|
a.
|
Note: James Hyde Compiled 1965, by Mrs. Myrtle S. Hyde (Sources are listed and numbered at the end) One New Year's day, in 1777, a young man of only fifteen years , by the name of James Hyde (or Hide, before he later changed the spelling), enlisted in the Connecticuit army from Stratford, Connecticuit, the town of his birth. His desire to serve his country in the struggle for independence from England, as his older brother Agur was doing, was so strong that his family could not keep him home, in spite of his youth. We can almost hear him say , "But I'll be sixteen in only two months, and besides the army needs all the help it can get." He spent the next summer and fall with the troops along the Hudson River. He then joined the troops in Pennsylvania under the command of General George Washington, and was soon "engaged in the sharp action of Whitemarsh," where the army "lost a number of officers killed and wounded."(2) On December 17 of that same year, ashington's army, young James included, made quarters ar Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, the enemy, under Sir William Howe, being secure in Philadelphia.(2,3) That winter was one never to be forgotten by James Hyde: of seeing and experiencing the gnawing pains of hunger with food so scarce, hte worn coats and trousers that were scant protection against hte snow and cold, the wind howling through the threadbare tents at first, and then the damp cold of the makeshift log juts, the sore and bleeding feet when shoes finally gave way and the rags that replaced them would hardly hold together, and worst of all he itch and resultant sores from not being able to bathe for so long; but through it all, though he thouhgt of home and family and comfort, he along with the rest resolved that he could do it if the others could, and if their honored leader George Washington would continue to do his best in their behalf. By the time the Prussian soldier, Von Streuben, came and started drilling and training the troops, the food, clothing, and shelter situation was somewhat improved, and now things looked even better with something to do besides think of hardships, especially for james, young and energetic, though he sometimes wondered if a l this marching and manuevering was going to serve any good purpose in the future.(3,4) Summer approached at last, and Clinton, who had replaced Howe, eft Philadelphia. James Hyde and companions were elated when the word came that Washington was ready to "set out in pursuit of Clinton," and they were soon on their way.(3) "On the night of June 27, the British army, 16,000 strong, was near Monmouth Court-House (New Jersey). It was Washington's plan to strike with an advance of 5000 men, following with an attack by the main army. He had offered Charles Lee command of the advance, Lee being senior major general in the army.... "The morning of June 28 came on intensely hot (and sultry); the thermometer registered 96 degrees in the shade. The British army had passed the court-house when Lee began the advance ordered by Washington ... "Out across the fields, reeling with the heat, they marched, exuberant, foreseeing the victory; over deep ravine on a causeway where swamps then out upon the plain, where the British, perceiving them, had hastened to give battle. The American lines were beginning to fold (the British ) in..."(3) But Lee ordered the Americans to retreat! "The soldiers, at a loss to understand, dissapointed, fretting to be at hte red-coats, halted, wiping their brows, cursing. Their ground was superb for offense; but they must fall back! What could it mean? What sudden and unknown danger forced them from their vantage? Victory, within their grasp, was slipping away from them. Back to the high ravine they had so lately crossed, and so proudly. Across the ravine, out upon the fields, hot under the sun, straggled the soldiers of liberty, angry, sweltering; many fell by the side of the way, stricken by the terrible heat. Behind them came the British, making the most of the strange retreat...."(3) Then came Washington, having recieved word of what was happening, "riding furiously. The sight of the commander was terrifying; his face worked with a rage as mighty as his soul; his eyes flashed fire. Hot and fast the words flew" between him and Lee. (It was later learned the Lee was indeed a traitor, planning and working with the British.) (3) The soldiers, pouring around them, raised a cheer at sight of Washington. After letting Lee know, in strongest terms, that he had expected his orders to be obeyed Washington set about restoring order from the confusion. (3) The British were coming not a quarter of an hour away. Hastily, with great skill, a line was thrown along an eminence behimd the ravine, commanding the causeway crossing it. In a moment the shock came; fiery red over the quivering fields, the British lines advanced..."