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Major
Amos Farnsworth - Noddle's
Island
His Journal of the Revolutionary War.
(original journal is now owned by the Mass. Hist.
Society.)
Subject: FARNSWORTH, Amos Jr.
His Journal of the
Revolutionary War - Noddle's Island
Source: Matthias Farnsworth
and His Descendants in America
A Monograph by Claudius Buchanan
Farnsworth
Published privately by the author 1891
Journal of Amos Farnsworth, Jr.
April 1775
"We marched and came there (to Concord) where some had been
killed.
Pulled on and came to Lexington, where much hurt was
done to the
houses by breaking glass and burning of many
houses, but they were
forced to retreat though they were more
numerous than we. And I saw
many dead Regulars by the way. Went
into a house where the blood was
half over shoes..
Thursday April 20, 1775
Came to Cambridge in the forenoon.
There were some men wanted to go
to Charlestown. I went, for
one, and viewed the Regulars and found
they were intrenching on
Charlestown Hill.
Friday, May ye 26.
At night I and about ten of our company
marched with a party of men,
betwixt two and three hundred, for
Noddle's Island, headed by Col.
Nixon. We marched through
Mystic, Malden and Chelsea.
Saturday May ye 27.
Went on Hogg Island and brought off
six horses, twenty-seven horned
cattle and four hundred and
eleven sheep. About the middle of the
afternoon went from Hog
Island to Noddle's Island and set one house
and barn on fire.
Killed some horses and cattle; brought off two or
three cows;
one horse. I with five men got off the horse and before
we got
from Noddle's Island to Hog Island we were fired upon by
a
privateer schooner; but we crossed the river and about
fifteen of us
squatted down in a ditch on the marsh and stood
our ground; and there
came a company of Regulars on the march
on the other side of the river
and the schooner, and we had a
hot fire until the Regulars retreated.
But not withstanding the
bullets flew very thick not a man of us (was)
killed. Surely
God has a favor towards us, and he can save in one
place as
well as another. We left the Island about sunset and came
to
Chelsea and on Saturday about ten at night marched to
Winnisimet ferry
where there was a schooner and a sloop afiring
with great fury upon us
there; but thanks be to God that gave
us the victory at this time for
through his Providence the
schooner that played upon us ran aground
and we set fire to her
and consumed her there, and the sloop received
much damage in
this engagement. We had not a man killed; but four
wounded and
we hope all will recover. One of the four was a Townsend
man
belonging to our company. The bullet went through his mouth
from
one cheek to the other.
Thursday June ye 1.
There were sheep and cattle and horses
we hear, to ye amount of four
or five hundred sheep, twenty or
thirty cattle and a number of horses
brought along that our
people took from the Regulars off Noddle's
Island.
Friday, June
16.
Col. William Prescott.
Nothing done in ye forenoon. In the
afternoon we had orders to be
ready to march at six. Agreeable
to orders our regiment paraded and
about sunset we were drawn
up and had prayers and about dusk marched
for Bunker Hill under
command of our own Colonel William Prescott. Just
before we
turned out of the road to go up Bunker's Hill, Charlestown,
we
were halted, and about sixty men were taken out of our battalion
to
go into Charlestown, I being one of them. Capt. Nutting
(probably
Capt. John Nutting of Pepperell, captain of a company
of "minute men"
from that place) headed us down to the town
house. We set our sentin-
els by the water side. The most of us
got in the town house but had
orders not to shut our eyes. Our
men marched to Bunker Hill and begun
the entrenchments and
carried it on with the utmost vigor all night.
Early in the
morning I joined them.
Saturday June ye 17.
The enemy appeared to be much alarmed
on Saturday morning when they
discovered our operations and
immediately began a heavy cannonading
from a battery on Copp's
Hill, Boston and from the ships in ye
harbor. We with little
loss continued to carry on our work till ten
o'clock when we
discovered a large body of the enemy crossing Charles
River
from Boston. They landed on a point of land about a mile
east-
ward of our entrenchment and immediately disposed their
army for an
attack, previous to which they set fire to the town
of Charlestown.
It is supposed that the enemy intended to
attack us under the cover of
the smoke from the burning houses:
the wind favoring them in such a
design; while on the other
side their army was extending northward
towards Mystic river
with an apparent design of surrounding our men
in the works and
of cutting off any assistance intended for our relief.
