Saturday, April 19, 2014

Bethel's Revolutionary Soldiers



From Centennial Celebration at Bethel, August 26, 1874 pg. 33 - Are any of your ancestors here?

"At the close of the revolution forty-five of the soldiers sought the new lands of Sudbury Canada for a home.

Lieut. Jonathan Clark served as a commissary. He was taken by the Indians, but afterwards released.

Isaac T. York served five years.

Capt. Eli Twitchell was at Bunker Hill immediately after the battle, where he became crippled for life by carrying too heavy of a gun.

Zela Holt was in the French war, where he kept a diary. He was at the capture of Burgoyne.

Moses Mason was in the battle of Bennington.

Jonathan Bean served three years.

John Grover was at Dorchester Heights.

Ebenezer Eames was at the capture of the Hessians.

Benjamin Brown was born in Lynn, Mass., and was in the army five years. He was at the battle of Lexington and Bunker Hill, where he received a bullet wound in the top of his head.

Amos Hastings (brig. general) assisted in digging the trench at Bunker Hill. He was present at the capture of Fort Edward, and Burgoyne.

Absalom Farwell, a native of England, was in the French war. He was taken prisoner and carried to England, where he was in the king's service nineteen years. He returned and was present in the battle of Bunker Hill and Bennington.

Ezra Twitchell marched into Boston when the British evacuated it. He was at the battle of Saratoga.

John Walker was in a privateer which was chased up the Penobscot and abandoned.


Benjamin Russell, sen., was in the French and Indian wars, and in the revolution. He was well versed in Indian warfare.

Rev. Daniel Gould was an orderly sargeant.

Nathaniel Segar was in the revolution two years and nine months, and sixteen months a prisoner. He was at the retreat at Bunker Hill, and assisted in fortifying Ticonderoga.

Samuel Barker was a tailor. He boasted of mending Gen. Washington's clothes.

John Russell went in a privateer.

Isaac Russell was a clerk in the army. He perished in a snow storm in Westbrook.

Dea. John Holt was in the army three years.

Solomon Annis was in the French war.

Other names, of which I have no account are James Mills, Amos Gage, Jesse Dustan, Moses Bartlett, John Holt, Daniel B. Swan, Joseph Kilgore, Jeremiah Andrews, William Staples, Elhanan Sprague, Samuel Ingalls, Thaddeus Bartlett, Jeremiah Russell, James Swan, Simeon Sanborn, ______ Powers, Job York, John York, Jonathan Conn, James Mills, Capt. Peter Twitchell served under Gen. Lincoln in quelling Shay's rebellion, Jonathan Bean, James Barker, Jacob Russell went in a privateer, Sergeant Daniel Gage was in the battles of Monmouth and Trenton. The personal history of these soldiers would form a volume of no mean pretensions.

2 comments:

  1. Eli, Ezra, and Peter Twitchell are my 6th great uncles, as is Moses Mason. Their brother, Eleazar, is my 5th grandfather. He also fought in the Revolution in MA and moved to Bethel after the war. He gave the town the land where the common is now.

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  2. I live in the home that Moses Bartlett Built. He was on the Muster Roll of Captain Amariah Fuller at The Alarm of April 19, 1775; the day the American Revolution began.

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