USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Amherst > History of the town of Amherst, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire (first known as Narraganset township number three, and subsequently as Souhegan West) > Part 27
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Near the close of this war several of the inhabitants served in the expeditions sent against the common enemy. Sergeant Ebenezer Lyon, John Everdeen, David Hartshorn, jr., Samuel Lamson, Joseph Small, and Thomas Williams, served in Col. Blanchard's regiment at Crown Point, in 1755.
Humphrey Hobbs was a captain in the ranger service in 1755.
Lieut. Ebenezer Lyon, Daniel Wilkins, Samuel Bradford, Israel Towne, Joseph Lovejoy, John Burns, Jonathan Lam- son, Nathaniel Haseltine, Daniel Weston, Stephen Peabody, and John Mills, served in Col. John Hart's regiment, at Crown Point, in 1758.
Benjamin Davis, John Mills, John Stewart, and Robert Stewart, were privates in Col. John Goffe's regiment, at Crown Point, in 1760.
"John McKean, brother of Samuel, who settled in Amherst in 1761, seems to have been a resident in the township prior to 1757. He was one of the ill-fated New Hampshire battallion that surrendered to Montcalm, the leader of the French and Indians, at Fort William Henry, in August, 1757. While the garrison of the fort was marching out, after its surrender, the New Hampshire militia, being in the rear, were suddenly attacked by the Indians, and eighty, out of the two hundred men present, were killed. McKean was taken prisoner after
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a desperate struggle for his liberty. On the night following his capture, he was stripped of his clothing, and bound to a tree by his captors, where he stood a target for their keen-edged knives and tom- ahawks. When he was gashed and bleeding at every pore, his wounds were filled with pitch-pine splinters, which were set afire, which soon terminated his tortures."
The following account is given of one of Dea. Hobbs's fights with the Indians :
" In the month of February, 1748, the Massachusetts General Court directed the number of men at Fort Massachusetts, now Adams, Mass., and Number Four, now Charlestown, N. H., to be increased to one hundred in each place. Of these, a suitable force was to be employed to intercept the French and Indian enemy in their marches from Wood-creek and Otter-creek to the frontiers. As an incentive to vigilance, a reward of one hundred pounds was ordered to be divided in equal parts among the officers and soldiers of any scouting party that might capture an Indian or produce the scalp of one they had killed. Capt. Stevens was again appointed commander at Number Four, and Capt. Hobbs was ordered to the same post as second in com- mand. On the twenty-fifth of June, Capt. Hobbs, with forty men, was ordered from Number Four to Fort Shirley, in Heath, one of the forts of the Massachusetts cordon, extending from Fort Massachusetts to Number Four. On Sunday, June 26, having proceeded about six miles, they halted at a place about twelve miles north-west of Fort Dummer, in the precincts of what is now the town of Marlborough, Vt. A large body of Indians, who had discovered Hobbs's trail, had made a rapid march in order to cut him off. They were commanded by a resolute chief named Sackett, said to have been a half blood, a descendant of a captive taken at Westfield, Mass.
Although Hobbs was not aware of the pursuit of the enemy, he had posted a guard on his trail, and his men, having spread themselves over a low piece of ground covered with alders intermixed with large trees and watered by a rivulet, had prepared their dinner, and were regaling themselves at their packs. While in this situation, the rear guards were driven in from their posts, which was the first intimation given of the presence of the enemy.
Without knowing the strength of his adversaries, Capt. Hobbs instantly formed his men for action, each one by his advice selecting a tree as a cover.
Trusting in the superiority of their numbers, and confident of success, the enemy rushed forward with shouts; but Hobbs's well- directed fire, by which several were killed, checked their impetuosity,
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and caused them to retreat for shelter behind the trees and brush. The action now became warm, and a severe conflict followed between the sharpshooters. The two commanders had been known to each other in times of peace, and both bore the character of fearless men. Sackett, who could speak English, frequently called upon Hobbs in the tones of a stentor to surrender, and threatened, in case of refusal, to destroy his men with the tomahawk. Hobbs, with a voice equally sonorons, returned the defiance, and urged his antagonist to put his threat into execution.