They
were, however, in some measure counteracted in this design,
and
drew their army into closer order. As the enemy approached
our men
were not only exposed to the attack of a very numerous
muquetry but
to a heavy fire from the battery on Copp's Hill, 4
or 5 men of war,
several armed boats or floating batteries in
Mystic River, and a numb-
er of field pieces. Notwithstanding
we within the entrenchment and at
a breastwork within sustained
the enemy's attacks with real bravery
and resolution. Killed
and wounded great numbers, and repulsed them
several times; and
after bearing for about two hours as severe and
heavy a fire as
perhaps ever was known, and many having fired away all
their
amunition, and having no reinforcement although there was
a
great body of men nie by, we were overpowered by numbers and
obliged
to leave the intrenchment, retreating about sunset to a
small distance
until the enemy had got in. I then retreated
about ten or fifteen rods.
Then I received a wound in my right
arm, the ball going through a
little
below the elbow,
breaking the little shell bone. Another ball struck
my back,
taking off a piece of skin about as big as a penny; but I
got
to Cambridge that night.
The town of Charlestown I supposed to contain about 300
dwelling houses
a great number of which were large and elegant,
besides 150 or 200
other buildings (these) are almost laid in
ashes by the barbarity and
wanton cruelty of that infernal
villain Thomas Gage. Oh! the goodness
of God in preserving my
life though they fell on my right hand and on
my left. I was in
great pain the first night with my wound.
Sunday June 18.
I and Phineas Hubbard came to Mr.
Watsons.
Monday June 19.
Mr. Hubbard and I set out for home. Came
as far as Lincoln; met our
honored fathers. Got as far as
Concord that night.
Tuesday, June 20. We got home.
Note: Here he makes a memorandum that for a considerable time
past, he
could not keep up his journal on account of the wound
in his arm but
under date of August 14, he says:
"Now I begin to write a littel;" and he proceeds: "Monday
August 14.
Set out for Cambridge got there that day: found our
company pretty
well." From that day to August 24 nothing of
interest is recorded.
On that day he says:
"About twelve o'clock I had my arm dressed. Dr. Hart opened
it nigh
two inches down to the bone. About 3 in the afternoon
Col. William
Prescott (his cousin) gave orders to march to
Sewell's Point and they
marched, but I did not go with them
because of my wound."
He remained with the army at Cambridge until Oct. 27 and his
diary
contains a record of the doings, in which, in consequence
of his wound,
he was an actor only to a limited extent. On that
day he was furlough-
ed and sent home, when it was found that
in addition to his wound he
had camp fever. He recovered
however, but was unable again to return
to the army at
Cambridge. I have not thought proper to change a word
of this
simple record of what was done under his observation and of
the
acts in which he was a participant from the 19th of April to
the
17th of June, 1775. His words are better than mine.
(Claudius Farns-
worth)
Much that Amos Farnsworth observed was not commited to his
diary and
this writer remembers listening as a boy to his
reminiscences of Bunker
Hill and other acts in the
Revolutionary drama in which he was an act-
or. Among other
things I heard him say that as the troops under
Colonel
Prescott were leaving the entrenchment at Bunker Hill they
met
General Putnam who, with a large body of men had remained
"nie by", as
Amos Farnsworth expressed it in his diary, but had
not participated in
the battle. Amos Farnsworth was very near
the two commanders and
distinctly hear the conversation between
them. Colonel Prescott began
by sharply asking General Putnam
why he had not sent up reinforcements
as he had promised.
Putnam answered that he "could not drive the
damned dogs up."
To this Colonel Prescott hotly responded: "Then why
did you not
lead them up? They would have followed you."
Note: This
conversation is re-iterated word for word in the memoirs
of
Colonel William Prescott as reported in the Prescott
Memorial.
On Tuesday, Dec. 5, 1775, Amos Farnsworth's father and his
brother
Benjamin were both drowned by the upsetting of a boat
in the Nashua
River, near where they lived and the whole care
of the family devolved
on him. Yet, in spite of his wounded and
weak arm and the state of the
family, the next year, in the
summer of 1776, he volunteered to go to
the defence of
Ticonderoga in Colonel Reed's regiment that was raised
in the
neighborhood of Groton (MA) for that purpose. He had served
as
a corporal at Bunker Hill. He had done so well that he was made
an
ensign, equivalent to a second lieutenant, in that
expedition. He went
into service in Col. Reed's expedition on
the 23d of July and returned
home at the close of the year with
his men. While at Ticonderoga he
was engaged in several affairs
with the British which he briefly
relates in his journal, but
which are not of sufficient interest to repeat
here.