(3) "It was fearful fighting quietly shepherded by Von Streuben, who thought that this truly new army fought 'with as much precision was veteran troops.' Others had been skeptical about the value of all htat wheeling and marching and pacing on the Valley Forge plateau. Alexander Hamilton admitted that never until that day had he 'known or concieved the value of military discipline.'... "Despite the inhumane heat, despite the endless, killing march from Philidelphia, Clinton's men came on and on until the sun or American fire took them out of action. By now both sides were staggering with heat and exhaustion. Men died right and left under the touch of the sun or collapsed, helpless, with purpling faces while sweat pattered down on scarlet coats, blue coats or on mended, threadbare homespun." (4) These were not happy scenes of which James Hyde was a part. "All through the remainder of that terrible day the English strove to break down the defense of the Americans; all through the day the patriots held. Deeds of valor were done on every hand. Molly Pitcher, wife of an artillery man, while bringing water to the battery saw her husband shot down beside his gun. Without hesitation she took his place and fought the gun throughout the battle. Against such spirit the attack grew hopeless. When the sun was sinking in the west, the British broke withdrawing to the ground where Lee had encoutered them early in the morning. "On the morning of the next day the British were gone, marching in the night toward New York.."(3) and James Hyde, though he was still a youth, shared with the other Americans a feeling of bitter glory, knowing that if the first plan had succeeded the war might be over instead of just seeing the British go on their way. (3,4) James Hyde wintered the next season (1778-9) with his company at Redding, and during the following two years continued to serve wherever his regiment was called. (2) By the fall of 1781 he was part of the force commanded by Marqui s Lafayette, and had moved south tho Williamsburg, Virginia, preparatory to fighting Cornwallis at Yorktown. (3,4) Washington was commander- in-cheif of the whole army, which included the Americans under Lafayette, reinforced by several thousand French troops, and with a strong French fleet off shore on the Atlantic. (3.4) On October 6 the battle began; with Cornwallis ill-prepared for the attack. "Day in and day uot the big guns of the beseiged and the beseiers roared and stunned. It was probably the heaviest artillery concentration that the continent had ever known." (4) During the evening of October 14th a bayonet and musket assault was made on the foremost British fortifications. "Surprise seems to have been complete, and the two enemy works were taken quickly and smartly."(4) Three days later, with Cornwallis having launched but a weak counter attack, probably because of his knowledge that he needed, but could get no reinforcements, the morning dawned with the "French and American artillery thundering into fullest action..'The whole peninsula trembles under the incessant thunderings of out infernal machines,' wrote Dr. James Thacher..."(4) "It must have been dificult for gunners and observers to make out the British works. The haze of a lovely Virginia October day was thi ckened by heavy cannon smoke, and by clouds of soft earth hurled skyward. Somewhere about ten o'clock the air cleared a little. Cannoneers began yelling, pointing toward what turned out to be....one little British drummer beating the request for a parley....(then) a bigger man appeared on the parapet...and waved a white handkercheif. There was a moment of stunned unbelief through the American and French lines, though every man must have expected (this) sooner or later. "Back at Williamsburg, the commander-in-chei was busily writing letters. Later he meant to ride out and watch the morning's bombardment.. .As he wrote, gunfire down by Yorktown seemed to be slacking off a little, but it was nothing to notice... Up to Washington's quarters galloped a sweating dragoon courier with a letter. The Virginian broke the seal, read it, and was on his feet in an instant, staring and staring......Surrender...... "George Washington had rallied swiftly and coolly from many an adverse blow. Now the hand of success had fallen stunningly on his back, and the effect must have been almost as numbing as, say, the sight of Charles Lee's unbeaten men in full retreat from Monmouth. But he soon shook off the impact of the news..an answer to Cornwallis was approved. "Couriers went out with this reply, with warnings to commanders in all parts of the allied line. Slowly the gunfire died away...Far to the right," James Hyde, and the other men in the "Massachusetts-Connecticut battalion, worked out into the warm air peered at the silent British lines, and then stretched out gratefully in the