Colonel James Reed – Tailor Whose Regiment Held the Line at Bunker Hill

James Reed was a tailor as well as innkeeper by trade. Of ordinary height, well-built and very active, he was a veteran officer of two wars, having never failed to answer the call to arms. At the Battle of Bunker Hill, his regiment faced the hottest fire, throwing back the attacking British twice before the redoubt was overrun and he was forced to retreat. He rose to brigadier general in the Continental Army, but early in the American Revolution, he was blinded in the service of his country and forced to retire.

Washington and Congress thought so highly of Reed’s service that after he lost sight, he was commissioned a brigadier general in the army and given half-pay pension for life. He would spend the next thirty-one years blind. As such, he remained an active member of his community and continued to take part in life’s pleasures. Often the general and his second wife, who were both fond of horses, were seen riding together. Mary guided both mounts by a single line that ran from one animal’s bit to the other.  When General Reed died at the age of eighty-four, he was buried with full military honors. In the funeral procession, his widow followed her husband’s remains on horseback; the general’s horse, with empty saddle, walked by her side.

Will the Real Parents Please Stand Up

James was born on January 8^th in Woburn Massachusetts, about twelve miles north and slightly west of Boston. We don’t know the exact year; the few biographies that exist give his birth from 1722 – 1724. But what is most confusing, are the ancestral internet sites that claim different parents for James. And of course, all the other articles that copy them.  Seems there are two sets of parents. The first are Lieutenant Thomas Reed (1682-1732) and Sarah Sawyer (1687-1737), who were married around 1705. They had nine children of which James was the eighth. The source of these parents can be traced back to a speech James Garfield of the Fitchburg Historical Society made in 1899.  The other pair of James’ parents originated in the 1861 text, History of the Reed Family, by Jacob Whitmore Reed. On page 78, he wrote that James’ parents were Joseph Reed (1698-1730, and Sara Rice (1700-1784), who were married on Nov. 26, 1723; he lists only three children. Jacob’s account is put into question over the next couple of pages when much of James’ military experience is screwed up. Among others, he places James at Valley Forge in 1777 – 1778. Of course, the record is clear; James lost his sight in the summer of 1776 and so too his role in the Revolution. As to who is correct… Since we can’t ask the real parents to stand up, less one believes in ghosts, perhaps we can plant this seed with some grad student who has the time to trace the answer.

Early Life and Marriage

We know basically nothing of James’ childhood or education.  We believe that he apprenticed as a tailor because he wrote that into his French and Indian War company roster as his occupation. The few sources we have state that he did come from a distinguished and extended family who had immigrated from England around 1635. He was near twenty years old when he married Abigail Hinds (March 4, 1723 – Aug. 27, 1791) in 1742. She was of Brookfield, Massachusetts, which is sixty-eight miles west of Boston and had been living in New Salem, Massachusetts; the circumstances of their meeting remains unknown. Afterwards, they settled first in Brookfield and by 1751, had moved to Lunenburg, MA (which would become Fitchburg in 1764 – hence Garfield’s 1899 speech at Fitchburg).

While at Lunenburg (fifty miles west of Boston) James must have had some family money for he built a home and soon opened an inn which he ran for several years. We know James ran a tavern on the west side of the commons from a petition by the selectmen of that town for a license as innholder to Joshua Hutchins, “in place of Captain James Reed who is now going into His Majesty’s service.” That would put the petition at 1755.  He and Abigail would have six sons and five daughters (two of his sons would become officers in the American Revolution). Children:  James 1746, Priscilla 1748, Abigail 1749, Fredrick 1752, Sylvanus 1755, Barzela 1756, Hinds 1757, Joseph 1763, Shefimoth 1766.

French & Indian War

Successive muster rolls show the almost continuous service of Captain Reed throughout the war from 1755-1762. He was at first captain of forty-two men in 1755. By the end of the war, he had over eighty men under him, double his first command. He did return home at time to time while serving the Crown; evidenced in the fact that he fathered three children during this time.  We have little detail of his company’s actions during the war, but can deduce his service was creditable by the increasing number of men who volunteered from year to year to serve with him. James’ first experience was with an expedition under the command of British Indian Agent William Johnson to Lake George and Crown Point in the late summer of 1755. This would result in the Battle of Lake George, Sept. 8, 1755, which was a British victory, however at a grave price. The colonial relief column to Fort Edward was ambushed and many were killed or wounded, including most of the officers. From what we know through documents, James’ regiment had been at Fort Edward during the battle that raged north of them. Later, he helped construct Fort William Henry before returning to Massachusetts in December of 1755.

