USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Manchester > Willey's semi-centennial book of Manchester, 1846-1896, comprised within the limits of the old Tyng Township, Nutfield, Harrytown, Derryfield, and Manchester, from the earliest settlements to the present time > Part 33
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ROSECRANS W. PILLSBURY.
R OSECRANS W. PILLSBURY, son of Col. William S. Pillsbury, was born in London- derry, Sept. 18, 1863. His early education was
R. W. PILLSBURY'S RESIDENCE, LONDONDERRY.
received in the public schools, and after being prepared for college at Pinkerton Academy, he entered Dartmouth with the class of 1885. Ill health, however, compelled him at the end of the first year to abandon thoughts of a collegiate course. After recovering his health he became bookkeeper in his father's shoe factory at Derry and remained there for a time. A mercantile career was not to his liking, however, and he determined upon the study of law, entering first the office of Drury & Peaslee in Manchester, and later the Law School of Boston University. He is now engaged in the practice of his profession at Derry Depot. Mr. Pillsbury has frequently been a member of the Republican State Central Com :- mittee, and in 1889 was the youngest member of the Constitutional Convention. Gov. Smith offered him the position of judge advocate general on his personal staff, but Mr. Pillsbury declined the honor. In 1885 Mr. Pillsbury was married to Miss Annie E. Watts of Manchester, and two children have been added to the family.
20)2
WILLET'S BOOK OF NUTFIELD.
ON. HORATIO FRADD, son of Richard friends in all walks of life. In 1853 Mr. Fradd and Elizabeth ( Warren) Fradd, was born in was married to Mary E. Cayzer of Boston, and one child, Lizzie M., now the wife of Joseph R. Fradd of Manchester, was born to them. Mrs. Fradd dying in 1872, Mr. Fradd, in 1877, married Jennie McDonald of New York state. Five chil- dren have been the fruit of this union : Edwin H., Ralph D., Annie M., Norman W., and James M. These make a happy home on Dover street, West Man- chester, where the father has lived for more than thirty years. They attend the Main-Street Con- gregational ehureh and take a leading part in loeal society affairs. Mr. Fradd is a member of the Royal Areanum and of Uneanoonue Lodge of Odd Fel- lows. Cornwall, England, May 17, 1832. In 1849 he came to America and settled in Boston, finding employment at his trade as brass founder. About five years later, in 1854, he came to Manchester and opened a hat and eap store in the Merrimack block, at that time one of the few brick business structures in the new city. Four years afterward he went into the groeery busi- ness with James A. Stearns, and subse- quently established himself in the same line of trade at the corner of Main and Granite streets, in Piseataquog. There he has sinec re- mained, oeeasionally ehanging partners, but always progress- ing. He is today the oldest groeer in Manchester and is THE first tramp on record in Nutfield was Daniel Mt. Aferson. Hc seems to have given the citizens a good deal of annoyance, forin 1738 they voted in town meeting " that the seleetmen provide irons to HON. HORATIO FRADD. seeure Daniel Mt. Aferson from hurting or disturbing any of the inhabitants of the town. Each inhabitant shall lodge said Mt. Aferson 24 hours and then pass him to the next neighbor-penalty 10 shillings." Eight years before this, in 1730, the town voted " to let Hugh Wilson be prosecuted for an idler, as the law direets." It is probable that Hugh reformed and went to work, for there is no record of any prosecution against him. He was related to one of the original proprietors of the town. still active in super- intending his affairs, although his nephew and partner, Chas. H. Fradd, has charge of the details of the busi- ness. He has always been a Republican, and the voters of Ward eight have shown their confi- denee in him by the gift of many publie offiees. He was overseer of the poor in 1863-64; assessor during the three following years; alderman for three years ; member of the house of representatives in 1872-73; member of the last state constitu- tional convention, and state senator in 1889-90. In the senate he served on the committees on fisheries, roads and bridges, labor, and other mat- ters. One of the substantial men of Manchester, always upright and straightforward, he has made
STARK AT BUNKER HILL, AT BENNINGTON, AND AT HOME.
