290 History of Hingham. 



Nahum Davis, of Capt. Jonathan Bardwell's company in Col. 

 David Brewer's regiment. Davis also entered the artillery in June. 



Marsh Lewis's name appears on the rolls of both Capt. Daniel 

 Lothrop's company and Capt. Eleazar Hamlin's company in 

 Thomas's regiment. Josiah Oakes appears as a lieutenant in 

 Capt. Job Cushing's company of Heath's regiment ; he must have 

 held his commission a short time only. 



On the loth of June, 1775, the Continental Congress voted to 

 adopt, under the name of the Continental Army, the troops of the 

 several provinces then constituting the provincial army operating 

 about Boston ; and on the 16th Washington was chosen its com- 

 mander-in-chief. This organization, to which reinforcements and 

 new regiments were added from time to time, was quite different 

 in its constitution from the force raised under a resolve of Sep- 

 tember 10, 1770, known as the Continental Line. This latter 

 body constituted during the remainder of the struggle the main 

 reliance and hope of the Americans : it was indeed the backbone 

 of the army, and corresponded to the regulars of subsequent times. 



Under the resolve, eighty -eight battalions were to be raised for 

 service during the war ; of this number Massachusetts furnished 

 and placed in the field no less than sixteen of infantry and one of 

 artillery. — exceeding her quota, which required but fifteen. We 

 shall hereafter see many Hingham names on the rolls of these 

 never-to-be-forgotten regiments. 



The summer of 1775 and the succeeding winter wore away and 

 still the siege of the New England town went on. The expira- 

 tion of short enlistments, and the habit which seems to have pre- 

 vailed among the militia belonging to at least certain of the 

 provinces, of leaving the camp for home almost at will, caused 

 sudden depictions in the American ranks, which were both alarm- 

 ing and exasperating to Washington and to the authorities gener- 

 ally. The Provincial Congress of Massachusetts during its win- 

 ter session reorganized the militia of the province. Three major- 

 generals were appointed, and thirteen regiments formed, of which 

 ten arrived in camp early in February ; besides these there were 

 several thousand minute men held in reserve and ready to march 

 when called upon. By an order in council passed in February, 

 the companies in Weymouth, Hingham, Cohasset, and Hull were 

 organized as the Second Suffolk regiment ; thus the old regi- 

 ment dating from the days of Winthrop and Dudley and which 

 had been commanded by them, by Col. Wm. Stoughton, b} r Josiah 

 Quincy, by our own John Thaxtcr, and both Benjamin Lincoln 

 and Benjamin Lincoln, Jr., ceased to exist. The new command 

 was, however, practically the same as the old, whose designation, 

 it mav be recalled, had alreadv been changed from the Third 

 Suffolk to the Second Suffolk, although Braintree, so long united 

 with us, no longer composed a part of the regiment. Solomon 

 Lovell was the new colonel, and Benjamin Lincoln, who had re- 

 cently commanded the regiment, and who had been untiring in his 



