Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 2.djvu/286

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266

��NEW HAMPSHIRE MEN AT BUNKER HILL.

��And O, the hungry brain,

Eager for wisdom's lore, Finding the way it seeks to tread,

Guarded by bolted door ; Looking afar To many a star,

Which it may ne'er explore.

And O, the hungry soul,

Waiting what yet may come,

Striving with dim, short-sighted eyes, To pierce the future's gloom ;

Longing for life,

Immortal life,

While seeing but the tomb.

��NEW HAMPSHIRE MEN AT BUNKER HILL.

��BY HON. GEORGE W. NESMITH.

��When the news of the Lexington en- gagement reached New Hampshire, a large number of her citizens soon as- sembled at Cambridge. They were without organization. Many were des- titute of either arms or provisions. The New Hampshire civil authorities had not yet moved. The Massachusetts govern- ment felt the necessity of providing the means of defence, and employing men for that purpose. Her rulers organized forth- with her own regiments and companies, and issued commissions to her officers.

It appears they extended their pat- ronage beyond their own limits, as

  • Gen. Eeed was granted half pay.

We copy his petition and accompanying papers, as follows:

To the Hon. Senate and House of Iiepre- sentatives convened at Portsmouth, 1785 : Humbly shews .lames Keed, Esq., late Brigadier General in the Continental army, that in consideration of his unfortunate loss of sight in the service of his country, Congress granted the continuance of his pay and rations, calcvdated the amount due, and requested this state to pay the same, and charge it to the account of the United States ; but notwithstanding re- peated applications have been made, he has not been able to obtain either that or

��proved by the following record. "The committee of safety for Massachusetts, on the 26th of April, 1775, issued the commission of colonel to John Stark, with beating orders. Under this com- mission he enlisted 800 men from the tap of his drum. Captain James Reed* of Fitzwilliam, Cheshire county, also, Paul Dudley Sargent of Amherst, Hills- borough county, received commissions as colonels, which were accepted upon the condition that they should continue until New Hampshire should act. "

Stark soon enlisted 14 companies. Reed and Sargent only 4 each. After-

the half pay due to him by the resolves of Congress made in favor of the unfor- tunate sufferers in the service of the United States.

Your petitioner now reduced to the severest distress, with a large family de- pendent on him for support, robbed of the means of subsistence, incapable of performing any kind of business, which might contribute to his, and their relief, and having nothing to console him but an expectation that the representatives of a free and generous people will not suffer a person, who, to obtain their free- dom, endured sufferings which have for- ever deprived him of the pleasure ot

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