STARK AT BUNKER HILL .- John Stark's born, one of his captains: " When we reached Charlestown Neek we found two regiments halted in consequence of a heavy enfilading fire aeross it of round, bar and chain shot from the frigate Lively. from floating batteries anchored in Charles river, and a floating battery lying in the river Mystic. Major MeClary went forward and said to the com- manders that if they did not intend to move on. he wished them to open and let our regiment pass. This was immediately done. My company being in front, I marehed by the side of Col. Stark, who was moving with a very deliberate pace. I sug- gested the propriety of quiekening the march of the regiment, that it might sooner be relieved from the galling eross-fire of the enemy. With a look peculiar to himself, he fixed his eyes upon me and observed : ‘Dearborn, one fresh man in action is worth two fatigued ones,' and continued to advanee in the same cool and collected manner." When Stark reached the battlefield he saw that the British troops, now reinforced, were preparing to advance, and were marshalling a large body of light infantry and grenadiers to turn the left flank of the Americans. Col. Knowlton and his 120 men from Connecticut were posted at the south end of the grass fenee. Stark saw at a glance the point of danger, and directed his men to extend the grass fenee to the beach on the Mystie and rear a stone wall across the beach to the water. taking stones from the beach and adjacent fences. He then placed his large foree in three rows behind the fenee and wall, directing the first rank with the best marksmen to fire, and the second and rear ranks to load rapidly as they knelt upon the ground; then, stepping in front of his line, he
services to the cause of American freedom on the memorable 17th of June, 1775, ean seareely be overestimated. Although the fascinating story of the battle of Bunker Hill has been told and retold a hundred times, it never loses its interest to the sons of New Hampshire because of the role which Granite State men played in that great struggle. According to the best authorities, they formed about two thirds of all the American forces engaged in the confliet, and had there been any deficieney in their numbers, their energy, effieieney, and freshness would have counter- balaneed it. During the forenoon of that day Stark's regiment was ordered to the relief of Prescott. The men were without powder. It was too valuable to be trusted to new levies until they went into action. Stark's troops marched at onee to their arsenal, and each man received a spare flint, fifteen bullets and a gill eup of powder for his flask or horn. Their fowling- pieces had few or no bayonets, and were of dif- ferent calibres. A little time was lost in fitting or exchanging bullets or in hammering them down to suit their guns. By one o'clock Stark's regi- ment was on the march and was joined on its way by the Third New Hampshire, under Col. James Reed, and they bore to Prescott's weary men the important accession of at least nine hundred hardy troops in homespun dress, without a cartridge, and with few bayonets, but with some experience in war under veteran officers. Before two o'clock Stark, with his regiment, had reached the narrow causeway which crossed Charlestown Neek, less than a mile from the redoubt. His march and bearing on that day are thus described by Dear- planted a stake sixty yards in advance of his fenee,
293
204
WILLEY'S BOOK OF NUTFIELD.
and returning to his men, told them that he should shoot the first man who fired before the British passed the stake. At half-past three o'clock New Hampshire provineials in homespun clothes to fly at the first onset. But they remained behind the fence and wall as still as death. The British British reinforcements landed, and Lord Howe passed the stake planted by Stark, and then came
MYSTIC RIVER.
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CHARLESTOWN turned down
PLAN OF THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL, SHOWING THE STAND MADE BY STARK'S AND REED'S NEW HAMPSHIRE REGIMENTS.
EXPLANATION OF THE PLAN .- At the top appears the Mystic River. At the right is Moulton's (or Morton's) Point, where the British troops first landed and formed. Extending downward from the shore of the Mystic, on the left, appear the rail fences, behind which were posted in their order Col. Stark's New Hampshire regiment, Col. Reed's New Hampshire regiment, and Capt. Knowlton's Connecticut companies. In front of the rail fences are represented the eleven companies of British Grenadiers, in line, advancing to the attack ; and on the beach of the Mystic River the eleven companies of the British Light Infantry, marching with a narrow front, in their attempt to flank the American left. The numbers of the regiments to which the Light Infantry companies severally belonged are given in the figures, as in the plan of De Berniere. The Light Infantry company of the Thirty-Fifth Regiment appears both on the river beach and on the higher bank at the right of the Grenadi ers. It is supposed that in one attack it occupied one position and in the other attack a different one. Below the rail fences and a little at their right appear the earthworks of Col. Prescott. Charlestown Neck is not represented on the plan. It would be much further to the left.
arrayed his men for the attack. At least 3000 men moved forward to assail the breastworks and the fenee. They were the flower of the English soldiery, and doubtless expected those half-armed
a fire, so intense, so continuous, and so deadly, that offieers and men went down before it. They rallied again and again, only to reeoil. Nearly every offieer on Howe's staff was killed or
line of B.
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4
WILLEY'S BOOK OF NUTFIELD.
