By 1773 the controversy with Great Britain was becoming increasingly bitter and the people in all parts of the country grew more and more excited. Thomas Chamberlain and several of his sons were living in Westmoreland during this pivotal time in American history. Henry Chamberlain’s sons also were there and played prominent rolls in the Revolutionary War. Silas French, the father-in-law of Spencer Chamberlain also served in the Revolutionary War.

The next two chapters will highlight the activities of these two unrelated Chamberlain families of Westmoreland, and also, Silas French, my 4th great-grandfather from Keene, New Hampshire.

The Boston Tea Party

May 10, 1773 British Parliament passed the Tea Act which, by adjusting import duties, granted the East India Company a monopoly in tea sales in the colonies. The British government wanted to rescue the financially weak company so they could continue to benefit from its valuable position in India.

November 27, 1773 The first tea ship, Dartmouth, reached Boston and two more arrived shortly thereafter. Colonists led by Samuel Adams and Josiah Quincy held several mass meetings. They demanded that Governor Hutchinson send the tea back to England with duties unpaid. He did not accept their demands.

The patriots then persuaded merchants in New York, Charleston and Philadelphia to refuse to accept the tea shipments. Boston merchants however, refused to cooperate. These merchants, many of whom were relatives of the Governor, could then expect even greater profits at the expense of the other merchants.

December 16, 1773 A group of patriots meeting at the Old South Church were told of the governor’s final refusal. About midnight, Samuel Adams and a small group called the Sons of Liberty disguised themselves as Mohawk Indians and boarded the three ships.  In three hours, they dumped 342 chests containing 45 tons of tea into the Boston harbor.

March 31, 1774 In response to the Boston Tea Party, British Parliament closed the port of Boston.

Lexington, the first battle of the Revolutionary War

April 18, 1775 The British army controlled the city of Boston and its harbor. At 11 pm the British army, under the command of General Thomas Gage, crossed the Charles river into East Cambridge. British grenadiers and light infantry began marching toward Lexington and Concord. They hoped to capture the rebel leaders, John Hancock and Samuel Adams at Lexington and seize the weapons and gun powder stored at Concord.^3,5

Patriot sentinels were on alert and hung lanterns in the steeple of Boston’s Christ Church on Copp’s hill. As the signal light flickered from the steeple, Paul Revere crossed the river in a boat to Charlestown.  Within five minutes, the British closed Boston and allowed no one to leave.

On a fleet horse, Revere sped toward Lexington, rousing people along the way. However, he did not work alone. On this historic night dozens of patriotic activists ignited an intricate web of communicating which had been in place for months. Heroic messengers hastened in all directions. They fired signal shots, rang bells and spread the word from neighbor to neighbor.^3,8

April 19, 1775 Before sunrise, 800 British regulars arrived at Lexington and found a militia company of about 70 facing them. Their captain ordered the colonists to disperse. A shot rang out which was followed by a volley from the British leaving eight colonists slain.

The British continued their march toward their objective. However, Hancock and Adams, escaped and the Americans removed the weapons and gun powder safely from Concord.  And now, thousands of minute-men and other patriots were flocking toward the scene of action.⁵

News arrives in Keene, New Hampshire

April 20, 1775 One message-bearer traveled ninety miles to bring the news to Keene, New Hampshire. Marks cut in trees along a bridal path were all he had to lead him through the woods. Nevertheless, he arrived before noon.

He dispersed the word to all parts of town for citizens to meet at the green. There, they voted unanimously to oppose the regulars, and choose Captain Wyman, a 51 year old veteran of the French and Indian wars, to be the commander. Thirty volunteers from Keene left the next morning at sunrise and headed toward Boston.³

Many more men from Keene might have volunteered. However, thirteen wealthy, active and prominent men of the county, including the commander of the militia regiment, Col. Josiah Willard, were Tories. These influential men believed the patriot cause was hopeless and that it would be prudent to stand by the royal government. Their adverse influence greatly inhibited the volunteer effort.³

Two thousand New Hampshire men head for Boston

April 21, 1775 A convention of delegates gathered at Exeter and appointed Nathaniel Folsom a brigadier general to command the NH troops around Boston. The delegation resolved that the towns people provide flour and pork and also “minute men” properly equipped and ready to march on a minutes notice.³

April 23, 1775 Two thousand New Hampshire men headed for Boston. When added to those from Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, they formed an unorganized and poorly equipped army of nearly 20,000. They completely surrounded Boston on the land side. The patriots began to build up entrenchments along their lines and the city of Boston was in a state of siege.³

The Capture of Fort Ticonderoga

May 10, 1775  The Green Mountain Boys militia joined the revolutionary effort without hesitation. Under the joint command of Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold, less than 100 men crossed to the New York side of Lake Champlain. At dawn they surprised and captured the sleeping British garrison at Fort Ticonderoga without firing a shot. This was the first rebel victory of the Revolutionary War. The victory lifted patriot morale was and provided much needed artillery for the Continental Army.

