That old Roman, Sallust, says: “Surely fortune rules all things. She
makes everything famous or obscure rather from caprice than in
conformity with truth. The exploits of the Athenians, as far as I can
judge, were very great and glorious, something inferior, however, to
what fame has represented them. But because writers of great talent
flourished there, the actions of the Athenians are celebrated over the
world as the most splendid achievements. Thus the merit of those who
have acted is estimated at the highest point to which illustrious
intellects could exalt it in their writings.”
Also, that latest of classical authors, Josh Billings, says: “Young man,
blow your own horn!” These quotations express exactly the way in which
the illustrious intellects of authors in Modern Athens (of America) have
exalted the deeds of Massachusetts’ heroes to such a degree that most
people, outside of New Hampshire, do not suppose our state had much to
do at the battle of Bunker Hill, whereas New Hampshire men constituted
nearly four fifths of all the men and officers in that battle. Therefore
I think I have just cause to “blow my horn” for my native town, and my
ancestors who fought in that battle.
Old Nottingham comprised a tract of land supposed to be ten miles
square, and which is now Nottingham, Deerfield and Northwood. It was
incorporated in 1722, and settlements commenced in it soon after, at the
“Square,” a beautiful ridge of land about 450 feet above the sea level.
At the beginning of the Revolution, Nottingham had 999 inhabitants,
Deerfield 929, and Northwood 313. The records show that the people were
making preparations for the coming conflict, and had sent generous
assistance to the “Industrious Poor sufferers of the town of Boston”
during the siege. During the winter of 1774–5, Dr. Henry Dearborn had a
company of men which met at the Square to drill from time to time. In
November, 1774, a town-meeting was held and a committee appointed to
“Inspect into any Person,” suspected of being a Tory.
On the 20th of April, 1775, news reached the Square that a battle had
been fought the day before, and in the evening a large number of
citizens assembled at the store of Thomas Bartlett. On the 21st, at 4
o’clock, a company of nearly one hundred men commenced their march for
Boston, being armed and equipped as best they could at such short
notice.
Some say that Joseph Cilley was the leader of this band of heroes, but
others say Dr. Henry Dearborn was captain, and probably he was, as he
had been drill-master all winter, and was captain of the company after
they arrived in Cambridge. They marched on foot all night, and arrived
in Medford at eight o’clock on the morning of the 22d, some of the
company having traveled, on foot, more than eighty miles since the
previous noon, and over roads which were far from being in the best
condition for rapid traveling.
I have searched records a great deal and inquired of the “oldest
inhabitant,” whenever I could find him, that I might secure a complete
list of the men who constituted this company, but of the hundred I can
only give the following names with certainty. If any reader of this
article can add a name he will do me a great favor by forwarding it to
me:
Dr. Henry Dearborn, Joseph Cilley, Jr., Thomas Bartlett, Henry Butler,
Zephaniah Butler, John Simpson, Nathaniel Batchelder, Daniel Moore,
Peter Thurston, Maj. Andrew McClary, Benjamin Johnson, Cutting Cilley,
Joseph Jackson, Andrew Neally, Samuel Johnson, Robert Morrison, William
Woolis, Eliphlet Taylor, William Blake, Nathaniel Twombly, Simon
Batchelder, Abraham Batchelder, Simon Marston, Moses Gilman, William
Simpson, John Nealey, and Samuel Sias. Let us briefly glance at the
record of some of these men in the years that came after.
Henry Dearborn was born in Hampton, Feb. 23, 1751. He studied medicine
and settled at Nottingham Square as a physician, in 1772. He married
Mary D. Bartlett, daughter of Israel, and sister of Thomas Bartlett of
Nottingham. He was always fond of military affairs, and is said to have
been a skilful drill-master and well posted in the tactics in use
previous to the Revolution. He fought with his company at the battle of
Bunker Hill. In the September following, he joined Arnold’s expedition
to Quebec, accompanied by these Nottingham men,—James Beverly, John P.
Hilton, Samuel Sias and Moses Gilman. They marched up the Kenebec river,
through the wilds of Maine and Canada. In the assault upon that city,
Captain Dearborn was taken prisoner. Peter Livias, the Tory councilor at
Quebec, influenced the authorities to parole and send him home, on
condition that Dearborn should forward his wife and children to him from
Portsmouth to Quebec, which was done as agreed. In April, 1777, Capt.
Dearborn was appointed Major in Scammel’s regiment. He was in the
battles of Stillwater and Saratoga and fought with such bravery, having
command of a distinct corps, as to win the special commendation of Gen.