295
wounded. Stark and Reed lost but ninety men, but in front of the one company from Derryfield, under Capt. John Moore, at the stone wall on the beach, ninety-six dead bodies of the foe were counted. Stark's forces were assailed by the Weleh Fusileers, a eraek regiment that had fought at Minden with distinction. They entered the field at Bunker Hill seven hundred strong, and the
next morning only eighty-three answered at roll- eall. The ammunition of the Americans was fast giving out, and retreat soon became imperative. With a few rounds more of ammunition, Stark and Reed might have turned the fortunes of the day. They brought off, however, their forees in good condition, and returned like vietors from the field. (See "Nutfield in the Revolution," page 103).
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STARK AT BUNKER HILL.
206
WILLET'S BOOK OF NUTFIELD.
S TARK AT BENNINGTON .- As Stark and the New Hampshire forces had prevented the battle of Bunker Hill from resulting disastrously to the American cause, and almost succeeded in turning the defeat into victory, so, two years later, it was again the same leader with New Hampshire men who contributed most materially to the defeat of Burgoyne. For there can be no doubt that the success of the Ameri- can arms in the battles near Benning- ton led to the subsc- quent surrender of the British at Sara- toga, which was one of the turning points in the great struggle of the colonies for liberty. The follow- ing brief chapter in American Revolu- tionary annals, dcal- ing with Stark's vic- tories near Benning- ton, has been written by H. W. Herrick, a recognized histori- cal authority :
In the spring of 1777, Stark, while engaged in recruiting and forwarding his regiment to Ticon- deroga, learned that his name had been dropped by Congress from the list of colonels recommended for promotion. This was the second indignity of the kind offered him since the opening of the war. Conscious of patriotic motives and of success in his position, he ascribed the action of Congress to the jealousy of enemies, and declared that honor forbade his remain- ing any longer in the service. Notwithstanding the appeals made to him to remain in the army, he resigned his commission and retired. But he did not relax his efforts as a citizen in the patriot service ; he sent his own sons to the field, and urged on enlistments for the army. Four months changed the aspect of affairs in the Northern military department. The fall of Ticon- deroga, the repulse of Hubbardton, the exposed situation of the young settlements in Vermont, and the rumors of the advance of Burgoyne through eastern New England, spread alarm in
every quarter threatened. The delegates to the colonial Assem- bly of New Hampshire, stimulated by the spirit and liberality of John Langdon, their presiding officer, voted to raise two brigades, the command of one for the immediate exigency being offered to Stark.
No time was to be lost. A messenger was dispatched to bring the retired officer before the committee of military affairs, and the command was tendered to him. It was accepted on condition that the troops should act independently of Congress or of officers appointed by that power. A commission as brigadier was therefore issued, giving Stark dis- cretionary powers to act in connection with the main army or independently, as circumstances might require. Recruiting for three months' service was now carried forward briskly ; a day sufficed to enlist and organize a com- pany in the larger towns, and Gen. Stark was enabled in about a week to start with a large por- tion of his force for the rendezvous at Charles- town, on the Connecticut river. Two weeks only had passed since the first alarm from the capture of Ticonderoga, and yet Stark was organizing and drilling his force for action. The last week in July he sent forward a detachment of a few hundred men to the support of Warner's broken regiment of Continentals at Manchester -a town twenty-two miles north of Bennington. On the 4th of August a scout of one hundred men, under Col. Emerson, was sent to the valley of Otter Creek, north of Manchester, with directions to rendezvous at the latter place, whither Stark himself marched with the remainder of his force, after leaving two hundred men at Charlestown as a garrison. The column, in its march across the Green Mountains, was augmented by militia under Col. Williams.
STARK AT BENNINGTON.
The Vermont Council of Safety, a committee of twelve, sitting at Bennington, had acted with such vigor in recruiting and correspondence that Gen. Schuyler anticipated great assistance from the militia. When Stark, therefore, arrived at Manchester, he found Gen. Lincoln, acting under orders from Schuyler, ready to march the whole force to " the Sprouts,"
WILLEY'S BOOK OF NUTFIELD.
297
a rendezvous at the mouth of the Mohawk. High words passed between the commanders, and Stark, showing that his commis- sion gave him plenary powers, flatly refused to leave Bennington uncovered. He, however, wrote to the commander of the
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LOCALITY OF 2ND
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BENNI N
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Northern army offering to co-operate in any manner with him when the immediate danger to Bennington was over. Lincoln left only two days before the battle, to report his failure.