John Stark and James Reed accept commands

May 17, 1775 Delegates from Westmoreland, Keene and 100 other New Hampshire towns attended another provincial congress in Exeter. They formed a committee of supplies for the army, and a committee of safety and secured provincial records. They resolved to immediately raise two thousand more officers and men from the province.^1,3

John Stark had extensive military experience and was probably the most capable soldier in the province. He felt that the congress passed over him for General simply because he was active in the field while Nathaniel Folsom gathered support at the convention. Nevertheless, he accepted the commission as a Colonel from General Folsom, to command the First New Hampshire regiment.

James Reed had been a Captain in the French and Indian wars. When he found the troops at Cambridge were unorganized, he enlisted volunteers to form a regiment. Exeter convention delegates appointed Colonel Reed to lead the Third New Hampshire regiment. General Folsom ordered that he immediately travel to Cheshire County to collect the recruits enlisted for him there. Among these were privates Henry Chamberlain (28) and Ebenezer Chamberlain (20) in a company commanded by Captain Jacob Hinds.^1,3

The Battle of Bunker Hill and Breeds Hill

On a peninsula across the Charles River from Boston there were two strategically important hills near the town of Charlestown. Bunker Hill and Breeds Hill would be excellent positions from which the British could fire their cannons at the Americans surrounding the city. The patriots also recognized this fact.

Fortification of Breeds Hill begins at Midnight

June 16, 1775  Colonel William Prescott was commander of a detachment of about 1,000 men and two pieces of artillery. His orders were to take provisions and entrenching tools and proceed to the Charlestown peninsula to fortify and hold Bunker’s hill.

At 9 pm, they served a ration of rum to the men from a hogshead. President Langdon of Harvard college offered a prayer. The column then began their silent march, carrying dark lanterns open only to the rear.³

Upon arrival, the officers marked out the fortification plan and placed sentinels along the shore. At midnight, they began to build a six foot high defensive redoubt on Breeds Hill. The men were within cannon range of six British war ships. They worked in strict silence.

“All’s well!” shouted the British sentinels along the Boston shore. Their call gave comforting reassurance to both sides.³

Colonels Reed and Stark rush to Prescott’s aid

June 17, 1775 As dawn approached, lookouts on HMS Lively, a 20-gun sloop, noticed some activity and opened fire on the night-darkened hills. This, of course, caught the attention of the British admiral. He demanded to know what they were shooting at.

At dawn, the British could clearly see the hastily constructed fortifications and opened a barrage of cannon fire. Colonel Prescott held the hill throughout the intense initial bombardment with only a few hundred American militia. Outgunned and outnumbered, he sent a desperate request for reinforcements.⁶

Colonel Reed and his New Hampshire minutemen’s were bivouacking at Charlestown Neck and arrived at the scene soon after Prescott’s request. The Lively directed an accurate rain of artillery fire toward the narrow neck of land which Colonel Stark’s regiment had to cross. Other regiments were in disarray and afraid to march into range of the artillery. Stark, however, ordered those men to stand aside and calmly marched his troops to Prescott’s positions without taking any casualties.⁶

A grateful Colonel Prescott told Stark to deploy his men where he saw fit. Stark surveyed the ground and immediately saw that the British would flank the rebels by landing on the Mystic River beach east of Bunker Hill. While the sea was at ebb tide, they gathered stones to fortify the beach.⁶

A fence line fortress of hay

Colonel Reed had moved his regiment to the front and formed his line behind a long rail fence. Stark’s regiment lined the fence to his left and Captain Knowlton’s company to his right. They brought other nearby fence material over and set them up parallel about three feet apart. Fortunately, the grass on the hill had been cut for hay the day before. Henry and Ebenezer Chamberlain, along with hundreds of other men, carried the hay in their arms and trod it down between the fences so that the packed hay would stop many of the musket balls.^1,3

The British soldiers knew it was “conquer or die”

It was a hot Saturday afternoon. By 3 o’clock, 3,000 British troops were off the boats and on the ground. When the barges returned to the Boston side of the river, the British soldiers knew that it was “conquer or die”. They formed two columns of grenadiers and light infantry with field artillery. General Pigot, on the left would direct his attack toward the redoubt and General Howe on the right would aim his assaulted at the rail fence.³

New Hampshire regiments taunt British

In the past, as far back as the French and Indian wars, the British had often played a certain song to ridicule the Provincials. The elite British military thereby expressed their condescending view toward the rag tag colonist forces. Now, a chorus of that song rang out from behind the rail fence. The New Hampshire regiments sang this song for the first time in defiance of the British: “Yankee Doodle went to town, a riding on a pony, Stuck a feather in his cap and called it macaroni.“^7,11

At forty yards, fire!

