Samuel Bradish (1757-1812)
Hannah Dunton ( 1762-1838)
paternal 4th great-grandparents
In 1775, Samuel Bradish was living with his parents, Robert and Lydia (Morton) Bradish, and four of his siblings in Winchendon, Massachusetts. He was not quite eighteen years of age, but already had nearly two years of training as a member of the Winchendon militia, as well as additional training as a minuteman.
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| Winchendon, Massachusetts (Google Maps) |
Each colony had its own militia. The initial
purpose was to ensure that settlements were ready to defend themselves against
hostilities from Native Americans. The Massachusetts Bay Colony began mandatory
militia training in 1631 for all able-bodied males who were sixteen or older,
including men who were veterans of the French and Indian War (1756-1763). Each
town was required to have at least one militia company of about 60 men, led by
an elected captain. (National Park Service)
None of the colonies could have foreseen the
critical role their militias would play in the summer of 1775, when they would
be called upon to confront the experienced, well-trained British military.
– PRELUDE TO WAR
–
April 19, 1775
After the French and
Indian War (1754-1763), tension between the colonies and England escalated due to tax increases and restrictive laws imposed by
Britain. In 1765, like-minded men in the colonies started to form a network of secret,
organized groups called the Sons of Liberty. Their goals were to promote the rights
of colonists and undermine Britain's authority.
The situation reached a breaking point just before dawn on April 19,
1775, when over 500 British regulars arrived in Lexington, Massachusetts where
they believed dissidents, Samuel Adams and John Hancock, were in hiding. The soldiers were met by seventy-seven militiamen
on Lexington Green. After a shot was fired by an unknown party, the British
followed with several volleys. Eight militiamen were killed and nine were
wounded in the skirmish.
The British continued on to Concord where they encountered
nearly 400 well-armed militiamen and minute men from surrounding areas. They soon made a quick retreat to Boston, followed by hundreds of militiamen. As word of the confrontations at Lexington and Concord spread, an ever-growing force of thousands of militiamen and
minute men harassed the soldiers all the way to Boston. Once there, the British
were trapped as the colonials surrounded the city.
– THE WINCHENDON MILITIA RESPONDS –
In his 1868 book, History of the Town of
Winchendon, (Worcester County Mass.,) from the Grant of Ipswich Canada in 1735,
to the Present Time, author Rev. A. P. Marvin described the Winchendon militia's
response to the Lexington alarm, often in the words of those who shared the
experience with my 4th great-grandfather.
[Note: Comments by Dr. Milton
Whiton, who provided the author with a significant amount of historical
background, are in quotes. The original spelling and punctuation have been
retained.]
When
news came of the battle of Lexington, in April, the alarm was spread in
Winchendon by the firing of guns and the beating of drums. The people sprang to
arms, and under the lead of Dea[con] Moses Hale, without a commission, a party
of them started for the scene of action. Learning, however,
while on their way, that there were men enough in the field, near Boston, then
returned home. They attended to spring work on their farms, and put themselves
in preparation for the contest which was now opening before them. (Marvin, 86-87)
A record from "Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary
War" (p. 409) shows that Samuel Bradish of Winchendon marched to Cambridge on April 20 in response the the alarm of April 19, 1775, and that he enlisted on April 26 for a term of just over three months.
Bradish, Samuel, Winchendon. Private, Capt. Abel
Wilder’s co. of Minute-men, Colonel Ephraim Doolittle’s regt., which
marched April 20, 1775, in response to the alarm of April 19, 1775, to
Cambridge; service, 6 days. Enlisted April 26, 1775; service, 3 months, 13
days. (Ancestry.com)
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Winchendon is about fifty miles from Lexington; Cambridge is nearly nine miles farther. Boston is three miles from Cambridge. (Google Maps with added
locations.)
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The book continues:
In the meantime, Capt. Abel Wilder was
commissioned as a captain. The time for preparation was brief, for letters
dated May 6 and May 10, prove that Capt. Wilder was already in the camp at
Cambridge. Sometime ... prior to the battle of Bunker Hill, which was fought on
the 17th of June, Capt.