Like deciphering his parents, there is some confusion as to which regiment he first enlisted. According to Garfield, upon which most internet articles reference, James’ name appears as a captain in Colonel Josiah Brown’s Massachusetts’s Regiment. This is supported by the Adam’s Papers, Vol. 3 in a letter from Jeduthun Baldwin who did much engineering work during the war. He wrote, “in the year 1755 in August, I Received a Captains Commission in Col. Brown’s Regiment and marched with my Company by the Way of Dearfield, and Hoossock Fort, thro the woods to Fort Edward,  and to Lake George. Soon after I got there, I was employed in building Fort Wm. Henry…in Dec. the army came off…”  In a 1919 publication of the New York State Historical Association that is an extensive list of soldiers who campaigned in the Champlain Valley, James enlisted in Colonel Joseph Blanchard’s New Hampshire Regiment. It states that he was at Fort Edward when Johnson marched the rest of the army north toward Crown Point. This writer believes this is in error and assumption by the authors.  At the start of the war, James was a resident of Massachusetts and would not relocate to New Hampshire until after the war. Therefore, he would not have enlisted in nor recruit men for a New Hampshire company.

The next year, 1756, James was a captain in Colonel Timothy Ruggles’ Massachusetts Regiment; the commander was a wealthy Roxbury lawyer who later became a staunch loyalist. He would remain as a captain in Ruggles’ regiment for the duration of the war. A billeting document places James’ company in Albany with forty-six men. In July of that year, a roster dated on the 26^th, lists fifty-three men under his command.  Later, on October 11^th, is a roll that lists sixty-six names. They had marched on an alarm to Fort William Henry on the southern tip of Lake George and records state that they were not relieved from that post until January 8, 1758. Later that year, James would join British General James Abercrombie in his failed expedition to Ticonderoga on July 8, 1758. By then, according to company rosters of new enlistees from March 13, 1758 to May 22^nd, there were now seventy-eight members.  The assault on French Fort Carillon was conducted by British regulars, specifically a suicide attack by the famed Highlanders. The colonial regiments remained along the wood line and supported the frontal assault by small arms fire against the earthworks the French had thrown up before the fort. The British attack failed dismally with massive casualties.

The next year, 1759, James’ regiment returned to Ticonderoga and Fort Carillon with General Jeffery Amherst. This expedition would prove far more successful. The British force of 11,000 was pitted against the French garrison of only 400 men. After the British moved their cannon high ground to shell the fortification, the French abandoned the fort which was renamed Fort Ticonderoga by the British. As to James’ actions, we again turn to Jeduthun Baldwin’s letter who, by 1759, had joined Ruggles’ regiment: “in the year 1759, I Received a Captain Commission in Genl. Ruggles8 Regiment. After I arrived at Fort Edward I was Sent to Halfway Brook, to build a Stockade Fort there,9 under the direction of Col. Ayres. When we came before Ticonderoga, I had the direction in throwing up Some breastwork at that place. After we had got possession of this place, I was ordered to Crownpoint (sic) where I was employed as a director and Overseer, under Col. Ayres, in building that large Fort.”  Over the next three years, James would remain in His Majesty’s service until January 1, 1762, the company’s last muster roll that by war’s end, included ninety names.

Between Wars

James returned to his home in Lunenburg and for the next three years or so, he managed his inn as well as we can assume his tailor shop. By early 1765, he and a group of settlers from Lunenburg were given a grant of land from New Hampshire’s Provincial governor.  The previous year, James was paid by the Provincial governor to supervise the building of roads in the area. No doubt he lobbied for the land grant that was later granted. Later that year, James and the others resettled at Monadnock Number Four, which is now Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire. Reed built the second house in town, about a mile northwest of the village center. Just as he had done at Lunenburg, Reed turned the large, two-story frame home into an inn and tavern. It was used by travelers and, since Reed once more became active in establishing a local militia, military meetings and drills were held there on a regular basis. Later, the inn would be used for religious services and as the first school house in Fitzwilliam. He became involved with local government as moderator of the Proprietors’ meetings, also serving as clerk from 1769 until 1776. So too, he was active in New Hampshire’s militias. In 1770 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel.