Ammunition and gun powder was scarce. Stark and Reed gave each of their men 15 balls, a cup of gun powder and an extra flint. Since guns were of different calibers, some of the balls were to large and had to be hammered, or they were to small and had to be wrapped in cloth to fit. If they didn’t have a powder horn, they had to carry their gun powder in their waistcoat pocket.³

The minutemen crouched and waited. The field officers walked the line giving the men encouragement and instruction. “Fire low, aim at the waist.” “Powder is scarce, don’t waste it.” “Wait till you can see the whites of their eyes!” Stark paced off forty yards in front of the fence, stuck a stick in the ground and said to his men: “Don’t fire a shot till the redcoats come up to that stick and I say the word!”³

The British advanced toward the American lines with the precision of a dress parade, halting to fire now and then, but doing little harm. As they approached the forty yard mark, hundreds of Americans held there breath.

“Fire!” came the command from Stark, and an explosion burst from the line of muskets.  Another volley followed as soon as they could reload.  The ground was seen strewn with hundreds of dead, dying, and wounded. The British wavered then retreated.³

Charlestown burning

Sniper fire aimed at the British was coming from the Charlestown area. This was returned with a rain of grape-shot from the cannons. Smoke now filled the sky toward the south as the whole town was ablaze. Hundreds of residents, who had not previously evacuated, were now heading for safety beyond Charlestown Neck.

General Putnam provided little assistance to the front line

General Putnam and Colonel Gerrish had over 1000 men on and behind Bunker Hill one-half mile to the rear. They were working to fortify the hill as a rallying point in case of disaster. There was great confusion, and that part of the field provided little assistance to Stark, Reed and Prescott on the front line.³

British rally, patriot’s ammunition runs low

The British officers rallied their troops at the water’s edge and regrouped. They then made a second advance as steady as the first. The patriots withheld their fire until they were even closer than before. Another deadly volley burst upon them, and again the British broke and fled in disorder. General Clinton hastened to bring more troops across the river from Boston to aid in the assault.

The Amrican’s ammunition was now almost completely exhausted. The few remaining artillery cartridges were broken open and the powder distributed among the infantry. A few squads of reinforcements from the rear joined the front line, but it was too little and too late to be effective. The British officers realized that the Americans’ ammunition was running out. This news was spread among their troops, encouraging them to renew the fight.

British advance toward the right wing, Americans retreat

During the final assault, General Howe changed his strategy and directed his infantry with their bayonets toward the redoubt. He then advanced a strong column of the grenadiers of his right wing, with artillery, and turned it toward the hill with a such a destructive force that the Americans were forced abandon their positions there. The British then advanced and entered the redoubt at the rear. Prescott and his men were compelled to retreat.

The men behind the rail fence were powerless to drive back the British who were now on their right flank.  In this dire situation, they might soon be cut off from any means of escape.  A retreat was ordered and the men of the two New Hampshire regiments began to move over or around Bunker Hill while assisting Prescott and his men escape from the overrun redoubt.³

The patriot soldiers had now became a crowd of refugees retreating over and beyond the hill. They were caught in a cross fire from General Howe’s grenadiers behind them and from ships in the Mystic river to their side. All British fire was now focused on the fleeing hoard of men struggling to get through the hour-glass shape of Charlestown neck. The heaviest loss for the Americans this day was on this ground.

The British costly victory

The battle lasted one hour and a half and the British now occupied Bunker Hill. Their victory, however, came at a great cost. Approximately 226 British soldiers had died on the battlefield with another 800 wounded. American casualties were much less, approximately 140 killed and 310 wounded.⁵

This is the most casualties the British would have in any single engagement during the American Revolutionary War. Colonel Stark described the scene in front of the rail fence: “The dead lay as thick as sheep in a fold.”^3,6

The grass fence served as a surprisingly effective defense. After two assaults at the rail fence the British decided to change their strategy. “The battle began with the intention of flanking the redoubt by breaking the fence line. It ended by flanking the fence by carrying the redoubt.“⁹

One British officer later reported the cost of attacking at the fence line: “Our light infantry was served up in companies against the grass fence, without being able to penetrate. Indeed how could we penetrate? Most of our grenadiers and light infantry, the moment of presenting themselves, lost three-fourths, and many nine-tenths of their men. Some had only eight and nine men a company left; some only three, four and five.”¹⁰

Henry and Ebenezer Chamberlain

The Chamberlain brothers, Henry and Ebenezer had fought in the thick of the fight in the bloodiest battle of the Revolutionary war and survived. That night they, with the other New Hampshire troops, slept at Winter hill a mile from Bunker’s hill. The next day they would begin to entrench there for a new line of defense. The siege of Boston had just begun.