Gates. In 1778, he was in the battle of Monmouth, with Col. Cilley
acting as Lieut. Col., and helped retrieve Lee’s disgraceful retreat. He
was with Gen. Sullivan in his expedition against the Indians, in 1779,
and was at Yorktown at the surrender of Cornwallis in 1781. Upon the
death of Scammel, the gallant Colonel of the Third N. H. Reg., at the
hands of a barbarous foe, Dearborn was made Colonel and held that
position to the end of the war. After the war, he settled in Maine,
where he was Marshal by appointment of Washington. He was two terms a
member of Congress; Sec’y of War under Jefferson from 1801 to 1809;
collector of the port of Boston between 1809–12; senior Maj. General in
U. S. Army, 1812–13,and captured York in Canada, and Fort George, at the
mouth of Niagara. He was recalled by the President, July 6, 1813, and
put in command of the military district of N. Y. City, which recall was,
no doubt, a great mistake. In 1822 he was appointed Minister
Plenipotentiary to Portugal; recalled in 1824, at his own request: died
at Roxbury, Mass. June 6, 1829. General Dearborn was a man of large
size, gentlemanly deportment, and one of the bravest and most gallant
men of his time.
Joseph Cilley, son of Capt. Joseph Cilley of Nottingham, was born in
1734; died 1799. He was engaged in the attack upon Fort William and
Mary, in 1774; appointed Major in Col. Poor’s regiment by the Assembly
of N. H. in 1775; he was not present in the battle of Bunker Hill, as
his regiment was engaged in home defence. He was made Lieut. Col. in
1776, and April 2, 1777, was appointed Colonel of the 1st. N. H. Reg. of
three years’ men, in place of Col. Stark, resigned. He fought his
regiment bravely at Bemis’s Heights, near Saratoga; and two weeks later
was among the bravest of the brave, when Burgoyne made his final attack
before surrendering his entire army of six thousand men. So fierce was
the battle, that a single cannon was taken and retaken five times;
finally, Col. Cilley leaped upon it, waved his sword, and “dedicating
the gun to the American cause,” opened it upon the enemy with their own
ammunition. He was with Washington’s army at Valley Forge, 1777–8; was
at the storming of Stony Point; at Monmouth he was one of the heroes in
retrieving Gen. Lee’s retreat; was at the surrender of Cornwallis at
Yorktown, and in other hard-fought battles of the Revolution. After the
war he was Major-General of the 1st Div. N. H. militia, and as such
headed the troops which quelled the insurrection at Exeter in 1786, with
his own hand arresting the leader in the midst of his armed followers.
Gen. Cilley was a man of great energy and industry, of strong passion,
yet generous and humane. He was repeatedly elected representative,
senator and councillor.
Thomas Bartlett was born Oct. 22, 1745; married Sarah, daughter of Gen.
Joseph Cilley; was town-clerk twenty-six years; selectman thirty years;
was the first representative from Nottingham to the General Court in
1784; was one of the Committee of Safety which managed the colonial
affairs of New Hampshire during part of the Revolution; was captain of
the 5th company of “six weeks” men at Winter Hill in 1775; was Lieut.
Col. in Col. Gilman’s regiment, in 1776; Lieut. Col. in Col. Whipple’s
regiment at Rhode Island, in 1778; also was Lieut. Colonel under Stark
at the capture of Burgoyne. In 1780 he was Colonel of a regiment at West
Point, when Arnold betrayed that fort. In 1790 he was appointed Justice
of the Court of Common Pleas, and retained that office till his death in
1805. He was Major-General of first division of New Hampshire militia
from 1799 to 1805, in which office he was preceded by Gen. Joseph
Cilley, and followed by Gen. Henry Butler.
Henry Butler was a son of Rev. Benjamin Butler, the first settled
minister in Nottingham, and was born April 27, 1754. He was captain of a
company in Col. Thomas Bartlett’s regiment at West Point, in 1780. He
held many town and state offices; was the first postmaster in
Nottingham, when Gideon Granger was Postmaster-General; and was
Major-General of the first division of New Hampshire militia from 1805,
for several years.
Zephaniah Butler, brother to Rev. Benjamin, was a school teacher in
Nottingham for many years preceding the Revolution, and was one of Col.
Cilley’s staff officers during several campaigns. He married a sister of
Col. Cilley; Gen. B. F. Butler, whom everybody knows, is his grandson,
he being son of Capt. John Butler of Deerfield, who was son of
Zephaniah.
Cutting Cilley, brother of Col. Joseph Cilley, was born in 1738, and
died in 1825; he held many town offices, and was captain of a company in
one of the New Hampshire regiments during the Revolution.
