Enoch Poor, born in Andover, Massachusetts, on the 21st of June, 1736,
was educated in the common schools of his native place. Removing to
Exeter, New Hampshire, he engaged in commercial pursuits until summoned
by his country to take up arms in her defence. Immediately after
the battle of Lexington, three regiments of militia were raised and
equipped in New Hampshire, and the command of one intrusted to Poor.
Serving first in New England, then in New York, and afterward joining
in the ill-starred Canadian expedition, he used all his influence
to dissuade General Schuyler from abandoning Crown Point, and when
that measure was decided upon, joined with several other officers in
sending him a written protest. Considering this a breach of discipline,
Schuyler appealed to the commander-in-chief, who, while declining to
reverse the general’s decision, wrote him a private letter, approving
Colonel Poor’s judgment, and regretting the abandonment of Crown Point,
which he considered the key of the lakes. On the 21st of February,
1777, Poor was commissioned brigadier-general and attached to the army
under Washington. In 1779, he joined the expedition against the Six
Nations and subsequently was attached to Lee’s command, remaining with
him until after the defeat at Monmouth, when Poor was ordered to join
the division under Lafayette. The following year he fell a victim to
fever, dying, after a short illness, at Hackensack, New Jersey, on the
8th of September, 1780. Washington, in acquainting Congress with the
sad intelligence, said of him, “He was an officer of distinguished
merit, who as a citizen and a soldier had every claim to the esteem
of his country;” and Lafayette, on revisiting this country many years
after, testified his loving remembrance by paying a tribute to the
memory of Poor when called upon for a toast.