sun, yawning in luxury in spots where a man could not have lived a few hours ago. Throughout the day men walked cautiously, as though afraid that a sudden move, a loud noise might shatter the brittle-seeming hush that hung over the penninsula...Night fell and the air cleared...Dawn came and the hush was still unbroken and men began to believe in it and in its duration. "Bright sun on the noon of October 19, 1781, poured down on the fields of the peninsula. The allied camps were aboil with men shutfling about as drums beat out their urgent clamor. in the calm air that was rich with the smell of trampled grass and wood smoke and tobacco and oiled leather, company after company formed....The fields then began to flow. he long columns of smartly dressed French troops swung off toward the road to Yorktown, and halted at its flat western edge. "To the east, drabber troops were on the move, but it was (also) dazzling, hypnotic. Swarming men and women stood on the tiptoe, trying to catch a glimpse of men of whom they ha heard or read. There was a deep murmur from the massed army for the first time. "Now the army was halting on the east side of the road to Yorktown, facing its French allies with the deserted enemy works looming somber on its right. Drums began to beat, orders snapped out, and right and left the waiting ranks bristled to attention, There hoofbeats far off to the American left. There on a huge bay horse, gleaming in blue buff, rode the one man who was, the one man who could have been, the living embodiment of those hard, drab ranks to his right, who could have welded them to the white-and-blue men on his left. From the beginning George Washington had met every blow, stood up under every discouragement, every frightening disaster that the army as a whole had known. The hoofs clopped on," and, as Washington rode by him, James Hyde's bosom swelled with pride at the thought that he had known this very special man. "Washington took his post at the far right of the American line. "Then from Yorktown, sad drums began to roll," and the British army marched out between the French and American lines, stacked its arms, and at last marched back, emptyhanded, to Yorktown for further orders. "On the plains about Yorktown the music was gay and soaring again as the French and American armies filed away, quietly joyous, to their quarters."(4) Thus James Hyde, Private was part of the last major battle of the Revolutionary War and watched the British army surrender (2,3,4) --an experience that would remain vivid for a long time. It wasn't until June 8, 1783, however, that he was mustered out of service, the peace treaty negotiations taking all this time. He was discharged at West Point, having been with the army in New York for quite some time. (2) He felt indeed honored that George Washington, himself, signed his release papers (as attested by his application, in 1818, for a Revolutionary Service Pension). James Hyde had served his country for six years, being now twenty-two years of age. he had seen more than his share of valor and bravery, of death and suffering--and emerged a man. After his release he went to Mancherster, Vermont, where his father, Nehemiah Hide, had located. James' brother Clark Hide, deeded land to him at Manchester in 1785, and his father deeded some more to hims there in 1788. In these deed James is called a tailor.(6) Perhaps he learned this skill durning the war years, as possibly an assistant to a tailor in his company, most probably during his long stay at New York befor being discharged. James was married at Manchester, April 16, 1786, to Betty (or Betsey) Pennock.(1) One child, Heman, was born here in 1788.(1,6) Soon after this the family moved to Strafford in northern Vermont, a "new" town first settler just twenty years before. There was still land to be cleared and much building-up to do. In Strafford five more children were born to Betty: James, Roswell, Betsey (who died), Hiram, and Betsey Florinda. (1,7) Things were gong well for James Hyde: his family was growing; he was able to buy land(7)--also recieved bounty land for his Revolutionary War service(5)--and through hard work this land supplied his family with the essentials; in addition he was active religiously, in 1798 being among those who founded the Universalist Society in Strafford. (8) His mame appears in connection with town affairs, on hte grand lists, and on the list of voters. (8) But it seems, in this life, that the blows must come, and James was no exeption. His wife Betty died in February of 1802, when she was but thirty years of age, and their youngest child just a year old.(7) (On her gravestone she is called the wife of "Ensign James Hyde," so James must have been active in local military affairs.) In August James married Betty's cousin Eunice Pennock, to help him raise his family of young children. As the years passed Eunice became the mother of twelve boys and girls ( William Henry, Alpha, Alvira, Emeline, Eunice Maretta, Hannibal, Harrison, Matilda, Edwin, Daniel, Marinda, and Janette), making James the father of eighteen children.