John Simpson, born in 1748, and dying in 1810, is said to have been the
man who fired the first gun at the battle of Bunker Hill. In 1778, he
was lieutenant in Capt. Simon Marston’s company, Col. Peabody’s
regiment; and was subsequently promoted to major. His brother, Robert,
who also served in the Revolutionary army, is the great grandfather of
General Ulysses Simpson Grant.
Nathaniel Batchelder, who was a brother-in-law of Col. Cilley, fought in
the battle of Bunker Hill, under Capt. Dearborn, and was adjutant in
Col. Drake’s regiment, which did brave service in the battle of
Stillwater, Saratoga, and the surrender of Burgoyne. He died of fever at
Valley Forge, March 28, 1778.
Daniel Moore kept the first tavern at Deerfield Parade; fought at Bunker
Hill and in subsequent battles; was captain in Col. Stark’s regiment,
and did valiant service during the war.
Andrew McClary was from Epsom and belonged to a family distinguished for
its military men. He was plowing in his field on the 20th of April,
1775, when he _heard a horn blow_, which, on the instant, he knew was
the tocsin of war; he left his plow in the furrow, and after the
speediest preparation, hastened to Deerfield Parade and thence to
Nottingham Square, where he joined Capt. Dearborn’s company. After they
arrived in Cambridge he was active in helping organize the New Hampshire
men into companies and was himself appointed major in Col. Stark’s
regiment. He fought with his regiment at Bunker Hill, and was killed
after the battle, in attempting to have “another shot at the enemy.”
Robert Morrison was born and lived on the Square; he was a member of Dr.
Dearborn’s company, which drilled during the winter of 1774–5, and a
private in Capt. Dearborn’s company in the battle of Bunker Hill. In the
September following he was bearer of dispatches from Washington to the
Committee of Safety in New Hampshire, by whom he was treated with
distinguished honors. In 1777 he was a private in Col. Stark’s regiment,
and fought bravely in all the battles till the surrender of Burgoyne.
His son, Robert Morrison, Esq., resides in Northwood at the present
time.
Joseph Jackson was sergeant in Capt. Dearborn’s company at Bunker Hill,
afterwards served in several campaigns and was captain of a company.
Samuel Johnson was not in the Bunker Hill fight, but was in the campaign
of 1777, at Bennington, Stillwater and Saratoga, and took an active part
under a commission which gave him the rank of colonel. He was one of the
first settlers of Northwood at the Narrows, and was one of the selectmen
of the town for fifteen years.
Simon Marston was from Deerfield, having settled on the Longfellow farm
in 1763; he lived in the garrison house, erected by Jonathan Longfellow.
He was sowing wheat when the courier, shouting the news of the battle of
Lexington, rode past the field where he was at work. Marston left the
measure, from which he was sowing, rushed to the house, filled his
knapsack with pork and other necessaries, seized his gun, and hurried
down to the Square. He acted in the capacity of an officer in Col.
Reed’s regiment at Bunker Hill; was an officer under Lieut. Col. Senter;
was captain of 1st Co. Col. Peabody’s regiment; was afterwards
commissioned major and fought at Bennington, Stillwater and Saratoga. He
was a brave man in war and energetic in peace. The others named,
although they held no office of rank, were no less brave and faithful in
performing perilous duties, and deserve to have their names recorded
where they will never be forgotten.
After the Nottingham men arrived in Cambridge, and saw there was no
danger of another attack immediately by the troops in Boston, several
returned home and commenced more thorough preparation for the coming
conflict, but Dr. Dearborn and most of the men remained and were
organized into a company, and Dearborn was elected captain the company
became a part of Col. Stark’s regiment and was stationed at Medford,
whence they marched on the 17th of June and participated in the glories
of “Breed’s Hill.” Captain Dearborn’s company was No. 8, but he marched
from Medford to the “Railfence,” by the side of Col. Stark.
The following list of men comprising this company is no doubt correct,
as it was furnished by Judge Nesmith for Cogswell’s “History of
Nottingham, Deerfield and Northwood,” and the Judge is one of the best
authorities in the State in such matters. The men were nearly all from
old Nottingham:
Captain, Henry Dearborn, Nottingham.
1st Lieut., Amos Morrill, Epsom.
2d Lieut., Michael McClary, Epsom.
1st Sergt., Jona. Clarke, Nottingham.
2d Sergt., And. McGaffey, Epsom.
3d Sergt., Jos. Jackson, Nottingham.
1st Corp., Jonah Moody, Nottingham.
2d Corp., Andrew Field, Nottingham.
3d Corp., Jona. Gilman, Deerfield.
