Military History. 



339 



Joshua Hersey, Jr. : 



Major .... 

 Ezra Stephenson: 



Surgeon . . . 

 Joseph M. Whiting: 



Ensign . . 

 Charles W. Seymour 



Ensign . . 



Lieutenant 



Captain 



Captain 



Colonel , . 

 Moses Humphrey: 



Ensign . . , 

 Moses L. Whiton 



3d Lieutenant . 



2d Lieutenant . 



Captain . . 



May 2, 1838. 



July 13, 1841. 



May 1, 1838. 



Dec. 25, 1833. 

 June 10, 1837. 

 June 23, 1838. 

 April 5, 1841. 

 June 17, 1841. 



June 23, 1838. 



Aug. 22, 1840. 

 April 5, 1841. 

 Aug 6, 1841. 



Elijah B Gill: 



2d Lieutenant May 18, 1840. 



1st Lieutenant . March 31, 1840. 

 Nehemiah Ripley, Jr : 



3d Lieutenant 



2d Lieutenant . 

 Elihu Thayer, Jr.: 



3d Lieutenant . 



2d Lieutenant . 

 Bela S. Hersey: 



2d Lieutenant 



1st Lieutenant . 

 Lincoln B. Sprague: 



3d Lieutenant . 

 Henry Lincoln, 3d: 



3d Lieutenant . 

 Nelson Corthell: 



1st Lieutenant . 



May 18, 1840. 

 March 3, 1841. 



May 26, 1841. 

 Aug. 6, 1841. 



Aug. 22, 1840 

 April 5, 1841. 



March 31, 1841. 



April 23, 1842. 



May 27, 1846. 



Christopher C. Eldridge: 



4th Lieutenant . May 27, 1846. 



By a general order April 24, 1840, very many of the above 

 officers who were then in office were discharged, but some of the 

 number received new commissions to the same rank as those pre- 

 viously held. As early as 1831 the company commanded by 

 Captain Nichols was disbanded and annexed to Captain Nicker- 

 son's company in the Middle Ward ; thus the two north military 

 wards became one. After the historical Second Regiment was 

 disbanded, there remained in Hingham only the volunteer com- 

 panies, the Hingham Rifles and Washington Guards. These were 

 attached to the Third Battalion of Light Infantry, and with its 

 disbandmcnt March 31, 1843, the Rifles ceased to exist. The 

 Guards appear to have lingered somewhat longer, for on May 27, 

 1846, Nelson Corthell and Christopher C. Eldridge were commis- 

 sioned lieutenants in the company. Little was heard of it there- 

 after, however, and Hingham was soon without a company of 

 organized militia, for the first time in some two hundred years. 



In a little one-story wooden building, slightly altered in appear- 

 ance in these later days for its occupation as the intermediate school 

 at Centre Hingham, and standing near Spring Street, on what was 

 once a part of the Common lands, and not far from the site of the 

 old fort of brave John Smith and his men, there was quartered in 

 18G1 a company of the Fourth Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, 

 known in military circles as the Lincoln Light Infantry, composed 

 of some of the best young men of the town, and having a wide 

 reputation for its discipline and efficiency. It was organized on 

 the 28th of October, 1854, and January 20 of the following year 

 Hawkes Fearing, Jr., was elected its first commander. The other 

 officers were : Joseph T. Sprague, 1st Lieut. ; Luther Stephenson, 

 Jr., 2d Lieut. ; Edwin Fearing, 3d Lieut. ; E. Waters Burr, 4th 

 Lieut. Edwin Fearing died, and E. Waters Burr became 3d 