Wilder marched to Cambridge with his company. The company, says Dr. Whiton,
"was composed of men from Winchendon, Royalston and Templeton." Among
the soldiers from this town [Winchendon] were ... David Stoddard,
Samuel Bradish, … , and
Elisha Brown. (Marvin, 87)
Once in Boston, the British were besieged by the Americans. Over the next two months, British
General Thomas Gage and Generals John Burgoyne, William Howe, and Henry Clinton
prepared for a confrontation. Gage was becoming increasingly concerned about
the growing number of militiamen gathering on the hills around Boston Harbor. He called for
reinforcements, supplies and ammunition.
The Americans were also making preparations. Officers worked to organize the militias from Rhode Island, Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut and New Hampshire. The men were encouraged to sign up for one-year enlistments into what would become the Continental Army; it would be led by General George Washington, the newly appointed commander in chief. The stage was set for a face-off between the two forces.
– THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL –
June 17, 1775
As soon as General Washington received intelligence that the British
planned to attack Charlestown and Dorchester Heights on June 18, Colonel William Prescott
of Massachusetts, General Israel
Putnam of Connecticut, and Major Generals John Stark
of New Hampshire and Joseph Warren
of Boston sprang into action. The American militias and new enlistees in the fledgling Continental Army were quietly moved onto
Charlestown peninsula on June 15-16.
The officers decided to move forward from
Bunker Hill, the original plan, to Breed's Hill where breastworks (defensive walls, often earthen, built to breast
or shoulder height) and a redoubt (a small, usually temporary, enclosed defensive work) would be better positioned.
Left: “Fortifying Breed’s Hill in the night June 16 1775.” Engraving
by Samuel Hollyer, 1856, based on an illustration by F.O.C. Darley. (New York Public Library)
When the sun rose that morning, General Gage and his
officers were astounded to see the extensive fortifications that had been
constructed overnight, sixty-two feet above Boston Harbor. With the hill’s
steep embankment and new defenses, the Americans now held the superior
position. General Gage knew he had no choice but to attack.
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Plan of the town of
Boston with the attack on Bunkers-Hill in the peninsula of Charlestown the 17th
of June 1775. (Wikimedia
Commons - CCA
2.0 Generic Boston Public Library)
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Right: A diorama of the redoubt as seen from above. Bunker Hill Museum, Boston, Massachusetts.
(Flickr)
Note: The earthen walls that formed the redoubt had wood rails on top; the men walked on wooden platforms inside.
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A
Sketch of the Action between the British Forces and the American Provincials on
the Heights of the Peninsula of Charlestown, the 17th of June 1775. (Wikimedia
Commons,
cropped with added notations)
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Right: Another diorama from the Bunker Hill Museum shows a birds-eye view of the Charlestown peninsula. The British set the town on fire as they began their assault.
The American officers knew
they were outnumbered and outgunned and, because their supplies of powder and shot
were limited, the men were ordered to hold their fire until the British were
within musket range. Every shot needed to count.
The order, "Don't fire until you see the whites of
their eyes," was passed around to all present; the men were to told stay low to
conceal their inferior numbers. As the Americans watched, the British soldiers
slowly marched up the breadth of Breed’s Hill from the redoubt to the Mystic River, moving
through almost waist-high grass on uneven terrain.
The north line was positioned along the rail fence and breastworks from the Mystic River
and up the hill. The men waited
quietly during the British advance.
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"Along the battle line on Breed's Hill and
extending to the Mystic River, the colonial militiamen held their fire as
regiments of the British Army advanced toward them." (History.com)
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When the signal was given, the Americans in the redoubt and along the breastworks rose up and fired a single volley. It was devastating—British soldiers fell like dominoes. Still, more soldiers advanced. Another deadly volley persuaded those that remained to retreat.
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| "The Battle of
Bunker Hill" by Howard Pyle, ca. 1897, depicts the British marching up
Breed's Hill. (Wikipedia) |
Left: "Battle of Bunker Hill," painted in 2000 by Don Troiani. Oil on canvas. (Revolutionary War Journal)
The 1790 Federal Census shows Samuel Bradish, a free white male over the age of 16, living with his family in the town of Windsor, Berkshire County,
Massachusetts. In addition to Samuel, the household consisted of of
four males under the age of 16, and one female. The four males would be
Samuel's sons, Artemus, born 1781, Samuel Jr, born 1783,
Levi, born 1786, and my 3x great-grandfather, Walter, born 1788. The
female is his wife, Hannah—women were not categorized by age.