Rumors of a foray by Burgoyne in the direction of the Con- tinental stores at Bennington now became frequent : Stark, therefore, on the 8th of August. left Manchester with his brigade for the former place. His whole force was but about nine hun- dred, the scouts under Emerson not having arrived, and several companies being detained at Charlestown. Col. Warner now sent out a small force under Capt. Chipman, to bring in a quantity of muskets left stacked in the forest by the enemy near Hub- bardton at the breaking up of Hale's regiment in the retreat ; then leaving the remainder of his force to await orders, he went forward with Stark to assist by his counsel and knowledge of the country.
Bennington was at this time a frontier town having about 1,500 inhabitants. It was named in compliment to Gov. Benning Wentworth of New Hampshire, under whose auspices it was settled about twenty years preceding, being then included in the towns surveyed on the disputed boundary line between New York and the New Hampshire Grants. The Council of Safety had been in session here about a month, having their headquarters at the Green Mountain House, afterward better known as the Catamount Tavern -a name given it from the stuffed skin of a catamount placed on the summit of the pole supporting the landlord's business sign. The council chamber of the committee was a busy place ; Stark was in daily consultation with the members, and scouts were several times a day sent out on all roads leading to the north and west. The town was filled with militia. two regiments of Vermonters being in process of organization.
On the 9th of August Stark encamped in the west part of the town, a few miles from the village, but soon judged it pru- dent, from the report of scouts, to move to a point better adapted for attack, on the Walloomsack river, nearly north from his former position, and near the road leading from Bennington to Cambridge, N. Y. This was hardly accomplished, on the 13th, when he received the information of the arrival of a force of about one hun- dred and fifty Indians at Cambridge, twelve miles distant. A force of two hundred men, under Lieut .- Col. Gregg, was immediately sent against the enemy. At night a courier arrived with the intelligence that the Indians were but the advance guard of a force of the enemy advancing. with artillery, under Col. Baum, assisted by Gov. Skene. Swift couriers were now sent to Manchester for War- ner's and Emerson's men, and tidings forwarded to Bennington, six miles distant, for the immediate help of all the militia in the vicinity. Leaving a camp guard. Stark, on the morning of the fourteenth, moved his whole force westward across the Walloomsack. on the road to Cambridge, to meet the enemy; but he had advanced only a short distance when he met Gregg falling back in good order before a superior force half a mile distant. A line of battle was immediately formed ; seeing which, the enemy stopped pursuit and began manœuvring with the evident purpose of avoiding a collision. Failing to draw the enemy onward, and the ground being unsuitable for general action, Stark retired his force a mile and encamped, intending to attack when the reinforcements came up the following day.
Scouts soon reported that the enemy was encamping west of the state line, on the banks of the little river. at a point easily fordable. At this place a bridge and six or eight rude log houses in a clearing gave them some advantages of shelter and position. The accompanying map, drawn by direction of ex-
OLD CONSTITUTION HOUSE, WINDSOR, VT.
Gov. Hall of Bennington, gives an accurate view of the battle- ground and camps. In this position. with scouts occupying the neutral ground, the belligerents slept on their arms.
The morning of the 15th brought a terrible storm of wind
29
Creel
Road
Col. STICKNEY
Mº
Sancos
COL. SIMMONS
Vermont
River
R
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WALLOOMSAC STATIO
MON 8 X8VIO
BATTLE
ORTH
Walloomsac
River
State Line
House iwhere Baum died
ridge
umb
298
WILLEY'S BOOK OF NUTFIELD.
and rain, which the parties were in no condition to meet. Fight ing in such pouring torrents was out of the question. Baum's force, after a semblance of parade, cowered for partial shelter in the log-houses : and Stark, after forming flanking parties, withdrew them and sheltered his men as well as possible in their brush huts and under the lee of fences. Tents there were none.
Surrounded by forests and concealed from each other by intervening hills, the opposing forces sent out numerous scouts who were lurking in the wet brush most of the day. The flint- lock muskets, with all care possible, were so drenched that few would explode, and by noon Fraser's marksmen, whom Baum had sent over the stream to support the Indians, withdrew to the bank and left the ground to the Americans. Our scouts now advanced. harried the enemy working on their entrench- ments and, with no loss, killed before night about thirty, includ-
ing two Indians, whose silver ornaments were brought as trophies into camp.