American Revolution

After news of the Battles of Lexington and Concord reached Fitzwilliam, James quickly raised a company of volunteers and marched southeast to Medford, just outside of Boston. Having lived for several years throughout Massachusetts, he continued to enlist more volunteers, mainly from Cheshire County. On May 22, 1775, the third New Hampshire was organized with four companies; Colonel James Reed its commander. On June 14^th, just three days before the Battle of Bunker Hill, it was adopted into the newly formed Continental Army under the command of General Artemas Ward.  On June 12^th, General Ward moved Reed’s 3^rd regiment closer to Charlestown Neck. So too he dispatched the New Hampshire 1^st under veteran commander Colonel John Stark to Medford a mile or so west of Reed’s position.  Combined, the two New Hampshire regiments, largest in the American Army, numbered around 1,200. On the evening of June 16^th, Colonel William Prescott and Israel Putnam advanced onto Charlestown Peninsula with about 1,200 men. As they passed Reed’s regiment, a company of Reed’s men under engineer Captain Hugh Maxwell joined them. By midnight they were busy digging an elaborate redoubt on the summit of Breed’s Hill.

By first light the next day, June 17^th, the British could not believe that the Americans had constructed a fort in one night. HMS Lively immediately started to shell the men still at work on the redoubt while the British batteries on Copps Hill joined in.  The British generals were soon formalizing a plan to assault the works.  Colonel William Prescott commanded the redoubt on Breeds Hill. After repeated appeals for reinforcements, at around 11 AM, General Ward finally agreed to send 200 New Hampshire men.  Colonel Stark received the order at Medford, but instead of racing off the men, he began to prepare his entire regiment for a fight and sent word to Reed to do the same.  It is difficult to believe, but Stark and Reed were low on shot and ball and used this time to send back to Cambridge for the necessary ammunition. When the order came at 1:30 to send the whole 1^st and 3^rd New Hampshire regiments to Charlestown, Reed and Stark were ready.  Ward’s decision to send in the rugged frontiersmen would be a decision to which the British would pay dearly.

By 2 PM, Stark’s regiment met Reeds at Charlestown Neck. Two Massachusetts Regiments were hesitating to cross the thirty-yard width of land that led to Bunker Hill. British gunboats with 24-pound cannon were raking the neck, creating a no-man’s land of shot and shell. Without missing a step, Stark passed the reluctant colonials from Massachusetts and in a slow, but determined step, led the two New Hampshire regiments out onto the small slip of land. As shells burst among the men, some shirking and falling, a jittery Captain Henry Dearborn asked Stark if they should quicken their march. Years later Darborn wrote that “With a look peculiar to himself, he fixed his eyes upon me and observed with great composure: ‘Dearborn, one fresh man in action is worth ten fatigued ones’ and continued to advance in the same cool and collected manner. One mounting the summit of Bunker Hill, Stark saw that Putnam was busy constructing another defense. He looked down at Breed’s Hill – saw the redoubt and Captain Knowlton’s men thinly stretched out to the left towards the Mystic River. He gazed at the British assembling on Morton’s Hill and instantly knew the key to the redoubt’s defense.

An experienced eye knew that the British professional soldiers could see the strength in the redoubt. They could also see the weakness of the American flank. Stark concurred with Reed and the two colonels knew where they were needed most. Stark gave a rousing speech to the men and they streamed down the hill and filled in the gap along the American left. Knowlton held the line from the redoubt’s entrenchments. Reed came next along the rail fence, stuffing sod and grass between the rails to help deflect shot. He did consult with Prescott in the redoubt and sent one company under Captain Joseph Crosby into the town of Charlestown on the American right. They joined a company of Massachusetts men who were sniping at British Marines landing under General Henry Clinton and Colonel John Pitcairn (who would be killed by African American Peter Salem during the final assault on the redoubt).  Stark continued the line down to the water where he built a hasty stone wall and lined his men in three ranks to volley any attacking force. Colonel Timothy Ruggles, with whom Reed had fought alongside for many years, was a now loyalist advising the British. He formed the rumor that Commanding General Thomas Gage intended to commit to a frontal assault on the redoubt, grumbling such after attending the council of war. Actually, British General William Howe, in command of the British assault, planned to do exactly as Stark realized. He would feint an attack on the redoubt and focus his best troops against the fence and along the water to flank the Americans and get behind the fort. By 3 PM, the British were ready to attack.