The action continued for four hours, Hobbs's party displaying throughout the most consummate skill and prudence, and neither side withdrawing an inch from its original position. The Indians not unfrequently approached the line of their adversaries, but were as often driven back to their first position by the well-directed fire of the sharp-sighted marksmen. Finding Hobbs determined on resistance, and that his own men had suffered severely in the struggle, Sackett finally ordered a retreat, and left his opponent master of a well-fought field.
Ilobbs's men were so well protected that only three, Ebenezer Mitchel, Eli Scott, and Samuel Gunn, were killed in the conflict. Of the remainder, Daniel MeKinney, of Wrentham, had his thigh broken by a ball from the enemy, and was thereby disabled for life. Samuel Graves, jr., of Sunderland, a lad seventeen years of age, received a ball near the middle of the forehead, which went through part of his head, and came out on the left side, almost over his ear, bringing with it almost two spoonsful of his brains. He, however, recovered. Nathan Walker, of Sudbury, received a wound in the arm, and Ralph Rice was injured.
Many of the enemy were seen to fall, but their actual loss was never certainly known, as they took effectual measures to conceal it.
After the Indians had left, Hobbs and his men remained concealed until dark, fearing another attack; but, there being no signs of the enemy, they gathered their packs, took up the dead and wounded, and, after burying the former under some old logs about half a mile from the scene of action, and conducting the latter-two of whom they were obliged to carry-to a place about two miles distant, they encamped for the night. They arrived at Fort Dummer, in Brattle- borough, on the 27th, at four o'clock in the afternoon, and sent the wounded men to Northfield, where they could receive proper medical attention.
The number of Sackett's force, though not certainly known, was estimated at four times that of the English, and it is probable that had he known his superiority, he would have adopted a different
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method of warfare. The battle was regarded by the people in the vicinity as a master-piece of persevering bravery, and served, to a certain extent, to remove the unfavorable impression produced by the defeat of Melvin's scout a short time before. 'If Hobbs's men had been Romans,' says one writer, ' they would have been crowned with laurel, and their names would have been transmitted with perpetual honors to succeeding generations.'"
-Hall's History of Eastern Vermont, 1858.
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CHAPTER XVII. THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 1768-1776.
SERVICES OF NEW ENGLAND TROOPS IN PRECEDING WARS .- TAXATION OF THE COLONIES, AND ITS EFFECTS .- GOV. WENT- WORTH .- SEIZURE OF AMMUNITION AT FORT WILLIAM AND MARY .- PROCEEDINGS OF THE TOWN PRIOR TO THE COMMENCE- MENT OF THE WAR .- COUNTY CONGRESS AND ITS PROCEED- INGS. - COMPANIES OF MINUTE-MEN FORMED. - AMHERST COMPANY AT CAMBRIDGE .- EXPLOITS OF THOMPSON MAXWELL. -CAPT. CROSBY'S CERTIFICATE .- AMHERST MEN AT BUNKER HILL .- THEIR LOSSES IN THE BATTLE .- ACCOUNT OF WASH- INGTON'S TAKING COMMAND OF THE ARMY .- OFFICERS OF THE AMHERST AND WILTON COMPANY AT WINTER HILL .- AMHERST MEN IN BEDEL'S REGIMENT SURRENDERED AT THE "CEDARS," AND THEIR SUFFERINGS .- AMHERST MEN AT PORTSMOUTH, WHO AFTERWARD WENT TO TICONDEROGA IN COL. LONG'S REGIMENT .- ASSOCIATION TEST PAPER .- AMHERST MEN IN COL. WYMAN'S REGIMENT ; IN COL. BALDWIN'S REGIMENT, AT WHITE PLAINS ; IN COL. GILMAN'S REGIMENT .- ESCAPE OF NEW YORK TORIES FROM AMHERST JAIL .- PROCEEDINGS OF THE TOWN IN REGARD TO THE ESTATE OF ZACCHEUS CUTLER, ESQ .- READING OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE .- REORGANIZATION OF THE ARMY.