The scene on the ground occupied by Baum was a busy one despite the weather. The previous evening he had selected two hills by the river bank, which he proceeded at once to fortify, his troops work- ing with alacrity in the storm. The position was about half a mile west of the line dividing Vermont from New York : the battle was thus fought in the latter state. The log-houses were partially demolished, and the lightest timbers, with logs cut on the ground, were drawn by the artillery horses or carried by the men to the highest of the two hills up the stream and placed in position, with earth filling the interstices. This was a work of difficulty, as often when the earth was banked against the logs, the rain would wash it back, rendering the labor fruitless. Nearly half a mile down the stream, on the opposite bank, the smaller of the hills was being rapidly prepared for the security of Peter's corps of Tories, under Col. Pfister. A breastwork was laid of rails, after the manner of a Virginia fence, and the whole filled in with flax pulled from an adjoining field. Slight defensive works were also built to defend the pass of the bridge and the ascent on the south of the redoubt. This labor extended far into the night of the 15th, when a short respite was given, the marksmen being called into the redoubt, and, with no fire to dry the troops, such rest taken as could be had with the wild whoops of the Indians or an occasional shot coming from the front. At mid- night a dispatch from Breyman was received by Baum, stating that help would be forthcoming the next day. Thus affairs
remained at daybreak on Saturday, the 16th. The Berkshire militia had arrived in the night, and their chaplain, Parson Allen, immediately reported at headquarters. Stark had failed to get reliable accounts of Breyman's approach, but his energy of action saved him from the effects of Baum's confident strategy. A plan of attack had been decided in council by Stark, his officers, and the Bennington committee, and with the early dawn preparations were made to carry it into effect. The rain, after fourteen hours' duration, abated in the night, and the morning broke clear and pleasant ; not a breath of wind stirred the drip- ping vegetation, and the swollen river showed by its turbid current the extent of the storm. Both camps were astir betimes preparing for the contest. It was a military axiom with Stark to strike only with a full preparation ; accordingly, orders were given for the drying and cleansing of all arms, after which rations
"The First Meeting House in Vermont. Erected AD., 1763-66.
First Church of Christ, organized December 3, A.D. 762.
were served, and a deliberate review held of the condition of the troops.
While these events are occurring, let us take a glance at the personal appearance of the belligerents. The American troops comprised eight incomplete regiments: five companies from Berkshire county, Massachusetts, Col. Simmons ; the Sixth New Hampshire, Col. Nichols ; the Eleventh New Hampshire, Col. Hobart (incorrectly given Hubbard in the reports) ; the Twelfth New Hampshire, Col. Stickney ; and a hundred scouts, Col. Emerson. Vermont was represented by a small force of militia, Col. Williams : a regiment from Bennington and the towns adjoining, Col. Brush ; and the Green Mountain Rangers, Col. Herrick. The Continentals of Warner, one hundred and forty in number, and Emerson's men, were yet several miles distant. These organizations were in process of formation, few of them being half filled. None had a distinctive uniform except the
299
WILLEY'S BOOK OF NUTFIELD.
Rangers- a body of Davy Crockett men, dressed in frocks with green facings. In the tactics of the forest these Rangers were at home, being a good match for the Indians, whose whoop they nearly imitated in their night countersign, which was "three hoots of an owl."
The commander of the Americans, with the trusty Warner at his side, moved rapidly through the camp. He was in the prime of life, forty-nine years old, dressed as a Continental brigadier. and mounted on a beautiful brown colt. His only staff officer was Warner, six- teen years his junior : and his medical depart- ment numbered but one or two surgeons. The entire force was about I.750, of which New Hampshire furnished about 1,000 : Vermont, 500; and old Berkshire, 250.
Baum's force comprised about 1,000, of whom 150 were Indians, 200 Tories, roo Fraser's marksmen. 100 Canadian Rangers, 50 Chasseurs, and 370 Riedesel's dragoons, or Hessians, acting as infantry. The British prisoners and dead numbered the next day over 900. and Bur- goyne's orderly book makes his loss in the two engagements over 1,200. The disposal of Baum's force was well made : the Tories, or Peter's corps, with a small platoon of Hessians, held the small hill, the Cana- dians were posted in the log houses, a few Hes- sians were posted in the breastworks west of the bridge, the chasseurs were at the east declivity of the large hill, while the remainder of the Hessians were in the redoubt sur- rounded by the Indian scouts in the forest. The German com- mander evidently wished to avoid battle; at half past nine he withdrew his outposts, leaving the Indians only in the forest to guard against surprise.
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