Mansfield Tapley,

* Jonathan Harris,

* James Gibson, David March,

* Oliver Woods,

* Archibald Gibson,

* Benjamin Whitney,

* Jonathan Danforth,

t Nathan Abbott,

* Jonathan Emerson,

t Timothy Darling.

" The whole male population of the town at this time between the ages of sixteen and fifty was only one hundred and twenty-eight; so that nearly one-half the able-bodied inhabitants must have been in the army at the first call of liberty, a month before the battle of Bunker Hill. From no other town in New Hampshire was there so large a number in the army, as appears by the returns ;

§ 4 N. H. Hist. Coll.

|| In the office of the secretary of state.

* From Dunstable, + From Wilton. # From Hudson.

+ Israel Howe,

* David Adams,

"William Walker, captain. Jason Russell,

t Daniel Brown,

+ Theodore Stevens,

* Benjamin Bagley, Moses Chandler,

1 Henry Lovejoy,

* Phineas Whitney, corporal,

* David Adams, Jr., * Nehemiah Lovewell,

+ Stephen Blanchard,

* Henry Lovewell,

* Abel Danforth,

* William Harris, Jr.,

* John Snow, Moses Chamberlain,

* Nehemiah Wright,

297

HISTORY OF NASHUA, N. H.

and we record a fact, so honorable to their patriotism and courage, with a feeling of no little pride. " The convention which met at Exeter, April 25, 1775, a few days after the fight at Lexington, organized two regiments for the assistance of their brethren in Massachusetts. But the men were not to be recruited ; they were already in the field. Within two weeks, more than two thousand men from New Hampshire had joined the army around Boston, or more than one seventh of the whole population of the state, between the ages of sixteen and fifty: From these the two regiments were formed and placed under the command of Colonel Stark and Colonel Reed of which this company formed a part.

"It may be a matter of curiosity worthy of record to give the abstract of returns of population, number of soldiers in the army in May, 1775, number of males between the ages of sixteen and fifty not in the army, and ratio of soldiers to the male population. This had been required at an early period by the convention, in evident anticipation of a rupture with the mother country, in order to ascertain our actual condition and resources. The original returns also included the number of arms, deficiencies, quantity of powder, all of which are now in the office of the secretary of state, and furnish an admirable specimen of the forethought of the patriots of that day :*

COUNTIES.

Population.

the army.

Number of males in the

slaves for life.

Number of negroes and

to 50 not in the army.

Number males from 16

16 to 50.

population from

Ratio of soldiers to male

Rockingham,

37,850

927

437

6,383

1223 in 100

Strafford,

12,713

275

103

2,282

IO34 in 100

Hillsborough,

15,948

650

2,723

1944 in 100

Cheshire, .

10,659

376

2,009

1534 in 100

Grafton,

3,880

156

834

1534 in 100

Total,

81,050

2,384

656

14,231 |

1415 in 100

"From this table we may gather some facts which will enable us to appreciate more fully the spirit and the sacrifices of that period. More than fourteen hundred of the whole male population of the state, between the ages of sixteen and fifty years, were in the army in May, 1775, or nearly one out of every five who was able to bear arms. Our own county, old Hillsborough, excelled them all,

- however, having at that time in the army more than nineteen in every hundred males, between sixteen and fifty, or at least one-quarter part of all the able-bodied inhabitants. A few days after the battle of Bunker Hill, another regiment from New Hampshire, under the command of Colonel Poor, joined the army at Cambridge.

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History of the city of Nashua, N.H., Part 49

Author: Parker, Edward Everett, 1842- ed; Reinheimer, H., & Co Publication date: 1897 Publisher: Nashua, N.H., Telegraph Publishing Company Number of Pages: 652

Author: Parker, Edward Everett, 1842- ed; Reinheimer, H., & Co
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: Nashua, N.H., Telegraph Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 652