The reverses sustained by the British forces in America in the early part of the French and Indian war were retrieved by their victories at a later date, under the lead
-
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of Amherst and Wolfe, which resulted in the capture of Quebec, in 1759, and the cession of the Canadas to the English a few years later.
France and Great Britain were again at peace, and the tomahawk of the savage ceased from its bloody work.
The New England provinces had contributed liberally in men and means to the accomplishment of this result. No troops did better service in the contest than the rangers enlisted from their young men, who came out of the strife with confidence in themselves, ready at all times to do battle for the right, and thoroughly despising, as did their Puritan ancestors, the idea of cowardly submission to arbitrary power.
The efforts of the home government to raise a revenue by taxing the colonists met with a determined resistance in the Province of Massachusetts. Troops were sent over to assist in enforcing the decrees of government, and a col- lision took place between a party of soldiers and some of the citizens of Boston, in which several of the latter were killed. An attempt to force the landing of tea belonging to the East India Company was foiled by its being thrown into Boston harbor by a party of the people disguised as Indians on the night of 16 December, 1773. Finally, the port of Boston was declared closed by the home govern- ment.
While the people of Boston were suffering from the measures adopted by the English government, assistance was afforded them from other towns in the Province, and many of the towns in New Hampshire contributed liberally toward their relief.
John Wentworth, a native of Portsmouth, was at that time Governor of New Hampshire. Loyal to his king, and loyal so far as he consistently could be to the Province, he strove to avert the threatened storm. Failing in this, he retired from the Province, which he never afterward visited.
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The first serious outbreak in New Hampshire was the seizure, on the night of the 14th of December, 1774, of the ammunition stored in Fort William and Mary, in Portsmouth harbor.
Against this act of treason, Gov. Wentworth protested, and called upon the loyal people of the Province to assist in arresting its perpetrators ; but his call was in vain. Piek- ering, Sullivan, Langdon, and their associates, were unmo- lested ; and in all probability some of the powder taken at that time was used by the New Hampshire militia, six months later, to send their leaden greetings to the soldiers of the king on Bunker's hill.
The citizens of Amherst, which was originally a Massa- chusetts township, peopled for the most part by Massachu- setts men and women, entered at once heartily into the contest.
In anticipation of the coming trouble, we find the town, 15 April, 1768, voting in town meeting to appropriate £20 lawful money "to procure powder and ammunition." From this vote we read that "Ens. Samuel Stewart dis- sented." A few years later, acting in the spirit of Crom- well's injunction to his "Ironsides" to keep their powder dry, we find them, 15 Sept., 1775, voting "to build a house on the easterly side of the burying-ground to secure the town stock of ammunition." The house was directed to be built of chestnut logs, hewed twelve inches thick, and lathed and plastered on the outside. Paul Dudley Sargent and Timothy Smith were appointed a committee to complete the same.
This house is well remembered by many of the older natives of the town. It did duty about seventy years, and was finally taken down.
A convention of eighty-five deputies from most of the towns in the province, met at Exeter 21 July, 1774, and chose Nathaniel Folsom, of Exeter, and John Sullivan, of Durham, delegates to attend a general congress of the
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colonies in Philadelphia, in the month of September follow- ing.
Paul Dudley Sargent represented the town of Amherst in this convention, and his expenses and a portion of the expenses of the convention were defrayed by a voluntary subscription of the citizens.
24 October, 1774, Paul Dudley Sargent, Daniel Camp- bell, and Benjamin Kendrick, were appointed delegates of the town to a County Congress, and they were directed and instructed "to use their endeavors to secure and maintain good order in the town, and to use their utmost efforts to diffuse peace and good order in this county, and exeite in the minds of people a due respect for all just measures that may be recommended by the present Grand Congress at Philadelphia, and said delegates are hereby instructed to take copies of this vote from the clerk and send to all the towns in the county that they shall think necessary, to con- stitute a county congress, that so the good ends aforesaid may be answered, grievances heard. and remonstrate to such authority whose province it is to grant redress." And they were to continue in office until the next annual town meeting.