He was
afterwards while holding a commision as first lieutenant in
a
company of Matrosses (commanded by William Swan) in Colonel
Jonathan
Reed's regiment, sent with some troops to New Jersey,
where notwith-
standing his weak arm, he performed effective
service by his bravery
and judgement and by his care of his
men, with whom he was always
popular.
His first commission as ensign or second lieutenant was in
the
infantry.
His next commission was in the artillery or
"Matrosses" as that branch
of the service was called. His
commission as first lieutenant is in
the name of "The Major
Part of the Council of Massachusetts Bay in New
England," as
the State government had not then been organized,
and
Massachusetts was then under an ex tempore government. His
commission
as first lieutenant is as follows: Official
Document...
State of Massachusetts Bay - The Major Part of the Council of
Massa-
chusetts Bay in New England.
SEAL To Amos Farnsworth, Gentleman, Greeting.
"You being appointed First Lieutenant of a company of
Matrosses
commanded by William Swan raised in the Sixth
Regiment of Militia
in the County of Middlesex wherof Jonathan
Reed Esquire is Colonel
to rank as Captain, By Virtue of the
Power vested in us, We do by
these Presents (reposing specail
Trust and Confidence in your Loyalty,
Courage and good
Conduct,) Commission you accordingly. You are there-
fore
carefully and deligently to discharge the Duty of a First
Lieut.
in leading, ordering, and exercising said Company in
Arms, both infer-
ior Officers and Soldiers; and to keep them
in good Order and Disipline
And they are hereby commanded to
obey you as their first Lieut., and
you are yourself, to
observe and follow such Orders and instructions
as you shall
from time to time receive from the Major Part of the
Council or
your Superior Officers.
Given under our Hands and the Seal of the said State at
Boston the
Nineteenth Day of October in the Year of our Lord,
1778.
By the Command of the Major Part of the Council
John
Avery, Deputy Secretary
Jer. Powell
Artemas Ward
T.
Cushing
Benj. Austin
H. Gardner
D. Hopkins
Saml.
Danielson
N. Cushing
B. White
Danl. Davis
Oliver
Prescott
Oliver Wendell
A. Fuller
E. Brooks
Fra.
Dana
After the close of the war, he was commissioned as "Captain
of a
company of Matrosses in the Brigade of Militia in the
County of
Middlesex." That company is the old Groton Artillery
Company. The
commission bears the signature of John Hancock as
"Governor and
Commander in Chief in and over the Commonwealth
of Massachusetts."
This company is still in existence. His next
commission, signed
by Samuel Adams as Governor, appoints him
"Major of a Battalion of
Artillery in the Second Brigade of the
Third Division of the Militia
of this Commonwealth
comprehending the County of Middlesex," and is
dated July 1,
1794.
The poverty of the people of Massachusetts at the close of
the Revolu-
tionary War, and their distress in consequence of
it was very great.
Paper money became valueless; many were
heavily indebted; taxes were
burdensome; and the way out of
their difficulties was obscure. Great
economy in the government
was needed and practiced. The military
organizations were
reduced to a point lower than was consistent with
with safety.
In the year 1786 the "Shay's Rebellion" broke out.
The
necessity of having some provision in the laws for the
collection of
debts so exasperated some hasty and indebted
persons that they did as
has been done in other periods of the
world's history, they rebelled.
Job Shattuck of Groton (MA) was
one of the leaders in the rebellion.
The cannon of the Groton
Artillery Company, then under Major Amos
Farnsworth's command
were usually kept in an out-building on his farm.
The first
movement made by Shattuck and his associates was one
October
night, 1786, to break open the building in which the
guns were stored,
drag them across the fields to the Nashua
River and pitch them into it,
after which they retired quietly
to their homes. The loss of the guns
was learned early the next
morning; the course taken with them was
tracked through the
frosty grass; they were very soon found, and before
night they
were restored to the place from which they had been taken
and a
guard was kept over them afterwards until the close of
the
political troubles.
Amos Farnsworth had the reputation of being an efficient and
very popular officer. In addition to his military services he
was for several years a deacon of the church of Groton and he
served the church in many business ways until old age
diminished his powers. He died October 29, 1847 at the advanced
age of ninety three years and six months. His wife survived him
but a few weeks and died Dec. 11, 1847 aged ninety
years. ____________________________________________________________________ Transcribed
by Janice
Farnsworth (Amos is in my direct line of
descent) | 