Twice the British assaulted the lines and twice they were thrown back with huge casualties, especially among the officers. Reed’s, Knowlton, and Stark’s men would face the hottest fire as rank after rank of British light infantry and Grenadier attacked. The red-coats faced not farmers, but wilderness settlers whose survival depending on their ability to fire their guns with incredible accuracy. After the second failed assault and a brief rest, Howe knew that if he were to take the works, he had to change plans. He ordered his men to take off their heavy haversacks. The main assault would now be on the redoubt. The men would form then charge up the hill without firing and at the point of the bayonet. The feint would now be along the rail fence. A quick aggressive race uphill combined with the American ammunition running out proved the day for the British as the redoubt was overrun – most of the 450 American casualties would occur at the redoubt these last minutes of the battle. Faced with the redoubt taken, Reed and Stark’s men had no choice but to retreat, however they did so slowly, laying down a steady fire that kept the British at bay. Once past Bunker Hill, they quickly moved out over the neck and behind American defenses to the west. The British went no further than Bunker Hill. Reed’s and Stark’s casualties were minimal compared to those regiments defending the redoubt. James returned the number of his losses as five killed and twenty-seven wounded. 

After Bunker Hill

A little more than two weeks after Bunker Hill, on July 3, 1775, General George Washington assumed command of the Continental Army at Cambridge. Reed’s regiment was stationed nearly two miles north of Cambridge at Winter Hill in Somerville; the site of the previous year’s powder alarm. His regiment was tasked with building fortifications on Miller’s Hill in Cambridge. Captain Hugh Maxwell, Reed’s regimental engineer, who had helped Colonel Richard Gridley stake out the redoubt on Bunker Hill, oversaw the construction. In January, 1776, the Continental Army organized and renumbered their regiments. The Third New Hampshire under Colonel Reed became the 2^nd Continental Regiment. So too Colonel John Stark’s 1^st New Hampshire became the 5^th Continental Regiment and the New Hampshire second became the 8^th Continental Regiment under Colonel Enoch Poor.

The British evacuated Boston on March 17, 1776, sailing to the British port at Halifax where they refitted with supplies and reinforcements from England. Washington moved his army south to New York City where reports indicated the British would stage a massive invasion. Reed’s regiment accompanied the army to New York, but was soon assigned to the Northern Army under Major General Philip Schuyler.  So too were his brother regiments, the 5^th and 8^th under Stark and Poor. He was attached to General John Sullivan’s brigade which was formed to reinforce the American troops in Canada. We know the approximate date Reed left New York, evidenced by an April 20^th letter addressed from the city: “New York, April 20, 1776. Then received from Gen. Washington three boxes said to contain three hundred thousand dollars, to be delivered to Gen. Schuyler at Albany.” This was most likely to settle soldier’s back pay and local merchants for supplies. We know that Reed’s regiment arrived in Montreal on the 29^th of May and some sources state he was with General Sullivan in the Sorel River region.

After Generals Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold’s failed attempt to take Quebec on December 31, 1775, the Americans had conducted an ineffectual siege of the city. Once British Commanding Governor/General Guy Carleton received his long-awaited reinforcements from England that spring, the Americans began a painful retreat back towards Montreal. Physician and General John Thomas supplemented General Arnold as commander of American forces and arrived outside Quebec on May 1, 1776. With word of British reinforcements, he immediately initiated a withdrawal of American troops up the St. Lawrence toward Montreal. He soon became inflicted with the small pox, necessitating General Sullivan to be ordered north as his replacement.

