298 HISTORY OF C OH ASSET. 



added to the offer of forty shillings. An increase of three 

 pounds a month was voted for any who might be ordered 

 out of our State forces into the Continental service. 



From this time forward the Cohasset men were sepa- 

 rated into different parts of the Continental army as 

 well as in the State forces, and fought — no one knows 

 where. It is probable that in each of the principal 

 events * of that long war some men from Cohasset par- 

 ticipated. We are fortunate in having a diary of one of 

 them, Ambrose Bates, which tells of that first glorious 

 victory over a large British force when General Bur- 

 goyne surrendered at Saratoga, N. Y. 



His messmates seem to have been : — 



Lazarus Lincoln. Josiah Bates. Seth Briggs. 



Elisha Joy. Eaton Simmons. Luke Stephenson. 



Zenas Lincoln. Seth Stowell. Briton Nichols. 



David Hersey. David Harmon. 



Of these men, David Hersey and Seth Stowell were 

 probably from Hingham, for men from both towns were 

 often thrown together in the Continental army. In the 

 Hingham town history there are several lists in which 

 Cohasset men are included. 



What other men from Cohasset might have been with 

 Ambrose Bates in the Burgoyne campaign, serving either 

 in the militia or in the Continental army, there is no 

 means of knowing. 



At least one more, Cornelius Bates, whose grave is in 

 Beechwood, did service in the New York maneuvers. 



At a town meeting on August 18, 1777, it was voted to 



* One example of unwritten records in the Continental service is the story of 

 Noah Nichols, who lived many years after the war and who used to tell how 

 General Washington ordered him.to repair the wheel of a gun carriage while on 

 one of his forced marches. When Nichols asked permission to stop off to mend 

 the wheel the General answered him with an abrupt refusal. " It was the hardest 

 thing I ever did," the veteran would add in telling the story, " hut I did it." 

 (See Judge Russell's Centennial Address.) 



