The call came quickly, so unexpectedly that Reubens little son Daniel was left to unyoke the oxen from the plough. John CHAPLINs grandsonDavid Chaplin (1754 Rowley, Essex, Mass Waterford, Oxford, Maine)was a private in Capt. On June 16th, Colonel Prescott was ordered to take command of the regiments of Colonel Bridge and Frye, and with his men, proceed to Bunker Hill, under cover of darkness, and erect fortifications to preempt a possible breakout of the British by way of the Charlestown peninsula. Christopher was Corporal in Captain Isreal Trows Company, in Colonel Josiah Whitneys regiment. Stephen Richardsons 4th (2d Attleborough, also given Attleborough No. They were still part of the overall militia regimental organizations in the New England Colonies.[3]. Federal Identification Number (EIN): 54-1426643. In the spring of1756two New Hampshire battalions were raised with Col.Nathaniel Meservein command. They were an evolution from the prior colonial rapid-response units. This included the 27 provincial regiments of 1775, the 16 numbered Continental regiments of 1776, the 15 Massachusetts regiments of 1777, and Jacksons Additional Continental Regiment, which later became the 16th Massachusetts Regiment. With Steubens effort and Washingtons determination to create a professional army, Continental soldiers proved to be quite effective and regularly stood up to the British army as the war progressed. At the disaster at the Battle of Camden in South Carolina in August 1780, the Continental soldiers from Maryland and Delaware held out against overwhelming odds once the militia fled the field until they were completely surrounded. Of seven inferior judges, Capt. The Majority of our funds go directly to Preservation and Education. Bliss company Col Patersons regiment reported commissioned May 3 1776. The American Battlefield Trust is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Prescott, seeing the British preparations, called for reinforcements. An illustration of minute-men engaged at the Battle of Lexington. The term Massachusetts Line referred to the quota of numbered infantry regiments assigned to Massachusetts at various times by theContinental Congress. The Minutemen were aware of this as well. ; copy of a list of men stationed at Bristol for 3 months from Dec. 28, 1776. Despite the modern-day perception, the vast majority of the men who responded were not minutemen, but regular militia. Balckom, Daniel, Attleborough.Private, Capt. Abraham Hows co. of Minute-men, which marched from Ipswich (West Parish) on the alarm of April 19, 1775; service, 2 days; His brothersJoseph, John ,and Daniel all served in the Revolutionary War. Stephen Richardsons Attleboro co. of Minute-men, which marched on the alarm of April 19, 1775; service, 6 days; reported enlisted into the army May 15, 1775. The first shots were fired just as the sun was rising at Lexington. In Massachusetts, Middlesex county had provided two while most had provided one (except Worcester which had provided three. He was in camp in Cambridge, May 17. The Day being Spent, a Motion was made for said Meeting to be adjourned to the next Morning,9 oclock; the Question was put and passed in the Affirmative and accordingly said Meeting was adjourned to said Time. At Cambridge, they joined the hundreds, later thousands, of militiamen who were to bottle up General Gages Regulars, until the British had to abandon Boston in March of 1776. In this election, Reuben Dow was elected Captain, John Goss as 1st Lieut., and John Cummings as 2nd Lieut. After receiving word of the Lexington Alarm on the afternoon of April 19, 1775 a total of 92 men marched to Cambridge before dawn the following day. David Barber (1716 Hebron, CT 1801 Hebron). Among the reinforcements wereJoseph Warren, the popular young leader of the Massachusetts Committee of Safety, andSeth Pomeroy, an aging Massachusetts militia leader. Hence the minute-men became a body distinct from the rest of the militia, and, by being more devoted to military exercises, they acquired skill in the use of arms. I must go! Thereafter, until the end of 1776, Read served as colonel in command of several regiments of theMassachusetts Line. One of the mysteries surrounding the events in Boston in the spring of 1775 is how, Though officially June 14, 1775, is considered the birthdate of the United States Army (the date the Continental Congress authorized the enlistment of riflemen to serve for one year), the Brown Farm is considered by some historians as the true birthplace of the United States armed forces. By years end the enlistments of Captain Dows men ran out. He enlisted, 15 Feb 1775, in Capt. Eleazer Spofford (1739 in Georgetown, Mass 1828 Jeffery, New Hampshire) was Quartermaster in Col. Daniel Spoffords regiment of militia. The British detected the movement and sent the schooner H.M.S. In the course of the war, 59 infantry regiments were assigned to the Massachusetts Line. The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill by John Trumbull Rather than exercising his rank, Warren served in the battle as a private soldier. Minutemen are portrayed in "Paul Revere's Ride", a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Some colonies purchased muskets, cartridge boxes, and bayonets from England, and maintained armories within the colony. To the left of the tavern is the Memorial to the Lexington Minutemen of 1775, erected in 1949, and containing the names of the Minutemen who died on the Green in the first battle of the Revolutionary War. Nearly 130 colonial