Sullivan, a thirty-six-year-old attorney from New Hampshire, arrived in Albany on May 10^th. However, he would not arrive on the scene in Canada until June 1^st; General Thomas died the next day of small pox.  By early June, Sullivan had at his command, 8,048 American troops in Canada and the islands of the Richelieu River. Of them, 2,000 were bedridden with the small pox. Even so, Sullivan had arrived with fresh reinforcement and hoped to stem the British advance towards Montreal. At Sorel, and specifically the Three Rivers Region, on June 8^th, he attacked the British through dismal swamps that nearly destroyed his regiments. After this fiasco, the writing was on the wall and the Americans hurried their retreat from Canada.

We know Reed’s regiment did not participate in the Battle of Three Rivers. This is evidenced by returns after the battle plus accounts that place his regiment in Montreal. Alexander’s Scammell’s June 8^th report on the troops in Canada shows about two thirds of Reed’s regiment were posted at Montreal. He makes no mention of Reed’s presence. The journal of Dr. Lewis Beebe, who accompanied General Sullivan and documented the American retreat from Canada, states that Colonel Reed was not in command of his regiment at Montreal, but under his second, Lt. Colonel Israel Gilman.  Beebe’s journal places Colonel Reed no further north than St. Johns on the Richelieu River; twenty-five miles south of Montreal. The following is a brief timeline of Colonel Reed’s regiment in Canada.

• June 3, 1776:  Sullivan’s Brigade, which includes Reed’s Regiment marched for Fort St. Johns toward Fort Chambly, twelve miles north of St. Johns.

• June 5. Dr. Beebe wrote that Colonel Reed had a slight case of the small pox. Beebe was at St. Johns when he wrote this entry and described Reed as being on the other side of the river, establishing Reed at St. John’s.  Reed’s second in command, Lt. Colonel Israel Gilman, had gone ahead with the regiment and was at Chambly on May 30th to participate in a council of war.
• June 8. General Sullivan wrote to General Washington. His letter noted that Reed’s Regiment only had forty men fit for duty. This may have been an exaggeration for Reed’s command numbered around four hundred men. But it is safe to say that a large portion of Reed’s regiment had, by this date, been sickened by the pox.
• June 12, Dr. Beebe’s journal entry:“By invitation crossed the river and dined with
  Colo. Reed, Mr. Barnum & a number of other Gent’n. Had a most elegant table in the wilderness. It is pleasant and agreeable in this Strange land, now and then to see old friends, and be a little sociable in retirement.”This places Reed at St. Johns, and not in Montreal where Scammell recorded Reed’s regiment was posted. This also implies that since Reed attended a dinner with friends, he was not, at that time, terribly afflicted with the Small Pox. 
• June 13, Reed’s Regiment is confirmed as being at Montreal by the account in the 2nd New Jersey regiment’s orderly book.

General Arnold abandoned Montreal on June 17^th. The same day Chambly was burned by General Sullivan and on the 18^th, St. John’s followed the same fate.  Captain Charles Cushing with the 24^th Connecticut Regiment recorded in his journal on the 18^th: “This day our army all retreated from St. Johns (St. Jean), about 2,000 had been carried to the Isle aux Noix, the most of them sick with small pox… the confusion the army was in is beyond description, notwithstanding General Sullivan executed himself to the utmost to support order.”  With each fort and town, the British were hot on the heels of the departing Americans. 

On Isle Aux Noix, 2,000 plus soldiers were dying of small pox. Physicians with nothing left in medicines or articles of comfort stood by helpless. On June 19^th, surgeon Samuel Merrick described a situation where all they could do is watch the soldiers suffer: “I walked around the island and found the sick of the whole army… amounting to thousands, some dead, others dying. Great numbers could not stand, calling on us the physicians for help, and we had nothing to give them. It broke my heart, and I wept till I had no more power to weep. I wiped my eyes, pitched my tents, and others did the same, so that in about an hour the sick were all out of sight.”  By the 20^th, the sick were ordered south to Crown Point – except the nearly 1,200 troops that were left behind in shallow graves.