(1,7) Seventeen of these children lived to maturity and raised families of their own, settling in many different parts of the United States. (1) James Hyde recovered his children's births, and the original paper is still preserved in his Pension file. In 1818 James applied for a pension for his Revolutionary War service, at this time calling himself a farmer. (5) Following is a copy of his 1820 confirmation of his application, which contains much of interest: (The original document is entirely hand written and hard to read). "State of Vermont, On this 4th day of July 1820 personally appeared before the County Court for the county of Orange said court being a court of record agreeably to the laws of this state having the power of fine an dimprisonment James Hyde aged 58 years resident in Strafford in said County of Orange who being first duly sworn according to law doth on his oath declare that he served in the Revolutionary War as follows he enlisted January 1, 1777 in the second Continental Regiment Col Charles Webb comander in Capt Mills Company during the war and was discharged at West Point the 8th day of June 1783 and when discharged was a soldier in Capt Hopins Company 3 Connecticut Regiment. That he made his original declaration on the 7th day of april 1818 has recieved a pension Certificate No. 11236 and I do solemly swear that I was a resident citizen of the United States on the 18th day of March 1818 and that I have not since that time by gift sale or in any manner disposed of my property or any part thereof with intent thereby so to diminish it as to bring myself the provision of an act of Congress entitled an act to provide for certain persons engaged in the Land and Naval service of the United States in the Revolutionary War passed on the 18th day of March 1818 and that I have not nor has any person in trust for me aby property or securities contracts or debts due to me not have I any income other than what is contained in the schedule hereto annexed and by me subscribed to wit Ninety acres of land, 1 old house, 2 small barns, 2 yoaks of oxen, 1 old and 1 young cow, 4 yearlings, 30 sheep and lambs, 2 hogs, 6 pigs, 1 ox cart, 1 plough, 1 harrow, 1 good chain, part of a chain, 2 old tables, 9 old chairs part broken, 1 5 pail kettle, 1 yoak and irons, 1 pitch fork, 1 axe, 2 hoes, some old iron, 1 grindstone, 2 old wheels, 1 tub, crockery, knives, forks, iron spoons, and other household furniture consisting of articles small value in all $30.00. I am justly oweing $150.00 in all amounting to $750.00. I am by occupation a farmer and unable to pursue it by reason of sickness and being afflicted with Phthisic. I have 11 persons residing in my family including myself. My wife Eunice is ages 41 years week and feeble having had a large family of children and rather poor keeping. My son William is aged 17 years, Alvira 14 years, Emeline 13, and of a feeble constitution Eunice 11 years old, Hannibal 9, Harrison 7, Matilda 5, Edwin 3, and Danie l 1 year old. James Hyde" (5) The pension he recieved amounted to $8.00 per month. (5) This was a help in raising his large family, and caring for his "feeble" wife, who lived to be 80.(7) He continued to farm, as well as buy and sell land, especially dealing with the Pennocks.(7) James Hyde's death occurred on the 4th day of October 1834, at the age of seventy-four years, six months, and ten days. His widow died almost twenty years later (January 12, 1859).(7) His grandson William Hyde later wrote of him, "He was an active, good man through life, and died with an honorable age."(9) An additional tribute by Willard S. Morse: "James Hyde is a fine example of the sturdy pioneers, who make the unkind soil of New England productive, and succeeded by hard work in rearing families, the members of which have spread over the country and made possible by their energy the development of this great country of ours."(1) * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Sources of Information: 1. Descendent of Humphrey Hide of Fairfield, Conn., by Willard S. Morse (written about 1913) 2. Connecticut Men in the Revolution, pp. 162, 331, 353. 3. The Real America in Romance, Vol. 9, Edited by Edwin Markham, 1912, pp. 310, 311, 313, 322-330. 4. From Lexington to Liberty, by Bruce Lancaster, 1955, pp. 327, 329, 334-5, 355, 356, 446, 449-54. 5. Revolutionary War Pension File of James Hyde, General Service s Administration, Washington, D.C. 6. Manchester, Vermont. Deeds and Vital Records. 7. Strafford, Vermont, Deeds and Vital Records. 8. Vermont Historical Gazeteeer, by Abby Maria Hemenway, Vol. 2, 1871, p. 1080. 9. Private Journal of William Hyde (1818-1874).
|