militiamen and Regulars were killed on April 19, 1775. On the morning of April 19, 1775, John Hancock and his elderly aunt, Mrs. Thomas Hancock; Hancocks fiance, Dorothy Quincy; and Samuel Adams were at the home of Rev. ; service, 21 days; company stationed at Tiverton Oct. 7, 1777. They used trees and other obstacles to cover themselves from British gunfire and pursuit by British soldiers, while the militia were firing and moving. Lexington, where today a monument to the Minutemen sits on the Battle Green, never created a Minuteman company. In 1757-1760 he owned the Francis Brocklebank place in Rowley. Fact #2: Lexington was not the first place colonial militia and British Regulars faced off. Richard was elected captain of the new company and his commission confirmed by the Continental Congress. They eventually reached Cambridge where they camped overnight awaiting further instructions. Hundreds of pages of transcripts from these interviews are still available today. Responded to the Lexington alarm as private in Capt. For 50 miles around Boston, militiamen were marching in response. Adams' and his like-minded friends were gaining more traction. If the British had taken that step, they might have had a victory with many fewer casualties. Served under Capt. The Commander-in-Chief even issued orders concerning the use and care of privies, but men relieved themselves wherever they felt. He died 9 Feb 1811; he and his wife buried in Hollis church yard. Samuel Tiffany Jr, Attleborough, was a private in Capt. The British leadership was slow to act once the works on Breeds Hill were spotted. One of the most significant changes were the terms of service. The next entry states "January 20th 1775 this was the first time that the minute men meet"; the names of volunteers who failed to report are carefully recorded. 1778 In Capt. Militiamen knew the local countryside and were familiar with "skulking" or "Indian warfare". When 700 British Redcoats marched up to Lexington Green at dawn on that morning, the Lexington Minutemen were there to meet them. He was among those inspiring the men to hold rank against superior numbers. His story continues below with the Siege of Boston. Officers were elected by popular vote, as in the rest of the militia, and each unit drafted a formal written covenant to be signed upon enlistment. Stephen Richardsons (Attleborough) company of Minutemen which marched probably on the alarm of April 19, 1775; service, 6 days; He enlisted into the army May 15, 1775 as a Corporal in Capt. Service 6 days. Private in Capt. Sports field receives county's approval. Secrecy was necessary. Joseph Warren had given our ancestor Reuben Dow his commission. In New Hampshire, minutemen took over Fort William and Mary and confiscated weapons and cannons there. The town then adopted a resolution that we will at all times endeavor to maintain our liberty and priviledges both civil and sacred, even at the risque of our lives and fortunes, etc.. In 1703, snowshoes were issued to militiamen and bounty hunters to make winter raids on the Indians more effective. ; return of men in service from Dec. 14, 1776, to March 1, 1777; reported discharged Jan. 27, 1777. The wilderness terrain that lay just beyond many colonial towns favored this style of combat and was very familiar to the local militia. Historian M. L. Brown states that some of these men mastered the difficult handling of a rifle, though few became expert. A few days after the Lexington and Concord action the troops that stayed were enlisted into a Continental Army under the command of General Artemus Ward. Through the first two periods, Waltham responded every time Lexington took the lead, but production throughout the Minutemen lineup was crucial, highlighted by third-liner Adam O'Shaughnessy's . New Hampshire and Massachusetts. All content is created by the Trust without editorial influence. ; muster roll dated Aug. 1, 1775; enlisted April 28, 1775; service, 3 mos. Brown quotes Continental Army soldier Benjamin Thompson, who expressed the "common sentiment" at the time, which was that minutemen were notoriously poor marksmen with rifles: "Instead of being the best marksmen in the world and picking off every Regular that was to be seen, the continual firing which they kept up by the week and the month has had no other effect than to waste their ammunition and convince the King's troops that they are really not really so formidable. Col. Spoffordmarched to Cambridge, April 19, 1775. As events around Boston became more tense, many communities in Massachusetts began to create more elite companies of minutemen. The militia and minuteman companies still were organized by town and trained typically as an entire unit in each town two to four times a year with the Minutemen receiving extra training. Fact #4: British General Thomas Gages goal was the military supplies in Concord, not John Hancock or Samuel Adams in Lexington. Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1897. Other counties followed Worcester's lead, electing new militia officers and appointing Minutemen. Arriving in Concord around 8:00 am, British commanders Francis Smith and . It was 2pm when the troops were ready for the assault, roughly ten hours after theLivelyfirst opened fire. They wanted to be a free country and they would fight for it, which proved to be necessary in the end. Don't fire unless fired upon. Nehemiah Jewett from Ipswich served three days in Capt. 12) company, Col. John Daggetts regiment. 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