A small, sickly rebel army, still reduced by ending enlistments, began fortifying Fort Crown Point and a dozen or so miles to the south, Fort Ticonderoga. They expected the British to follow through on their successes, however were given a slight reprieve. General Guy Carleton held back his infantry while he spent the next three months constructing a navy to descend Lake Champlain. Arnold did likewise, ordering shipbuilders from the coast to aid in constructing a small navy to confront the British.  Worn with hardship and exposure, the army at Crown Point and Ticonderoga was now attacked by disease, which rapidly thinned its ranks. While stationed at Crown Point, Col. Reed was prostrated by fever, which resulted in the total loss of his sight, whereby his military career and usefulness was terminated.  On the 9th of August, while still suffering from his severe illness, Reed was promoted to brigadier general by Congress on the recommendation of Washington. On August 10^th, his commission was forwarded by John Hancock, the President of Congress. This promotion by Washington and Congress highlighted the high esteem the blinded soldier received from his fellow countrymen. He would be granted a general’s half-pay pension for the remainder of his life.

After Retirement from the army in August, 1776

Reed returned home to Fitzwilliam, but soon after, resided in Keene, New Hampshire, a dozen miles north of Fitzwilliam. There is no recorded reason why Reed relocated to Keene. Because of his blindness, Reed may have believed he could no longer handle the rigors of running an inn nor continue his occupation as a tailor. With no income, (the half-pay pension would not kick in for some time), he and his family may have been forced to sell their property. At Keene they occupied the confiscated estate of Dr. Josiah Pomeroy, a loyalist, which was leased to Reed for a minimal fee by the state of New Hampshire. While living in Keene the blind general was almost daily seen upon the main street led by a Mr. Washburn, who was paralyzed on one side.

During his residence in Keene, Reed’s wife Abigail died. On Aug. 27, 1791, in her 68^th year, she was buried in Washington Cemetery, Keene, NH. The following year, on October 16, 1792, in Leominster, Worcester, Mass., James remarried fifty-year-old school teacher of Fitzwilliam, Mary Farrar (Jan. 8, 1741 – d. unknown) daughter of Major John Farrar of Framingham, MA.  Six years later, in 1798, he and Mary moved to Fitchburg, Ma. He purchased a home from Dr. Peter Snow Sr., a cottage with one and a quarter acres located on the site of the present Central block, just West of City Hall. The deed was dated Feb. 3, 1798. For the next nine years, the ‘old general’ led a quiet life. On February 13, 1807, at age eighty-three, he died and was buried with full military honors in the old burying ground at Fitchburg, Laurel Hill Cemetery, Worcester County, Mass.

General Reed’s family consisted of six sons and five daughters with many descendants. Two of his sons, Sylvanus and James, served in the American Revolution. Sylvanus was an ensign in his father’s 2^nd Continental regiment. Sylvanus was adjutant under Gen. Sullivan, and was afterwards promoted to a captain in the New Hampshire Militia.  James Reed, Jr. served through the war. He was disabled in the service and died a pensioner at Fitzwilliam, February 19, 1836, aged 89 years.

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RESOURCE

Beebe, Lewis, 1935 “Journal of a Physician on the Expedition Against Canada in 1776” The Pennsylvania Magazine Vol LIX, Number Four.

Blake, Amos J. 1888.  “Gen. James Reed. Sketch of his Life and Character”, Proceedings of the New Hampshire Historical Society. Vol. 1 Part 4 1884-1888. pp. 109-115. 

Duty In The Cause of Liberty.  “On the Elusive History of Brigadier General James Reed” June 6 2017.  (Internet)

Frothingham, Richard.  The Battle of Bunker Hill.  1875: Little Brown & Company, Boston, MA

Garfield, James F. D. “General James Reed. Read at a Meeting of the Society, Dec. 18, 1899.” Proceedings of the Fitchburg Historical Society, 4 (1908): 113- 24.

Heitman, Francis.  Historical Regiments of the Continental Army During the War for Independence.  1914: The Rare Book Publishing Company, Washington DC.

New Hampshire Union Leader.  “Roadside History: Brigadier General James Reed (1722-1807) Feb. 12, 2017.

Phillips, Kevin. 1775, A Good Year for Revolution. 2012: Penguin Group, New York, NY.

Reed, Jacob Whittemore. History of the Reed Family In Europe and in America. 1861: John Wilson & Son, Boston, MA.

“Soldiers of the Champlain Valley” Proceedings of the New York State Historical Association, 1919, Vol. 17 (1919), pp. 300-428 Published by: Fenimore Art Museum

Voye, Nancy S.  “Massachusetts Officers in the French and Indian Wars, 1748–1763,” [Boston,] 1975, No. 8.

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