Raising Something For The 4th The Cost And The Celebration -Part 2

IMAGE: As we celebrate America’s Independence on The Fourth Of July, Robert Hanaford Smith, Sr., reminds us that even though the Declaration Of Independence was signed on that day in 1776, America was also at war, and companies and regiments of colonists were still being raised up to fight in it.

by Robert Hanaford Smith, Sr.
Weirs Times Contributing Writer

Fireworks and the Fourth of July have for many years been associated with each other as Americans engage in their yearly celebration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, though I don’t recall ever attending a reenactment of the event.
Towns all over New Hampshire have traditionally either provided funds from their yearly budget or provided fund-raising campaigns to pay for the fireworks display on the night of July Fourth.

>>CLICK TO READ Part 1 of Raising Something For The Fourth<<

Other traditions include starting the day’s festivities with a flag-raising ceremony where that symbol of respect for and loyalty to the United States of America is raised on a pole as spectators stand and/or salute and sing the national anthem.
Some towns hold annual fourth of July parades where patriotism is also emphasized. Picnics with hot dogs and hamburgers have long been part of the holiday’s tradition for many families. Watermelon was often an added treat for the special day in our family. I remember attending baseball games on the Fourth back in those long-ago days when there were summer leagues with teams from the various towns competing against each other. I don’t remember my home town of New Hampton ever fielding one of those teams, but I do remember attending games in Bristol and Ashland with those two town teams in competition. Those were the days when the pitcher-catcher combination made up of the Marston twins from Bristol was the talk of the local sports scene. I recall at home, probably during one of those years when there wasn’t a ball game to go to of engaging in a shooting game with my brothers on that important July day using cap pistols and hiding behind trees as we pretended to shoot each other. None of the shots could be “fatal,” however, because the game had to go on. Some years, before they were outlawed, my Dad would purchase a few firecrackers and we had our own mini-fireworks display.

Back in 1776, the Declaration of Independence was signed, but America was also at war, and companies and regiments of colonists were being raised up to fight in it. It was not fun and games back then.
New Hampshire militiamen who were asked to serve in the war were required to provide their own guns and other equipment needed to engage in warfare, but if they were unable to supply the needed items the selectmen from their town were required to supply them. The Continental Congress in September of 1776 voted to raise 66,000 enlisted men for the war, asking the different States to provide the men, with New Hampshire being asked to provide three battalions.
According to Judge Jonathan Jones, writing in the Granite Monthly magazine, each enlisted man was offered by Congress “… a bounty of twenty pounds, a suit of clothes, consisting of two linen hunting shirts, two pairs of overalls, a leathern or woolen waistcoat with sleeves, a pair of breeches, a hat or leathern cap, two shirts, two pairs of hose, and two pairs of shoes, all of the value of twenty dollars, and one hundred acres of land..”
In addition the State was to pay twenty shillings a month as wages, and was to provide a blanket and one penny a mile for travel.
It appears that after New Hampshire was directed by Congress to provide three battalions for the war that there were periodic orders given to recruit men to fill the regiments as the enlistment periods of previous recruits ended. Colonels of the regiments and captains of the companies in those regiments were ordered on March 20, 1777, by General Folsom, who was the Commander of the State Militia, to raise the needed men. The recruiters were authorized to hire men from any area of the State.

In November of 1779 another campaign to fill up the three battalions was made by encouraging the soldiers whose terms of service were ending to re-enlist. They were offered 100 acres of land instead of a bounty to enlist, or they could receive a sum of money equal to that which Massachusetts offered to its soldiers. Apparently the filling up of the ranks was not easy because in December of 1779 General Folsom was ordered to fill up three battalions immediately.
In March of 1780 recruiters were offered 30 pounds for each man they could persuade to enlist, and on June 8th of the same year it was voted to draft men into service to obtain the men needed to fill the battalions. On June 16th the militia officers were ordered to enlist or draft 600 men for the three battalions. Men refusing to comply with an order to serve in the army or to provide a substitute to do so were subject to a fine of five hundred dollars. Towns were expected to provide men for the Revolutionary Army and if they did not supply the number they were asked to then the cost of hiring men from other towns was assessed to the delinquent town. The individual towns also offered bounties to residents who would enlist in the army.
Jonathan Smith wrote that “By 1778 most of the men had had a taste of military service, and many of them did not like it. Large numbers of the militia were men of mature years, owning farms and having dependent families. The calls came in the busiest season, planting or harvesting time, when their presence at home was absolutely necessary to keep their wives and children from want.”
But they served in the cause of freedom as the officers struggled to keep the battalions supplied with enough men – men who were sent to New York, Rhode Island, Canada, and as far away as Virginia to fight the enemy and bring freedom to the land. Some were assigned to protect the borders of New Hampshire from invaders, many going to Portsmouth to guard the coast, others assigned to stand guard along the Connecticut River, and some sent to the northern border. Others went to other New England States. Some deserted and others, having completed the terms of their enlistment, were said to have uttered, “I have had my term. I have fought bravely. Let my neighbor do likewise.”
Of the 25,000 American deaths in the Revolutionary War, though no one knows for sure exactly how many there were, around 8,000 were battle deaths and the rest died from disease. Over four hundred men from New Hampshire died in the war. They were not well-trained soldiers, but militia men who had jobs and families to support. Many were New Hampshire farmers.
So as we celebrate the Fourth of July, though this year will, no doubt, be different than the usual celebration, let’s remember that freedom comes at a cost.
It took more than a declaration, more than words, to be free of tyranny from those across the sea. It took the shedding of blood and loss of life.

Robert Hanaford Smith, Sr. welcomes your comments at danahillsmiths@yahoo.com.