At the annual meeting held 13 March, 1775, the above named delegates were chosen for another year, and in- structed as when first chosen.
A congress composed of delegates from most of the towns in the county assembled soon after. Capt. John Stark was a delegate from Derryfield. The following ac- count of the dealings of this congress with a loyalist may possess some interest :
" PROCEEDINGS IN THE CASE OF BENJAMIN WHITING, OF HOLLIS.
Whereas the delegates for the several towns in the county of Ilills- borough in Congress chose a committee of nine persons to hear, exam- ine, and try, Benjamin Whiting, Esq., as an open and avowed enemy to his country, the said Whiting, being notified of the time and place of hearing, did not appear.
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ORDERED, that his contempt be recorded, and that upon examina- tion of sundry depositions and evidences, we find him guilty of the crimes laid to his charge, and we do caution all persons from connex- ions with him.
MATTHEW PATTEN, Chairman.
AMHERST, in N. H. government, July 13, 1775."
Two depositions against him were as follows :
" Robert Fletcher testified that some time in April, or the beginning of May, 1774, at Dunstable, in conversation with Benjamin Whiting, Esq., who said that a man in deponent's place that did not endeavour that the acts of Parliament should be put in execution, ought to be damned.
Thompson Maxwell testified and said that in the month of May last past, I was riding from Hollis to Amherst, in New Hampshire govern- ment, in company with Benjamin Whiting, Esq., who asked me what I thought of Major Sullivan's taking away the guns and powder from Castle William and Mary ? I answered that I looked upon it as a piece of good conduct. Then said Whiting answered that said Sulli- van was a dam'd perjured villian for so doing, and a dam'd rebel, and deserved to be hanged, that this spring the king's standard would be set up in America, and proclamation made that those that would come in and enter their names would have a pardon, and those that would not would be deemed rebels and suffer death jointly, and that within three months said Sullivan and John Hancock would be hanged. The said Whiting also said he hoped I would come in and enter my name.
Sworn to before
JONAS DIX, Jus. Peace.
CAMBRIDGE, July 6, 1775."
27 December, 1774, the town voted "to approve of the results of the Grand Congress, and strictly adhere to them," and chose a committee consisting of Col. John Shepard, Lieut. Benj. Kendrick, Nahum Baldwin, John Shepard, jr., Esq., Dr. Moses Nichols, Daniel Campbell, Esq., Josiah Sawyer, Joseph Gould, Paul Dudley Sargent, Thomas Burns, and Samuel Wilkins, to carry into effect the association agreement in this town. If any break over said agreement, the committee [are] ordered to publish the same in the newspapers.
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Voted their sincere thanks to the members of the late Continental Congress, and to those from this Province in particular.
13 March, 1775, voted three pounds nineteen shillings to Mr. Sargent, for his time and expenses at Exeter.
19 April, 1775. The attack upon the Lexington militia by the British troops aroused the country. In many of the towns in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, companies of minute men had been formed and drilled in anticipation of the coming conflict. The company in Amherst repaired at once to Cambridge. At first it served under the orders of the Province of Massachusetts, but upon the organization of the New Hampshire militia, by the authorities of the Province, in May, 1775, it became a part of the third New Hampshire regiment, and was placed under the command of Col. James Reed, of Fitzwilliam.
The town was represented by one of its citizens in the " tea party," in December, 1773, and in the Concord "fight" in 1775, whose story is as follows :
Thompson Maxwell was the son of an Irish immigrant who settled in Bedford, Mass. He saw some service in the French and Indian war, and, after its close, settled in the south-west part of Amherst, where he gained a livelihood by farming and teaming. He frequently went to Boston, carrying a load of country produce, and on his return brought goods for the merchants and others in town.
