He was stripped down to his undershirt and abandoned on a deserted island until Benedict Arnold arranged a rescue 8 days later.
May 1776.
Elisha Whitcomb's unit had surrendered in the Battle of Cedars (near Montreal, Canada), a skirmish that had gone so badly that his commanders were court-martialed and cashiered (publicly humiliated and medals stripped).
So what were our Swanzey guys doing in Canada? Well, you remember we had captured Fort Ticonderoga, and so we decided it was a good idea to invade Canada. The plan was to seize the Province of Quebec from Great Britain and convince French speaking Canadians to join us in fighting the British. Overall, it didn't go so well, which is how Fort Ticonderoga ended up being recaptured, and the Battle of Bennington became necessary.
Temperatures in that area during May range from 46-64. Not freezing but a bit chilly. No coat. No woolen overshirt. No shoes. No blanket. No pants. I'm sure those boys built a fire and kept it going. As for food, all of their weapons that they might have used to catch some dinner had been confiscated. They were without a knife, gun, bayonet or tomahawk. I don't know what they ate, but if yankees are anything they are resourceful, and back then they would have been so much more so than we.
You may recall Capt. Joseph Whitcomb came to Swanzey from Lancaster, Massachusetts with 5 sons and rebuilt our mills after the French and Indian War. And you may remember one of those sons Capt. Jonathan Priest Whitcomb started the first store, brought lilacs to Swanzey and fought in the opening battles of the Revolutionary War.
Elisha Whitcomb is Jonathan's younger brother, who at the time of this indignation was a lieutenant in the Northern Continental Army.
But there is more to know about Elisha Whitcomb than just his predicament with frosty skivvies.
In Swanzey, he was a large landowner and farmer. He owned a mill in East Swanzey. He was at various times the town moderator or selectman.
He was a minuteman who fought in the opening battles of the Revolutionary War and a ranger on the Canadian Expedition.
And when NH requested that we send a representative who had at least 200 pounds (money) to his name to the NH General Assembly to pick who our state representatives would be in the new Continental Congress, we chose Elisha Whitcomb to go and vote on who our reps would be. Later we sent him back to review both our state constitution and our federal one. He helped finalize the draft of our U.S. Constitution.
He is buried in our Mt. Caesar Cemetery along with his wife Joanna whose tombstone calls her a relict (an archaic term for widow/widower.) I can see why that term is no longer in use. Nobody nowadays wants to be called a relic. They had 6 children, 4 boys and 2 girls, some of whom are also buried there as well. Col. Elisha Whitcomb lived to be 72, and his relict wife to 90.
May 1776.
Elisha Whitcomb's unit had surrendered in the Battle of Cedars (near Montreal, Canada), a skirmish that had gone so badly that his commanders were court-martialed and cashiered (publicly humiliated and medals stripped).
So what were our Swanzey guys doing in Canada? Well, you remember we had captured Fort Ticonderoga, and so we decided it was a good idea to invade Canada. The plan was to seize the Province of Quebec from Great Britain and convince French speaking Canadians to join us in fighting the British. Overall, it didn't go so well, which is how Fort Ticonderoga ended up being recaptured, and the Battle of Bennington became necessary.
Temperatures in that area during May range from 46-64. Not freezing but a bit chilly. No coat. No woolen overshirt. No shoes. No blanket. No pants. I'm sure those boys built a fire and kept it going. As for food, all of their weapons that they might have used to catch some dinner had been confiscated. They were without a knife, gun, bayonet or tomahawk. I don't know what they ate, but if yankees are anything they are resourceful, and back then they would have been so much more so than we.
You may recall Capt. Joseph Whitcomb came to Swanzey from Lancaster, Massachusetts with 5 sons and rebuilt our mills after the French and Indian War. And you may remember one of those sons Capt. Jonathan Priest Whitcomb started the first store, brought lilacs to Swanzey and fought in the opening battles of the Revolutionary War.
Elisha Whitcomb is Jonathan's younger brother, who at the time of this indignation was a lieutenant in the Northern Continental Army.
But there is more to know about Elisha Whitcomb than just his predicament with frosty skivvies.
In Swanzey, he was a large landowner and farmer. He owned a mill in East Swanzey. He was at various times the town moderator or selectman.
He was a minuteman who fought in the opening battles of the Revolutionary War and a ranger on the Canadian Expedition.
And when NH requested that we send a representative who had at least 200 pounds (money) to his name to the NH General Assembly to pick who our state representatives would be in the new Continental Congress, we chose Elisha Whitcomb to go and vote on who our reps would be. Later we sent him back to review both our state constitution and our federal one. He helped finalize the draft of our U.S. Constitution.
He is buried in our Mt. Caesar Cemetery along with his wife Joanna whose tombstone calls her a relict (an archaic term for widow/widower.) I can see why that term is no longer in use. Nobody nowadays wants to be called a relic. They had 6 children, 4 boys and 2 girls, some of whom are also buried there as well. Col. Elisha Whitcomb lived to be 72, and his relict wife to 90.
