Military History. 321 



Captain Colonel 



Luther Lincoln, Briant, Crane, 



John Mansfield (dead), Bayley, 



Ebenczer Ripley, 



Caesar Scott. Alden, 



Moses Stoddar, 



Joseph Wilcott. Burbeck, Crane. 



Tn September of 1778 General Lincoln was placed in command 

 of the department of the South. A brief account has already been 

 given of his persistent efforts to raise an army, and of the long 

 struggle for supremacy which finally terminated at Charleston, 

 in May, 1780, by the surrender of the town, with the garrison, to 

 Sir Henry Clinton. 



The Committee of Safety in 1779 were Samuel Norton, Dr. 

 Thomas Thaxter, Capt. Theophilus Wilder, Capt. Charles Cushing, 

 and Joseph Thaxter. 



The military service performed by Hingham men during this 

 year was very considerable, besides that rendered by the soldiers of 

 "the Continental regiments with Washington and elsewhere, but the 

 records are so incomplete that but little detail can be given. The 

 English evacuated Rhode Island in the autumn of 1779, but they 

 had no intention of permanently abandoning the State, and the 

 fear of their return necessitated the employment of a considerable 

 American force for its defence until the close of the war. 



A pay roll for December, 1779, of Capt. Luke Howell's company 

 in Col. Nathan Tyler's regiment, on duty in Rhode Island, contains 

 the names of the following Hingham men : — 



John Lincoln, Lieut., Jonathan Farrow, Jr., Private, 



Ezekiel Hersey, Drum, Jacob Whitton, 



Elijah Lewis, Private, William Gardner, 



Elisha Beals, " Nathaniel Bates 



Jonathan Farrow, " 





In the same State there were six men in Capt. Job Cushing's 

 command, and seven men for five months in the company in which 

 Jacobs was a lieutenant. 



There were also four men engaged upon guard duty at Boston, 

 who were probably Robert Gardner, Jonathan Gardner, Elijah 

 Whiton, Jr., and James Hay ward. They certainly received pay 

 from the town for service in Boston this year. 



Lieut. Elijah Beal, who resided at West Hingham and who at 

 the time was about twentv-nine vcars of age, was stationed at 

 Claverack, New York, with fifteen of his townsmen. Efforts to 

 ascertain their names have not met with success. 



This year, too, saw Capt. Theophilus Wilder adding active 

 military duty to the service he was giving his country in the 

 support of the war as a civilian, and again we find him with 



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