Colonel Prescott, wearing a red waistcoat, stands on top of the redoubt wall with arm raised, rallying his soldiers.
General
Howe, who was in command of the battle, had his soldiers regroup and make a
second charge. This time they had to step over or around the bodies of their
dead and wounded comrades. Again, when the soldiers got close enough the
Americans fired as one, with the same disastrous result.
Right: “Battle of Bunker Hill / E. Percy Moran” by Percy Moran, artist, ca.
1909. Photograph. Original oil on canvas. (Library of Congress)
Left: A diorama of the Battle of Bunker Hill.
Bunker Hill Museum, Boston, Massachusetts. (Roy Luck, Flickr)
The Americans could
not believe the devastation. Dead, dying and wounded men were strewn all over
the hill. The remaining soldiers were in full retreat. General Howe, after
finally obtaining reinforcements from Boston, ordered a third charge. This one focused on the redoubt.
As the Americans began to run out of ammunition, musket fire decreased—the
British took advantage of the situation. They made two assaults,
breaching the redoubt on the second one. With their bayonets fixed, British troops poured over the
walls. The opposing forces engaged in hand-to-hand
combat; the Americans, now out of ammunition, used rocks and the butts
of their guns to fend off the attackers. Amid
the chaos, Colonel Prescott called for a rapid retreat off the peninsula.
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British Marines and
Foot Regiments storm over the side of the Patriot defenses. (Revolutionary War)
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Young Isaac Glynney, a boy of thirteen who had taken the place of his ailing father, was in the redoubt. Later, Isaac recounted his experiences in his diary.
We did as before—reserved our fire until they came within about six or seven rods [about 100 feet], then we showed them yankee play and drove them back again. But soon they renewed the attack and came again. But we, being destitute of ammunition, made use of ammunition called cobble stones. (Journal of the American Revolution)
Lt. John Waller of the British Marines was among those who stormed the redoubt. He described the scene in a letter to an unknown recipient, written June 21, 1775.
I cannot pretend to describe the Horror of the Scene within the
Redoubt, when we enter’d it, ‘twas streaming with Blood & strew’d
with dead & dying Men, the Soldiers stabbing some and dashing out
the Brains of others was a sight too dreadful for me to dwell any longer
on.
In a letter to his brother on June 22, Lt. Waller described troops climbing the walls and dropping into the redoubt, where they were "driving bayonets into all whom opposed them." (Journal of the American Revolution)
In a matter of only two hours, British forces which initially totaled 3,000, suffered 1,054 casualties (killed and wounded). American casualties totaled 450, including 30 men who were captured, out of a force of 2,400. The Battle of Bunker Hill was one of the bloodiest in the Revolutionary War. British General Gage wrote, “The loss we have sustained is greater than we can bear,” while General Sir Henry Clinton, called the extreme loss of life “a dear bought victory.” (American Battlefield Trust)
In his account of the battle, British General Gage warned that the Americans should not be underestimated.
The attack made up upon these entrenchments, by the flower of the
British infantry, under one of the ablest generals of the age, stands
unparalleled in history…. Without taking upon us to comment on the
Principles upon which the Provincials acted, we cannot, in justice deny,
that the firmness with which a raw undisciplined multitude defended
these works… is astonishing. (Boston Rare Maps)
Samuel was wounded sometime during the battle, probably during the attacks on the redoubt, since his company, led by Captain Abel Wilder was there. Again, Dr. Milton Whiton sheds some light on the events:
"The
Winchendon men engaged in the thick of the fight, were Wilder, Bradish,
Stoddard, Rice, and Hale, and perhaps others." Stoddard, though he
received no injury, was covered with dust thrown up by a canon ball
which struck the earth near his feet. Bradish was severely, and for a
time it was supposed, fatally wounded, "by a ball accidentally
discharged by a comrade, which entered the back of his neck, and came
out at one of his eyes. The eye perished, but he himself surprisingly
recovered. Apparently desperate as was the wound, he walked off from the
battle-field to a place of refuge. When Capt. Wilder came to him after
the retreat, he found the wound undressed, and demanding of the surgeon
the reason for the neglect, was told it was of no use, as the man must
certainly die; but he insisted that the wound should be dressed, which
was accordingly done." (Milton, 87)
In order for the shot to enter Samuel's neck and exit through his eye, it would need to have been made at an angle and with an upward trajectory. Muskets were five feet long, so it seems the man who shot Samuel had to be on the ground, or on the downside of the hill from him. Another possibility is that the man was reloading his musket, holding it out at an angle from his body and it somehow discharged.