He was stripped down to his undershirt and abandoned on a deserted island until Benedict Arnold arranged a rescue 8 days later.
May 1776.
Elisha Whitcomb's unit had surrendered in the Battle of Cedars (near Montreal, Canada), a skirmish that had gone so badly that his commanders were court-martialed and cashiered (publicly humiliated and medals stripped).
So what were our Swanzey guys doing in Canada? Well, you remember we had captured Fort Ticonderoga, and so we decided it was a good idea to invade Canada. The plan was to seize the Province of Quebec from Great Britain and convince French speaking Canadians to join us in fighting the British. Overall, it didn't go so well, which is how Fort Ticonderoga ended up being recaptured, and the Battle of Bennington became necessary.
Temperatures in that area during May range from 46-64. Not freezing but a bit chilly. No coat. No woolen overshirt. No shoes. No blanket. No pants. I'm sure those boys built a fire and kept it going. As for food, all of their weapons that they might have used to catch some dinner had been confiscated. They were without a knife, gun, bayonet or tomahawk. I don't know what they ate, but if yankees are anything they are resourceful, and back then they would have been so much more so than we.
You may recall Capt. Joseph Whitcomb came to Swanzey from Lancaster, Massachusetts with 5 sons and rebuilt our mills after the French and Indian War. And you may remember one of those sons Capt. Jonathan Priest Whitcomb started the first store, brought lilacs to Swanzey and fought in the opening battles of the Revolutionary War.
Elisha Whitcomb is Jonathan's younger brother, who at the time of this indignation was a lieutenant in the Northern Continental Army.
But there is more to know about Elisha Whitcomb than just his predicament with frosty skivvies.
In Swanzey, he was a large landowner and farmer. He owned a mill in East Swanzey. He was at various times the town moderator or selectman.
He was a minuteman who fought in the opening battles of the Revolutionary War and a ranger on the Canadian Expedition.
And when NH requested that we send a representative who had at least 200 pounds (money) to his name to the NH General Assembly to pick who our state representatives would be in the new Continental Congress, we chose Elisha Whitcomb to go and vote on who our reps would be. Later we sent him back to review both our state constitution and our federal one. He helped finalize the draft of our U.S. Constitution.
He is buried in our Mt. Caesar Cemetery along with his wife Joanna whose tombstone calls her a relict (an archaic term for widow/widower.) I can see why that term is no longer in use. Nobody nowadays wants to be called a relic. They had 6 children, 4 boys and 2 girls, some of whom are also buried there as well. Col. Elisha Whitcomb lived to be 72, and his relict wife to 90.
May 1776.
Elisha Whitcomb's unit had surrendered in the Battle of Cedars (near Montreal, Canada), a skirmish that had gone so badly that his commanders were court-martialed and cashiered (publicly humiliated and medals stripped).
So what were our Swanzey guys doing in Canada? Well, you remember we had captured Fort Ticonderoga, and so we decided it was a good idea to invade Canada. The plan was to seize the Province of Quebec from Great Britain and convince French speaking Canadians to join us in fighting the British. Overall, it didn't go so well, which is how Fort Ticonderoga ended up being recaptured, and the Battle of Bennington became necessary.
Temperatures in that area during May range from 46-64. Not freezing but a bit chilly. No coat. No woolen overshirt. No shoes. No blanket. No pants. I'm sure those boys built a fire and kept it going. As for food, all of their weapons that they might have used to catch some dinner had been confiscated. They were without a knife, gun, bayonet or tomahawk. I don't know what they ate, but if yankees are anything they are resourceful, and back then they would have been so much more so than we.
You may recall Capt. Joseph Whitcomb came to Swanzey from Lancaster, Massachusetts with 5 sons and rebuilt our mills after the French and Indian War. And you may remember one of those sons Capt. Jonathan Priest Whitcomb started the first store, brought lilacs to Swanzey and fought in the opening battles of the Revolutionary War.
Elisha Whitcomb is Jonathan's younger brother, who at the time of this indignation was a lieutenant in the Northern Continental Army.
But there is more to know about Elisha Whitcomb than just his predicament with frosty skivvies.
In Swanzey, he was a large landowner and farmer. He owned a mill in East Swanzey. He was at various times the town moderator or selectman.
He was a minuteman who fought in the opening battles of the Revolutionary War and a ranger on the Canadian Expedition.
And when NH requested that we send a representative who had at least 200 pounds (money) to his name to the NH General Assembly to pick who our state representatives would be in the new Continental Congress, we chose Elisha Whitcomb to go and vote on who our reps would be. Later we sent him back to review both our state constitution and our federal one. He helped finalize the draft of our U.S. Constitution.
He is buried in our Mt. Caesar Cemetery along with his wife Joanna whose tombstone calls her a relict (an archaic term for widow/widower.) I can see why that term is no longer in use. Nobody nowadays wants to be called a relic. They had 6 children, 4 boys and 2 girls, some of whom are also buried there as well. Col. Elisha Whitcomb lived to be 72, and his relict wife to 90.
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