Frankin County - Revolutionary War

Some  Hatfield men marched the very next day after the battles of Lexington & Concord. The Hatfield Facebook page will cover the events of April 1775

  History of the Connecticut Valley V1  p85     Not much yet!

  Conway & Montague men joined a single Company which marched April 22

  History of the Connecticut Valley   Vol 1  p82   23 Men marched from Ashfield on the April 22... the muster roll reports five days of service "from the 22nd day of Apl. to the 26th,  both days inclusive"

 At a town meeting legally warned and held at the meeting house in Shelburn June the 26th 1776 first voted Capt John Wells moderator to govern said meeting and voted that this town will stand by the Honourable Continental Congress with their lives and fortunes if their honours think it expedient to declare us independant from the Kingdom of Great Britain for the safety of our rights and privilidges

 

Colrain & Shelburne men marched to Cambridge on April 20th

 A 3-town band of militiamen left for Boston on the day after Lexington & Concord. This is a page from Sheldon's History of Deerfield. Note that 20 are from Greenfield, 23 from Bernardston and only 5 from Deerfield.  This difference probably reflects the Patriot vs Loyalist divide in these towns.  The older town of Deerfield with better farmland and wealthier residents had more "Loyalist" residents than the "new" towns.

Rev March 25 - includes Hatfield & other Hampshire Co Towns . 250 years ago,  in April 1775, men from Greenfield and nearby towns formed militias and marched towards Boston after the battles of Concord & Lexington. The 1796 map below shows  Franklin County, which was then part of a much larger Hampshire County. (In 1775  Leyden was part of a much larger Bernardston. Set off in 1784) The Lexington-Concord battles were the most deadly events leading up to the Declaration of Independence a year later. 122 men died, mostly British soldiers, on April the 19th. (49 militiamen, 73 Soldiers).  Word spread rapidly and by that evening residents of Franklin County, were aroused. Within days about 15,000 militiamen marched towards soldier-occupied Boston, among them groups from Colrain, Greenfield, Northfield and surrounding towns. Where were they going? To Cambridge, just across the Charles River from Boston, where the British forces had control. The map below shows bot...