One of these trips was made in the month of December, 1773. After unloading his freight he went to John Hancock's warehouse to load for his return trip. While thus engaged, Hancock sent word to him to drive the team to his stable, where it would be cared for, and afterward call at his counting-room. Complying with the request, he was informed that it was proposed to unload the tea-ships, which were then lying in the harbor that night, and that his assistance would be acceptable. He entered into the plan at once, assisted in the business, and the next day drove home " as any honest man would."
He made another trip to Boston in the month of April, 1775. On his way home he stopped for the night at the house of his brother-in-law, Capt. Jonathan Wilson, in Bedford, who was captain of the Bedford company of
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minute men. In the course of the night word came that the British troops had started from Boston on an excursion into the country. The members of the company were summoned at once, and started for the scene of the ex- pected conflict. He received an invitation to accompany them, which he accepted, and went " well armed." In the fight of that day Capt. Wilson was killed. After the fight was over Maxwell returned to Bedford and hired a man to drive his team to Amherst, while he repaired to Cambridge, where the Amherst company arrived shortly after, and he took his place in the ranks as its second lieutenant.
The following will give us some idea of the enthusiasm of the people after receiving the news of the fight at Lexington and Concord. It is also an honorable tribute to Col. John Shepard, one of the prominent citizens of the town :
" This certifies that Esq. Shepard in April, 1775, went with a Detachment of the Melitia, of about one hundred men, from Amherst to Cambridge, aided, assisted, and comforted them, and at Cambridge left with them two Spanish milled dollars.
JOSIAH CROSBY."
Nor was this all Col. Shepard left with the "melitia." On the back of the certificate is a list of other articles left, as follows: Pork, 573 lbs., ¿ bushel beans, 1} bushel to Sargent, some bread, and 13 bushel meal.
By the census taken that year, Amherst had 328 men above 16 years of age, 53 of whom were over 50 years old. Of these Capt. Crosby says "about 100," or over 30 per cent., went to Cambridge. The census returns report "81 men in the army."
AMHERST MEN IN THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. Stephen Peabody, Adjutant of Col. Reed's regiment.
Amherst soldiers in Capt. Crosby's Company.
Josiah Crosby, capt.
Daniel Wilkins, jr., 1st lieut.
John Mills, William Bradford, 1 ¿sergeants.
Thompson Maxwell, 2d lieut.
David Ramsay, Josiah Sawyer,
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Lemuel Winchester, Eleazer W. Kingsbury, Peter Goss, Eli Wilkins,
corpo'ls.
James Gilmore, Stephen Hill, Joel Howe,
Thomas Powell, drummer.
Solomon Kittredge,
Joshua Abbott,
Jeremiah Lamson, Andrew Leavitt,
Nathaniel Barret,
Joseph Bowtal,
Joseph Leavitt, Joshua Pettingill,
Alexander Brown,
Nourse Sawyer,
Jonathan Burnam,
James Simpson,
Joshua Burnam,
Jonathan Small, Samuel Sternes,
Robert Cochran,
Jonathan Taylor,
John Cole,
Rufus Trask,
Stephen Crosby,
Eben Wakefield,
Jacob Curtice,
Joseph Wakefield, Joseph Wallace,
Benjamin Davis,
Sutherick Weston,
Thaddeus Fitch,
Jonathan Wilkins,
Amos Flint,
Samuel Williams,
Thomas Giles,
Isaac Wright.
In Capt. Archelaus Towne's company, then in Stark's regiment.
Archelaus Towne, capt.
Samuel Lamson,
William Read, corporal.
Adam Patterson,
Nathan Kendall, jr., fifer.
Peter Robertson,
Benjamin Merrill,
Bartholomew Towne,
Moses Barron,
Archelaus Towne, jr.,
Jacob Blodgett,
Reuben Wheeler.
Stephen Gould,
In Capt. Levi Spaulding's company, Reed's regiment.
Joseph Bradford, 1st lieut. William Tuck,
Benjamin Dike, corporal.
Richard Hughes,
William Brown,
Robert B. Wilkins.