General George Washington assumes command.

On July 3, 1775, General George Washington assumed the command of the Continental Army in Massachusetts.

Silas French enlisted on July 14, 1775

On July 14, 1775, four weeks after the Battle of Bunker Hill, Silas French enlisted in Captain Jeremiah Stiles company in Colonel Paul Dudley Sargent’s regiment. This company from Keene, NH had been transferred from Stark’s to Sargent’s regiment in the central division of the army under General Putnam. Each man who enlisted was required to supply himself with a gun and cartridge box.¹

Silas French is the father of Millie French, the wife of Spencer Chamberlain, and therefore a direct descendant of all of the Spencer Chamberlain family. Silas French lived in Keene, Cheshire, New Hampshire just east of Westmoreland.

Preparing for War

Under the militia law from the French and Indian Wars, every male inhabitant from sixteen to sixty years of age was required to provide himself with a musket and bayonet, knapsack, cartridge-box, one pound of powder, twenty bullets and twelve flints. Every town was required to keep on hand one barrel of powder, 200 pounds of lead and 300 flints for every sixty men.³

After fifteen years of peace, this law was not being enforced. But now, the prospect of revolutionary war on the horizon, gave them a rude awakening. Less than half the required military supplies were in store and new supplies were nowhere available. Furthermore, the veterans of the Indian wars were fast passing away, and their young men were learning nothing of military arts and duties.³ 

The story of how Silas French (23) addressed this dilemma and personal responsibility has been passed down through the generations. The story is recorded in the history of Northwest Iowa:

“A great-grandfather of Harry Chamberlain in the paternal line (Silas French) participated in the Revolutionary war. His wife (Sarah Blake) melted and ran into bullets the lead weights of the family clock, replacing the weights with bags of sand. This clock and the old Queen’s Arm musket which the great- grandfather used are still (1926) in possession of members of the Chamberlain family in Vermont.”⁴

The family story

Sarah Blake was 18 years old at the time the Revolutionary war broke out in 1775. Silas and Sarah were not married at that time. My interpretation of this story is that she melted down the weights from her parent’s family clock to provide the bullets for the young patriot Silas French. However, this incident may have happened during the critical lead shortage of 1777. (Another version of this story in our family history)

To be continued… Chapter 13- The Chamberlain’s in the March to Ticonderoga

© Dennis D. Chamberlain, The Chamberlain Story, 2017. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the written content of this site without express and written permission from the author and owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that  credit is given to Dennis D. Chamberlain and direction to  www.thechamberlainstory.com.

References:

3- S. G. Griffin, M. A., A HISTORYOF THE TOWN OF KEENE, Keene, NH, Sentinel Printing Co., 1904
4- Northwestern Iowa Its History and Traditions, Volume II, (Harry Chamberlain), 1804-1926. http://iagenweb.org
5- American Revolutionary War Facts, http://www.american-revolutionary-war-facts.com
6- John Stark, https://en.wikipedia.org
7- A HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF KEENE, Keene, NH, Sentinel Printing Co., 1904. Address of Rev, Geo. E. Ellis, June 17, 1841
8-Ray Raphael Paul Revere’s Other Riders htts://allthingsliberty.com
9- A HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF KEENE, Keene, NH, Sentinel Printing Co., 1904, Tarbox’s Life of Israel Putnam, page 197
10- Ibid.,  Letter of English officer during Revolutionary War, dated July 5, 1775.

11- Yankee Doodle Dandy was sung by the British during the French and Indian wars to deride the colonists with a pretense of superiority. There were many verses written by various lyricists.

In the 1760s a “Yankee” was a derogatory term for a New England colonist country bumpkin. “Doodle” was a fool or simpleton. “Dandee” was one who thought of himself as stylish. “Macaroni” was English slang for anything fashionable, originally a fancy Italian dress which was imitated in England at the time.

A Yankee Doodle Dandy thought he could make himself fashionable by sticking a feather in his coon skin cap. Now in open rebellion, the colonists sang it to mock the British. It was an almost spontaneous expression of their pent up resentment of British rule and condescension. Yankee Doodle Dandy became a source of patriotism and pride for the colonists. And, perhaps never sweeter than when it was sung at the British surrender at Yorktown, and the end of the Revolutionary war.