Captain Wilder wrote a letter to his wife the next day from "Charleston Encampment, June ye 18th, 1775." He described parts of the previous day's battle.
And
according as was expected, a very hot Battle insued Satterday
afternoon. Our people had built a fort on a hill in the town of
Charleston, and the Regulars landed upwards of two thousand men on said
hill ; and our Regiment on the hill ; and they fired upward from four or
five Ships, the north battery, and two or three field pieces, but
blessed be God, there was not many killed by them. But presently they
advanced up near to us, and I fired nineteen times, and had fair
chances, and then they was too hard for us, and we retreated. The bals
flew very thick, but through the Divine protection, my company was all
preserved but one, Phinehas Nevers,* who is missing, and Samuel Bradish,
badly wounded. But the men are in good spirit.
*Nevers was wounded, and taken prisoner to Boston, where he died. (Milton, 88)
This entry in "Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary
War" (p. 410) sheds light on what happened to Samuel after the battle.
...
certificate dated Winchendon, March 21, 1776, signed by Capt. Wilder,
certifying that said Bradish was wounded at Bunker Hill June, 17, 1775,
taken to Menotomy, where he remained by permission of Gen. Washington
until Aug. 19, 1775, when he was carried to Boston; reported son of
Robert Bradish. (Ancestry.com)
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| Map showing Menotomy and Bunker Hill. (Google Maps with added locations.) |
It
is unknown how
long Samuel remained in Boston. But two years after the trauma of losing an
eye in the ferocious battle at Bunker Hill, Samuel did a surprising thing.
On May 14, 1777, he enlisted in the Continental Army for a term of three years.
Left: Samuel's enlistment record, May 14, 1777. (Fold3)
– LIFE AFTER THE WAR –
Samuel completed his three years of service on May 14, 1780. On November 29, at the age of 23, he married Hannah Dunton in Winchendon.
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| 1790 Federal Census for Windsor, Berkshire County, Massachusetts. (Ancestry.com) |
By 1791, Samuel and Hannah were in Cattaraugus County, New York, where their son, Joel, and daughters, Hannah, Minerva, Lydia, and Lucy were born. It's believed that Samuel died December 24, 1812, at his farm in
Cattaraugus County; his burial place is unknown as of this
writing.
* * *
– DIG A LITTLE DEEPER –
- Do you want to know more about muskets? Head over to The Gun Club discussion group on Quora. It's both informative and interesting.
organs? The answer is a resounding yes. At 11/16" (0.69) in diameter, a musket ball
could shatter bones and worse. And, because musket balls were dirty, sepsis was
common.
Samuel
Bradish, my 4th great-grandfather, was both fortunate and tough enough
to survive a serious injury that, in all likelihood, should have killed him. It probably
would have, had it not been for the intervention of Capt. Abel Wilder. And for that,
I'm incredibly thankful.
- The article, "Small Arms of the Revolution," on the American Battlefield Trust site has intriguing facts about muskets. It describes how they were loaded, how long that took, accuracy, and more.
In June 1775, members of the Continental Congress believed that a military force of 20,000 would be enough to combat the British. They soon realized they were wrong. The article, "Militia, Minutemen, and Continentals: The American Military Force in the American Revolution," at American Battlefield Trust, describes the evolution of the undisciplined, inadequately trained militias to the professional, well-trained American Continental Army that ultimately defeated the formidable British military.
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Bradish-Scott Family History – December 2024