Richard Goodman,
Capt. Towne's company was at first a part of the twenty- seventh Massachusetts regiment, under the command of Col. Bridge. At the time of the battle of Bunker Hill it 24
Nathaniel Crosby,
Thomas Clark,
Archelaus Kenney,
Jabez Holt, fifer.
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was one of the thirteen companies in the first New Hamp- shire, or Stark's, regiment.
Peter Robertson, a private in this company was wounded while crossing "the neck" on his way to Bunker Hill by a cannon ball, which carried away his right hand. He re- ceived a pension of 20 shillings per month from the State, commencing 1 January, 1776.
John Cole, a private in Capt. Crosby's company was killed in the battle, and Robert B. Wilkins, of Capt. Spaul- ding's company was wounded in the right elbow by a musket ball.
After the battle Capt. Crosby made a return of the losses sustained by the members of his company as follows:
" An account of things that was lost at the Battle of Bunker's hill, on the 17th of June, 1775, belonging to Capt. Crosby's company : viz., Capt. Crosby's things are 1 pistol & 1 pair of worsted stockings : Lieut. Daniel Wilkins, 1 cotton shirt ; Ens'n Thompson Maxwell, 1 fine shirt & 1 powder-horn; Adj't Stephen Peabody, 1 blanket & 1 shirt; Quar- ter-Master Frye, 1 coat & 1 hat ; Serg't William Bradford, 1 shirt ; Serg't Lemuel Winchester, 1 pair of shoes ; Eli Wilkins, 1 blanket & 1 bullet mold ; Alexander Brown, 1 cotton shirt, 1 pair of stockings, & 1 gnapsack ; Thaddeus Fitch, 1 shirt, 1 pair calfskin pumps, 1 pair trowzers, & gnapsack: Samuel Stearnes, 1 pair of shoes; Stephen Crosby, 1 great coat & 1 shirt ; Jona. Wilkins, 1 shirt ; Thomas Giles, 1 gun, 1 cartooch box. & 1 jacket ; Thomas Perry, 1 woolen shirt, 1 powder-horn, & 1 gnapsack : Joseph Bonte!, 1 pair of stockings, 1 pair of Leather Breeches: Nathaniel Barret, 1 gnapsack, 1 pair of shoes and buckles, & 1 handkerchief; Sam'l Williams, 1 shirt, & 1 hankerchief, & 1 gun; JJames Gilmore, 1 blanket, 1 handkerchief ; Joseph Wakefield, 1 p'r deerskin breeches, 1 cartooch box : Eben'r Wakefield, 1 sett of shoemaker's tools, 1 shirt, 2 p'rs stockings, & 1 p'r shoes ; Daniel Kenney, 1 great coat & 1 gun ; Joseph Wallis, 1 pair shoes; Andrew Leavitt, 1 coverlid, 1 p'r stockings, 1 gnapsack, & handkerchief ; Josiah Sawyer, 1 gun, 1 coat, 1 powder-horn, & 1 Bible : Joshua Abbot, 1 gnapsack & p'r of stockings; Joshua Abbott, 1 gnap- sack & p'r stockings.
JOSIAHI CROSBY, Capt."
Andrew Leavitt, Samuel Robertson, William Wakefield and Eben Wincol Wright, enlisted into the company 19
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June, 1775. Of these, Leavitt seems to have been in the battle two days before.
Capt. Crosby's company was present when Washington took command of the army, 2 July, 1775, of which Andrew Leavitt, one of the survivors, gave the following account to the writer many years since :
" The officers placed their men in as good shape as they could, but they were a motley looking set, no two dressed alike. Some were armed with fowling pieces, some with rifles, others with muskets with- out bayonets. When all was in readiness, Washington and his staff advanced to the square prepared for their reception. Ile was a large, noble looking man, in the prime of life, and was mounted on a power- ful black horse over which he seemed to have perfect control.
After a short address to the soldiers, he took from his pocket a Psalm book, from which he read the one hundred and first Psalm (another account says it was then sung by the soldiers to the tune of Old Hundred)."
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