Little, Moses, Newbury Military Service.

Captain of a company of Minute-men, which marched on the alarm of April 19, 1775, to Cambridge; service, 5 days; also, petition addressed to Committee of Safety, dated Cambridge, May 27, 1775, signed by Jacob Gerrish and six other captains, stating that they had chosen said Little as Colonel, and Isaac Smith as Lieutenant Colonel, and asking that said officers be recommended for commissions; also, Colonel, 17th regt.; engaged May 1, 1775; service, 3 mos. 8 days; roll dated Camp at Prospect Hill; also, general order dated July 2, 1775; said Little, Colonel, appointed officer of the day; also, general order dated Camp at Prospect Hill, July 15, 1775; said Little, Colonel, appointed officer of the day; also, Colonel, Maj. Gen. Green's division; list of field officers of the Continental Army in 1776; also, Brigadier General; list of officers appointed to command forces to go on expedition to St. Johns, N. S.; commissioned June 10, 1777; also, letter from said Little to John Avery, Deputy Secretary, dated Boston, June -, 1777, declining the appointment to command the forces destined for Nova Scotia on account of his broken health, occasioned by services in the last campaign, and family reasons.

Source: All Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the War of the Revolution, Volume 9, page 870

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LITTLE, Moses, soldier, was born in Newbury, Mass., May 8, 1724; son of Moses and Sarah (Jacques) Little; grandson of Moses and Lydia (Coffin) Little, and of Sergt. Stephen and Deborah (Plumer) Jacques and great grandson of George and Alice (Poor) Little, and of Henry and Anna (Knight) Jacques. He was for several years a surveyor and obtained grants of unoccupied crown lands lying within the present limits of Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. He was married in 1743 to Abigail, daughter of Joshua and Sarah (Coffin) Bailey of Newbury, Mass.

He commanded the Newbury militia in the expedition against Louisburg in 1758, and upon the first tidings from Lexington in April, 1775, marched with his company to Cambridge and was placed in command of the regiment raised from the northern part of Essex county. At the battle of Bunker Hill he led three of his companies across Charlestown Neck under a severe fire from the British batteries and ships of war, reached the scene of action before the first charge of the enemy, and remained throughout the engagement. After the evacuation of Boston he was present with Washington's army on Long Island, where he commanded Fort Greene, and was stationed at Flatbush Pass during the battle, Aug. 27, 1776. He also took part in the battle at Harlem Heights, but did not accompany his men in the retreat through New Jersey, being during the winter in command of an encampment at Peekskill, N.Y., but in the spring of 1777 he was forced to return home on account of ill health. In 1779 he declined the commission of brigadier-general and the command of an expedition raised by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to dislodge the British on the Penobscot. He served in the general court of Massachusetts before and after the Revolution.

From: The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans: Volume VI, L