4th Corp., And. Bickford, Deerfield.
Privates.—Simon Dearborn, Gideon Glidden, James Garland, John Harvey,
David Mudgett (of Gilmanton), Simon Sanborn, Robt. Morrison, John
Runnels, John Neally, Joseph Place, Abram Pettengale, Andrew Nealley,
Peter Severance, John Wallace, Theop. Cass (of Epsom), Israel Clifford,
Nathaniel Batchelder (of Deerfield), Jacob Morrill, John Simpson, John
Wallace, Jr., Neal McGaffey (of Epsom), Jonah Libbey, Moses Locke,
Francis Locke, Zebulon Marsh, Solomon Moody, Chas. Whitcher, Marsh
Whitten, Noah Sinclair (drummer), James Randell (fifer), Nich. Brown,
Benj. Berry (of Epsom), John Casey, Jona. Cram (of Deerfield), Jeremiah
Conner, Elisha Hutchinson, Dudley Hutchinson, Benj. Judkins, Josh.
Wells, Jere. Dowe, Jona. Dowe, John Dwyer, David Page, Jr., Beniah
Libbey, William Rowell, Weymouth Wallace (of Epsom), Thomas Walsh and
William McCrellis (of Epsom).
_THE N. H. SEVENTH AT FT. WAGNER._
[From sketch of Lieut. HENRY W. BAKER, in Coffin’s History of Boscawen.]
The command had been entrusted to Gen. Trueman H. Seymour, who
determined to make an assault. He knew nothing of the construction of
Ft. Wagner. No information of the impediments to be overcome had reached
him. Col. Putnam of the 7th, commanding the second brigade, opposed the
contemplated movement.
“I do not think that we can take the fort,” he said; and when Gen.
Seymour reiterated his determination to make the attempt, Col. Putnam
said, “We shall go like a flock of sheep.”
The sun had set, and the twilight faded. The soldiers were ordered to
remove the caps from the nipples of their rifles, and were told that
they must depend upon the bayonet alone. In the 100th N. Y., which
formed behind the 7th, this order was neglected.
In the darkness the assaulting column moved forward. The iron-clads, and
the Union batteries opened a heavy fire, which was continued till the
column was so near that further firing would endanger it, when, at a
signal, all the Union batteries became silent. In an instant Ft. Wagner
was aflame. Its heavy siege guns, howitzers, and forty-two pounder
carronades burst forth, pouring a stream of shot and shell into the
advancing troops. And now, in addition, the parapet of the fort swarmed
with men, who, through the terrible cannonade of the day had been lying
securely beneath the bomb proofs. Mingled with the roar of the cannon
were their volleys of musketry.
The first brigade had the advance. Its ranks went down like grass before
the mower. Some of the soldiers fled, panic stricken. The second
brigade, led by the 7th N. H., pressed on and filled the decimated
ranks. Suddenly they found themselves confronted by a ditch fifty feet
wide and ten feet deep, with four feet of water flowing into it. Only at
the south-eastern angle was it dry. It was enfiladed by howitzers. Into
the ditch leaped the soldiers. Grape and canister mowed them down, but
others crowded on. The 7th N. H., led by Lt. Col. Joseph C. Abbott, made
its way unfalteringly into the ditch, through it, and up the slope of
the parapet. Cannon and musketry blazed in their faces; and now there
was a flash behind them—the 100th N. Y., not having removed their caps,
were firing into the dark mass, not knowing who was friend, who foe. All
was confusion. All order disappeared. In the darkness no one could be
recognized. Amid the groans of the wounded, the shouting of officers,
the rattle of rifles, the roar of cannon, the bursting of shells, it was
impossible to maintain discipline. Col. Putnam, a few of his
subordinates, and one or two hundred men entered the fort. The enemy
charged, but were driven back. Col. Putnam was killed; one officer after
another went down. The reserve, which should have rushed up, did not
come. The assault had lost its force. Like sheep the Union soldiers fled
as best they could through the devastating fire, leaving a ghastly heap
of dead and wounded in the ditch, and on the parapet of the fort. Among
the killed was Henry W. Baker. By his side were Dexter Pritchard,
Liberty G. Raymond, and Alexander F. Stevens, from Boscawen, and of his
company, also killed.
Among the wounded was Samuel McEvely, and among the prisoners was John
Clancy, who died in prison at Richmond.
In his first battle, Lieut. Baker gave his life to his country. Those
who served under him speak of him with affection. He was cool and brave,
and ever mindful of his duty. He was buried where he fell, with his
commander, Col. Putnam, and his subordinates, Pritchard, Raymond, and
Stevens.
_UPWARD._